Video Games : Alundra

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from: Working Designs

: Alundra
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Price: $96.75
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Amazon Maximum Age: 20 years
Amazon Minimum Age: 144 months
Binding: Video Game
Brand: Working Designs
EAN: 0735366005535
ESRB Age Rating: Teen
Label: Working Designs
Manufacturer: Working Designs
Platform: PlayStation
Publisher: Working Designs
Sales Rank: 8015
Studio: Working Designs

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Customer Reviews
Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars - An interesting departure from standard RPG fare!
When we had a Sega Genesis, I never was into a lot of Role-Playing videogames until I found a game called `Landstalker'. It was a modest RPG by today's standards, but it still ranks as one of my favorites to this very day, so when we upgraded to a Sony Playstation, I searched to see if the game was available for that platform, but with no luck. However, I did turn up a game called `Alundra' that was similar - even the insert booklet paid homage to Landstalker. And though it lacks a bit of the charm, wit, and the renegade free spirit of it's predecessor, it is a fine RPG nonetheless.

This game features an old-school 2D view of gameplay (it's biggest departure from `Landstalker'). The graphics are pretty well detailed, but quite cluttered. On a Sega Genesis these graphics may be impressive, but for a Playstation game they seem a bit archaic. I'm not usually hung up on graphics, but being a bit nearsighted, there are some spots where I didn't even see stairways or spot objects in a room. The sprites are pretty much as you would expect to see them on most SNES or Genesis RPG's.

The storyline is a step up from Landstalker, which had the main character Nigel as a treasure hunter seeking a nice payday. Alundra has a slightly more concrete (yet ordinary) backdrop of him becoming a reluctant hero for the townspeople of a village that is plagued by nightmares. I say `backdrop' because it's not so much a story, but more of a unifying theme by which the collection of adventures (each one is a separate dream) are tied together. And in a major departure from standard RPG protocol, a good portion of Alundra takes place in and around a single town, so there is no globetrotting over all the map. (Not to worry though, it's not nearly as claustrophobic as it sounds).

The biggest advantage to games like Alundra over many conventional RPG's is that it uses a real-time battle sequences. Rather than being whisked away to a separate screen and programming a bunch of battle commands, then watching it unfold, this game features simple battles on the spot by reflexively using your weapon when you encounter an enemy, making them a creative mix of an action game and RPG. Seeing that you only control one character instead of a party, this method plays very nicely. Yeah, it may sound archaic, but it really adds to the game because you have no `down time' during the battles.

Another great aspect to this game is the puzzles that you must solve to progress past certain points. You may have to trip switches, move items, or defeat enemies in a certain order, but there are lots of little puzzles throughout the game. Some are a bit too easy, some are hard, and some require time and patience, but they are all challenging and fun. There are also a few hidden bonuses here and there. If you're intent on speeding through the game you might miss them, but if you take your time, it's usually worth your trouble to search every area that you can. What you find may be of benefit to you during the later stages of the game.

I'd always had trouble persevering to the end of an RPG video game, and this was only the second one that I made it all the way through (Suikoden was the first). The ending sequences and resolution of Alundra were a bit of a disappointment, though the puzzles and battles leading up to it were not.

To summarize, some die-hard RPG purists may miss the multi-character interplay or the strategic battle sequences that are the norm for RPG's. But Alundra is a fine game in its' own right, and a pretty distinctive one too. Its' cast, story (oops, I mean `backdrop'), and action are all centered on keeping the player involved and interested, rather than being flashy. If you're an RPG fan and would like a break from mega-monster bosses, casts of 6 to 100 playable characters and long, tiresome battles that only serve to obscure the story, then Alundra is one of the most refreshing departures that you'll ever find.




Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - A fun game that was hard, but you do feel like you accomplished something.
Finishing Alundra was so hard it wasn't as fun as it could have been. I have never played a game where periodically I would think, "well I guess this is as far as I go" so many times.
The director Yasuhiro Ohhori wanted to make a game you could play, not just have a good story line. He wanted a game that the player felt at the end of it, that they accomplished something. I do feel that, and I had two guides to help me! The puzzles where just too crazy hard, and they could have made the jumping easier.


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Alundra best 2d Zelda style Japanesse Anime Roll Playing Game of all time!
Well for starters I'll just say if you liked the 8bit & 16bit Zelda games and the 8bit golden axe Sega master system game you will love this, it has one of the most captivating plots and 2D graphics that games of this kind have ever had while 2D graphics are nothing new and the likes of older consol and dos games the psx one manages to hold the oldskool look of RPG graphics like Zelda and the earlier final fantasy games but with more attention to detail and realistic proportion of characters bodies (no exaggeratedly massive head on tiny bodies etc) there is a bunch of secret stuff within the game like extra weapons to find and items you must collect to gain access to the other weapons to add to the inventories regular amount of six: miners bombs, sword, ball and chain mace, bow and arrow etc and a couple of magical weapons I wont mention as it is fun to find out for your self. also each weapon is upgraded at certain intervals in the game and you can then execute more than one kind of attack with each weapon. One of the things i liked most of the action side of this game is that it is more interactive and reflex oriented than other roll playing games like Final Fantasy (round based where you choose one of the tabs for what you want the character to do attack, magic, item etc, and then sit back and watch them attack without having to use the controls to execute the move) where as in Alundra you walk around and talk to people in the same mode as you battle. there is an action button and when you are standing in front of a person you press it to talk and otherwise this action button will execute a slash attack or shot attack etc for fighting enemies as you come across them or to cut down grass and smash rocks etc to find goodies or alternate routes across the land. also unlike most RPG 's you can jump (adds a bit more interaction in the action side and exploration of areas in the game). There are also magical spells you will find as the game progresses which makes the mystical mediaeval fantasy theme (common among RPG's) more apparent not to mention the fact that this lad Alundra can enter peoples dreams whilst they sleep. All in all an awesome RPG one for every fan of the hack and slash style game play I gave it 99/100 when I first played it as I was stuck on one puzzle half way through the game when i first bought this game and at the time I didn't have the internet to search for walkthrough guides but if you are reading this then I think its safe to say that you, like my self are probably a member of an internet provider thus giving this game a whopping 100% rating.

