Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage

"A true RPG, could have been improven?"

One genre of games has been sorely missed by Nintendo 64 owners. That is the Role Playing Game (RPG) genre. People may look and stare when somebody would say this, that is because the fact of the missed RPGs has been covered up by the amazing talent of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Zelda: Majora's Mask.

Now, think about it, no other games really cover the name of 'RPG' (Maybe titles such as Geomon, but that is as at no quality of standard as a RPG should be.) Now the N64 is at its peek and no company has really given the RPGs a go (apart from Nintendo.) So enter H20, a little talked about developing firm. The only way they were really going to succeed in the big business of video games is make a game that benefits the needs of gamers. Obviously they saw the need for a RPG on the N64, so obviously they set fourth in making one. The developers now, quite happy with their decision, ran into a problem which they should of thought about before they started making the scratchings of the game..... The problem with size.

Size is one of the major concerns of all small developing firms, and should be taken into extreme account before starting any game. A RPG as we all know takes up a huge amount of time and effort, due to the huge landscape. To conquer this problem, you need many graphic designers and programmers, none of which H20 had.

Lucky for them THQ had been pondering with the idea of bringing a RPG to the N64, but just couldn't afford it with so many games in the process of creation. Although their publishers had not much schedule on their hands, so THQ decided to help a small business that was trying to create a RPG and then publish it for them. H20 hearing about this jumped right up to the opportunity. THQ lent them their few remaining programmers and some extra cash to buy a few graphic designers. Then suddenly Aidyn Chronicles was born!

The graphics in Aidyn Chronicles are quite good, although a bit blurry. I couldn't really say that they are at fault, given the detail in them and the space needed to be slightly restricted so, in an attempt to not fault the gameplay, H20 decided to restrict the graphics. In this H20 made another slight fault in making the whole game's graphics inconsistent, some places you squinting to see pass the blurriness, and then the next thing you know, the whole screens visuals are as crisp and colourful, giving your eyes such a shock that they burn your retina (well, that may be over doing it slightly.)

When you ask, ''Is the world that you play in big?''
the answer is a definite yes! It is huge, in fact the THQ staff, just before releasing the game boasted that the game was 2/11 times as big as Hyrule! That gives you a lot to think of, given that in Zelda, Hyrule seems smaller than it actually is, as the temples are squashed in, and you repeat the whole dose again (as Link grows up.) This gives you plenty of lastability and continual gameplay.

The sound is quite good, the music is kinda catchy, although what would have made it truly excellent, would of to had character speech voices (seen as in Conker's Bad Fur Day) the action sounds are quite distant, as not to warrant a high score.

The story is very engaging, boosted by the fact that there are thirteen different characters, all with their own storyline. Another HUGE boost is the fact that the whole game is based on 'traditional' RPGs making the story easier to create.

My favourite part of the game, was the original battle system, which always kept me going back for more. Sometimes it was only for the thrill of using the system and getting even more addicted to it as time goes on!

One thing I was quite bored with though, is the fact that H20 boasted quite detailed and fascinating intro scenes and intro stories. With these I was bored, and the length of all of them made it even worse.

I quite enjoyed Aidyn Chronicles mainly because of the cool fighting system. Although I always had the slight thought that it could have been improved to the standard of the two Zelda games.

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scores
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Lastability: 6.5/10
Graphics: 5/10
Sound: 7.5/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Total: 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/04/01, Updated 12/28/02