Genre: Action RPG
Developer: Hudson Soft
Publisher: Hudson Soft
Year: 1987
Basic Idea: Come here to buy, come here to sell, and come here to kick some dwarf ass.
Review: When I first put together my list, I had Faxanadu ranked in the #7 spot. Last week I decided to play it. Needless to say, my memory of this game was significantly stronger than reality. It’s still a strong game, but there are enough flaws that #24 seemed like a more accurate place for it.
Like Zelda II, it’s a game that requires too much level-building and has townspeople who are almost completely worthless. I know this argument could apply to nearly every RPG, but it’s ridiculous that the king and the townsfolk all pray that you will help destroy the evil dwarves and keep their cities from dying, yet they charge you insane amounts of money for weapons, magic, and keys. There is not a town you can reach in the game where you don’t have to sit right outside it and kill enemies for twenty to thirty minutes just to get enough gold to buy things. However, compared to a lot of RPGs at the time, twenty to thirty minutes actually seems short. The game is also not terribly long, either, so the pain is minimized.
A unique aspect of this game is that when you gain enough experience points you are assigned a rank. The rank doesn’t increase your abilities in any meaningful way; however, when you die with a certain rank, you are revived with a base amount of gold attributed to that rank. Thus, dying can be convenient if you just want to warp back to the last town you saved at, especially if you have less money than your ranks gives you. Where this gold comes from and why you’re given it is a mystery, but it can make dying less painful than in other RPGs of the era.
As for the gameplay itself, it’s alternately a blast and frustrating. There are many times where it is simply impossible to avoid enemies. Thankfully, though, there are no pits of death to fall into so once you get over the fact that you’ll get hit no matter how good you are, the enemies are generally fun to fight. Most of the dungeons have a fight or two that requires planning, and the bosses are incredibly well-detailed, especially for 1987. The most irritating aspect of the game is that there are doors that require keys, and that the doors always re-lock themselves once you’ve used your key. There is at least one spot in the game that requires you to significantly backtrack to buy a key, because there’s no indication you need to buy an extra one for later.
It mostly sounds like I’m complaining about the game. To be honest, if you haven’t played this game before, I can’t really recommend it. It’s far too frustrating when there are way better action RPGs out there that have stories that have more depth and intrigue. I also don’t think I’ll ever play this game again. But I had so much fun playing this as a child and it was great entertainment in 1987. I still enjoyed myself last week, though a lot of that was nostalgia.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Come back on Monday to see what game falls in at #23.
Death By Troggles 
I absolutely adored this game at the time, but I can’t tell you whether I finished it or not. My instinct is to say I’d put this in the top five if I made a list without playing anything again, but I do remember the pointless grinding and the second key dilemma.
Still, I played this a ton with my brother and our two best friends at the time (also brothers). Every time a character says something that starts with an “H,” the Olde English script makes it look like an “N,” so all the shopkeepers say “Nello.” We still say “Nello. I sell tools” to each other.
The complaint that people who want you to save the world are charging you a mint to do it is something I always thought at the time. Now, if anything, I find it realistic. I don’t think most businesspeople are above profiting from wartime.
Oh, no doubt. But the way some of these games are set-up, it’s less “war-time” than the apocalypse and only one person is assigned to save everybody. Kings will send out their best warrior to please save everyone but not give them squat. Townspeople will beg you to save them, then charge you an arm and a leg.
Games like Final Fantasy VII are more realistic, in that towns are splintered, communication is sparse, and the good guys are more ambiguous.
One other thing I forgot to mention about Faxanadu is everyone blinks like crazy. There must be a lot of dust from the World Tree getting in everyone’s eyes.
I would never have remembered that, but I immediately do now that you mention it. Adding in blinking was one of those things at the time that could really lend realism to an 8-bit character, but they didn’t have the timing down. Maybe the shopkeepers carry onions around their necks.
I had totally forgotten about Faxanadu, I loved that game! So, I’m glad it made your list! Actually, that was so long ago, I can’t even remember the game that well, just remembered that I loved playing it.
“The Great Race of 1987: Beau and Ryan’s Adventure Quest!”
We got this at the same time as Dragon Warrior. We were only allowed 1 hour of Nintendo per day. I play Dragon Warrior and Beau played Faxanadu and we bickered if the other tried to sneak peeks. I believe Beau beat Faxanadu a little before I finished Dragon Warrior. Can’t recall who won both first or if we even cared by that point.
Dragon Warrior was the one the excited us at first, but we were both pleasantly surprised with Faxanadu. The nostalgia definitely ranks this higher as I played it a few years ago again and it wasn’t as fun, but still good.
This game just had a great atmosphere that I hadn’t seen before. The different color theme, the music and Mist Town.
Ah, yes. I was going to mention this quest but I forgot. I did, indeed, win Faxanadu first. But the game is way shorter, so that made sense. You wound up “winning” the contest, as I didn’t win Dragon Warrior until years later as I got bored (and probably moved on to Dragon Warrior II).
Oh, Mist Town. I hated that place when I was young, but last week it didn’t seem significantly more difficult than any other place. There’s the one enemy who depletes your hit points just by being there, but he’s only on one screen.
This is another one of those games that everyone I knew had except me. That’s probably why I never really got into it, but heard good things otherwise. This is also one of those games I never wanted to “try” when my friend was playing. I think watching the frustration of the player was more fun that actually playing. That’s is probably why the Angry Video Game Nerd is so popular.