評論

• gamedeal user

  Sep 28, 2021

  [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/7520163/]You can find hundreds of other reviews through our Curator page[/url] [h1]"Initially phoned in. Then Next level."[/h1] I’m not really sure what I was expecting from Xanadu Next; I had been drawn in by its uniquely bizarre circumstances. What bizarre circumstances, you ask yourself? Well, Next started life as a N-Gage exclusive, released back in 2005 to critical indifference. It was not enough to save that platform, and none of the seven N-Gage owners seemed particularly enamored with it. Loath to let all the work go to waste, though, Falcom re-released it on PC later that year. In Japan only. Seemingly destined to be nothing but an odd bit of trivia for the Western world, it was snuck out as a worldwide release in late 2016. It received little in the way of marketing and fanfare, quietly sandwiched between the much bigger releases of The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC and Ys Origin. Honestly, I went in expecting a barely functioning N-Game emulation that I could point and laugh at for a few hours, sate my curiosity, and never look back. That was not the case. This is not what happened. Instead, I sank a little under 30 hours into the game, seeking out new ways in which to inflate the time I spent before begrudgingly heading off to take on the end-of-game boss. I bolstered weapons I had no need for; I trained abilities I never used. Xanadu Next is the sleeper hit you never know about, the Falcom experiment rebuilt and repurposed from the corpse of a question dalliance with a doomed mobile gaming platform. It has no right to be as brilliant as it is. It’s this weird amalgamation of ideas that was, frankly, ahead of its time. It would be easy to throw out a Metriodvania tag on the whole experience and call it a day, but Next is so much more than that. The entire game revolves around an isolated village, situated on the coast of a rural island. The village is your solitary source to buy provisions and armaments, as well as the only real place you’ll find any kind of civilization. The rest of the island is covered in decaying ruins, the ancient hub of a long forgotten kingdom swallowed up by time. You play a disgraced knight guarding a student scholar who has come to study the ruins. The island itself is regularly the star of the entire show, which is just as well as your silent protagonist knight isn’t about to win any personality awards. There’s ruins dotted all over the place, but it does an excellent job of making sure you're gently guided to the right locations, while putting various obstacles in your way that you can’t generally overcome until the time is right. It means you barely ever wander into an area with threats you can’t handle and die a quick, miserable death. And so a pattern starts to emerge; you leave the safe embrace of the village, and set off into the ruins to explore. For the most part, you’ll eke out a little more progress before returning to town a little stronger than you were before you set off. Maybe you’ve gained a new level, or racked up enough gold to buy a new shield. Maybe you’ve killed something that’s dropped a better weapon. Maybe you’ve forged far enough ahead that you’ve opened a new pathway, or discovered the means to explore a previously blocked-off passageway. Unlike most JRPG games, where you beat a dungeon and then dismiss it completely while you start work on something completely new, the ruins of Harlech Island are a singular, huge, constantly evolving dungeon crawl. It has differing areas, sure, but everything is meticulously interconnected, peppered with various entrances and exits that link everything together. Right at the start of the game, there’s a miner in town bitching about how he’s unable to do his job anymore because the stupid lift has broken down at the peak of the nearby mountain. Hours and hours and hours later, you find yourself exploring that mountain and have the opportunity to fix the lift. In doing so, you then have the option to go right to the summit from the comfort of the village whenever you like. [url=https://www.honestgamers.com/15272/pc/xanadu-next/review.html]// Full Review[/url]
• gamedeal user

  Nov 10, 2022

  A hidden gem JRPG! 🟢 Pretty good story. There's no voiceovers which would've worked out really well for the story but due to being an extremely old game (originally released in 2005!), it's understandable 🟢 Great action-based dungeon crawler gameplay 🟢 Lots of skills/guardians to master 🟢 Choose between Physical/Magical build 🟢 Game has lots of secret chest to find making exploration rewarding 🟢 Good soundtracks 🟢 Farming is pretty good without being too tedious 🔴 Physical attack tends to miss a LOT which can get super annoying. You hardly block with shields while enemies seems to have insane dodge when attacking front making it really unfair 🔴 Box puzzles can be super tricky making your brain explode if you don't look it up 🔴 You can equip very limited skills
• gamedeal user

  Nov 29, 2022

  This is the kind of game I wish Nihon Falcom still made. Here you won't get a lot of anime tropes or fast paced combat. But what you do get is a nice ARPG dungeon crawler with unique powers, old-school lore/world building, and meaningful combat.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 7, 2023

  Just gonna mention a few tips for first timers since I more or less stumbled my way through this: Building balanced is a trap. Attack and/or intelligence is way more important than the other skills. The minimum stats to equip every piece of equipment is I believe 45 22 25 25 22 You do not have to commit to stat allocation until you level up again, and if you monitor your experience well you can keep your build extremely versatile. For all you mages out there, do invest in attack still as there is 1 late game enemy you have to physically defeat. The last enemy you kill in a room will drop a chest if you kill it with melee. It will not if you kill it with magic. You will need over a 100 keys so so buying bones from the girl is a good idea early on. The fire resist helmet is an mvp
• gamedeal user

