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Xanadu Next (PC/Falcom) translation released!

A

Aeana

Member
SPIxO.jpg


Developer: Nihon Falcom
Year: 2005
Genre: Action RPG

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLwaRaVfxAA
Patch: http://www.figlidigaucci.eu/index.php?ind=news&op=news_show_single&ide=76
Resolution patch info: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=32467027&postcount=37


The original Xanadu, released in 1985, is often credited as the progenitor of action RPGs. It was incredibly influential and many games that followed owe much to it. 20 years later, Falcom took to the drawing board again and reimagined the experience again with Xanadu Next. Have you ever wondered what a Diablo-style action RPG would be like if Falcom took control? This is that game.

I highly recommend this not only to Falcom fans, but also to fans of western-style action RPGs, because I really think they'll find something to love in the game. I've always thought that if Falcom were to put any game on Steam, it should be this one because I think it would go over really well with that crowd.


Hardcore Gaming 101 said:
Other than the name and a few bits of arranged music, there's really nothing that links this 2005 dungeon crawler to the original 1984 game. Not that that's a bad thing - Xanadu Next takes the tired mold of Diablo, injects it with a Metroid-like world structure, Falcom-style action and Zelda-like puzzle solving (although there are a fair share of box puzzles, but we'll forgive them for that.) The result is one of the best hack and slashers in a long time.

Since Xanadu Next is focused on dungeon exploration, there's very little in the way of plot or exposition. You're some adventurer, in a new town, and you have a problem - right after you find your first dungeon, you get your ass handed to you by a much more powerful warrior. Although you're revived from the brink of death, you're also now cursed, and need to find a way to cure yourself, which revolves around finding the legendary Dragon Slayer sword. Outside of a few townsfolk and fellow adventures, the only other primary character is a little girl who makes you lunchboxes (and occasionally translates stone tablets that reveal bits of history about the lost kingdom of Xanadu).
Click to expand...


 
T

thetrin

Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
Finished the JP version a couple months ago. The game is straight awesome.

PLAY THIS.
 
A

Aru

Member
Great news. If there is no Vita port at some point, I might find a way to get a japanese copy of the PC release.
 
C

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Aru said:
Great news. If there is no Vita port at some point, I might find a way to get a japanese copy of the PC release.
Click to expand...
Is there any likelyhood of that at all though? Would be nice because it's probably going to cost $80 or something to import it from Falcom's store.
 
T

thetrin

Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
jaundicejuice said:
Aeana, where would you recommend purchasing the game from? Just doing a quick, precursory search, on playasia the regular version of the game is going for 77$CND not including taxes and shipping.

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-7s-49-en-70-1afp.html
Click to expand...
Falcom themselves. The game is far cheaper on their online store.

I got it for $50.
 
A

Aeana

Member
jaundicejuice said:
Aeana, where would you recommend purchasing the game from? Just doing a quick, precursory search, on playasia the regular version of the game is going for 77$CND not including taxes and shipping.

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-7s-49-en-70-1afp.html
Click to expand...
That's probably a little better or equal than buying from Falcom themselves. They have it for 4788 Yen (62 CAD), and you'll have to add EMS shipping on top of that which is kinda pricey. Sometimes Falcom has really good deals on the games, but Xanadu Next isn't this week's deal, sadly.
 
T

thetrin

Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
chaosblade said:
Is there any likelyhood of that at all though? Would be nice because it's probably going to cost $80 or something to import it from Falcom's store.
Click to expand...
Nope. Falcom charges far less.
 
A

Aru

Member
chaosblade said:
Is there any likelyhood of that at all though? Would be nice because it's probably going to cost $80 or something to import it from Falcom's store.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure about the likeliness of a port. But Falcom ported/developed quite a few games of theirs on PSP (4 Ys games and 4 or 5 Legend of Heroes games IIRC), and are developping a re-imagining of Ys IV for Vita, along with a Legend of Heroes Zero port.
Vita will surely be their main platform for a while. PSP was their main platform since 2008 (except for Ys I&II Chronicles port on PC).
 
P

PixyJunket

Member
I've already installed it and started playing it. This is probably my second favorite Falcom game behind Oath (or maybe it's the other way around, they're both top shelf games). The only real flaw this game has is that it doesn't have great resolution support, but my new monitor scales nicely, so it's mostly moot, I suppose.

I might have a spare copy of this somewhere, I grabbed a few of Falcom's old "Year End" bundles and ended up with a few doubles (and three copies of Oath) that I never did anything with since ultimately those five-game bundles came out to what would normally be two games from them after EMS shipping. I'll dig around the closet and see if that's the case and offer it up here (or if you want Oath, let me know, I KNOW I have two extras of the giant box with the seven music CDs bonus).
 
J

jaundicejuice

Member
Aeana said:
That's probably a little better or equal than buying from Falcom themselves. They have it for 4788 Yen (62 CAD), and you'll have to add EMS shipping on top of that which is kinda pricey. Sometimes Falcom has really good deals on the games, but Xanadu Next isn't this week's deal, sadly.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I've got a friend who tends to import stuff on the regular. I'll see if I can buddy up and I'll just order from playasia. I think Xanadu Next and Dinosaur Resurrection are probably two of the biggest titles that make me wish Falcom had their PC games available on Steam in the west.

I wonder if XSEED could be talked into licensing these fan patches and putting Falcom's PC games out here on Steam. There's got to be less risk and more potential profit in doing that instead of DS and PSP releases in the west.
 
P

PixyJunket

Member
One thing to note, this game was designed for the mouse through and through. Controller support was added by Falcom after fan outcry and it honestly slices the difficulty of the game down A LOT. I do like the controller option, since I'm a console boy deep down, but the "pure" way to play this is with a mouse.

