Alundra is a special game in many ways. The game was published in North America by Working Designs in 1997. I wasn’t that interested in action RPGs at the time, so I never paid the game any attention. Unfortunately, Working Designs released a limited number of copies of the game, which sold out pretty quickly, at least in my estimation. In 2000, the game was very hard to find unless you went on eBay.

This year, I started looking for the game at my local EB for the first time. I read numerous reviews in Spanish and English video game magazines praising the game as a masterpiece. I searched for this game for almost 3 years before I finally found it. The journey to get this game was incredible.

I skipped college and headed out into unknown territory with less than half a tank of gas in my car. It took me a 2 hour drive to get to the nearest EB in my area that actually had the game.

It was quite a journey. There was a rainstorm and, having never been to the city before, I got lost. But thanks to my determination to experience this classic first-hand, I managed to get into the store and make a purchase.

So was it worth the incredibly difficult journey? Absolutely. (In fact, we recently took a fresh look at the game in our weekly Throwback Bit Thursday article: “Alundra: More Than Just a Zelda Clone”

Alundra the Dreamwalker

First of all, it must be said that Alandra is a copy of Zelda in many ways. However, there is nothing wrong with taking many aspects of Zelda and improving on them. And that is exactly what Alandra does. It surpasses Zelda in many ways and I would dare say this game is far better than the 2D Zelda.

First of all, the story puts all Zelda stories to shame while at the same time managing to surpass many other traditional RPGs. I have always felt that it is nearly impossible to make a good story in the genre due to the dungeon exploring and collecting nature of action RPGs.

Alundra disproves this notion with his fantastic storytelling. The basic goal of Alundra is to collect seven emblems to fight the evil Melzas.

This basic story has been used several times in Zelda games before. In these titles, you collect gems, medallions, masks, Triforce shards, etc. to reach the final boss. Unlike Zelda, however, Alundra makes you feel like you’re part of a truly dark story.

Melzas is not your typical villain in an action RPG. Unlike Ganondorf (at least in the early Zelda games), he has a clear reason for being evil, but more on that later.

Alundra is an elven boy from the Erna tribe. He can enter people’s dreams and change their outcomes. He has a dream that instructs him to embark on a journey to Inoa Village. So your search begins with Alandra on a ship heading to Inoa.

From there, Alandra finally reaches the village. The village is in a difficult situation as the villagers are dying in their sleep while dreaming. This is where Alandra’s dream begins and her walking skills come into play. From this point on, you will witness death, corruption, religious issues, love, and other common themes in Japanese role-playing games.

My only issue with the Zelda games was that the storyline was too vague and predictable (though the series has improved in this regard since the N64 version). Alandra solves these problems by offering a mature and highly unpredictable story.

At the beginning of the game, the story gives you the feeling that you are only saving individuals and not the world. This is one of the key points of the plot. During the game, you never really feel the urge to save the world, because no one knows what is causing the nightmares. It’s a puzzle that you, as Alandra, have to solve.

But you know that people need your help and that to save them you must invade their dreams. And you unconsciously bonded with the villagers as you felt like you were really living among them and helping them.

As the game progresses, the plot takes you to different dungeons to collect emblems. When you enter the dungeons to collect these emblems, your only motivation is not to reach the final boss, as in most action RPGs. Unlike other action RPGs, the plot of Alandra always gives you a good reason to enter each dungeon other than to become strong enough to face the bad guy (the final boss).

The plot of Alandra is dark, there is a lot of death and the question “who’s next?” is always in the back of your mind. Although many things happen simultaneously in the story, the plot never gets confused for a second. The translation played a big role in this, being one of the best, if not the best, I have ever seen.

Every character, even the minor ones, had a unique personality and interesting things to say. There are many four-character idioms and slang used in the text. I often found myself laughing at the funny lines of the NPCs. The game is really great. It maintains a sad and depressing tone while incorporating humor where necessary. Oh! And there is also a love story with Meia, simple but incredibly believable at the end of the game.

