Alundra

Back in the late 80's and early 90's, it seemed like every game with some level of fantasy elements was labeled an RPG.

I guess I get it, most of the titles that popularized the genre in the West were rooted in elements of fantasy, borrowing heavily from Tolkien and others of his ilk. RPGs became closely connected to the genre and became almost synonymous with it. Hell, Final Fantasy has "fantasy" right there in the title. Of course, not every RPG fit this mold. You had Phantasy Star and Mother/Earthbound, and even Final Fantasy itself eventually branched out into more sci-fi territory. But those were outliers, at least they were at the time, and it seemed like whenever a game with an elf carrying a sword and casting magic came out, it got slapped with the RPG label whether it fit or not.

Which brings us to Alundra, a title commonly lumped in with the golden era PS1 RPGs. It was developed by Matrix Software, but published in the U.S. by Working Design, a studio known for its work with the genre. Its story follows the eponymous Alundra, a sword-wielding elf who can enter people's dreams, who finds himself stranded on an unfamiliar island. Stop me if you've heard that before. There are a lot of JRPG tropes here, so it's understandable that it would appeal to fans of the genre. So, with that in mind, let's get the first semi-controversial statement out of the way: Alundra is not an RPG. It is a top-down adventure style game, like the Zelda series. A lot of people would also argue that Zelda is an RPG, largely because of its swords and sorcery aesthetic. But it isn't. We could argue for hours about what actually constitutes an "RPG," but that's a different post for a much later date. There are a lot of reasons why I would not call Alundra an RPG, but for simplicity's sake, I will just bring up the biggest and also simplest reason: There is no leveling system, Alundra's abilities and stats only change when he finds a new item and not when he levels up. I guess you could technically argue that all video games are RPGs, but again, I'm off topic.

So let's get back on topic with my next controversial statement: Alundra isn't a particularly good game. I know it's very fondly remembered by a lot of folks and I can absolutely understand why. It looks great and has a surprisingly impactful story for a game of the genre. It has an interesting world with a lot of stuff to explore and it kind of has a Metroidvania vibe to it, which is nice. But the actual gameplay...I can't describe it as anything but frustrating. The actual layout of the game is pretty similar to the Zelda series and the controls are just fine. But it's really hard to put into words just how grating this game is without actually playing it. The only word that really comes to mind here is sadistic. Similar games like Zelda or Beyond Oasis might seem almost identical on the surface. But those games feel like they are designed to provide challenge and test your skill, whereas Alundra is designed to force you into cheap deaths and test your patience. There is a major, major difference between fair challenge and cheapness. Take the Soulsborne games, for instance. Sure, you die easily and get sent back far every time you do. But if you die in those games, it's probably your own fault, you missed the timing of an attack or didn't properly prepare for a boss. That occasionally happens in Alundra, but more often than not it just feels like it's unfair most times you die.

That really didn't make a whole lot of sense when I typed it out, so let me provide an example. In one of the dungeons, you are asked to solve what seems like a relatively simple puzzle. You are faced with a switch, alone in the middle of the room, surrounded by four platforms. Hitting this switch will drop four objects, one on each platform. Two will be barrels, while two will be spiked balls. If either the balls or the barrels hit the floor, they will break and force you to do it again. Your goal is to race to the appropriate platform, catch the barrels as the fall and then place them on ground switches by the exit door. You need to catch and place three barrels to exit the room. Sounds easy enough, right? The problem here is that where the objects land is COMPLETELY RANDOM. That means what you are faced with isn't a puzzle, but a game of chance. If there were a pattern you had to figure out, that would be different. But there isn't, it's literally random. If you had infinite chances at this, it would be fine, a bit frustrating but an okay distraction. But the spike balls hurt you and hurt you badly every time they drop. If you die, it's game over. It's not like Zelda where you have the opportunity to start back at the beginning of the dungeon, you have to load your last save. It's even worse that you have a limited number of switch hits before the puzzle will stop dropping barrels and you have to reset the thing by leaving the room. If you have two of the three barrels down and you have to reset, it's back to square one. And it's easier said than done to actually identify where the barrel is falling get to the platform, get under the object and grab it as it falls. This is a particularly egregious example, but Alundra is filled with stuff like this.

It's not just the puzzles that are frustrating. There are gameplay elements that make it into a lot of titles that I almost universally hate, many since I first picked up a controller. You know, stuff like escort missions, unnecessary stealth, driving stages in action games, stuff like that. Well, now I can add a new entry: platforming in top-down adventure games. Alundra is filled with platforming, to the point that it almost feels like they started making a platformer and changed their minds at the last minute. Maybe that is exaggerating, but platforming in these games always feels like such a chore and here it just feels never-ending. It's not the first adventure game to require jumping. There is platforming in most Zelda titles, but it is infrequent, and you aren't punished harshly for failing. In Anodyne, another similar title, you pretty much aren't punished at all. The platforming in Beyond Oasis was terrible, it alone caused me to knock points off that game's score, and even that game didn't have as harsh or as frequent platforming as Alundra did. Countless times, I had to repeat puzzles, entire sections of dungeons or brutal fights because I couldn't make a simple jump. And it isn't for lack of skill. It's all the camera. Simply put this camera angle makes it damn near impossible to make your mark, especially on moving platforms. It would be bad enough if you took damage when you fell. But it seems like every time you miss a jump you are getting sent way back in the dungeon, often forcing you to repeat puzzles over and over again. It is beyond frustrating to complete a difficult puzzle, only to have to do it again because you missed a basic jump due to a bad camera angle. Look, I get including platforming for some variety. But you can't make it such an important part of the game and punish players so badly for failing at it. In an actual platformer, it's okay to harshly punish the player for failing at platforming, because the platforming is the entire point. But in a game like Alundra it should be a tertiary game mechanic.

