Games I have never beat: Faxanadu
I was in the prime of my NES gaming. I was just getting into RPG’s and one of my friends came over and gave me this game. I thought to myself, why would he give me this, then and then I figured it out, he couldn’t beat it. I was all set to do what he couldn’t and then I started it up and discovered I could not beat it either. Looking back now it is sad because I really can’t remember why I was unable to beat this game.
Faxanadu came out in 1989 by publisher Hudson Soft, it is an RPG where you main goal is to defeat the Evil One. After being away from home for an untold amount of time you return to find your homeland pretty much abandoned. The Eleven King asks you to kill the Evil One because somehow that will lower unemployment and balance the budget.
Thanks to NES Guide for the Video
In a nutshell the Evil One came to earth via meteorite (take that Superman). The Evil One transformed the Dwarves into monsters and had them attack the Elves who were all nice and peaceful living on the World Tree before this all went down. There is only one thing that can kill the Evil One and that is the Dwarven kings sword, too bad he swallowed it before he was transformed into a horrible and hard to kill monster.
The game play was mainly side scrolling and you had to travel between various towns where you could talk to people, buy things and take on quests. There were also dungeons where you fought monsters and could find treasure. The hero himself could walk and jump and there were ladders to climb. In addition to your sword you also had armor, magic and various other items you needed to either get to a specific spot or in order to open something.
The graphics reminded me of the early Castlevania for the NES. The music was interesting to in it was memorable from the starting theme to the music played when you enter a church. One of the bad things was Faxanadu used a password system that had a long code you had to write down and if anyone remembers the Nintendo had an issue with its connectors where if something happened it could totally mess up the numbers and letters on the screen. Perhaps that is why I was unable to beat it.
I plan to give this game another shot and once I do will do a full review. The good news is for those of you with the virtual console you can play Faxanadu right now.
Views: 2378
One of my friends Michael Alvarez in the 90s swore this was the hardest NES game he ever played. It influenced him to get into playing pen and paper RPGs later on.
I remember my Grandma driving me to Walmart to buy Faxanadu. It cost between $50 and $60. I played this game for days in the summer until I had beaten it. Fun!