Tokyo Xanadu

Tokyo Xanadu is an action role-playing game developed by Nihon Falcom. The game is a spin-off of the 1985 action role-playing game "", and was developed out of Nihon Falcom's desire to create a game of a different type and setting than their other role-playing game franchises, "The Legend of Heroes" and "Ys". The game was first released in Japan for the PlayStation Vita in September 2015, and worldwide in June 2017. An enhanced version of the game, Tokyo Xanadu eX+, was released in Japan for the PlayStation 4 in September 2016, and worldwide in December 2017, in addition to a Microsoft Windows version.
Gameplay.
It is an action role-playing game with party-based real-time combat that features dungeon exploration, similar to the "Persona" series by Atlus, as well as Falcom's own "Ys" and "Trails" franchises.
Plot.
In an alternate reality, Tokyo was hit by a huge earthquake in 2005 that took the city a decade to recover from. The game's protagonist, Kou Tokisaka, is a high school student who lives in Morimiya on the outskirts of Tokyo in 2015. He lives alone and has some part time jobs. One day after work, late at night, he sees his classmate Asuka Hiiragi is around some bad company. Kou follows them to a back alley. When he tries to get in between them, he is sucked into a vortex that brings him to the nightmare realm "Eclipse". Afterwards Asuka explains to Kou she is a member of Nemesis, a group that tries to close the Eclipse vortexes for good.
Development.
Nihon Falcom announced the game in December 2014. The company referred to the game as an "urban myth action rpg". They also emphasized that they wanted to create a game with a different feel than their other role-playing game franchises, such as the "Ys", "The Legend of Heroes", and "Trails" series. While being based on the "Xanadu" series, which includes "Xanadu" (1985) and "Xanadu Next" (2005), Falcom set out to create a game with a different feel than their other fantasy-based role-playing game franchises, with the game taking place in a fictional district of modern-day Tokyo called Morimiya City, incorporating the use of elements not seen in their other series, such as smartphones. Morimiya was based on actual locations near Nihon Falcom's head offices in Tachikawa. For example, the Morimiya Station Plaza, with its red arch monument, closely resembles the north exit of Tachikawa Station, which has a similar-looking blue arch monument. Falcom held promotional activities at various real-world locations in Tachikawa, including a "Tokyo Xanadu"-themed menu at the cafe in Books Orion, an actual Japanese bookstore chain with a location in Tachikawa that appears in-game.
The game was released for the PlayStation Vita in Japan on September 30, 2015. An English version of the game was not announced for almost a year after its initial Japanese release, leaving the game's fate in the West uncertain at the time. Journalists had considered it as a likely candidate for game localization by Xseed Games, due to their close relationship with Falcom from localizing entries in their "Ys" and "Trails" games. Other journalists mistook the "Xanadu" related trademark leaked in January 2015 as a sign of it being translated by XSeed, though this was actually in reference to "Xanadu Next". "USGamer" described the game's chances of being localized as "extremely strong".
An enhanced version of the game for the PlayStation 4, "Tokyo Xanadu eX+", was released in Japan on September 8, 2016. The PS4 version contains improved graphical fidelity and an improved frame rate, as well as additional story content in the form of extra side-stories and post-game content. Aksys Games got publishing rights for localizing the Vita version of the game in English, which was released in June 30, 2017. Additionally, they contracted British games publisher Ghostlight to help port "eX+" to Microsoft Windows, where it was released on December 8, 2017.
Reception.
"Famitsu" gave the game a review score of 32/40. The game sold a total of 88,879 retail copies within its first week of release in Japan, topping the software sales charts for that particular week, with over 112,000 being sold within three weeks.