Alundra

"An unforgettable cult classic."

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. That's the second thing that comes to mind when I recall Alundra. The first, is that I should really play it again sometime, like right now. It's just so.. GOOD! ..but mere sentimentality isn't cutting it if you've not played it yet, right? Right!


Alundra's developers shunned envelope-pushing in favour of tried-and-tested gameplay of the most insanely addictive kind. By doing so, and doing it in the late nineties, on a console meant to showcase this sexy Three Dee phenomenon, they've robbed their own game of mainstream potential - if it'd been released earlier, we'd be playing the third or fourth sequel, I'm sure of it. That said, you'd be forgiven for not picking it up, or even hearing about it, and that's what I'm hoping this review will remedy.


Alundra is a game that follows a familiar formula - an action-adventure*, a 'dungeon-crawler', with 2D backgrounds and sprites viewed from an isometric bird's-eye perspective. It sounds dated, and it is, even if you step back through to time its date of release.
Guys, these are some of the most appealing, easy-on-the-eye 2D visuals I have seen, but, if the concept of gameplay NOT presented in realistic 3D eludes you, this is where you fold, okay? If, on the other hand, you don't necessarily think your gaming experience should look like a Hollywood movie [or even better, if you think priorities are being a little screwed up], you are going to LOVE this.



Once upon a time..
An orange-haired elven youth, going by the funky name of Alundra, is plagued by recurring dreams. In these dreams, a mysterious robed figure calls him to travel to the village of Inoa.. Alundra doesn't yet know it, but he is "both blessed.. and cursed.." with the ability to enter people's nightmares, and manipulate their outcome. Pretty awesome stuff. Coincidentally the good folks of Inoa are suffering from nightmares so powerful, they prevent the afflicted from waking up..


Alundra quickly ends up in Inoa [though not before the ship he boards plays at Titanic], where he's soon entrusted with a quest. The player is now free to explore the world map, which serves as an overworld, a hub to the different levels or 'dungeons'. Signs dotted here and there serve to steer the lost adventurer; the world map IS quite large..uh..eventually, heh. Much of it is barred in some way or another; woods impenetrably choked with vegetation, cave mouths obstructed by rocks, you know how it is. Alundra will eventually acquire tools to open up portions of the map - in short, the game is linear, but it really doesn't feel like it. You have to explore to find new locations, which I really, really like, and you should too.



"You mentioned insane addictive-ness?"
The dungeons are the meat of the game, a big juicy fun-buffet. The player gets to break apart a variety of places; woods, caverns both above and below ground, swamps, deserts.. what you've come to expect from a fantasy adventure, really, but don't forget that Alundra can enter people's dreams, which are also treated as dungeons, each with a distinct look. The inside of folks' minds.. I bet you haven't seen a lot of those, eh?


The gameplay is a mixture of combat, platforming and navigation, and puzzle-solving. There's a gaggle of unfriendly beasties strewn about. There's fire-breathing turtles, monkeys, orc-lookin' things, monkeys. Most times, fighting them isn't necessary; in the sense that, you don't get experience points, and they don't block progress - fighting is all in real-time, by the way. ..I really don't want to put the combat on paper, as it doesn't do it justice. You start off with the one dagger, with the one attack animation. The majority of monsters don't require thought or strategy: hit them = good, touch them = bad, get hit by them = more bad. It's still satisfying to kill stuff, because it doesn't take long, and because every single character sprite in the game is interesting to look at. New weapons, like flails and shortbows, are obtained later. The fighting isn't meant to boggle the mind much, cause trust me, the puzzles take good care of that.


Oh shirt, the puzzles. I have to confess, I lied in the introduction. The real first thing that comes to mind is that Alundra's puzzles are very, very evil, but the good kind of the evil - the movie-antagonist-that-steals-the-show evil. There's all kinds, man. Keys to locked doors. Timed flip-switching. Finding stuff to stack into crude staircases. Thinking a bunch of steps ahead, ala chess. Oblique riddles which require sleuth-like lateral thought.. this is why the game is notorious. This is why the game is long. This is why your progress will be halted in the heart of a friggin' mountain for hours on end. This is why, when you find the solution, you'll feel like you've kicked the world's ass, which is what gaming should make you feel like. This is one reason why you will either love Alundra to bits, or, you know, bring about another kind of bits. Me? I loved it. Each and every puzzle is emblazoned in my mind, which is both great and freakin' BAD, why? Because, I won't babble incoherently ever again, but also, I'll never get to feel that high I've just described. Sniffle.


