The Legend of Alon D'ar

"It may not be FFX, but...."

It's too easy to look at the reviews given by Gamespot & Next Gen & write this game off as no good, but to do so would be depriving yourself of a worthy experience. The biggest problem I see for this game is not the game itself but the fact that it came out facing Baldur's Gate & FFX, which is too bad, since the sales numbers may not warrant a sequel which this game is certainly deserving of.

Graphics: 7
The graphics in The Legend of Alon D'ar are passable, and downright nice in some places, though they won't wow you like FFX. The are reminiscent of EverQuest in design & atmosphere.

Sound: 8
The music is pretty fitting. When you're wandering through the woods, the music is decidedly tribal, and the music in the swamp just goes along with the rest of the atmosphere. There are many, many areas to explore, and each has it's own music, which sounds pretty good. The ambient sound effects are rather nice too. Probably the most outstanding part of the sound is the voice acting, which is almost on par with the Soul Reaver series. In fact, one NPC sounds identical to a character in the original SR.

Gameplay: 8
This is where you'll either love this game or hate it. If you first experienced RPGs with Chrono Cross, or your sun rises & sets by Final Fantasy games, don't bother picking this up. This game is NOT a Japanese style, turn based RPG. BUT, if you are into Diablo, or play EverQuest, I would highly recommend Alon D'ar. The world is huge. It makes for a lot of adventuring. In many cases, you can avoid fighting altogether if you chose to though. Not that it's a good idea, the leveling up system makes it VERY rewarding to fight, and fight a lot. You don't level up in the same manner as many traditional RPG. Every victory in battle gives you Proficiency Points, which you can spend at your discretion to develop your characters. In some spots, it's almost required to have a certain set of skills developed to get by. The battle system is what I am seeing ripped on by the ''professional'' reviewers. It takes some getting used to, I'll admit that, but it's hardly the monstrocity that they call it. The fights take place in real time, and each weapon or skill that you use has a delay on it. People used to EverQuest should be familir with this. This is where your PP come in to play. If you're in an area where your dagger does better damage to the enemies around, put a few PP into the speed attribute. If the short staff does better damage, do the same. You really need to get a feel for your surroundings, which I think makes this game all the more enjoyable. It can be diffucult in places, but that just makes going back & gaining more skills even more fun. I truly think that the people who reviewed this game must have played it for an hour or two and then wrote a sorry review. Could the battle system be a little more forgiving? Probably. Could the graphics be a little prettier? Sure. Does Jahrik's hair look like some kind of Cool Whip concoction? Most definitely! But do any of these things make the game less fun? Not at all.

Bottom Line:
As I said before, don't pick this game up thinking it's Final Fantasy or Xenogears. Pick this game up for the fun you'll have developing your characters in the way that you want to. Pick it up for the massive world that is waiting to be explored, and the adventures that come with it. Pick this game up because it's your sworn duty to collect 30 tree frogs! (wha....?) It's really a good game, and with a little time & patience (and a whole lot of exploring) it is really enjoyable. Long after you've finished Baldur's Gate with every character, you'll still be playing Alon D'ar, and getting all of the skills and magic that come along with it.

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