Play Faxanadu Online

Summary

Faxanadu blends side‑scrolling platform action with classic RPG depth, letting you guide a lone hero through fields, towns and dungeons while jumping, climbing ladders and slashing foes. Along the way you can buy gear, equip swords and armor, and fire magic projectiles, all while tracking health, magic, experience, gold and even timed items on the top of the screen. Defeated enemies drop gold or life‑giving bread, and the experience you earn raises your rank, which in turn influences how much gold and experience you retain when you resume via the game’s password system—called “mantras” and handed out by the resident Gurus. The soundtrack, composed by Jun Chikuma with assistance from Toshiaki Takimoto, makes surprisingly rich jazz‑inspired melodies using only the NES’s three sound channels, a freedom the team gave her to explore. Originally released in Japan in 1987 and brought to North America by Nintendo in 1989, Faxanadu later resurfaced on the Wii Virtual Console in 2010‑2011.

Storyline

The NES action‑RPG *Faxanadu* follows an unnamed wanderer—called Nello in most versions, though the Japanese release lets you pick a name—who returns to his hometown of Eolis after a long absence. He finds the village in ruins and under siege by hostile dwarves. The Elven king explains that the life‑giving fountain water has stopped flowing and the remaining water has been poisoned, then hands the hero 1500 gold to begin his quest.

The backstory reveals that elves and dwarves once lived peacefully among the World Tree until The Evil One crashed down from a meteorite, corrupting the dwarves into monsters. Dwarf King Grieve swallowed his magical sword, hiding it inside his own body to keep it from the Evil One, and only that sword can finally defeat the menace.

Armed with this knowledge, the player explores four distinct overworld zones: the tree’s buttress, the interior of its trunk, its lofty branches, and finally the dwarves’ mountain stronghold.