Andi Hamilton's Videogame Newsletter - Issue #49 [Xanadu Next]

Every now and again, only a JRPG can scratch the itch. Armed with my new Steam Deck, I figured it was time to get stuck right into one. I fancied sitting around, doing the grinding in handheld mode and playing on the TV when I was getting into the good stuff. A JRPG seemed like the perfect fit. A Final Fantasy, perhaps? Maybe I'll finally dip into the Tales of Heroes games I've heard so much about. Maybe another Ys? I enjoyed the first Ys game and I have the sequel ready to go.Nope. A trustworthy source on the subject recommended Xanadu Next. I had to give it a go.

XANADEMON'S SOULS

I can't get my head around the fact that this was originally an N-Gage game. Admittedly, it was massively cut down in almost every possible way to fit on Nokia's ill-fated handheld but after a look at a few videos you can see the core of the whole experience remains even on that ropey old device! Xanadu Next was released originally in 2005, with the PC version following that original N-Gage version and showcasing a much bigger, bolder and all-round more impressive version of the game. It's part of Falcom's extremely convoluted Dragon Slayer series, which somehow also contains Faxanadu and the Tales of Heroes series. I tried to follow it and I haven't got a clue.Xanadu Next is a JRPG with a strong influence from both Eastern and Western action RPGs of the mid-to-late 90s. For as much Ys there is in here, it's mixed with a fair bit of Diablo and even more Legend of Zelda - a winning combination, if I ever heard one. The setup is a simple one - you and your pal go to solve the mystery of Castle Strangerock, a giant structure that appears on an island in a lake whenever there is thick fog but disappears whenever anyone approaches it. The town you're staying in, which acts as the central hub for the adventure, Harlech Town, has some tradition where every newborn kid is bound to a 'Guardian', a spirit which is supposed to mask their weaknesses or amplify their strengths. During your initial explorations, you end up getting mortally wounded by a strange knight and are binded to a guardian to prevent you from dying but for mysterious reasons, you are the first person who can chop and change guardians as and when you feel like. All of these things are, predictably, connected as the story unfolds but it isn't particularly cutscene heavy. You are simply given a greater purpose to continue on the quest you were already on while the stakes slowly increase over the course of the game. If you do want to dig a little deeper, throughout the game you find ancient lore tablets, which flesh out the world and are all actually quite well-written, giving some solid world-building for those who want it.

The Guardians are a key part of the way you shape your progress through Xanadu Next. You can equip one at a time and each one gives you a different perk, like a more HP, gain more XP per kill, gain more weapon XP etc., so you equip the one that best suits your current strategy. The Guardians themselves also level up, which in turn improves the effectiveness of the perk they offer. The weapons you find each have a unique skill and by using them, you increase the damage output and eventually permenantly learn the skill, which means you can equip it and use it on another weapon you find. These two systems are fairly simplistic but allow you to utilise combinations of them to create some quite specific builds and it feels good to put together a strong setup.Like a lot of Falcom games, the combat itself is super simple in execution but extremely satisfying in practice. All you do is click on an enemy to attack, much like classic dungeon crawlers like Diablo, but there's a little bit of interaction required to get the most out of it. You can dodge all of the enemy attacks as they're all very telegraphed and by hitting an enemy from the back you do significantly more damage, each of these hits accompanied by a really, really chunky impact sound and visual effect. It turns hectic, multi-enemy combat situations into a dance of baiting out attacks and trying to get an angle to hit them in the back, whilst watching out for anyone sneaking in to give you a suckerpunch.You can equip four weapon skills or magic spells at the same time and switch between those four on the fly, so you never have everything at your fingertips but are further encouraged to create a specific build. There's no global MP but instead every spell or ability has a limited amount of uses that can be replenished at save points. Some abilities are passive but you need to use one of your four slots to have it equipped in order for it to work. By the end of the game, I had three passives and one powerful magic spell equipped, ensuring that I was getting as many buffs as I could have and an emergency 'get out of jail' full screen attack for crowd control in the later dungeons. This was entirely by design and my strategy for the latter part of the game, so it felt good, like I'd figured something out.

The world structure is based around a hub town where you can get all your gear and items bought and you head out into the larger world, which is ostensibly one large interconnected dungeon, with areas inaccesible until you retrieve a specific item that grants you the ability to - for instance - smash through large boulders or see previously hidden pathways, allowing you to proceed in new directions and progress further. You'll occasionally find a lift, locked door or teleporter that opens a shortcut back to Harlech Town and honestly, finding these is just as satisfying as beating some of the bosses! It's that moment of relief, that you have just 'banked' your progress that feels so good. Much like the Zelda series, you'll find items in these dungeons that give you new ways of exploring, so you'll need to use these shortcuts to cut about the world and backtrack to previously inaccessible areas.Xanadu Next also fucking loves its pushing block puzzles. The little wrinkle in these is that wooden boxes can not only be pushed, but can be cut in half so you can climb on top of them or even push boxes up and over them, or stack them. A second cut will destroy them, so it is possible to snooker yourself but leaving the room and re-entering will reset the puzzle. Because of this and the fact you have so many more options with ability to create 'half-boxes', these puzzles quickly get really fiendish and require some serious thinking to suss them out. Only a few of them lie on the critical path but many will lead to some decent treasure if you can solve them. Personally, I found them all to be pretty inventive and provided a nice change of pace to the otherwise pretty relentless combat.There's a bit of grinding needed throughout the game (it is a dungeon crawler, after all) but like everything in Xanadu Next, I also found this fairly light and breezy. It just about sits on the right side of the grinding line, where it feels almost hypnotic and relaxing rather than a chore, backed up by the fact you can always switch out a guardian to gain more XP or simply level up a new one, or get some kills towards learning a specific weapon skill.

It's a game full of lovely details that give it that extra bit of charm. The PS1 style aesthetic is perfect, feeling a bit like some lost out of time Japan-only RPG for the system. There's lots of subtle lighting and reflection effects that give everything a nice atmospheric vibe. Every piece of equipment you find is reflected upon your character when you equip it. A proper sense of your increasing power, with that satisfying curve from being trounced by enemies in an area to one-shotting them an hour later. The music is absolutely fantastic, with a KILLER final boss theme. In fact, all the bosses are all cool, interesting designs. Just a really good, solid game that I found enjoyable start to finish.The only thing that is a bit bullshit is that every area is full of locked doors and you need to buy keys for these from the shop, so when you pop in to town to buy new gear and restock potions, you'll also need to pick up a handful of keys too. The more you buy, the more the cost per key goes up but you can trade monster bones - a common drop - back to the shopkeep to lower the price back down again. Thing is, you very quickly are loaded with cash AND monster bones, so the whole exercise feels a bit pointless and it is rubbish when you have to halt progress because you bought twenty fucking keys but this area has just given you its twenty fucking first locked door but I guess the alternative is being perpetually short on these and having to grind just to open up the fucking doors in the dungeons, so I guess it could be a much greater pain in the arse. I'll take it.The game can be flown through in about 10-12 hours, even with a bit of grinding and perhaps a little more if you're going to find everything Xanadu Next has to offer. I ended up having a really, really good time with it and I am pretty sure I know why. Atmospheric dungeons, combat that rewards backstabs, a central hub where you level up, shortcuts that reveal an interconnected world, creative use of abilities and magic to shape your character build, story delivered to you largely through written lore from objects found in the world... remind you of anything?

THANKS FOR READING.

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