Alundra:
The Dreamwalker
Review by Chi Phan
Without a doubt, Alundra is the best action rpg for the playstation.
It is also the first rpg from Working Designs for the playstation. While the game
may not consist of cutting edge graphics and gameplay, it does prove that a great
game doesn't always have to have cutting edge stuff like FF7 to draw gamers attention.
Story
Alundra is a story about a hero name Alundra, who is a dreamwalker.
A dreamwalker is a person who has the ability to enter poeple's dreams and change
the outcome of their dreams by interacting inside their dreamworld. In one of
Alundra's own dreams, he was instructed to go to the village of Inoa. Upon arriving
at the village of Inoa, Alundra discovered that the villagers of Inoa has succomb
to a dream curse. It appears that an evil dream god is controlling the dreams
of the villagers. Alundra then begins to help the villagers one by one and this
is how the story quest begins.
Now the world of Alundra is pretty small. It only has one village
and multiple dungeons to explore in. Despite this, the quest is pretty long and
huge. The quest itself is very straightforward. Go to each dungeon, solve the
many puzzles there, defeat the dungeon boss, and get the items you need to advance
further into the game. You shouldn't have any difficulty trying to figure out
where to go next.
The overrall story is done very nicely. While the story isn't as rich or in-depth
as you might want it to be, it does give you enough to enjoy the story.
Score: 8/10
Characters
Alundra consists of a small cast of characters. This is understandable
since there is only one village. Still the supporting cast is done nicely. Each
character has a small little secret background that you will discover slowly during
the game. The cast of characters aren't great, but they are adequate enough for
this game.
Score: 8/10 Graphics
Alundra uses a beautiful 2-D world with sprites. The sprites
are nicely drawn with excellent backgrounds. The colors of this game is nicely
done too. Who says you have to have polygons in 3-D inorder to have good graphics?
Certainly not Alundra. Sure the game looks very 16 bitish but it looks good.
Score: 8/10
Music
The music border between very good to good. The music selection
aren't very good though as there are only a few tunes available. Still the ones
that Alundra does have are excellent. No doubt about that. There are 1 or 2 really
catchy tunes that will remind you of this game everytime you listen to them.
Score: 7/10
Gameplay
Alundra gameplay is quite hard. Average rpgers may have a problem
solving some of the major puzzles in this game. Basically the gameplay allows
you to travel to each dungeon and solve the puzzles within each dungeon. Once
you beat the dungeon boss, you get the precious item that the dungeon contains.
You will need this item inorder to advance to the next dungeon. The gameplay itself
is quite simple. Hack and slash at enemies while throwing in a few magic attacks.
Only the puzzles can give gamers some frustrations. Still in the end, the gameplay
is quite satisfying.
Score: 8/10
Extras/Replay
The replay value comes from the pure enjoyment of playing the
game the first time around.
There are about 3 mini games you can play in this game. All 3 will give you valueable
items. But the end results is that there's really not that much in terms of replay
and extra stuff to do.
Score: 3/10
With so few action rpg for the playstation, Alundra is one of
the best out there. The game may not dazzle you with awesome graphics and such
but it's gameplay is very enjoyable and yet frustrating too. In the end, you feel
a satisfaction of having accomplish something that you'd think was impossible
to do. A must buy for action rpg fans.
Final Score: 8/10
~Chi