Also if you have played this and for a strange reason have read this review up to here and can agree with allot of what I have said then I urge u to say what I am about to say. I think it is with in the interest of a wide range of fans out there of the hack and slash 2D anime style RPG's that even though we are in the generation of Xbox, Psx2, Dreamcast and Gamecube as well as highly advanced PC engines there is still a wide range of fans for the marketing of 2D anime games like Alundra, I mean Alundra in its own right is a down right masterpiece and even though new consoles want to boast their 3D graphics and all, the 2nd dimension shouldn't be neglected as far as hack and slash RPG's are concerned, and for younger players the platform genera also should have a bit more 2nd dimensional attention, when all is said and done Japanese anime cartoons are still reeling of at an alarming rate so what's the hold up with 2D RPG's especially now that we have awesome technology, just think about it not only can the 2D graphics be enhanced a whole lot the game worlds can be even larger and the special effects of spells and cut scenes would be mind blowing. If you are a die hard Alundra fan like myself spread the word. Lol.

Also I would like to add that if you liked Alundra and are thinking of getting Alundra 2 do a bit more research on the second one because it is nothing like the first, For one Alundra isn't even in it and 2nd its a 3D game so if u were looking forward to the same old beautiful looking graphics of the original then be sure to steer clear of Alundra 2.


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Alundra best 2d Zelda style Japanesse Anime Roll Playing Game of all time! info for amazon copy
Well for starters I'll just say if you liked the 8bit & 16bit Zelda games and the 8bit golden axe Sega master system game you will love this, it has one of the most captivating plots and 2D graphics that games of this kind have ever had while 2D graphics are nothing new and the likes of older consol and dos games the psx one manages to hold the oldskool look of RPG graphics like Zelda and the earlier final fantasy games but with more attention to detail and realistic proportion of characters bodies (no exaggeratedly massive head on tiny bodies etc) there is a bunch of secret stuff within the game like extra weapons to find and items you must collect to gain access to the other weapons to add to the inventories regular amount of six: miners bombs, sword, ball and chain mace, bow and arrow etc and a couple of magical weapons I wont mention as it is fun to find out for your self. also each weapon is upgraded at certain intervals in the game and you can then execute more than one kind of attack with each weapon. One of the things i liked most of the action side of this game is that it is more interactive and reflex oriented than other roll playing games like Final Fantasy (round based where you choose one of the tabs for what you want the character to do attack, magic, item etc, and then sit back and watch them attack without having to use the controls to execute the move) where as in Alundra you walk around and talk to people in the same mode as you battle. there is an action button and when you are standing in front of a person you press it to talk and otherwise this action button will execute a slash attack or shot attack etc for fighting enemies as you come across them or to cut down grass and smash rocks etc to find goodies or alternate routes across the land. also unlike most RPG 's you can jump (adds a bit more interaction in the action side and exploration of areas in the game). There are also magical spells you will find as the game progresses which makes the mystical mediaeval fantasy theme (common among RPG's) more apparent not to mention the fact that this lad Alundra can enter peoples dreams whilst they sleep. All in all an awesome RPG one for every fan of the hack and slash style game play I gave it 99/100 when I first played it as I was stuck on one puzzle half way through the game when i first bought this game and at the time I didn't have the internet to search for walkthrough guides but if you are reading this then I think its safe to say that you, like my self are probably a member of an internet provider thus giving this game a whopping 100% rating.

Also if you have played this and for a strange reason have read this review up to here and can agree with allot of what I have said then I urge u to say what I am about to say. I think it is with in the interest of a wide range of fans out there of the hack and slash 2D anime style RPG's that even though we are in the generation of Xbox, Psx2, Dreamcast and Gamecube as well as highly advanced PC engines there is still a wide range of fans for the marketing of 2D anime games like Alundra, I mean Alundra in its own right is a down right masterpiece and even though new consoles want to boast their 3D graphics and all, the 2nd dimension shouldn't be neglected as far as hack and slash RPG's are concerned, and for younger players the platform genera also should have a bit more 2nd dimensional attention, when all is said and done Japanese anime cartoons are still reeling of at an alarming rate so what's the hold up with 2D RPG's especially now that we have awesome technology, just think about it not only can the 2D graphics be enhanced a whole lot the game worlds can be even larger and the special effects of spells and cut scenes would be mind blowing. If you are a die hard Alundra fan like myself spread the word. Lol.

Also I would like to add that if you liked Alundra and are thinking of getting Alundra 2 do a bit more research on the second one because it is nothing like the first, For one Alundra isn't even in it and 2nd its a 3D game so if u were looking forward to the same old beautiful looking graphics of the original then be sure to steer clear of Alundra 2.

Hello there amazon.com I know near the end I'v added some dribble about how it would be nice if there were more games of this style out there, I hope and would apreciate it if u would post this on your site as it may help more games like this come about, sorry about the double save of this review as i had'nt noticed your terms of conditions until now and i spent quite a while wrighting this review so i sent this copy to let u know my thankfullness should this appear on your site.


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - a legend to all who played it!!!!!!!!!!
alundra was one of the first ps1 games I played and I think it changed the way we think about adventure games forever. who would have thought that sutch a compexed colourfull game could be so perfect. many people I know & knew thought this games a game from heaven and it was...

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