Time to shamelessly plug a game I really enjoyed (2)

Yep, decided to do this again. This time with an action JRPG that was actually made in Japan.

This is made by Nihon Falcom, the Japanese company that started in the 80's and who have ever since maintained a stable fanbase by focusing on solid gameplay and amazing soundtracks. Oh, and they pioneered the action-RPG with the game Dragon Slayer when their competitors were busy being inspired by Ultima & Wizardry to make turn-based fare. So there's that.

And this game is a spin-off of a spin-off of the Dragon Slayer series. You might know that Dragon Slayer 6 had the title "Legend of Heroes", and Dragon Slayer 8 was "Legend of Heroes 2".You might also realize that the various "Legend of Heroes" subseries that followed are indeed tied to those 2 games. But I'm not talking about that series here.

I'm talking about Dragon Slayer 2: Xanadu, which still shared a number of elements with the first Dragon Slayer (finding 4 crowns and the Dragon Slayer sword, followed by a showdown with a dragon.). And which was one of the first games to get a content expansion. That got a direct sequel in Xanadu Next, which repeats those mechanics and has much better storytelling including plenty of references to the previous game. Years later, along comes Tokyo Xanadu. Which is supposedly part of the same series, but set in a modern-day setting instead of medieval times, and with the only recurring element being that you set out to stop the forces of darkness from invading the world. It doesn't even try to refer to the earlier Xanadu stories.

Half action-RPG, half visual-novel type storytelling, full of references to other Falcom games, there's a lot of fun to be had here.
Also, personally my favorite of Falcom's soundtrack work, and because this is the expanded version of the game, a true true ending that superceeds the original, kind of lame true ending from the PS Vita version.
There are 2 negatives though - the graphics aren't alll that great (PS Vita roots really show there), and the English translation is wonky in places, especially later in the game.

And if you enjoyed (or skipped) that little wall of text over there, here's a GA link with some basic bot-protection.