Alundra

Gameplay

Alundra is considered a spiritual sequel to Climax Entertainment's Landstalker on the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive. In addition to a similar looking main character, the game's development team consisted of former employees of Climax Entertainment. The gameplay style is top-down action-adventure and is known for containing many extremely difficult puzzles, some of which cannot be accessed if the player progresses further in the game, making some items unattainable. It is also known for its music and dark storyline. A range of terrain and surfaces also add variety, from sand, which causes the player to move more slowly, to lava, which damages the player. Upgrades throughout the game can help the player to overcome many of these obstacles, encouraging exploration.

Plot

Alundra, the silent protagonist and player character, is an elf from the clan of Elna, the Dreamwalkers. He set out for a place called Inoa because of a recurring dream in which a mysterious figure who calls Alundra "Releaser" tells him that he must save the villagers from the evil of Melzas. The ship carrying Alundra is caught in a storm and is broken in half, leaving most of the crew dead and Alundra drifting unconscious.

Alundra is next seen washed ashore to an unknown beach, where a man named Jess finds and rescues him. Jess carries Alundra to his house at the village of Inoa and lets him sleep in his guest room. In the village, Alundra discovers he is a Dreamwalker, which means he has an ability to enter other peoples' dreams, and helps the villagers get rid of the nightmares that have been possessing them. Since Alundra's arrival, bad things begin to happen in the village, with various villagers being murdered in their dreams, which leaves them dead outside of their dreams as well. Some of the villagers eventually start blaming Alundra for what is happening.

Another dreamwalker, Meia, from the clan Elna arrives to the city and helps Alundra fight off the nightmares of the villagers. Later in the game, it is revealed that the demon, Melzas, has disguised himself as a god, and he is the source of all the nightmares of the village. His goal is to make the villagers pray for their god, and thus make Melzas himself gain power from their prayers. Ronan, the priest of the village, was also on the side of Melzas and helped him to deceive the villagers, and keep them praying for Melzas, the false god. Once Alundra discovers the truth, he gathers the information and items needed to access Melzas' palace to defeat the demon. After Melzas is destroyed, Alundra and Meia bid farewell to the villagers and depart together, before going their separate ways.

Soundtrack

The music for Alundra was composed by a Japanese composer Kohei Tanaka. The soundtrack contains 28 tracks, of which only the ending theme containing lyrics. The beginning of the soundtrack starts with more peaceful and upbeat music, which goes well with the beginning of the game as the events are only starting to unfold in the world of Alundra. As the player progresses with the game and the plot gets darker, the music starts to become more grim as well, creating an atmosphere of despair and gloominess surrounding the distressing events that unfold.

Release

The game was published by Sony in Japan, Working Designs in North America, and Psygnosis in Europe. More recently, Alundra has been made available as a downloadable game on the PSone Classics service for the PlayStation 3.

Reception

Alundra was well received upon release. The game had sold 143,114 copies in Japan by the end of 1997. Following its North American release, Working Designs sold over 100,000 copies of the game in North America within a single month in early 1998.

Upon release, the game received unanimous critical applause. It currently has average scores of 86 out of 100 at Metacritic based on 9 reviews, making it the sixth highest-rated PlayStation title of 1997, and 85.4% at GameRankings based on 13 reviews, making it the highest-rated action-adventure title of 1997.

In January 1998, IGN stated, "Never have I been so tested and challenged since the old Genesis adventure title, LandStalker. And Climax has made Alundra twice as hard, twice as challenging, and twice as good as its LandStalker counterpart." The review further states that it has "a really cool story," "some great music and graphics that totally suit the game," and concludes that "this game is awesome." Electronic Gaming Monthly and GamePro both selected Alundra as the runner-up for their 1997 Best Role-Playing Game of the Year awards, coming second only to Final Fantasy VII.

In 2009, Destructoid's Conrad Zimmerman described Alundra as a "fresh and innovative" game and "one of the finest examples of action/RPG gaming." He particularly praised it for featuring "a plot the likes of which I had never seen before in the genre," the strong "writing and characterizations," and the "clever and challenging puzzles." In regards to the PSN release, Platform Nation's Julian Montoya said the game "is very enjoyable and definitely worth playing" as well as stating it is a "long, fun, hard, mildly mature and full of personality adventure." He also notes that it is a "fondly remembered Action RPG", states the puzzles are "extremely" challenging, and praises the "engrossing story" for being "surprisingly mature and dark" while touching on "complex themes like fate, religion, death and the essence of human existence." He concluded that some "refer to it as a classic and I really believe it is."

In 2010, Gaming Bolt's George Reith described it as one of the "Awesome Games That Time Forgot", stating that while it looked "more like Zelda than a lot of" Zelda games, it had "fiendish puzzles" and a more adult tone, combining a "bright visual aesthetic" with a darker story that is "filled with morbid themes" such as clinical depression and not "afraid to kill off the odd character hear and there," giving it "tension that other RPGs" lacked. He also praised the level design, with "well made" dungeons that require thinking "outside of the box", and the "dream walking" mechanic for giving the "levels a unique twist" based "upon the dreamer’s personality and traits," adding "variety to the game’s locales" and providing insight on the characters, but noted this was balanced by an expansive overworld "full of secrets and side-quests," with "an equal amount of dungeons both inside and outside" of dreams.

Sequel

While Alundra 2: A New Legend Begins holds the same name as Alundra, it is only a spiritual successor to the game, with no ties with the original game.