"Alcahest, also known as the most clichéd game ever."

I have run out of stupid things to say as an introduction, so let’s go to the review quickly, because this is not something to be wasting time on.

Plot 2/10:
All the clichés in the world are in Alcahest’s plot, from the sacred chosen hero, followed by the four guardians based on the four elements, to the evil empire leaded by a mad guy that wants to conquer the world, and ending with the revival of the God of destruction. Of course there are also kind hearted princesses, a town destroyed by the emperors minions, and everything we have already seen before one million times.

Man, I can’t remember having played a game with so many clichés in my whole life, they certainly went a bit too far with this plot (I say plot just to say something). Now if you think: ok, it is clichéd, but that is the same plot we find in any other game, so if at least it is well developed during the game then… yes I know, but in Alcahest the plot is not developed AT ALL, so that is not the case here, the plot starts with clichés and ends with even more clichés. But now that I think, this is not an rpg nor an action rpg, so there is no point on complaining about the plot!, oh well, anyway the plot sucks.

Graphics 7,5/10:
Pretty good, big and, well, that is all, they are good. There are a couple of very nice backgrounds, like the mountain where the game starts, or some bosses… nothing really impressive but pretty good.

Music 5/10:
Nothing worth mentioning, you are not going to remember a thing about it after playing, but it is was not bad I have to say. Irrelevant soundtrack.

Gameplay 6/10:
Alcahest plays similar to Soul Blazer, it is some kind of action adventure game with a few rpg elements, but it is not an rpg, just because it has one or two things in common with the rpg genre doesn’t mean it is one of them, I always get really pissed off when I hear people say “that is an action rpg” only because you gain experience, it takes much more than that to make a true rpg, you know!?

The gameplay is very simple, we go there kicking ass with a semi-overhead view like the above mentioned Soul Blazer. In some places we will have to obtain special items to continue (boots to cross over lava, torches to light dark places...), everything very typical.

We can’t buy equipment or items, the way our companion system works has nothing to do with rpgs, and the game is divided in stages. We do gain experience points and have some magic spells, but that is not enough, probably it is said to be an action rpg because we can see Square logo at the title screen, but as far as I know, Square was just the publisher, the game was developed by Hal Laboratories (famous for the Kirby series).

Something that sometimes can get on your nerves is that enemies tend reappear a lot, if you kill a bunch of monsters, then advance a bit, and if you decide to go back the enemies will be there again, they get killed very easily, but after you have done this a lot of times you will probably get pissed off.

You see, there is nothing wrong with gameplay, what is wrong here is the game itself, there is nothing to keep you interested, there are no incentives to keep playing, that is the big problem.

Overall:
Alcahest is an average among the action games, I can’t believe such a fine developer like Hal Laboratory could have made such a mediocre title, it is not bad, I am probably being a little rough here because it can be fun for a while and all, but I think that as a game this Alcahest is so irrelevant not even worth a try.

”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: 4/10, Originally Posted: 02/11/04