Faxanadu



Faxanadu is a curious little game to say the least. It's not quite an action-RPG, though it does possess elements of one. It's not entirely a metroidvania either, because you'd don't have any major plot/progress inclination to backtrack; but, you can find some secrets in out of the way places, some of which are necessary to advance the plot. The closest thing you can accurately call it is an action-adventure game, but it really doesn't particularly excel in either of aspect of such. Let's just call it a "pretty decent melting pot of genres and aspects" and move on.

Relation to Xanadu (Dragon Slayer II)
So you might have heard that Faxanadu is a port or variant of the computer-based game "Xanadu". Well, whoever says that is wrong. The best way to describe Faxanadu compared to Xanadu is that it's a spinoff. It's pretty much like Super Mario Land compared to Super Mario Bros 1. Yes, there are some similarities between them, but they're pretty much different games, primarily due to several different factors between the two, such as story, locations, and even gameplay aspects and coding, despite being similar in style. Editor Note: Perhaps due to the Hudson Soft development, and maybe some influence from Westone, it also resembles the Monster World/Land (Wonder Boy) series in execution. Curiously, there were some items, presumed to have similar uses to those in Xanadu that were unused in the release of Faxanadu.

Xanadu (PC-88 version) Faxanadu Cut Content Details/Hypothesis on cut content

mis fax notes http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/587273-faxanadu/48130442 walk speed http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/587273-faxanadu/60015585 armor notes http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/587273-faxanadu/60853041 exp title notes http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Faxanadu/Getting_Started pendant romhack http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/753/

Mattock w/o killing wyvern http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXvBkxs5jQI Full Plate Armor from tavern owner http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGecgCpCyIM Easy and Safe Experience Farming and Ranking up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtbK5ejzufo Getting extra gold from the King http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmj_yTnoW2E

Hourglass vs bosses the Hour Glass, a time-freezing item which caused some minor glitches in some parts of the game, is particularly useful against the Final Boss: it prevents him from firing projectiles.

It does the same against the Dwarf King Dragon Boss too! Since there is an Hour Glass spawn in the dungeon you find him in, one could argue that this mechanic might be intended. The bosses might be immune to the magic, but their projectiles aren't. The last town also sells Hour Glasses, and items are usually only found/sold where they are meant to be used.

"I am free from injury because of the Ointment!". Probably due to a bug, it prevented magic damage only when the player had NOT equipped a Shield. It was still possible to bypass this limitation by flinging the sword at the right moment.

Prices increase as you progress along the game. The town of Conflate, for example, has meat more expensive than full healing earlier in the game. i.e. try to buy J-keys early on

http://shrines.rpgclassics.com/nes/faxanadu/tips.shtml