Overview – developed by DenPile and Compile Heart, with publishing handled by Eastasiasoft, Tokyo Clanpool is a dungeon crawling RPG where japan is led by a group of magical girls. As the Diet Dolls, travel through a mysterious tower that threatens to destroy Japan and the world, with the only thing that can stop it being the prime minister and her cabinet. This title is available on PC via GOG and Nintendo Switch, with a link to each version of the game at the bottom of this review.
Disclaimer: before I get into the review, I would like to thank Eastasiasoft for providing the copy of Tokyo Clanpool that was used for this piece. The provision of this software has not influenced the contents of this review, all thoughts and opinions contained within are my own. Please note, the Nintendo Switch version is only available via the Hong Kong eshop, so a region specific account is required to play.
Mature Content Warning: this title is intended for mature audiences, as the title features Violence, sexual themes, partial nudity and mature language. If you are under the recommended age for this title, or the content mentioned above makes you uncomfortable, please proceed at your own discretions, or check out some other content on the site.
Now with the introductions out of the way, let’s get into the review, starting with the review. I will only be covering the core gameplay mechanics of this game, as there are many fine details, variables and secrets to discover, which I don’t want to spoil.
Story – In a near future version of Tokyo, the government collapsed after a mysterious tower extended from a city that appeared in the sky. During this event, the tower connected with the National Diet Building, with a warning that the world was soon to end. To stop this grave threat, the Prime Minister Natsume Kannuki, leads her cabinet of magical girls, dubbed the Diet Dolls, on a mission to stop the tower and save the world.
Gameplay – Tokyo Clanpool is a first person dungeon crawling JRPG, with a significant focus on exploration and puzzle solving. The story is broken into multiple chapters, where the progression of the gameplay and dungeons is tied to the narrative. As the player makes their way through each chapter, there will be a heavy amount of exposition, told with a dual backdrop of the National Diet building and the labyrinthine tower.
Throughout the experience, the player will have a party of four characters, with Prime Minister Natsume and three of her cabinet members alongside her. The different characters have their own strengths and weaknesses, which are tied to their presentation and personality. All of these elements combine to make the cast of playable characters, as well as the supporting cast stand out from each other, giving the experience life.
The core of the gameplay experience takes place in the tower, where the player moves around the tight corridors and open spaces. Taking place through a first person perspective, the player will navigate the party through the different areas of the tower, split into different floors. These tower zones have their own distinct theme, alongside hazards, pitfalls and puzzle segments. But the obstacles aren’t the only danger that players will face.
Throughout exploration of the different floors, the player will randomly encounter enemies. When an encounter occurs, monsters will appear and challenge the party in turn based combat. At the start of a battle, the order that party members and enemies make their move is tied to their agility score. The higher the points the sooner they can act, giving battles a tactical element, where all actions will require some amount of preparation.
During the preparations for action, the player has several options that they can use. Here is a breakdown of the actions that players can apply to their party members:
- Attack – select from a range of combat skills, with the ability to assign up to 5 different attacks that will be used in a combo. Attack skills use EP, with amounts for each skill to be used. The power, number of targets that can be hit and other effects can change the amount of EP needed. Attacks for the party will combo, increasing damage dealt to enemies.
- Digimagic – unleash magical powers to damage enemies or support party members, offering health restoration, positive effects and massive damage to enemies. These special skills have a limited number of uses, so saving them for a tight situation is often the best option.
- Apps – the party has access to special powers provided via smart apps, allowing for healing and more effects to be used. These skills require battery percentage to be used, but there is a limited amount of battery that can be used.
- Precious – these are the items in this release, with restoration, resurrection and battle support items. Using these can change the tide of battle, bring back downed allies, preventing massive damage and hitting multiple enemy targets.
- Sacred Union – unleash the combined power or the Diet Dolls and their Gadgettia, digital companions who can lend their power for a limited time. There is a chance of failure, with this union, but if it is successful, that character will have their health restored and stats boosted significantly.
- Wait – pass that characters turn and allow them to increase their stock of EP, with each turn that is passed while not using skills, EP can increase with the chance for huge combo attacks.
