Faxanadu (ファザナドゥ), launched 11/16/1987, developed and revealed by Hudson Gentle
That is one other sport in Falcom’s “Dragon Slayer” collection. At this level there have been 4 video games within the collection. The primary sport had been launched for a (now) obscure system (the Epoch Cassette Imaginative and prescient), and the third and fourth video games had come out in Famicom ports. The fourth sport additionally was launched in English as “Legacy of the Wizard”. Xanadu and Xanadu II (which had been thought of each the second sport within the numbering) had but to return out for a console.
Initially Faxanadu was presupposed to be a port of Xanadu, however by the point it was launched it had deviated so removed from the unique sport that it was given the title Fa (from Famicom) + Xanadu and had turn into its personal sport. Faxanadu was launched in English — I by no means performed it however I keep in mind seeing it in Nintendo Energy journal.
Romancia and Legacy of the Wizard usually are not actually RPGs to me; Romancia is extra of only a side-scrolling motion sport and LotW is maybe an “journey” sport as a substitute (or no matter style you wish to label it). I feel Faxanadu is nearer to these video games than “actual” motion RPGs, though the road between an motion sport and an motion RPG may be very fuzzy.
Faxanadu does have XP ranges, however they’ve nearly no impact on the sport — they don’t improve any stats. While you die, you’re returned to the final church the place you bought a password. Your cash is reset to a price that’s decided by your XP stage. This appears to be the one impact of your stage apart from the odd incontrovertible fact that winged boots final for shorter occasions as you stage up.
(By the way, the unique Japanese model has precise church buildings with a cross exterior and a Catholic-style crucifix (with Jesus’ physique on it) behind the priest. Each of these had been eliminated and the church buildings are known as “guru homes” as a substitute. That is an instance of the kind of censorship that Nintendo required within the 80s and 90s.)
The sport has just a few weapon and armor upgrades, however solely 4 of every. There are additionally just a few magics that you may purchase. A few of these are purchased at retailers, others are discovered across the maps.
The sport is roughly divided into 3 areas, and also you entry the following space when you end some activity (for example, to get to the second space it’s important to restart three fountains). I feel this can be a sport that may very well be fairly completed with out a lot assist — there are just a few difficult components which have non-obvious options however nothing on the extent of checking each stone or tree to see if there’s a secret.
To combat, you principally simply have assault, jump-attack, and utilizing your magic. The variety of enemies is pretty restricted so when you be taught every sample it’s a bit simpler, though the combating system generally appears slightly restricted.
Most likely probably the most annoying a part of the sport are the jumps; you typically should do working jumps that require pretty exact timing, and if you happen to fall down it’s important to repeat the entire space once more. This isn’t so uncommon for Eighties motion video games however it may be irritating.
The storyline is a typical “save the world from the demons” story. What’s spectacular about it’s that the textual content truly makes use of lots of kanji — that is one thing that you just don’t see a lot of in Famicom video games, and even late into the Tremendous Famicom period you see some video games that aren’t utilizing as a lot kanji as this. I’m unsure what it was about this sport that inspired them to do that.
On the entire, that is positively one of many extra playable video games of this early Famicom period. I performed about half of it; the shortage of RPG components made me not wish to play that rather more nevertheless it’s not a nasty sport for the time interval in any respect.
