Alundra

Plotline

After arriving in Inoa, Alundra undertakes many quests, playing both in people's dreams and the village surroundings. Soon, he finds out he is the 'Releaser', destined to save the world from Melzas, a powerful foe on his quest to world domination, that is also responsible for people's nightmares. The plot grows continuously darker in tone as the story proceeds, and hints to various religious and philosophical themes.

Characters

From a multitude of minor characters (mostly local residents), the following leads stand out:

Alundra

He is of the clan of Elna, the dreamwalkers. He is generally referred to as elf-boy, and is more or less your all-around world-saviour.

Meia

She is also of the clan of Elna. She too claims the 'Releaser' title, for reasons to be revealed later in the story. The game hints towards her having a romantic relationship with Alundra (though it never becomes explicit). She starts off as an antagonist to the hero, but later joins up with him and helps him complete a quest.

Jess

Alundra's host in Inoa. He claims he is just 'a lonely, old fat man'. Actually, he is also an amazing blacksmith. But future does not bode well for him.

Lars

This interestingly named wizard is one of the 'Guardians of the Seal', an age-old order meant to prevent the return of Melzas. Actually, they only had moderate success...

Nava

Another 'Guardian of the Seal'. He doesn't take very kindly to Alundra at first, but eventually recognises his worth.

Septimus

A scholar, and Alundra's friend. He too travelled to Inoa to lift the curse, but was quite unsuccessful. He helps Alundra discover his destiny and his potentials.

Ronan

Chancellor of the Sanctuary. However , he has a much darker agenda. But you'll find out that you are pretty much the only one who is not in on it.

Melzas

Melzas is the villain of the game. While he seems as your average bad guy, more details of his interesting past will be revealed in the plot.

Gameplay

It is a combination of platforming action/adventure and RPG elements. It is quite similar to the original Legend of Zelda although Landstalker for the Genesis would be a better comparison. Compared to games like the Final Fantasy series, there is significantly less room for character development. The adventure elements, however, can be quite demanding, while certain puzzles are likely to leave the player grinding teeth for hours. The platforming elements, on the other hand, are usually less challenging. The battle-system holds few surprises, with the difficulty of the enemies culminating at level bosses and a few difficult dungeons. A distinguishing feature is the absence of character levels and experience points. [..] 20-25 hours of gameplay can be expected.

Availability

Although difficult to acquire today, Alundra can still be found in some online stores, online auction houses such as eBay, as well as second hand sections of selected game stores. Though acclaimed by some critics for its difficult but innovative gameplay, Alundra was not advertised widely and has not found widespread distribution.

Aestethics

Alundra boasts a wonderful soundtrack that will not bore the player. From the peaceful, serene score of the village of Inoa to the grand music of the fields of Torla. While some tracks are a bit overused, such as the common theme played in a nightmare, they do not become dull. The sound effects give the game's style a nice touch, although they leave room for improvement. The graphics, while not exactly dazzling, are nearly flawless. A misplaced or visible pixel is rare in this game, and allows the game to flow smoothly, which is an enormous satisfaction to any player.

See also

• Alundra 2

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.