Xanadu Next Review – A Ghost of Falcom RPGs Past

<p>Nihon Falcom is a game developer that has been around since the 1980s&period; They were at the forefront of the Role Playing genre then&comma; and are responsible for games that made the Role Playing genre what it is today&period; <em>Xanadu Next<&sol;em> is the successor to <em>Dragon Slayer II&colon; Xanadu<&sol;em>&comma; which released in 1985&period; It has come to PC and was created in order to celebrate the 20<sup>th<&sol;sup> anniversary of the original <em>Xanadu<&sol;em>’s release&period; Nihon Falcom was responsible for games such as the <em>Ys<&sol;em> series&comma; and <em>Xanadu Next<&sol;em> carries on the spirit of Nihon Falcom’s titles&comma; bringing them to a new generation of players&period; <em>Xanadu Next<&sol;em> was originally released by Nihon Falcom for the Nokia N-Gage and has been revived for Steam by <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;xseedgames&period;com&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">XSEED Games<&sol;a> for modern gamers to enjoy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Xanadu Next<&sol;em> puts you in a world where a mysterious castle appears over the waters of Lake Orwell&comma; which is a part of the mysterious Harlech Island&period; Charlotte L Wells is a scholar that wishes to investigate the mysterious castle&comma; and enlists the help of an old friend&comma; a knight that agrees to protect her from the dangers of the castle&period; The knight winds up fatally wounded by a mysterious assailant&comma; and is tasked with finding the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Dragon Slayer” a mysterious weapon that may hold the key to his survival&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;115179" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-115179" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-115179 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;11&sol;11023645&sol;Xanadu-Next-07-1024x580&period;png" alt&equals;"&lpar;Xanadu Next&comma; XSEED Games&rpar;" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"566" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-115179" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Xanadu Next<&sol;em>&comma; XSEED Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Xanadu Next<&sol;em> plays like a real-time action RPG&comma; where the player explores each environment&comma; which seamlessly connects to the next one&period; These environments are diverse&comma; from lush forests&comma; to frosty peaks&comma; and contain stone tablets and old letters to help you piece together the history of Castle Strangerock&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Combat plays out in real-time&comma; and the player has multiple mechanics at their disposal in order to progress&period; You can fuse your main character with &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Guardians” which provide passive abilities&comma; while weapons and armor have skills attached that can only be learned through long-term use of the weapon or armor piece&period; You can also choose to tweak your stats by leveling down &lpar;or up&rpar; in order to learn new spells or build your character in a different way&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Throughout the environments&comma; there are hidden secrets&comma; shortcuts&comma; and intense bosses to find and defeat&period; While <em>Xanadu Next<&sol;em> may seem like a straightforward RPG experience&comma; there is much to discover and enjoy within the confines of the game’s campaign&period; It should be noted that while <em>Xanadu Next<&sol;em> is a new Nihon Falcom game&comma; its visuals are very much of the classic or retro variety&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;115180" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-115180" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-115180 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;11&sol;11023819&sol;Xanadu-Next-01-1024x594&period;png" alt&equals;"&lpar;Xanadu Next&comma; XSEED Games&rpar;" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"580" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-115180" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Xanadu Next<&sol;em>&comma; XSEED Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The cinematics within <em>Xanadu Next<&sol;em> look like cinematics from the Sony Playstation era of gaming&comma; while the in-game visuals are more of something akin to the Playstation 2&semi; either way&comma; it maintains a medieval aesthetic found in other Nihon Falcom games&comma; and the music and sounds are in line with it as well&period; I found myself having a difficult time immersing myself in the game’s story&comma; and becoming interested in the characters&period; With that being said&comma; I find the gameplay addictive&comma; and amazingly fun&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The main downside of the gameplay is the emphasis on grinding that is required in order to progress&period; If you are going to get anywhere in <em>Xanadu Next<&sol;em>&comma; you have to grind the gold for better equipment&period; Progression is slow&comma; as there’s no real way to measure the difficulty scaling in the game until you reach an area you aren’t prepared for&period; There winds up being quite a bit of back-tracking as well&comma; since you’ll often find yourself needing to head back to town to buy keys &lpar;if you haven’t found enough monster bones to make keys from&rpar; or needing to buy healing items&period; You’ll also be heading back to town each time you level up to allocate your points so your stats can increase further beyond their limits&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Despite the slow pacing and the grinding aspects&comma; <em>Xanadu Next<&sol;em> is worth picking up&comma; especially if you enjoy old school RPGs like the<em> Ys<&sol;em> series&period; It doesn’t really break any new ground&comma; but it makes up for that with deep&comma; addictive combat and character building&period; <em>Xanadu Next<&sol;em> carries the spirit of Nihon Falcom&comma; and reminds us of why the old school games like <em>Ys<&sol;em> were so much fun&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A PC Review Code for <em>Xanadu Next<&sol;em> was provided by XSEED Games for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;