Common Sense Media Review
By David Chapman
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Complex adventure weighed down by menus and options.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 16+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Play
Videos and Photos
Operation Babel: New Tokyo Legacy
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's It About?
In OPERATION BABEL: NEW TOKYO LEGACY, the battle against strange creatures known as Variants continues. Operating from a base hidden within the Hinowa Academy, a group of uniquely gifted students known as the Xth Squad, fight against these evil forces. Linking with "Blood Codes" created from the genomes of historic figures, the Xth Squad are able to unleash the power of the "Code-Rise", granting them a host of superhuman abilities with which to stand up to the Variant threat. After seemingly defeating the Variants for good, an object of immense power, dubbed "the Embryo", suddenly appears in the skies and with it a resurgence of Variant encounters. As the latest recruit to the Xth Squad, it's up to you and your teammates to uncover the secrets within the Embryo and to save humanity once again.
Is It Any Good?
Role-playing games, by their nature, tend to be a little more complex than other genres, but this game really gets bogged down by its menus. See, players want a great deal of control over their characters' styles, personalities, equipment, abilities, action, and development. The problem is, the more control players have, the more complicated a game usually gets. Operation Babel: New Tokyo Legacy is a perfect example of the struggle to find balance. It gives players a huge amount of control over the creation and development of their characters, but by doing so, it buries itself under a mountain of menus, statistics, options. You spend more time in the game's various menus than you ever do actually moving the story forward. For people with an intense love of micromanagement, this may not be a bad thing. But for the majority of gamers, it can be pretty overwhelming.
Another problem facing Operation Babel: New Tokyo Legacy is its status as a sequel. For newcomers to the series, it's a bit jarring to jump right in. While the game does try to explain some of what's going on in the world, you can't help but feel like you've just walked into the middle of something. It takes a while before new players can figure out what Blood Codes mean, what Variants are that you're fighting against, and just who the heroes and villains are supposed to be. Even when you do get the basics down, you're still left scratching your head at what it all means. It's an interesting universe that you're thrown into, but that doesn't mean you ever understand most of it. And since you're just sort of tossed right into the action, you never really get the time to take it all in.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about violence in games. Does it make a difference when players are exposed to blood and gore as a direct result of their actions in a game versus watching it as an inevitable effect of the plot, outside of their control?
Talk about teamwork. How can people with different backgrounds and skills work together to accomplish common goals? What are the benefits to working with a more diverse group?
Game Details
- Platforms : PlayStation Vita , Windows
- Pricing structure : Paid
- Available online? : Available online
- Publisher : NIS America
- Release date : May 16, 2017
- Genre : Role-Playing
- Topics : Fantasy ( Magic ) , Adventures
- ESRB rating :
- Last updated : September 30, 2025
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