I'm interested in this, but let me know a few things -- does it play like an RPG? Is there a variety of weaponry (spears ideally)? Is magic necessary to use? And is there a character creator, or are you using a set character?
- Basically like a slower top-down Ys game crossed with Metroidvania elements and Nox, and there's incentive to move and fight tactically rather than sit in a corner or spam items to win
- No, and (sadly) 100% magic builds are univable because of one boss later in the game, but spells can be used very effectively to supplement your main build
- Set character, but different armor/weapons have unique models which change your look across the game
How does it compare to Ys Oath and Origins?
Somewhat apples and oranges, but certain parts of Xanadu Next are my favorite moments in a Falcom game yet (most of them, admittedly, are from the final dungeon which seems too good to not have influenced FROM Software). I'll caution you not to get the game for difficulty, since it's on the easier side if you hoard healing items (like full-heal Elixirs and the lunches your scholar companion cooks for you). Bosses and regular enemies still force you to take risks more than Gurumin at least, and the optional randomly-generated dungeon requires a lot of prep and return trips to safely complete. There's a post-credits ranking system with very severe requirements for highest ranks, so there's your challenge for replays.
Nice to see the love for xanadu, but let's not act like it doesn't have its share of bugs . If you really want to get it then buy it and I recommend leaving it on the back burner because the wait to fix it is going to be long ( dev confirmed they are swamped with other work and xanadu is low on the priority). Broken achievements , lackluster controller support , and a bug with the slimes where they explode and damage you anywhere on the screen may sour your taste a bit . A good game is there but go in knowing these problems .
IIRC all but one achievement's been fixed. Pad support's rock solid, but you have to hold a button down to activate and then move the on-screen cursor when accessing inventory, and that's a flaw baked into the game's original controller support. As for the slimes, good grief, they only appear in a few rooms, you can ignore them while fighting other enemies (and clearing other rooms to get chests), and their counterpart in the final dungeon behaves fine. I don't know why this enemy's the only one broken in the whole game (definitely doesn't behave like that in the fan-patched JP version), but you can simply ignore it or use brute-force healing.
It's a great game with some weird technical problems which XSEED's programmer needs time to figure out, and she's been busy getting Trails in the Sky 3rd to run well, let alone Zwei II.
One big advantage over the mid-2000s Ys games is lore. Xanadu Next's largely about an age-old conflict, essentially frozen in stalemate, coming back to haunt a resort hamlet and its tourists (you play one of them!). The characters you meet are likable, have more to them than meets the eye, and they have to care about both day-to-day troubles and the country they live in. It's closest to how Ys VI approaches the story, but I feel the antagonists in Xanadu Next are more interesting and believable, and it's generally paced better.