This game is pure Golds!
It feels like it was just yesterday that I slipped that ol' Faxanadu cartridge into my NES and and pushed the power button. That is how memorable of a game this was for its time. It can take you back to when its graphics, gameplay and music were top-of-the-line.
Faxanadu is a side-scrolling action RPG, one of the very first, and it helped shape the genre. This game threw you into the town of Eolis at the beginning where you wandered about, trying to figure out what was going on. Upon talking to townsfolk you learn the water has mysteriously vanished.
That is what whisks you on your journey. Dehydration. Well, it is by the transitive property at least.
The jumping in the game was very strange but, like most games that stray from Mario jumping, you get used to it after playing awhile. Attacks were seperated between melee, which you could buy weapons with varying reach and attack power, and magic attacks that usually were fired like magic missiles.
Enemies came in various forms and for the time, most were kinda creepy. They had charm though as they were unique in the 80's. Nothing like this had ever been seen before.
The game had unique charm due to the character dialogue. Just read the box cover on the game's wiki page: "Daggers and wingboots, mantras and monsters await you."
Wingboots people. WINGBOOTS!
Another memorable piece of dialogue is the constant refence to "Golds" as a proper-noun with improper-pluralization instead of "gold."
That aside, the biggest charm of this game is both the sound effects and the music.
The sound effects are spot on; everything from text scrolling sounds and menu sounds, to the good stuff like attacks and deaths are fantastically fitting. The screeching sounds from attacking/bumping into enemies will never escape me and that sorta "crumbling" sound that the monsters make when they die is just as awesome... of course I would be remiss if I didn't mention the sound of Golds dropping; bliss to the ears.
Finally, it cannot be stressed enough just how memorable the tunes of this game are. The wiki has a link at the end of the entry that will let you listen to the music of this game. If you have come this far in this review of such an obscure and likely forgotten game, then you might as well journey a bit further, and check that music out. Those songs are pure Golds!