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[Dio]

We have Trails of Cold Steel II well on track for a fall 2016 launch and Trails in the Sky the 3rd's translation has already begun, but if you happen to be a Falcom fan and need something to tide you over before then, we actually have one more non-Trails title that should be launching this summer: Xanadu Next! It's action-based instead of turn-based, but it's got a lovely little gothic story that wraps itself up in a neat bow. Heehee.

https://www.facebook.com/XSEEDTrail...439827481439/1416537918371617/?type=3&theater

Xanadu Next is an action RPG that I would describe as a mix between a overhead hack 'n' slash game (like Nox and Diablo) and Metroid, in that a lot of the level design is based on access to parts of the world via certain abilities and items. It's more complex than simply Falcom's take on Diablo, as the combat feels different. Rather than focusing on a skill tree, you choose what kind of skill you want and put it on the bar - and you only have so many slots so you have to choose what you want, rather than having a giant bar/multi-tier bar filled with abilities. They also vary from physical-based skills (which certain enemies are weak to) alongside lightning, fire and ice spells (which obviously are stronger/weaker against certain enemies.

That being said, it's not a loot-based game really - the armor/items/weapons/skills are generally bought from the store, like in Ys, with the gold you collect around the world. It's fairly short - my playthrough was around 20 hours long - and the 'special items' found around the world for the Metroid-style purpose I said before are one of the main incentives for exploring.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanadu_Next

It came out in 2005, back when Falcom still had their own PC distribution and came out in the same year as Ys: Oath in Felghana. I played and beat it myself back when it was english translated via fan-patch, and imported a physical copy so I could run the patch on it for like 40 bucks. I really loved it.

I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of improvements XSEED is doing to it for the Steam release! It could use a few QOL improvements - I installed a few fan patches to make it run at a higher resolution if I remember correctly, so most likely they'll be adding stuff like that.

It's actually distantly related to Trails in the Sky, as you can see here:

Basically, the Trails games are part of the 'Dragon Slayer 6' branch, called Legend of Heroes. Xanadu Next comes from the 'Xanadu' series, which is 'Dragon Slayer 2'.

 

[The Yo Tornado]

I thought this was Tokyo Xanadu for a minute, and got excited. Still, I haven't played a Xanadu besides Faxanadu for NES, and I've always wanted to get into the series, so this is probably a good jumping point. How good is Next considered to be next to the other games?

 

[Abstrusity]

Is it winter 2012 all over again, or are these games still actually going to come out like they say?

 

[Dio]

I thought this was Tokyo Xanadu for a minute, and got excited. Still, I haven't played a Xanadu besides Faxanadu for NES, and I've always wanted to get into the series, so this is probably a good jumping point. How good is Next considered to be next to the other games?

It's pretty great, in my opinion. In fact, I'd say this is the best Xanadu in the series. The final boss is fucking awesome and it's really atmospheric. It may take a bit of getting used to but once you get in the rhythm of things I was addicted. You have a town to return to where you can upgrade weapons and buy items and stuff, and you're constantly unlocking shortcuts to where you need to go and picking up new items/weapons/magic skills.

In fact, magic works a bit like Dark Souls 1 in this game. When you spawn, you get a 'certain amount of uses' to use your spells and then you can't use them anymore until you go back to town or die/respawn. Correct me if I'm wrong on that, it's been a little while. The combat, like I said, is reminiscent of Diablo with shortcut keys on your keyboard (1 through 0) to bind skills to. You also get to bind 'cards' to your character that give you various buffs, like guardian gods that give you certain protections - a god that gives you more magic casts versus one that gives you more health, you get the idea.

Yeah, it seems like Faxanadu is the game most people are exposed to from the 'Dragon Slayer 2' subseries of Xanadu titles.

Is it winter 2012 all over again, or are these games still actually going to come out like they say?

They announced and released Trails of Cold Steel in the same year. I have little doubt that Trails SC was an outlier because of how much of a nightmare it was to localize. From what I know of the blog posts and talking to staff members, they learned a metric shitload from the SC experience and their workflow is polished and a lot more efficient thanks to SC.

 

[cj_iwakura]

Finally.

I thought this was Tokyo Xanadu for a minute, and got excited. Still, I haven't played a Xanadu besides Faxanadu for NES, and I've always wanted to get into the series, so this is probably a good jumping point. How good is Next considered to be next to the other games?

Supposed to be fantastic, as always, HG101's a good primer on all things Falcom:

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/xanadu/xanadu3.htm

 

[skLaFarebear]

Is it winter 2012 all over again, or are these games still actually going to come out like they say?

Cold Steel 2's translation and editing is done afaik and now they're in the QA phase. Unless something completely out of left field happens, we know that's gonna hit it's date this fall.

 

[Tohsaka]

Finally a release window. I hope they're secretly working on Tokyo Xanadu, too.

 

[Abstrusity]

Cold Steel 2's translation and editing is done afaik and now they're in the QA phase. Unless something completely out of left field happens, we know that's gonna hit it's date this fall.

Guess I'd better finish up Cold Steel, then.