The ending itself is very satisfying, but there is plenty of room for a sequel. (Note: There is an Alundra 2 on the market, but this game has nothing to do with the original and is completely shit. Some of the key members who developed Alundra left Matrix (the developer), so they didn’t work on Alundra 2, which is one of the reasons why this game fails, the plot is totally different.)

As for the main character, a lot is a mystery. His past is never known. All we know about his background is that he is from the Erna tribe. However, his past is not that important since it doesn’t affect the story if it is told. This brings us to another advantage of the plot: it doesn’t waste time on unnecessary subplots that have no relation to the main plot.

The story tells you everything you need to hook you and keep playing. It’s a good thing that you don’t know anything about the protagonist’s personality or background, because it allows you to fully immerse yourself in the role and draw your own conclusions about how he became who he is.

After all, all the other villagers have their own problems and, as I said, realistic and interesting personalities. I was sad every time one of them died. It’s not that the scripts are long, they just all had something interesting to say. Even if some of them only had two lines to say a day, what they said in those two lines gave them more life and meaning than the 50 pages of text that many main characters have in other RPGs.

In short, I’ve never played an RPG where a character who barely has a say has enough to seem such an important part of the game world and the overall story.

The villain isn’t very involved in much of the story, but there’s a reason for that. If you pay attention to the plot, he’s practically present throughout the story, but his physical presence isn’t tangible until the end.

However, he’s so well developed that I didn’t mind him interacting directly with Alandra. This villain was a real threat and one of the best villains in RPG history.

Tough as nails!

Alundra is no walk in the park. It’s an incredibly difficult RPG that makes every Zelda and every action RPG (except Dark Souls) look like child’s play. The exploration and dungeon crawling features are reminiscent of 2D Zelda.

Your armory contains swords, iron whips, hunting bows, fire and ice staves, and more. Plus, you can find several hidden weapons throughout the world. Whereas in Zelda you collect hearts of life, in Alundra you collect vessels of life. These can be found on the world map or while exploring dungeons. You can also collect magic seeds to cast spells.

There are lots of health items in your inventory that you can use. It’s all very similar to Zelda, and you can actually use bombs as well. So what makes it different to Zelda? Well, pressing X lets you jump. This adds a new dimension to the exploration aspect of the game and a new twist to some of the puzzles. This also makes the game harder… A LOT harder.

Some puzzles require you to jump from platform to platform within a certain amount of time, failing which will cause Alandra to fall and start over. I remember one instance in particular where I had to jump over a switch before it fell. It took me about 20 repetitions before I got it right. So being able to jump at will has a lot of advantages. The disadvantage for me is that the jumping doesn’t seem designed for a 3/4 perspective 2D RPG.

At times I found some of the jumping puzzles downright frustrating. Not only do you have to figure out what to do, but once you figure it out, you have to figure out how to do it and then execute it. Unfortunately, the “execute” part is usually the hardest.

Some of the puzzles that don’t require much physical activity are incredibly difficult. You can flip a switch and spend an hour figuring out how to move the pillars in a room in the right order and direction. These are the puzzles where the game really shines. These puzzles are hard to solve, but the satisfaction you get when you do is unmatched. At one point while playing I called myself a genius out loud.

The world map of this game is huge, probably bigger than any 2D RPG ever made. For this reason, and because there are so many hidden caves and dungeons waiting to be discovered, I still haven’t found all the secrets. The main dungeon itself is vast, including the one you go through when you enter someone else’s dream. In fact, the dream dungeons are the hardest for the most part, with the exception of the final dungeon of the game (that castle is wicked!).

To understand how vast the game is, consider this: One section of the game requires you to go through Murgu Forest, to be exact. I walked around for 3 hours trying to find my way to the Murgu Tree. This was probably the most frustrating part of the game for me, but it was all due to the 2D graphics. I couldn’t find my way through the cave because I couldn’t see my way through the walls. I finally completed this part when I stumbled trying to find my way out of the forest and accidentally ran into what looked like a wall.

The scope of this game should not be underestimated. It is larger than any action RPG I have ever played (if you ignore the infinite seas of The Wind Waker, Alundra is unbeatable in terms of scope). The sheer beauty of the dungeon layouts, world design, and simple yet sophisticated gameplay mechanics is rivaled only by Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

My only criticisms of the gameplay in these areas are the occasionally frustrating puzzles, the manipulative platforming, and very slight confusion in key areas due to the 2D graphics. Other than that, the game is flawless in its execution.