  Jan 19, 2023

  An action RPG with really excellent writing and strong atmosphere, like that of a memorable short story or novel. It is very much the RPG cousin of Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim, and has a similar vibe, but with a dash of Vagrant Story (mazelike dungeon crawling, box puzzles, focus on weapons and gear, spellsword combat). The protagonists must unravel the mysteries of a homely island village and its surroundings, by exploring ruins and deciphering accounts of the lost history of the isle. As your power increases by mastering new weapon skills and spells, so does the sense that something sinister is afoot and that time is short. I found the pacing to be just about perfect. The dialogue is concise and well-spaced between long stretches of combat. The tomes and manuscripts you discover can be read at will (after your ally Char translates them), and I think it was a good decision to tie exposition to item discovery rather than dumping it on you arbitrarily. It is satisfying to build your character and work towards the next major gear upgrade, which often sees you smashing once-difficult enemies with impunity. Build variety comes mostly from skill selection (they are flexible and can be swapped at any time) rather than stat choices, which are somewhat constrained if you want to meet gear requirements - but this is not really a problem. The designers seemed to know just where to put each unlockable shortcut to keep backtracking from becoming tedious. Swapping items becomes a bit of a nuisance once you acquire many key items, because you can only have four equipped at a time, and you will want to dedicate two or three slots to combat items like potions or status-effect armlets. Villagers have new dialogue after every major event. Keeping the story in one place lets you get to know the personality and problems of each resident - a strength I am happy to see was not reserved for the Trails games, which pay a steep bloating cost for somewhat more character development than we get from the empty vessel Adol or the silent protagonist of Xanadu. I wish Falcom had continued to iterate on this style of game alongside the others, because the writing, music and gameplay stand up favourably against them, especially as a first entry. Going multiplayer would provide a replacement for the likes of Gauntlet, or expanding the combat with more weapon types would have placed it closer to the PS2 Shining Force games. With a more appealing title and perhaps a speaking protagonist (or at least diary entires to solidify the character's personality), who knows what might have happened? This is a very promising start that unfortunately was never followed.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 21, 2023

  xanadu next is high on charm. the interconnected world and exploration were a real high point. hitting those ds1 or peak castelvania vibes. the combat, while not mind-blowing is tactical enough to be engaging. the sound track elevates the serviceable visuals into something that i found to be quite aesthetically pleasing. this game is def in the hidden gem zone, and for every few people that might find this game underwhelming, another is likely to add this to their all time list. loved it.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 4, 2016

  Originally released in 2005, the game was relatively off western shores. Xanadu Next is a unique mix of Diablo and Zelda with a touch of Ys to boot, Great music and decent graphics, 10/10 check it out!
• gamedeal user

  Nov 4, 2016

  You know what I miss? Squaresoft ps1 era RPG's. I bought this game on a whim because I heard it had interconnecting level design and saw that it was an action rpg with block puzzles. After about 2 hours with the game it certainly delivered those things. They premise of the story and Lore seems a little lackluster and contrived for the sake of game mechanics but the combat and skill system feel right at home with most oldschool rpg's and it feels like there will be no small amount of dungeon crawling in the future and its here where this game is going to shine. Well worth the 20 bucks and would recommend to anyone who's nostalgic over old school rpg's.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 5, 2016

  for those of you trying to use the CONTROLLER (xbox 360) to browse and purchase from merchants. The D-pad moves the cursor to select items within the tab, to change the actual tab, you need to use the left stick. When in the merchant interface, it doubles as the mouse. So you can use the stick as the mouse and the d-pad for fine tuning your selection. Ive never played Xanadu when it came out all those years ago, but iv heard fond tales and whispers of this game through out the years, over the internet or from friends. Im so excited to finally have a chance to play it! The music is good, almost too good, in the sense it feels like its been ripped right from zelda and remixed, ahaha. Thats not a bad thing and shouldnt be taken as one. the fighting is cool, monsters ive seen so far, they wind up attacks and generally dont turn while attacking, allowing you to side step and swoop in from the side or back. The game actually encourages you to do so. Swinging your weapon doesnt only attack what you have directly infront of you, so if theres 2 enemies- one in front and one slightly right or left, your sword,axe,etc. swing will hit both of them. This is something a lot of ARPG's dont do (or you have to unlock it as a skill). I cant really say much about the story, I mean the dialog is pretty decent. its hardly cheesy or cringey, as a lot of japanese rpg games can be (imo anyways). you of course play the silent protag, but they give some story as to why that is- which is just one of those little things that I appreciate. Anyways, wether you never played it or are coming back for a second or third time. the game is worth the full $20 (17.99 launch price). I can tell just from the 2 hours n' change ive played. I can say whole heart, You will know within the FIRST hour if youll want to continue playing the game, as refund is an option an you definitely have 2 hours game time to decide. Enjoy!
• gamedeal user

  Nov 6, 2016

  I didn't know what to expect of Xanadu Next, the only thing I knew were: - ~10 Years old - Plays Like a mix of Diablo/Nox/etc and Metroidvania - It's made by Falcom Verdict: Really enjoyable experience! Finished the game yesterday. They really made the mixture work. It doesn't even resemble Diablo to 100%. The combat system is a hybrid of Ys & Diablo I'd say. Through clever positioning you can get a lot of mileage in this game. The skill & stat system is also different. Through leveling of weapons you unlock their given skills. That means you have to switch weapons a lot, if you want to have a lot of selectable skills! Only the unlocking of spells resembles Diablo 1, which is done by reading Books you can find or buy in shops. The Stats are also negligible most of the time. Your weapons and armor are the only things which dictate your character development. Not much variation on that end. But there's no need for that to be honest. Xanadu Next is a story driven game, as usual with games made by Falcom, with interesting puzzles, dungeons and boss fights. So if you want to explore a world, with backtracking through new unlocked items, give Xanadu Next a shot! Really fun Game!