Faxanadu (1987)

Beat. I died to the spikey turtles at the beginning and respawned with full hp and mana. Then I got money from the king and was confused about the training dojo and magic trainer. Checking a walkthrough they were just ways to restore hp and mana, so a complete waste of gold compared to just dying and respawning. The game had an odd amount of different healing shops in towns. Like why have a meat seller and healer, and those 2 unique trainers at the beginning instead of actual mechanics to support differences. Like status effects or stat boosts. Even though this game is listed as RPG, it was not that at all because the character did not grow in power other than from obtaining better gear. Xp was tied into the password save mechanic as a convoluted way to save the amount of gold, or maybe give unnecessary motivation to grind a bit more xp for the next level before turning the game off. I get how it simplified the password to store only 1 integer for level instead of amount of money, but surely it could have been done without xp and levels at all. Or better yet, put in actually power growth from levels, or at least level requirements to use better gear.

I was confused after buying the starting dagger and spell about why I could not equip them. For some reason equipment could only be changed outside, not inside any building. Later on they even put enemies inside some buildings. Not only could equipment not be changed but the guy went back to being unarmed so the only way to kill those enemies was with magic. There was never any reward in those houses though. The dynamic was kinda interesting at the beginning; hopping enemies killable with dagger and dropped gold, spiky turtles that could only be killed by magic and dropped healing. I beat the 1st gargoyle easily with magic but the next caused me to slow down the game speed. It was already borderline unplayable due to being too fast. I experimented with the emulator settings and found the default speed was 60 fps, which was simply too fast for most games. I beat the next gargoyle by jumping over his fire balls at 30 fps, and settled on 40 fps for the rest of the game. I followed online maps and a little of a walkthrough since there were no maps in game. The world was not that complicated but still should have had in game maps. I got stuck at 1 jump for a while and knew I had to be missing something. No walkthrough helped, they all just glossed over that jump as it it was nothing special. Eventually I figured out on my own that holding the jump button gave longer distance. The jumping in this game was annoying because the guy could not be controlled at all while in mid air. Yeah it was one of those platformers. At least there were no falls that led to death.

I continued on until I found a shop selling the mattock, which was needed to get backtrack to the 1st area for the secret shop. I liked how each new weapon, armor and shield changed the appearance of the guy. The longsword could even kill the spiky turtles; nice sense of progression. Unfortunately there was no more of this as the remaining weapons functioned exactly the same as the longsword. I went back to buy death magic then grinded the 1st gargoyle for enough to buy the magic shield. I really wanted that shield because the small shield still let a lot of damage through from blocked projectiles. The gargoyle did not drop another mattock so the only way to progress was to load using the password. I tried dying and respawning to get more money but it started me at the 2nd town past the mattock requiring wall. Surely the game could have remembered that wall was destroyed. I also saw no other use for the mattock, like optional side areas. I bought the fire magic but never used it because it was weaker than death. The walkthrough helped mostly with how many keys to buy, a mechanic that I did not enjoy.

Near the end of the game I found the nearly impossible situation trying to get back up a ladder after getting the final armor. There was an enemy camping at the top of the ladder who immediately knocked me back down every single time. The walkthrough said it was the most frustrating part of the game, and good luck hope you wrote down the password from just before. I used wing boots to fly out of there no problem. Only 1 pair was needed during the entire game while I bought 1 and found 2, so I still had a pair left when I beat the game. There should have been a permanent version later on and cool side stuff to find with flight. That ladder situation showcased the poor combat design where enemies were so often put in positions where taking damage was unavoidable. It was also frustrating when they knocked me into the screen edge and I transitioned. The combat had no moves or crouch, or really any nuance to it other than managing the fast movements and jumping around of some enemies. I was able to keep my hp up by farming enemies that dropped it, so I did not have to rely on potions. I beat the dragon boss by blocking his shots then jumping over the last to stab and blast him in the face. I needed a couple healing potions just to survive the blocked damage. Then I owned the final boss in seconds with the ultimate tilt magic, which fired in a point blank X pattern.

This game reminded me a lot of Zelda 2. It was less confusing and difficult but fell short of Zelda 2 in pretty much every other mechanic. The main problems were stiff platforming, dull combat, and lack of variety in ways of opening up the next area. The game really could have used more varied weapons with different swing patterns and range, support magic, and meteoidvania elements. Despite its flaws it was more fun and accessible than Zelda 2.

7.0/10