RPGs You Shoulda Played vol. 2

**Fuyumine** · 09-13-2009, 03:08 PM

Alundra by Matrix Software, the same company behind many of Square-Enix's Final Fantasy remakes for the Nintendo DS, is an action role-playing game for the first PlayStation console, and a spiritual successor to Land Stalker on the SEGA Genesis. It was released in 1997, a year in which, in my opinion, the PSX saw its best releases as far as role-playing games go.

The story is a tale of a young elven man named Alundra who has the power to enter people's dreams. He is told in his dreams by the wizard Lars that he must travel to the remote lands of Inoa in order to prevent the rebirth of a Melzas, a powerful demon hellbent on destroying humanity and making the world his sole dominion, and has begun regaining his power by devouring people's souls through their nightmares. It is Alundra's job to find a way to defeat this foul fiend, and at the same time keep Inoa's villagers from succumbing to these terrible and deadly dreams.

The game's story takes cues from a lot of classic fantasy stories: the prophesied hero taking on the all-powerful villain hell-bent on destruction and domination. But there are some elements that are thrown into the tale that make this age-old plot a bit unique and interesting. For instance the main villain's ability to kill the Inoans by afflicting them with nightmares, and Alundra's ability to their dreams in order to save them. You're not going to find any convoluted, head-spinning twists and turns in this plot, but the story doesn't suffer because of it. I would say that the story is more character-driven than anything, which is a lot better than a crapload of poorly executed plot twists. The characters are fleshed out nicely, with believable personalities that are capable of sucking you into the game even more. They can be a tad... ridiculous at times, but their ridiculousness never steps beyond them making little pop culture references here and there.

As far as gameplay goes Matrix Software took their cues from the best, The Legend of Zelda, in that the main focus is puzzle solving. Now, back when I was a lad playing this the puzzles were difficult as hell to solve and I had often sought out the aid of the walkthroughs on GameSages.com (hahaha, oldschool, motherfuckas!), and almost twelve years later... the puzzles are still difficult. It certainly doesn't take a genius to get through them all, but most of them require some thought, at least.

And like Link from the Zelda games Alundra can use a myriad of weaponry, from swords to flails to crossbows to magic wands. Yeah, you read me right. Magic wands. By holding the Attack button for a few seconds and releasing it Alundra can unleash a devastating attack, the method and range of the attack varying from weapon to weapon. Alundra can also dash by holding the Triangle button, though it gets a little irritating watching him do a Fred Flintstone impersonation before taking off. And did I mention he could jump? Yeah, it's something you don't really find in top-down action RPGs like this. Not only can he jump, he can attack in mid-air as well. If Link and Alundra got into a fight? I'd have to put my money on ol' Alundra. Sorry LoZ fans!

The game is entirely in 2D but it looks gorgeous. The maps are designed with lush color and detail, and the character sprites are impressive as well. You'll find that the game's art style is reminiscent of the art found in games like SEGA's Shining Force and Time Stalkers, and that's because they share the same character designer, Yoshitaka Tamaki. The monster designs are a tad generic (oh wow, another slime monster!), but the monster designs that are actually original are creative and impressive. The game features some anime FMVs as well but I have only seen them in the game's intro and the ending.

The music in this game is pretty cool too. Kohei Tanaka, the man behind the music in a lot of great anime series, did an excellent job with the score, especially considering this was the first video game he'd ever composed for. The music, I think, is memorable and ties in exceptionally well with certain map environments and cut scenes.

In the end, this game is just fuckin' awesome. The story is cool, the gameplay is cool, it looks great—a certifiable classic, in my book. Sure, it makes several nods to the series that inspired it, but it does an excellent job at taking those ideas and expanding on them a little bit. If you're looking to play this game you can always check EBay and see what they have. Mint condition copies are going to run you at least $80. But if you don't give a damn about that, you can always get a used copy for $60 less. I'd check your local GameStop/EB Games first, though. You're liable to find anything there for dirt cheap. Also, don't let the packaging fool you. They packaged the game in a multi-disc jewel case for some reason... not sure why. But anyway, however you go about it, play this game and enjoy the awesomeness!

- Chris

**Unclesatan** · 09-18-2009, 01:49 PM

My sister was addicted to this game. I never got into it though.

**Fuyumine** · 09-18-2009, 01:51 PM

Oh, cool. You should definitely try to go back and try your hand at it again. Like, once you get into the groove of things it's really fun and really interesting.

**Unclesatan** · 09-18-2009, 01:53 PM

Yeah, my sister said it was really awesome. I played the first half an hour or so of it, and I think I was too young to even understand the puzzles, so I think I got stuck. I don't really remember though, I only tried it once. I remember my sister playing it alot though XD

**Fuyumine** · 09-18-2009, 01:56 PM

Yeah, see, that used to be my problem with the Legend of Zelda. I'd watch my uncle play through that game and run through the puzzles and I had figured I could do the same, but they proved to be too difficult for my puny mind to crack. LOL.

Lucky for me when I played Alundra I had the aid of a bunch of walkthroughs and stuff. But I didn't really appreciate the game until I replayed it about two years later and finished the puzzles on my own merits. It was pretty awesome.

**Unclesatan** · 09-18-2009, 02:00 PM

Yup. I never really liked puzzle games when I was younger, and I never beat Zelda either lol. I got to the water temple and was like "WTF?"

Ahh, memories..