Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage

"Aidyn Chronicles is pure bliss."

Aidyn Chronicles is easily one of the best games I have ever played. It is also very different from any other game I have ever played. The battle system, storyline, character customization, and the overall feel of the game is completely unique and original.

Story: 9
Aidyn Chronicles is about a young orphan named Alaron who searches for a cure for his poisoned body and ends up searching for his true name. He also meets a strange spirit who tells him many strange things. I absolutely loved the story. It becomes more and more interesting the more you progress through the game. You get to travel to many large towns and meet many interesting characters. The towns are very different from each other. One is near snowy mountains, one is in the desert, and another is a port near the ocean (my personal favorite).

I think there are 13 different characters that can join your party. You can only have four party members at a time. Every character has his or her own unique personality. You will have a very different experience depending on who you choose.

The game takes place in a medieval fantasy setting. I think the setting is perfect.

There are two downsides to the story. One is the fact that the characters make the same motion over and over again while talking. This gets extremely annoying. The other is the ending. The ending is very bad. I better not say anything else about it.

Gameplay: 10
The gameplay is wonderful. There are two different modes of gameplay. They are trek mode and battle mode.

In trek mode you explore the world of Aidyn and go from town to town. Most of the areas of the game are incredibly expansive. The mountains and desert in particular are just amazingly huge. There are many different caves and other secret areas that aren't part of the main quest. Most of them don't have anything very good in them though.

To get into a battle you must get near enemies that are in trek mode. A lot of them guard roads or paths. If you have a high enough stealth rating you can sneak past them if you want. If you sneak up on them it gives a better position in battle.

The battles themselves are very original and fun. Your party members and the enemies have a certain amount of space in which they can move. It is a little bit like the Shining Force games. When you get close enough to the enemies you can attack them. Characters with a high thief rating inflict more damage from behind. If you want you can equip some characters with long-range weapons like bows but it never seemed to work well for me.

You can build up your characters however you want. It's probably a good idea to build up ratings like strength, dexterity, and warrior at the beginning of the game, but you certainly don't have to. Some skills don't have anything to do with combat.The loremaster skill lets you read more information from books and scrolls. The diplomat skill makes people give you more useful information.

The magic system divides magic into four schools. Each character can only learn magic from their own school except Alaron. He can learn magic from any school. Some spells could be more useful. I ended up using some spells constantly (like fireball) while never using others (like stupidity).

When the characters die they don't come back to life. If you want to keep them you will have to save your game often (which you can do anywhere). I personally like this feature even though it wasn't intentional. It contributes to the overall oddness of the game.

Graphics: 7
The graphics are a mixed bag. Some of the environments look great. I really like the way the mountains near Erromon look. But most of the characters look pretty bad. They have hooves for hands. Alaron's hair looks pretty ridiculous. It isn't as distracting as it might sound though.

Music and Sound: 10
The music in this game is just wonderful. The song that starts when you first enter the town of Port Saiid is an absolute masterpiece. All of the music in the game is very strange. The chants that play during battles are bizarre. I love the weirdness of it all.

The sound is equally superb. The sound of footsteps changes whether it is on stone, grass, dirt, or many other textures. The flowing noise the rivers make sounds very realistic. There is no voice acting but I really don't care.

Length: 10
Aidyn Chronicles is a very long game. If you try to rush through and beat it as quickly as you can it will probably take about 50 or 60 hours. If you take the time to do absolutely everything it could easily take over 100 hours to complete.

Replay Value: 9
I have beaten the game twice and my two experiences were very different. Since there are 13 available characters and you can only have four at a time, you can have a completely different party every time you play through the game.

There are some negative things about playing through the game again. A lot of the characters that can join your party aren't available until quite late in the game. This is irritating if you just want to get one particular character. Also irritating is the first boss battle. It is extremely difficult to beat. It isn't very fun building up a few more hours to beat that boss again. But problems aside, the game has very good replay value.

Overall: 10

Aidyn Chronicles is an excellent RPG set in a massive medieval world. It is one of the strangest games I have ever played. It is also one the best.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/31/03, Updated 07/31/03