When a battle is concluded, the player will be given a rating based on their performance, they will also receive experience points, gold and obtain precious drops. As the player gains experience points, the party and their Gadgettia will level up, increasing their stats and powers. Players will also gain support from the people of Japan, as the expeditions into the tower are live streamed. The support will increase the amount of EXP and gold earned.
The support that the player earns is called public opinion, which is influenced by various factors. The percentage will go up and down, depending on the actions that taken. As the amount goes up, the player will get bonuses, with boosts to experience, sacred union percentage and more. This is called Fever, and will max out at 100%. However, if the percentage hits zero, the cabinet will resign and they will be forced out of the tower and return to base.
Back to exploration, the player will have a mini-map on screen, which will be filled out as the player moves through the floors. This map will show the hazards, gates and more, allowing players to navigate the different locations. While moving through the different areas, the player will encounter obstacles that will require app power to move forward. These are as simple as breaking through walls/floors but can be more complex.
In some areas of the game, there will be switches that may require battery power to be activated. These can unlock new areas or provide paths to traverse previously unreachable areas, but some of them come with a caveat, like timed platforms that need to be reactivated. The apps that can be used will also provide a range of benefits, like preventing enemies from spawning and healing allies out of battle. All apps require varying amounts of battery to use.
If the battery runs out while exploring, the player has a few ways to recover lost energy. These are items that refill a percentage of battery, special recharge points and by returning to the home base. Effective management of battery power is very important, as using too much can lead to the player wasting time while trying to progress through the tower. Speaking of items, these pick-ups called precious can be found throughout the zones of the tower.
The items can be equipment, support items and resources that can be used inside and out of the dungeons. Support items can be used both inside and outside of battle, but equipment must be changed between battles and at the home base (the National Diet building). The equipment is split into weapons, armor and accessories, with their own benefits and drawbacks. By changing gear, the player may gain boosts in one area but drawbacks in others.
Collected item points will respawn each time the player leaves the tower, allowing players to farm some items and resources to prepare for the later areas of the game. This can be critical to progression, as the party can be fairly squishy and vulnerable during the early parts of the adventure. If the party gets wiped out, they will be forced out of the dungeon, needing to regroup leading to more time lost and back tracking.
At designated areas of the dungeons, the player can encounter travel points, which are split into a few types. The main ones are the floor change, which let players climb to new floors or return to previous ones. Then there are the exits and warps, which allow the player to either quickly escape from the tower, as well as quickly jump between different floors. The warp travel points must be found before they are activated.
The travel points aren’t the only points that can be found in a dungeon. There are event points, that will appear in the dungeon. These are separated into Conversation and Combat, with both of them being critical to the progression of the game. The Combat events are often boss battles, which will push the party to their limit in tough and challenging battles. After these two events, additional story sections will occur and the player may need to go back to base.
At the base of operations, the National Diet building, the player can use several facilities between excursions to the dungeon. The most important facilities are the Precious Study, Gadgettia Department and App Development Center. While in the precious study, the player can identify unknown precious to get special items, create precious using resources and buy/sell items. This gives players a way to prepare for the tough battles in the dungeon.
Then there is the Gadgettia department, which allows players to craft and enhance the Gadgettia support units that the Diet Dolls use. This is split up into multiple features. In Produce, the player uses materials to create new Gadgettia, but these require recipes to be unlocked. In combine, the player can mix Gadgettia to create new ones, with elements of the two used potentially combining together. Gadgettia can be turned into precious, if not needed.
There is also the ability to evolve and upgrade Gadgettia, which can improve the overall power of the unit. In the evolve area, special items will the rank of the support, causing them to change in appearance and increase the boost that they provide, with the chance to learn new skills. Then there is Enhance, where items can be used to increase the boost provided to the Diet Doll, making them more powerful when battling enemies.
Last we have the App Development Center. This facility allows the player to unlock new Apps, which are used in the tower, providing various benefits and enhancements to the player. New exploration options, alongside abilities that will help the player can be unlocked here. To unlock new Apps, the player must use gold, with new levels and abilities being unlocked over the curse of the game. These are the most critical facilities that players will use.
