KYOTO XANADU -the Blooming Phantom-

I'm somewhat torn regarding this game. On one hand I really enjoyed the character and story that are here and it's well written. It might even have one of my favorite main characters. Yet a lot of the characters have not yet gotten a resolution and the story clearly just ends in the middle. I also really enjoyed the combat once it completely clicks. Yet it takes way too long for all your abilities to unlock. The game gives you a bestiary with over 400 enemies yet over 350 of those are just the same 10 enemies in different colours and levels. The same goes for lots of bosses as well. The metroidvania style exploration also gets really fun but you are extremely limited early on. It took me probably like 30 hours to unlock something basic like the double jump. Sadly the game also feels kinda... cheap? It's hard to explain but compared to other falcom games there is just less of most things. Especially compared to their recent sky remakes. Like there is way less animations; background character all look the same and don't have eyes or names which also makes it kinda hard to keep track of their stories; character models keeps glitching out if you play above 120 fps and it also breaks combat animations like Rurui's lvl4; it has very few CGs of locations or people; most buildings you can’t enter; NPCs do not react to you at all, they don't even look at you. There is ONE random eyeless lady that has a hitbox you can run into but no one else; and so many more little annoyances. Overall the core of the game I did really enjoy but at the same time a lot of it felt tedious and/or hastily thrown together. I do look forward to where it goes from here tho and hopefully it doesn’t take them another decade to makes the sequel! ^^

It was a fun refresher from Falcom and while social aspects of the games could be repetitive, I'd say its not too bad. The gameplay, 2D dungeon to 3D boss fights were fun and the story holds on its own really well.

Full playthrough review: General structure. The game generally works in day cycles. Each day you have allocated activities, like studying, exploring dungeon and special studying courses. The other half of the day you can run around town, listen to people’s chatter, spend time with friends using allotted friend points and using action points you can either progress more of the dungeon or engage in activities. To study you allot cards from a deck to classes. To put simply you’re just trying to maximize the multiplier bonus of exp you get for each class. Exp from studying feeds into your three main stats. (basically - Courage, Knowledge, Humanity) Leveling up these grants you points to spend in a skill tree. Special studies work basically the same, but they unlock more valuable functions, like extra health potions, moves and new cards. Each chapter you have an allotted amount of dungeon to explore, about one floor. You can usually easily clear it all, way before the end of chapter, esp. if you go for extra runs. Dungeon side quests are three types on a repeat - go kill recolored monsters, gather recolored resource nodes, and rescue a person. Using action points on activities just gives you related exp. There’s just a little dialogue, not an actual mini game or anything. Using friend points eventually unlocks a “mini story event” you can view. Before going to bed you can manage cards or do a part time job for money. Not too much use for money here, you can buy food and some accessories but general equipment can be easily crafted. Combat. To put simply, this is “worser Ys”. It’s not terrible, it works, but combat feels very bare and not really fun at the core. You have a three step combo, “heavy” attack is considered to be more like a skill. You get a different skill after each step of a combo, these skills have effects like being better against flyers, reducing defense, etc. Then you have, parry / block, dodge and super. That’s pretty much it. There’s no special attack when switching party members. (Aside of kinda with one character) Also there’s no particular difference between party members. Their skills have all the same effects (except one). You have a ranged attack that you probably will be always holding when attacking. There are different types of it, like a beam and lock-on fireballs, but I honestly didn’t see a point in using them at all. There’s also a “soul accel” gauge, when it’s full you can activate it for a heal, enhanced stats and easier parries. It fills very fast which makes the game way easier. On highest difficulty the only real trouble is that some attacks can one or almost one shot you randomly and before you stack resists, debuffs activate on you in one hit. One of the annoying parts of combat is the strange auto launcher when you are attacking an enemy that is in the air, which puts you in the air too. The problem is that in the air you only have a two-four hit combo, which doesn’t allow you to utilize skills. So if you want to use skills on a flyer, you will likely just launch yourself in the air. Also all a lot of enemies do is just launch tracking elemental balls at you. Wide shining telegraphed swings made for parrying and copious amounts of balls is pretty much all you are gonna experience for the whole game. Enemy variety is extremely low, you are mostly gonna be fighting same three enemies using same three attacks. After some upgrades, while you are in soul accel, parry basically not even parry anymore, activating by holding block way before the attack. Equipment is generally pretty basic stuff. Weapons can’t be changed, but you can equip spirits into them. They change an element of your attack and give bonuses while you are in soul accel. You unlock new ones, but there honestly doesn’t seem to be any difference between them, aside elements. Exploring. The dungeon itself is a 2D action, it’s metroidvania-light at best. You do unlock abilities that help exploring, but there’s not too much backtr…