Analysis/Review of a new JPRG (part 2)

First, I think one of the most important aspects of an RPG is the characters. As with a book or movie, if you don’t like the characters, you’ll lose interest quickly. The characters in Tokyo Xanadu are interesting because they have depth—they’re not just typical cookie-cutter stereotypes that you might often see in Japanese anime, games, or manga. For example, one of the characters is a hacker who thinks himself superior in intellect to his classmates so he doesn’t bother going to school. He’s arrogant and condescending, and rather proud of himself for making it on his own; he’s developed a successful app that has earned him a lot of money—enough to pay for his own apartment in an upper-class area. Yet when something happens to someone he cares about, the hacker quickly realizes he is out of his league and unprepared to deal with the situation. He suddenly finds himself relying on others and admitting that he needs their help. This is just one of the characters, but each one has their own story that can be explored. The game actually catalogues each character you’ll meet—and there are a LOT of them at the main character’s high school. Each archived character has notes detailing what you’ve learned about them so far, with slots for additional information should you learn more over time by interacting with them. So far, I have over 30 different character profiles!