The mouse controls are very Diablo-like, I believe, but try the two for yourself, the two options play wildly different.
 
A

Aeana

Member
PixyJunket said:
One thing to note, this game was designed for the mouse through and through. Controller support was added by Falcom after fan outcry and it honestly slices the difficulty of the game down A LOT. I do like the controller option, since I'm a console boy deep down, but the "pure" way to play this is with a mouse.

The mouse controls are very Diablo-like, I believe, but try the two for yourself, the two options play wildly different.
Click to expand...
Agreed. I had beaten the game before the gamepad patch came out so I haven't even tried it yet (I will now, just to see), but the game works fantastically with the mouse and things like item management and such clearly are designed with the mouse in mind.
 
P

PixyJunket

Member
Aeana said:
Agreed. I had beaten the game before the gamepad patch came out so I haven't even tried it yet (I will now, just to see), but the game works fantastically with the mouse and things like item management and such clearly are designed with the mouse in mind.
Click to expand...
Oh! So does that mean you never got to play the bonus dungeon they added in that patch (or around that patch)?

It's pretty neat, although it is though as nails.
 
A

Aeana

Member
PixyJunket said:
Oh! So does that mean you never got to play the bonus dungeon they added in that patch (or around that patch)?

It's pretty neat, although it is though as nails.
Click to expand...
Nope, I haven't.

Also, weird. It doesn't seem like you can even do inventory management with the gamepad?
 
A

Aeana

Member
Ohh, I get it. You press the "enable mouse" button on the gamepad to get a mouse cursor you move with the left stick, for inventory management. Hurrr.
 
A

Aeana

Member
It is so nice to be revisiting this game again after 6 years. I had meant to replay it but I just never got around to it. But that just makes this play sweeter.
I really hope people here give it an honest chance. It stinks that it wasn't one of the games offered by Groupon, but I promise you guys it's worth it.
 
C

ctrayne

Member
YOU GUYS. This is the best Falcom game ever made, and it's my third favorite of all time after DXHR and Front Mission 5. This is quality entertainment here, people.

Good news - my friend and I (mostly my friend) wrote a resolution patcher that makes the game look even better than before. It can't fix the aspect ratio, so you need to either play stretched or use your monitor/graphics card to enable pillarboxing, but it's a huge step up. Here's a link:
http://www.scribesslate.com/software/xannext/xannext.html

Edit: there is also this, according to my friend's website commentes:
To fix the stretching you can search the value abaaaa3f (4:3) and replace with cdcccc3f (16:10) or 398ee33f (16:9). I have tested this after using your patch to alter the resolution and it works just fine.
Click to expand...

Also, not sure if the translation accounts for this or not, but everyone please download the Extra patch, which includes a new dungeon and a higher level cap:
http://www.falcom.co.jp/xanadu_next/support/extra.html
 
G

GaussTek

Member
Hell yes! Was waiting for this. Xanadu Next has always been installed in my crappy laptop, but haven't played in ages... so I'm gonna try this right away! Those guys are just GODS!
 
A

Aeana

Member
Wow, thanks for that resolution patcher. I was really hoping for something like that. I'll add it to the OP.
Oh, and the translation patcher auto-updates to 1.0.14e which has the extra stuff.
 
C

ctrayne

Member
Aeana said:
Wow, thanks for that resolution patcher. I was really hoping for something like that. I'll add it to the OP.
Oh, and the translation patcher auto-updates to 1.0.14e which has the extra stuff.
Click to expand...
Great, thanks. I am talking to my buddy now to see if we can implement the proper widescreen resolutions.
 
A

Aeana

Member
I tried the resolution patcher, it looks good although the UI is blurry now. I'll take it, though. It was all stretched so I then tried the hex editing thing and that worked out great as well.
 
C

ctrayne

Member
Aeana said:
I tried the resolution patcher, it looks good although the UI is blurry now. I'll take it, though. It was all stretched so I then tried the hex editing thing and that worked out great as well.
Click to expand...
I can't seem to get that to work. What did you do? I'm searching for the hex value in the main exe and not finding it.
EDIT: Never mind, got it.
 
A

Aeana

Member
ctrayne said:
I can't seem to get that to work. What did you do? I'm searching for the hex value in the main exe and not finding it.
Click to expand...
I just searched and replaced all of the occurrences of that hex string in Xanadu.exe with Hex Workshop. There were 6.
 
C

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
This thread has me so tempted to order this. Guess I'll be on the lookout for a special from Falcom's store.
 
K

krYlon

Member
ctrayne said:
YOU GUYS. This is the best Falcom game ever made, and it's my third favorite of all time after DXHR and Front Mission 5. This is quality entertainment here, people.

Good news - my friend and I (mostly my friend) wrote a resolution patcher that makes the game look even better than before. It can't fix the aspect ratio, so you need to either play stretched or use your monitor/graphics card to enable pillarboxing, but it's a huge step up. Here's a link:
http://www.scribesslate.com/software/xannext/xannext.html

Edit: there is also this, according to my friend's website commentes:


Also, not sure if the translation accounts for this or not, but everyone please download the Extra patch, which includes a new dungeon and a higher level cap:
http://www.falcom.co.jp/xanadu_next/support/extra.html
Click to expand...


Oh, they've disabled the link because it doesn't work well with the patch.

I think I'll play the game without it anyway.
 
DiscoJer

DiscoJer

Member
For the life of me, I just don't understand why someone at Falcom can't get in touch with the makers of the translation, license it, then slap the whole thing up on Steam for $20 (or whatever).
 
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