The second reason you'll be torn between love and hate is the platforming. Okay, I lied again. Most of the time, it's alright, but there are a few, rare, cases, where you're not sure if you're facing a dead-end, or just an insanely pixel-perfect jump. A jump that can be traversed is but a few millimetres shorter than one that can't, which unfortunately means trial-and-error, but I REPEAT, dammit - this happens RARELY. The perspective doesn't ever change, so you should get the feel of things, and eventually start feelin' pretty dang sure you just can't go that way, Jack. There are also a bunch of traps to figure out - mostly stuff falling onto you, or smashing into you, or getting smashed from underneath you. Anything hot and / or spiky, you'll have to avoid.


No decent adventure would be complete without items, and this particularly decent adventure has plenty of chests lying around for the intrepid explorer to ransack, yay. You'll get your hands on a variety of healing items, explosives, magic scrolls.. and you'll need them all, once you go toe-to-toe with the bosses - huge, unique baddies which take lots of punishment, as well as some strategy. Almost every dungeon culminates in this grand, epic manner, which is of course excellent.


Between each quest you'll get to hang out at the village, talking to the good folks. It's mostly them doing the talking, though. Alundra never really speaks, and he rarely shows emotion. Fortunately, the rest of the cast make up for this with varied personalities. Some are nice. Some are a bit of a.. Certain characters are serious, whereas you'd come to expect others to make you laugh. The script is excellently translated, and reads like a good novel. The plot twists and turns, becoming more and more sombre and disturbing, pulling you in. Saying that it keeps you guessing is an understatement. That's the game in a nutshell - exploration, leading to fairly large dungeons, each punctuated by a village pit-stop.


The game looks great - for 2D. The thing about 2D visuals is that they've practically been perfected. 3D looked pretty funky at the time.. except, I'm reviewing it now, heh. It looks quite different from what one's used to. It's a nostalgic trip, but it doesn't look like crap, so it's all good, right? No, seriously, there's not a single pixel out of place, it's neatly rendered. The palette is realistic and pleasant to look at - not too bright, not too murky.


It sounds great, too. The sound effects are pretty standard. You've got your sword singing through the air, explosions, water splashing, waves crashing, sand crunching. There aren't any voice-overs, dialogue is 100% text. On one hand, the sound of that text loading can get annoying, but on the other, that means you don't get to hate anyone because their voice was grating and obnoxious! Anyway, it's the score you should pay attention to. It's perfectly fitting throughout - a traditional synths and percussions affair, with catchy basslines here and there. The overworld music, for instance, has that little "I'm going places!" crescendo going on. Upon entering someone's nightmare, you've got this grim horror-movie piece with a twisted lullaby worked into it. Brilliant stuff. A couple of tracks are recycled, if only once or twice.


It handles just fine. The game doesn't feature anything dextrously taxing. Directional buttons move the character in eight directions. The face buttons are each assigned to different tasks: X jumps, O uses an item, Square is multi-purpose, in that it is used to attack, as well as to interact with the environment and other characters. Holding triangle breaks into a run when the desired direction is pressed. The shoulder buttons bring up the item menu. Everything's responsive, comfortable and easy to get used to, and anyone telling you otherwise probably has webbed and / or broken fingers covered in honey and dish soap, and plays the game with the controller held upside down, while sitting on a running washing machine. During an earthquake.


It's LONG. You're going to be traversing plenty of ground before you beat this thing, and if that wasn't enough, the puzzles and, yes, alright, the parts that have you redoing platforming sections, will stretch it out considerably. There's plenty of stuff that can be missed; you'll be expected to explore, and you will, because this game is fun even when you're just aimlessly looking for chests. We're talking 20 - 40 hours of gaming on your first try.


And your second try? Sadly, because figuring out the puzzles makes up for a lot of that, consecutive playthroughs will take a lot less time, though still more than most of the games we see today. It'll also amuse less, it will still amuse. I'm beating the game for the 9th time, I think, as we speak, so you've my word for it. This is a beautifully made, engagingly challenging game, with a plot that's memorable both for its charming delivery, as well as its unsettling undertone. Good luck on finding a copy. And now, if you'll excuse me, I've a ninth playthrough, I think, to continue.


Recap:

- dated, yet very playable formula
- 2D looks that will appeal to the nostalgic
- fiendish puzzles can severely halt progress
- Enthralling storyline that'll keep you playing
- memorable boss battles
- You need this thing in your collection. Now.


*Oh, yeah. This isn't an ARE PEE GEE. Stop calling it that. There's no levelling up. There's no character customisation. The only things that improve as you go along, are the weapons, the armors you 'equip' and I use that term lightly, and your maximum health and magic points. It's an action-adventure. Ach like a German, Shin like that place that hurts when little kids kick it, Ad like the ones that interrupt your tv shows, Van like a van, and chair like the one you're probably sitting on. There.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/06/08, Updated 11/07/08

Game Release: The Adventures of Alundra (EU, June 1998)