Faxanadu

_LS_ · August 27, 2020 at 4:07 PM Official Post

I've been calling this game "Fax-uh-nah-doo" for 30+ years.

But it's a portmanteau of "Fantasy Xanadu,"

So it would be properly pronounced "Fah-Zan-ah-doo"

**Kaynil** · August 28, 2020 at 5:21 AM Official Post

Hahah, I guess it makes sense. My first instinct was with the Spanish spelling, which I guess it is closer to the intended pronunciation.

I didn't even know Xanadu was a word by itself. Even after looking for it other than "Mongolian city" and the name of some locations in the world I have no much clue on it for the game.

I have not heard of this game, I went to Wikipedia and it described it as a side-scroller action RPG so that sounds interesting. I was going to joke about Zelda II and how I seem to be reminded of the franchise for simple things but seems like the game was actually inspired by it, so I guess I wasn't that far. Then again the screenshot makes the environments look more polished.

_LS_ · August 28, 2020 at 9:33 AM Official Post

Kaynil Xanadu is a weird word. It is basically an early 19th century English poet's attempt to transliterate the name of a great Mongolian city. He did a really bad job of it, but the word has endured in English as a sort of metaphor for a grand, and perhaps unreachable city.

I was never able to make much progress in the game as a kid, but the promise of the game was so striking that I kept coming back to try. (In that sense I suppose the game is aptly titled!) It has stuck in my mind for most of my life.