I stopped because I missed one of the newspapers that are sold only within a 5 minute period and didn't want to start over from the beginning of the chapter, but I'm almost done, I believe.

 

[hamchan]

Yes Falcom, I will buy all your games on Steam.

 

[themagicalkitsune]

Choo choo.

(all aboard the steam train)

 

[The Yo Tornado]

Sounds good. Thanks guys. Between this, me grabbing CS this week and likely buying CS2 when it drops Falcom and XSeed are getting a lot of my money over the coming months.

 

[luka]

I thought this was Tokyo Xanadu for a minute, and got excited. Still, I haven't played a Xanadu besides Faxanadu for NES, and I've always wanted to get into the series, so this is probably a good jumping point. How good is Next considered to be next to the other games?

next is better than tokyo anyway. it's phenomenal.

 

[skLaFarebear]

Guess I'd better finish up Cold Steel, then.

I stopped because I missed one of the newspapers that are sold only within a 5 minute period and didn't want to start over from the beginning of the chapter, but I'm almost done, I believe.

I thought you could buy older newspapers, but I could be wrong. I do know they usually appear twice per chapter once at the Thors shop and again wherever you go for your Field Study.

The end game's pretty long though, so you better get to it!

 

[kurahador]

Surprised no one bats an eye at that TitS 3rd Chapter. Is it always known?
Nice to see confirmation though.

 

[desmax]

Nice

Surprised no one bats an eye at that TitS 3rd Chapter. Is it always known?
Nice to see confirmation though.

Yeah, they announced it before

 

[Producer]

Xanadu Next is soo good. Perfect mix of exploration, combat, and the general atmosphere is just good. Can't wait to replay it.

 

[Claude Augario]

Been waiting on this one!

 

[cj_iwakura]

Xanadu Next is soo good. Perfect mix of exploration, combat, and the general atmosphere is just good. Can't wait to replay it.

It gives me a Brandish vibe, which I adored.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Finally. FINALLY!

Feels like I've been waiting forever for this thing to materialize. Will absolutely buy on GOG.

 

[Nyoro SF]

X A N A D U N E X T time. Heard nothing but good things.

 

[Ogawa-san]

Not dissing Falcom or their games, but I've always wondered if they know how excited people get about over ten year old stuff finally making it over here.

 

[Dio]

Not dissing Falcom or their games, but I've always wondered if they know how excited people get about over ten year old stuff finally making it over here.

We already got it over here in 2005.................................on N-Gage.

You heard me.

We DID get it, it was just a horribly shitty port of the PC version to Nokia N-Gage.

 

[Matt Attack]

I'm very excited to finally have a chance to give this a shot. Hooray for more Falcom on Steam!

 

[Eila]

Not dissing Falcom or their games, but I've always wondered if they know how excited people get about over ten year old stuff finally making it over here.

They commented on strong digital PC sales once in their reports. Hopefully XSEED have been communicating them we need these games over here.
I am a convert fan. Had no idea who they were until I got a Ys game on steam. Now I have played all of them (on steam, anyway). I will be sure to grab this one and 3rd as well.

 

[cheesekao]

Though I doubt it since it's a sequel and all, I hope Trails 3rd does better than 2nd. The drop from the first one is pretty big.

Will definitely be there for Cold Steel 2.

 

[Dio]

Though I doubt it since it's a sequel and all, I hope Trails 3rd does better than 2nd. The drop from the first one is pretty big.

Well, SC requires completion of the first game since it's basically two halves of the same game. That's why it's not Trails 1st and 2nd, it's the 'second chapter' of the first game. 3rd is as such because it's a new protagonist and works more as an epilogue. I mean sure, you should play the first two, but it makes perfect sense that there's a big drop if it means that the second game literally starts hours after the first one ends and doesn't bring you up to speed, it just keeps going from where the first one left off.

 

[Abstrusity]

I thought you could buy older newspapers, but I could be wrong. I do know they usually appear twice per chapter once at the Thors shop and again wherever you go for your Field Study.

The end game's pretty long though, so you better get to it!

Not all of them. Some of them are ONLY available in some areas. In this case, I think it's one in chapter 7, updated in the middle of the chapter while you're in the city, and once you return to Thors at the end of the chapter, it updates the newspaper to the next one.

So, I had finished the chapter or just about, and could not buy it. It actually happened in Chapter 4, too.

 

[cheesekao]

Well, SC requires completion of the first game since it's basically two halves of the same game. That's why it's not Trails 1st and 2nd, it's the 'second chapter' of the first game. 3rd is as such because it's a new protagonist and works more as an epilogue. I mean sure, you should play the first two, but it makes perfect sense that there's a big drop if it means that the second game literally starts hours after the first one ends and doesn't bring you up to speed, it just keeps going from where the first one left off.

These kinds of drop seem a bit commonplace. Agarest, Neptunia and Trails all had pretty high sales for their first titles and then there are massive drops for the second title.

 

[BasilZero]

Dayum sons.

This is great news!

 

[Tizoc]

Dont make me wait til augus damnit
I need my godllike falcom gaming fix and it has been too long

 

[TheRook]

Trials of cold Steel was my first Falcom Game....It was a amazing experience. I'm definitely getting the sequel.