Alongside the facilities mentioned above, the player also has access to a couple more areas. The Stigmata Lab allows players to gain upgraded boosts for their players, boosting the bonuses that are earned for each Diet Doll. Then there is the Diet, where proposals can be put forth, including new items for the party, which are voted on to be passed or rejected. Last is the Data Room, where side quests can be accepted, giving players additional challenges.
There are additional spaces that will be accessible in the base, which push the story forward, these are the rooms of the heroines as well as other areas. These can have additional side story events, which give a little more depth to the characters. The last thing to discuss is the Digiskin and element system. The Digiskins are similar to classes, where cosmetic items can be equipped altering the look of party, their skills and capabilities in combat.
Then we have the element system, with 6 main elements that interact with each other, with some being weak to some but resistant to others. The elements are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and the special Null. All but Null can have some interaction with the others, but remain neutral to their own. A chart can be accessed during combat, showing how all of the elements interact, with the weakness and resistances of each of them.
Now with the gameplay covered, it is time to cover the other aspects of this release, starting with the controls.
Controls – there is a is a simple but very effective control scheme for this game, with the directional buttons and shoulders being used for movement. The left stick controls the camera, the right changes the current Cyberbrain App and the face buttons are for key funtions. The menu navigation and battle inputs are intuitive, with on screen inputs for easy reference for players. All inputs work well in both on and off the big screen.
Difficulty – there is a rather moderate difficulty curve for this release. There is a singular difficulty setting at the start of the game, but an easy and hard option can be unlocked by passing a bill in the Diet facility. For those who may be having a bit of a rough time, there are some special items that can be activated on the main menu. These will give significant boosts to the playable party. Players can also spend some time grinding to level-up their characters.
Presentation – from a visual perspective, the game looks fantastic, with a beautiful anime style that is synonymous with games from Compile Heart. The characters all have that distinct Moe style, which contrasts with the monsters of the tower and the environments they explore. The story has a visual novel style, with event graphics used for key moments in the narrative. This works well, but may feel like it drags in places for some.
The sound design for the game is also a highlight, with some of the areas having an unsettling feeling to them. This builds up the atmosphere when exploring the different areas, giving more depth to the overall experience. The game only has Japanese voiced dialogue, with full English translation for all of the text. All of the elements of the presentation come together well, creating an experience that matches the tone of a dark magical girl JRPG.
Final Thoughts – I had heard of Tokyo Clanpool back during the surge of niche JRPG titles on the PlayStation Vita. But unfortunately I was not able to experience it at the time, due to it being Japanese exclusive. Then Eastasiasoft announced the English translated release, which excited me to no end. Unfortunately, the official western release is indefinitely delayed, so the only way to get this game now for Switch is the Hong Kong eShop.
But, the game experience is worth jumping through those hoops, especially if you want to add this game to your Nintendo Switch collection. The adventure is a lot of fun, with a gameplay loop that is reminiscent of other Compile Heart dungeon crawlers, like Mary Skelter. There is a lot of depth to the combat system, with four characters that bounce off of each other well. Then there is the larger cast of characters which have a lot of charm to them.
I very much enjoyed the different environments, enemy types and boss battles that looked really cool. This is a game that really should have been brought out sooner, as it is perfect for the Nintendo Switch, with a story that really pulled me in for duration. I am happy to recommend this to those who enjoy dungeon crawler JRPGs, especially those who like a little fanservice on the side. If you enjoyed the games like Moero Chronicle and Mary Skelter this is for you.
In the end, I give Tokyo Clanpool a final score of 4.5/5. This is a JRPG that has been a long time coming, with characters and a story that can keep players engaged, alongside a gameplay loop that has combat, exploration and puzzle solving working together in harmony. If you want to check this game out for yourself, a link to each version of the game will be below, alongside an affiliate link for the special physical version via PlayAsia.
Link to Nintendo Switch version (HERE) – Hong Kong eShop
Link to GOG Windows version (HERE)
Link to PlayAsia Physical version (HERE)
W.Kohaku Media 