Hudson Soft's NES action-RPG, set inside a giant World Tree: a wandering swordsman returns to his ruined home town of Eolis, is sent by the Elven King to awaken three poisoned springs, and climbs the branches — earning Golds and Ranks, buying weapons, armor and magic, gathering the five card-keys, and saving by Mantras — past the mutated Dwarves and King Grieve to the Evil One the meteor brought. Its name is its lineage: "Faxanadu" = Famicom + Xanadu, a side-story of Falcom's Dragon Slayer line. Catalogued into UD0 as a game-world with the genesis, the climb, and the full .dlw birth — set on the new full-bleed 32/64-bit low-poly 3D backdrop with an 8-bit pixel title card (the two graphics generations, layered).
The Four Natures
each emergent emerges by one of four natures — and this climb holds all four
The Genesis
Famicom + Xanadu: a ruined homecoming inside a tree
The name is the lineage: Hudson Soft licensed the Xanadu property from Nihon Falcom — "Faxanadu" = Famicom + Xanadu — and built a side-story to Falcom's Xanadu (Dragon Slayer II, 1985). Hudson developed it; in North America Nintendo published it in 1989, two years after the Famicom original.
A wandering swordsman returns to his home town, Eolis, to find it ruined and near-empty. The Elven King explains: the fountain that is the Elves' life-source has stopped, the last water is poisoned, and the Dwarves have been turned into monsters. He is sent into the World Tree to set it right.
The whole game is a giant World Tree — a Yggdrasil you climb, with towns and the Elf and Dwarf realms set along its branches. Long ago the Evil One emerged from a fallen meteorite, twisted the Dwarves against their will, and turned them on the Elves. The quest: awaken three pure springs, then ascend to destroy the Evil One.
The Climb
up from ruined Eolis, spring by spring, to the thing the meteor brought
At the tree's base lies ruined Eolis and its King. Here the swordsman takes up a first sword and a first spell, hears the quest, and steps into the trunk — Golds to be earned, Ranks to be raised, a poisoned world overhead.
He climbs through towns and gloom, buying weapons, armor and magic, gathering the five card-keys (Jack, Joker, Queen, King, Ace) to pass locked doors, and saving by Mantras the Gurus give. Deep in, the Dwarf King Grieve — who swallowed the Dragon Slayer sword to hide it — must be beaten to claim the one blade that can end the Evil One.
Past the mutated Dwarves and the awakened springs, at the high branches, waits the Evil One — the alien horror the meteor brought. Only the Dragon Slayer sword, cut from the belly of a fallen king, can finally kill it.
The Ideas
why a 1989 tree-climbing RPG is still revered
An RPG You Climb
the vertical world
- The World Tree is the map: a single great structure you ascend, with towns, shops, and locked doors along its branches.
- Action-platforming welded to RPG growth — Golds, Ranks, weapons, armor, and projectile magic — years before that fusion was common on console.
Mantras, Not Batteries
how it saves
- No save battery — Gurus in the churches give you Mantras, passwords that store your rank, gear, and furthest church.
- A distinctive quirk: a Mantra does NOT keep your exact Golds — on continue your Golds reset to a fixed amount tied to your current Rank.
The Xanadu Bloodline
the family it belongs to
- Part of Nihon Falcom's Dragon Slayer line — Dragon Slayer → Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu — and a cousin to Falcom's Ys.
- Jun Chikuma's long, arch-form score is now a cited hidden-gem of NES music; Faxanadu placed #6 in Nintendo Power's games of the year, then became an underrated cult classic.
The Roster — The Born
the hero, the tree, the kings, the keys, and the thing the meteor brought, as ACI .agents — each a birth certificate and a nature of emergence (12)
The Record
the releases, the makers, and the bloodline it belongs to
The Releases
Famicom Xanadu, ported west
- ファザナドゥ · Faxanadu1987 · Famicom (Hudson Soft)the Japanese original — "Famicom Xanadu," built on Falcom's licensed Xanadu name
- Faxanadu1989 · NES (published by Nintendo)the Western release Hudson developed and Nintendo published in North America & Europe
- Wii Virtual Console2010 / 2011the re-release, re-praised as an underappreciated essential
The Makers
Hudson, Falcom, Nintendo
- Hudson Softdeveloperthe studio that built Faxanadu under license
- Nihon FalcomXanadu rights-holderthe house of Dragon Slayer / Xanadu / Ys, who licensed the name
- NintendoNA / EU publisherfirst-party publisher of the Western release
- Jun Chikumacomposerthe celebrated, arch-form Faxanadu score (also Bomberman, Adventure Island)
The Family
the Dragon Slayer / Xanadu line
- Dragon Slayer1984 · Falcomthe action-RPG that began the line
- Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu1985 · Falcomthe Xanadu the Famicom side-story takes its name from
- Ys1987 · FalcomFalcom's sibling action-RPG series, still running