I wanted to know if we are actually getting Tokyo Xanadu because people say it's similar to the cold steel games.

 

[MulderYuffie]

Corpse Party October 2014







be excite

 

[Thoraxes]

Cold Steel 2's translation and editing is done afaik and now they're in the QA phase. Unless something completely out of left field happens, we know that's gonna hit it's date this fall.

The voice recording is done too.

 

[prudislav]

So the pushed it for summer ... ok i guess ... wonder when will they release Shinovi versus and Little kings story as all of them iirc where announced for Spring before

 

[Corpekata]

Trials of cold Steel was my first Falcom Game....It was a amazing experience. I'm definitely getting the sequel.

I wanted to know if we are actually getting Tokyo Xanadu because people say it's similar to the cold steel games.

Tokyo Xanadu is an action RPG so I'm not sure why anyone would compare it to Cold Steel, except for maybe the school aged cast.

 

[Tizoc]

Corpse Party October 2014







be excite

It released on steam and gog a few weeks ago

 

[Dio]

Tokyo Xanadu is an action RPG so I'm not sure why anyone would compare it to Cold Steel, except for maybe the school aged cast.

It looks very similar graphically too.

I wouldn't be too dismissive of that comparison, since Cold Steel's field gameplay involves stunning monsters with various attacks for advantages prior to entering turn based gameplay, and I was reminded of that looking at TX gameplay (although TX is far closer to Ys and a lot better looking when it comes to that). I'd say that Tokyo Xanadu not only LOOKS like Cold Steel but with better animations, but it also has similar dungeons to the Basement from the school in Cold Steel, in aesthetics and level design.

 

[salromano]

Just realized they're missing the release window for the PC games they announced 7 months ago.

Little King's Story was supposed to be early 2016.

Xanadu Next was supposed to be spring 2016.

Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus is planned for summer, so they can still make that one.

 

[Meesh]

Supposed to be fantastic, as always, HG101's a good primer on all things Falcom:

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/xanadu/xanadu3.htm

That's... Really damn fine art, love the look. I'm super disappointed I've never heard or looked into these games before, blown away by how I dig the look of everything.
Will purchase on Steam no matter the cost!!
Edit: I will admit though I've heard of Faxanadu and I believe even played it a bit on NES.

 

[TheRook]

It looks very similar graphically too.

I wouldn't be too dismissive of that comparison, since Cold Steel's field gameplay involves stunning monsters with various attacks for advantages prior to entering turn based gameplay, and I was reminded of that looking at TX gameplay (although TX is far closer to Ys and a lot better looking when it comes to that). I'd say that Tokyo Xanadu not only LOOKS like Cold Steel but with better animations, but it also has similar dungeons to the Basement from the school in Cold Steel, in aesthetics and level design.

Thanks for that, yeah It looks like cold steel visually. I also seen in world ads for Cold Steel 2 in the game, I thought that was a very nice touch.

Has Xseed said anything about localizing it? I don't think I should hold my breath on Zero and Aoi no kiseki as Trails in the sky took years to complete apparently.

 

[texhnolyze]

From what I've seen on the interwebs, Xanadu Next is somewhat a Japanese Diablo?

That's pretty cool.

 

[jj984jj]

Looking forward to it, hopefully things are going smoothly. I love Falcom games modernized and enhanced by Sara, and this one looks especially fantastic.

Just realized they're missing the release window for the PC games they announced 7 months ago.

Little King's Story was supposed to be early 2016.

Xanadu Next was supposed to be spring 2016.

Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus is planned for summer, so they can still make that one.

This is pretty much why I rarely take dates from them as anything definite. Though when a game is ready on PC it will usually get dated and released pretty quickly. They don't really prepare anyone for the release either in that sense.

Anyway, can't wait to see of how the LKS port is shaping up. Maybe they'll release some new footage at E3.

 

[FLD]

Cool, I was wondering what was going on with Xanadu Next. Just a few days ago I remembered about it and realized the initial spring 2016 release window had passed without a word about it. I've loved everything by Falcom I've played so far, so I'm really looking forward to trying something new.

 

[Pellegri Testament]

Has Xseed said anything about localizing it?

For Tokyo Xanadu I would expect it to be an e3 announcement from them, along with a few other Vita games, if we do indeed get it. The window of opportunity isn't exactly getting larger for Vita, so it's getting to the point where if some of these bigger games aren't announced in the next few months, we may not get them (unless it's Danganronpa ofcourse).

 

[witchedwiz]

honestly i thought it was tokyo xanadu... oh well

 

[PantsuJo]

Yes Falcom, I will buy all your games on Steam.

Same here

 

[Rymuth]

I thought this was Tokyo Xanadu for a minute, and got excited.

^

 

[KainXVIII]

Xanadu Next is an action RPG that I would describe as a mix between Diablo and Metroid, in that a lot of the level design is based on access to parts of the world via certain abilities and items, and the camera/combat is reminiscent of Diablo.

 

[Thud]

I can Xanadu.

 

[Sumio Mondo]

The superior Xanadu game. Honestly the difference in looks between Next and Tokyo is really weird, you wouldn't even know it was the same series.