While the story is very strong and the translation is well done, I think it got way too cute for its own good. It's no secret that Working Design liked to shoehorn quirky dialog and modern pop culture references in to the games they work on. But this took it entirely too far. There's a character in the village named Bonaire, who has the personality of a 70's California Surfer dude. Remember, this is in a game with a medeival-esque fantasy setting, with a pretty bleak and serious story about death, curses, religion and hate. It's not that you can't ever have comic relief in a game like this, but the comic relief has to fit at least a little bit. Having a character like this completely takes you out of the story and dealing with them becomes more annoying than funny. Also, the game makes every single joke you think it would about a character named "Bonaire." Just put yourself into the mindset of a 13-year-old boy and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. Look, I'm totally okay with occasionally having wall breaking like this in games. But there's a difference between having one or two references thrown in at appropriate times and a never-ending barrage of them during heavy story moments. When Working Design includes something like, say, an NPC in Lunar: Eternal Blue Complete making a Clinton/Lewinsky joke, it works because it's just a pointless NPC, in a house you don't even have to visit at a tame portion of the story. That's just WD being their weird, quirky selves. But when a villager is about to die because they are being devoured by a dream demon and you need to help them immediately, it completely removes you from the moment when characters are bemoaning their inability to get basic cable. Again, that's just one example, but things like that are present throughout.

It's a shame too because the overall story is actually pretty great. The whole "entering dreams" aspect makes for some unique and interesting scenarios and was a new angle for games at the time. I've talked before about how games that are critical of religion tend to either take things too far or not enough, but Alundra really shines in that regard. This is largely because its story is very nuanced, it's not "durrr! Religion is dum!"  it focuses on how religion can be used to divide people facing harsh circumstances. Division really is the primary focus of the story, at least to me, and it works very well. When Alundra arrives in Inoa village, the people are relatively unified. But as their curse grows and their circumstances worsen, they begin to fight with each other, becoming more and more fractured by the world crumbling around them. Religion, politics, how to deal with a potential invasion, what to do about the marooned elf boy, all of these things further drive wedges between people who have a common goal. Alundra also does a great job of showing how the villains exploit this division to accomplish their nefarious plans, something that makes the story feel all too relatable. While I obviously wasn't a fan of the goofball humor, the game is extremely well translated from a technical standpoint, there wasn't a lot of awkward language or out of context conversation. It was probably one of the better translated games of the era.

I really liked the overworld design as well. Everything is connected in a logical way and there are tons of different areas to explore. As with most adventure games, more and more of the map opens up as you acquire items and abilities from dungeons or story events. For as obtuse as some of the dungeon puzzles are, they really did a good job of leading you on to what you need to access new areas without outright telling you. The environments are unique and interesting to look at and there are a variety of types of terrain to explore including grasslands, caves, beaches, swamps and deserts. Dungeons, while generally poorly designed from a gameplay standpoint, are very atmospheric and look excellent. The enemy design is pretty cool, they are all big and detailed with some truly unique features. Unfortunately, their attack patterns aren't unique or interesting at all, but at least they look nice. The graphics as a whole are pretty good, there are some really nice hand-drawn, 2D style visuals throughout the game. Sound is excellent as well, there are a good number of memorable tracks, and the sound has a deep, layered vibe to it that a lot of games of the era didn't have. The anime cutscene at the beginning is outstanding and it really fits the aesthetic the game is trying to present. Presentation across the board is top notch, for all its warts you can definitely tell Alundra is a well put together game and that the people who created it knew what they were doing.

But all the awesome graphics and sound can't make up for what, at least to me, was an infuriating gameplay experience. If it weren't for the excellent story I probably would have abandoned the game way more quickly than I did. In an RPG, I would have been able to see past something like a weak combat system or reliance on stupid mini games or anything like that to experience a great story. But this isn't an RPG, it's an adventure title and is driven more by its gameplay than its story, no matter how excellent that story is. Look, the gameplay isn't bad in a sense that it's broken like Rise of the Robots or Rocky and Bullwinkle. No, the closest comparison I can come up with among games I reviewed would have to be Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. Both games seem to be designed to frustrate you into quitting rather than provide a challenge for you to push through. I just don't have time for that kind of stuff in games anymore. I will deal with it a little bit when playing fighting games or FPS' online, but I don't do that much these days. I'm sure it didn't help that I went into Alundra expecting an RPG and didn't get one, but that doesn't change the fact that it was a frustrating experience that felt like a chore to get through.

5.25/10