A Worthy Challenge

Let’s get into the combat. Every boss is tough. Some of the later bosses require constant replay to find their major weaknesses and patterns to exploit and defeat them. My only complaint is the miserable final boss fight, which consists of two tough fights and a very difficult third one. You have to fight them one by one with no chance to save or replenish remedies. This means you have to die about 10 times (or more) until you finally figure out how to handle the first two fights almost perfectly in order to have enough cures for the merciless third boss.

The third to last boss is hard. Make even the smallest mistake and you’ll die instantly or take serious damage. To beat this final boss you need to be agile and do the following with near perfect timing: Dodge, run, jump, hit the boss once in the head with your sword, run back, dodge, run some more, hide, get the 30th attack If you keep doing this for a few minutes and survive near perfect, you’ll finally beat the boss. Think about “near perfect”, because that’s exactly what you need.

The final boss attacks from all sides with 6 different attacks. This can be depressing for many players, especially if you are one of the unlucky players who died and had to start over after 29 minutes of fighting hard. If you are a very skilled and patient player, this game is fun, but if you are not, you should be.

Overall, every boss is good except for the final battle, and once you beat the last three bosses once, it becomes much easier the second time around.

The only thing that puts this game’s gameplay a step below Ocarina is the lack of minigames and side quests. The only thing you can do besides playing the story in Alundra is collect golden falcons and rescue ships. However, since the game was released before Ocarina, the lack of mini-games is forgivable.

A 2-D Graphical Power House!

This game is a 2D masterpiece. You won’t find a better looking 2D RPG. The character sprites are large and well animated. The world is filled with lakes, rivers, waterfalls, deserts, snow (in dreams), forests, beaches, and more. In other words, every place you can imagine.

The houses and villages of Inoa look authentic even in 2019. The graphics were amazing and made me believe I was in the world. The bosses were beautifully designed, some of them huge and well animated. The architecture of some of the buildings was also a memorable sight.

Inoa Village has a dreamy atmosphere, reminiscent of Kokiri Forest from Ocarina of Time, with its fireflies flying around at night. If the game has a graphical flaw, it’s that the graphics lean more towards the dark side than the light side in terms of color palette.

It seems like some areas need brighter colors. But that’s just talk, and perhaps the graphics look that way to emphasize the dark atmosphere of the story. I mean, it’s hard to find a better looking 2D game than this.

A Mixed Bag

Musically, Alundra is hard to rate. There are some great pieces that rival the best work by Nintendo’s Koji Kondo (composer of The Legend of Zelda). One example is the overworld theme (which is pretty much the same as the game’s theme). Another is the sad song that plays when someone dies, and finally the awesome, I mean glorious, song that plays when the anime scene ends.

I should also add that some of the boss songs are very threatening. However, as you can see from my list, there are about 5 really great songs, and the rest are good to average. This wasn’t really an issue for me, because the music works when it needs to.

Tanaka Kohei is a good composer and has some moments to shine during the game, but most of the time it falls into mediocrity. He’s just not a very consistent guy.

The sound effects are well done, especially for a 2D game from 1997. You can hear everything from streams and waterfalls to smaller sounds like footsteps, birds chirping, and chickens crowing. You can even hear insects at night in Innoa.

Alundra is a RARE Classic!

There is a debate as to which action RPG is the best of all time. For me, Ocarina is the crowning achievement because it offers all the features of Alundra in full 3D glory, plus it is much simpler and has a lot more to do (side quests, minigames, etc.).

Some players who lack the patience and unfortunately brains may find the game’s brilliant puzzles and tough combat frustrating and impossible to play. RPG fans looking for a challenge, look no further because this is your game.

Alundra is truly a gem and may be the best 2D action RPG of all time. This is arguably the best action RPG on a non-Nintendo system. I don’t care if some people think Alundra is better than Ocarina, because this game is truly a masterpiece. It’s a shame The Matrix never got a true sequel.