Alundra

"Ah warned yeh! Dinnae Ah warn yeh?! Those Alundra puzzles were forged by Lucifer himself!"

Aaah, Alundra.

It's hard.

It's REALLY hard.

It's brutally, sadistically hard.

Have I mentioned how freakin' hard this game is?

But we'll save that for the Challenge section....

In Alundra, you play Flint, an elfy sort whose people have the ability to transport themselves into peoples' dreams. Flint is the ultimate therapist, going into peoples' dreams to literally kill their nightmares.

However, nightmares have suddenly become deadly, killing the person whose minds they inhabit. This dreadful phenomenom begins at the village that Alundra conveniently washes up on when the ship he's travelling on sinks.

Therefore, it's up to Alundra to kill the nightmares and destroy their source, the evil alien god Melzas. And solve a few hundred brain rupturingly difficult puzzles along the way.

Don't play this game if you're looking for a fun-filled romp through dreamland. The story of Alundra, while it does have some very funny lines, is so dark, apocalyptic and tragedy-filled it makes the second half of FF6 look like a Mario game.

GRAPHICS: 8

Lovely 2D graphics. Not as good as Legend of Mana (the undisputed Lord of 2D) but about on the same level as Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It definitely looks better than Alundra 2, where everyone is a polygonal stick figure. :P Also, there's the gorgeus anime ending. (the beginning is made up of bits of it)

MUSIC: 7

It's been so long since I played Alundra, I really can't remember much of the music, except for the beautiful requiem music that played whever something tragic happened. (which happened a LOT.) I remember the music in general was pretty good though.

GAMEPLAY: 6

No problems with controls really, though they were a problem during the more acrobatic puzzles.

CHALLENGE: 1

''Wait a minute!'' you say. ''Haven't you been stressing how hard this game is?''

Yes, it is brutally hard. However, there is a fine line between ''challenging'' and ''frustrating'' and Alundra DEFINES ''frustrating.'' If video games went to high school, Alundra would be voted ''Most likely to send it's players on killing sprees.''

So, because the challenge actually *detracts* from the experience, it gets a low score.

FUN: 3

Puzzles: Horrible
Everything else: Fun

This wouldn't normally be a problem, except for the sheer multitude of puzzles. When you're in a dungeon, pretty much every other room is a puzzle room.

So, basically, I have one piece of advice.

If you get this game....

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, GET A STRATEGY GUIDE!!!!!

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 09/25/00, Updated 09/25/00