Xanadu

About

Xanadu casts you as Areios, a fledgling hero fending off monsters in a world split between top-down exploration and side-scrolling combat. You bump into foes to whittle their health, earn strength by taking hits and resting, and level up gear through repeated battles. Towns and dungeons sprawl across its maps, with AI allies occasionally joining fights. Each chapter ends with a platformer gauntlet, jumping, button-timed attacks required, to reach and defeat a boss. The game’s mix of slow RPG grinding and sudden action sequences feels odd but intentional. Its day/night cycle shifts NPC behavior, making towns feel alive beyond visuals. Released in 1985, it layered puzzle-like navigation and resource management onto its combat, years before such hybrid designs became common. Playable on modern PC or retro systems, it’s a relic of early RPG experimentation.

Storyline

The game begins with the player directly in control of the protagonist, with little to no introduction. To progress, one must speak with the king, who gives the player the bare essentials and a small amount of cash to train. After selecting which attributes to raise, the player must find his way out of the city and into the vast underground complex. Finding this exit is the first of many cryptic puzzles the player will encounter, though the game is not a puzzle game but an role-playing video game with puzzle game and adventure game elements far ahead of its time.