Checkpoints ON
1 Difficulty level
4 Stages
Ship speed fixed
- - - - - - -
Developed by Compile
Published by Namco in 1990
It's no secret I've never really held the original Xevious in high regard, even though I'm well aware of its importance to the development of vertical shooting games. That's why I knew very little about its sequels until recently, when I decided to see what the PC Engine port had to offer. And lo and behold, Xevious - Fardraut Densetsu actually boasts a little bit more than the drab offerings of the original, even including a proper ending in the special mode that corresponds to the game's title.
This game is also considered to be the third or fourth in the series, depending on how you see it. In between the original and this one there's the arcade sequel Super Xevious (which is pretty much equal to the first bar a few enemies and increased bullet count), Famicom's Super Xevious - GAMP no Nazo, which also spawned an arcade variant later on and became infamous for adding puzzle elements to the regular stage progression, and Xevious - Fardraut Saga on the MSX2, upon which this PC Engine version is directly based with alterations such as the number of levels and ships controlled in the special mode.
So what's different here after all? Players can select between two modes at the title screen: Arcade is a direct port of the original game, whereas Fardraut is the "story" mode where you fight against the evil forces of GAMP - which stands for General Artificial Matrix Producer, a supercomputer that has taken over the planet.
One of the new bosses in Fardraut mode
There's not much to say about Arcade mode. All 16 areas are seamlessly connected to each other with no visual indication of where they start and end. Area strips overlap and the loop restarts the game in area 7, going on forever for as long as you can play. Two weapons can be used, a regular double shot to target air-based enemies (button II) and a single bomb that destroys ground-based enemies (button I). There are no power-ups at all. Throughout the first 16 areas you come across four "Andor Genesis" motherships: the first one in area 4, the second in area 9 and two in area 14. Additionally, there are a variety of hidden Sol Towers (destroy for points) and Special Flags (collect for extra lives), both uncovered by dropping bombs at their exact locations.
In essence, Fardraut mode is an arrangement of the regular Arcade mode, since it uses many of the same area layouts and terrain. The twist is that now you'll be able to collect power-ups left behind by slow-moving planes, which provide some very welcome enhancements to make the game more exciting. Enemy actions might change a little, with some of them shooting more bullets and others behaving unexpectedly, such as a few of those revolving monoliths now being destructible. The stage structure is also different, with 4 defined levels and proper music that goes a little beyond those boring looping bleeps.
The first items to come up are the red ones. Red R increases the ship's rapid fire, red W upgrades your shot at every two icons taken. Later on these items will also start appearing in yellow color: the yellow R continues to improve rapid fire, the yellow W widens the reach of the ground bombs and a new A item serves as a screen clearing bomb for bullets and aerial enemies. Finally, by the end of the game you'll come across blue items: the blue A adds two shield crystals as frontal barrier (that can be launched forward by pressing buttons I + II) and the red R adds two rotating shield crystals. Both types of shields are depleted if they take too much damage, but their energy can be recovered by taking the blue W item. Finally, the bonus golden orb is worth 1.000 points.
Fardraut mode has an odd behavior for stage progression. At the end of stage 2 you'll come across a heavily fortified area as the boss. If you're able to destroy it without getting hit you'll skip the next stage completely and continue towards stage 4. If you fail the ship will go down in flames (no life lost) and you'll normally enter stage 3, which has no boss and transitions into stage 4 when it ends. Not only is the second boss extremely difficult (more so than the final boss), but refusing to play stage 3 will certainly make a dent into your final score. That's why I didn't feel bad for failing to dispatch the second boss, which I was never able to accomplish anyway.
Special familiar terrain of Fardraut mode
(courtesy of YouTube user Emu-Games)
(courtesy of YouTube user Emu-Games)
When scoring is considered, it's obvious that skipping stage 3 isn't a good idea. Flawless play will result in lower scores in the end, but considering the number of lives at your disposal it might just be a good strategy to milk a few checkpoints (something that most of the time isn't intentional anyway). Both game modes – Fardraut and Arcade – start with 4 lives in reserve, and they also share the same score-based extend routine: the first one comes with 20.000 points, the next with 60.000 and after that all extra lives are given at every 60.000 points.
Still speaking of Fardraut mode, it's important to mention that it has rank, supposedly related to the amount of power-ups collected. While that's certainly a fact, rank will only seriously affect gameplay if you manage to keep a perfect run with no deaths. Dying of course sends you back to a checkpoint, takes away all upgrades and resets rank. Regardless of rank considerations, don't expect the game to be a walk in the park, after all it gets quite taxing towards the end no matter what. Those orbs that explode into five spread bullets are a nightmare and make everything quite tense for a long section, for example.
On a final note, I can certainly vouch for Xevious - Fardraut Densetsu on the PC Engine and its special story mode. It's a short take on the classic game that isn't as boring, good for some decent action on a shooting style that's old but might still offer a few thrills every now and then.
Below are my final results for Fardraut (1CC) and Arcade (reaching the second loop). There's only a single shared high score buffer, unfortunately. Next I'll probably go back to Super Xevious on the Famicom or head directly to Xevious 3D/G on the Playstation.
