Paladin's Quest

"Great but, where is the Paladin?"

I don’t know why people dislikes this game so much, it may not be the best game ever, but it’s VERY original and very fun to play. Also, the original title of Paladin’s Quest is Lennus, which is a much better and more accurate title, Lennus is the world the game is settled in, so it makes sense, but Paladin’s Quest is ridiculous, you are not going to see a single paladin or even something next to a paladin in the whole game, I hate when they change names so drastically, damn.

Story 7/10:
You play as a magic student who accidentally unleashed an ancient magic power that completely destroys your town and, well, you know what is next.

As you can see the plot is the same as always, but the things you are going to do to save the world are very interesting, and that is point, because if we come to think, rpgs or even common games with a plot different than the usual “save your town or the world” are harder to find than massive destruction weapons in Iraq, so what it is important is the way that plot we have already seen one million times is presented, and in Lennus is presented in a very original way.

Graphics 7/10:
The graphics are average during the game (the main problem with them is the fact that they are too bright, and this is both a bit annoying and ugly) but quite good during the battles, excellent I would say. The visuals aren’t bad, just a bit ugly sometimes, which is quite different.

Music 5/10:
The music is probably the most average I’ve ever heard because I can’t remember a single tune, but it wasn’t bad either.

Gameplay 7,5/10:
Why is this game so innovative?, well, for example you have to loose energy in order to use magic (I really disliked this); you have to find and fill different kinds of bottles to heal yourself; you can hire your partners; people you met are from different races; you can fight pushing no buttons; your enemies are highly original; the different transports you will find are great: you will use chairlifts, big and wild animals, and many other things; etc.

As I said before you can fight without pushing any buttons, for example: press left and you’ll use your left hand to attack (you’ll punch your enemy with your bare hands or slash it if you are equipped with a sword), the same happens with your right hand, your feet or even your head (though its not recommended). Sometimes you can’t choose the enemy to hit, but this isn’t really a problem.

At the beginning the game is quite tough because you’ll die very easily, once you get more experienced everything will be easier, but you’ll probably die more than once during the rest of the game because some of the battles are really hard (some normal enemies are even harder than some bosses), and the final enemy is really hard to beat (and very cool by the way).

Then we have something very important, Lennus never gets monotonous or repetitive, we are not going to be travelling from town to town all the time doing crap.

The only flaws I found are when you buy equipment, because you don’t know if it’s better than the one you own, and the way of using magic (like I said before).

Then:
I really liked this game, it’s different but fully playable very entertaining and interesting, just give it time and you’ll probably end up playing it to the end, at the beginning everything may look ugly, I didn’t liked it at the very beginning I have to admit, but once you get into the game you will discover how good this game is.

There is also a second part of this game (Lennus II, which is currently being translated), and it is said to be one of the greatest rpgs for the Snes, this is hard to believe, but well, who knows, what I know is that I can’t wait to play.

”My lack of vocabulary and grammatical errors (if there’s any) are because I’m not from an English speaking country, sorry about that.”

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/08/02, Updated 02/18/04