A Review: Alundra, PSOne 1998

Alundra is an RPG, or role-playing game, developed by Matrix Software and published by Psygnosis in the late 1990's for the PlayStation One. In this game has the player assume the role of Alundra, a young and inexperienced 'Dreamwalker', as he uncovers a sinister plot to destroy the world and battles the creatures and demons set upon said task. The game focuses heavily on exploration and puzzle solving, with the player completing a series of trials as they advance through the game. Considering the target audience, Alundra was criticised at the time for having some very dark themes and subject matter, such as depression, survivor guilt, and the darker side of religious zealotry. Alundra was also considered by some to be the spiritual successor to the Sega Genesis game Landstalker, particularly because some of the developers for this game had also worked on Landstalker. Alundra was originally going to be very much like Final Fantasy, with a party-based RPG system. However, it was changed to a more action-adventure-focused game around the midpoint of its development.

For me, Alundra is one of the very few games that had me feeling a complex mix of emotions when I finally completed it. On the one hand, I thought that the ending was great, and I had a real sense of accomplishment at having gone through such a long and richly storied game. On the other hand, I was sad and felt that completing Alundra was bittersweet, as no more would I be able to immerse myself in its diverse and complex world. To put it simply, I loved this game and felt quite sad that I had completed it. I loved the deep, rich, and really well-told story of Alundra's world and found that learning the lore and history was something I welcomed rather than dreaded, unlike some games that I have played. I came to care for the characters and was genuinely effected by the fact that some of them don't make it. I loved the pacing and gameplay, and I found that I could easily lose hours to this game without even realising it. The combat and movement mechanics were very good and, despite not being 3D, gave the player a sense of depth and layers to the world. The enemies' varied and provided real worthwhile challenges to the player. The boss battles were fantastic and had me tense more than once, and I felt genuine pride at having beat them each time. The weapons and various equipment were spread out perfectly and kept the player from running off into certain death. Locking regions behind a need for certain items was a solid choice by the developer. I found the ending sequence to be just about right, with the story nicely wrapped up and tied off. The various factions and tribes made sense, and I thought that the dream sequences were excellently portrayed, with deep and meaningful actions and visuals to everything. The way in which certain mental conditions and illnesses were visualised was fantastic, and the genuine feelings that were conveyed were brilliant. I will say that, as a personal point, I would have liked there to have been less death in this game. I also didn't think that everyone who died necessarily should have, while there were some that certainly should have. Otherwise, though, I can think of little that this game did 'wrong' as such.


Visually, this game has some great SNES or Genesis vibes and has the whole retro comic/cartoon style down perfectly. The colour palette used was contrasting and varied and gave life to the various environments while not being over-the-top or offensive to the eyes. The dream sequences were fantastic, and the effects used to portray anger, grief, guilt, and fear were amazing and perfectly clear. The bosses looked great, and their attacks were both impactful and colourful too, both from a gameplay and visual standpoint. The attack and movement animations were very good, and each was individual enough so as not to look the same or be too repetitive. I loved the forests and temples and thought that they looked great and blended brilliantly into the world around them. The oceans, rivers, streams, and marshes looked great, and I liked the waves and splash detailing that was given. The town looked very good too, with a nice mix of buildings and structures instead of simple, repeating houses. The characters looked great, and each had their own aesthetic that worked for them; they even had their own walking styles and animations too.


Overall, I thought that this was a fantastic game and one that really deserved every point of the score that I gave it. The only reason that I didn't give it a higher score was that I felt too many characters died, and I would have dearly loved to see the relationship between Alundra and Meia explored in more detail. I also felt that there were moments where the player was swarmed far too much, and that frustration bled off some of the fun of this game.



8/10 – A Good Game!
Signed Off – Leonardo – PSJ