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Alundra
Dream a little dream for me
We love dreams. They
immerse us in bizarre
versions of reality that
can be completely convincing
yet utterly unrealistic, and at
times give us an insight into
how we would genuinely react in
extreme situations. Even better
than regular dreams are lucid
dreams, when you are entirely
conscious of the fact that you’re
dwelling inside a world created by
your own subconscious, allowing
you to get into all sorts of erotic
mischief. But imagine if you
could go one step further, and
enter into the dreams of others,
exploring the perversions of a
completely different mind from
your own.
This is precisely what Alundra,
one of the PSone’s forgotten
classics, enables you to do.
Washed ashore after a shipwreck,
our eponymous hero – who
sports the best bouffant ever
seen in a game – wakes up in
the village of Inoa and finds
himself under the care of a kind
fisherman. But pretty soon
things start to go awry after a
number of villagers mysteriously
die while in the midst of a deep
sleep. Alundra soon has to use his
dream-infiltrating talents to save
the remaining villagers, and get
to the bottom of a nefarious evil
infecting the land.
Alundra is heavily indebted to
the Legend Of Zelda series. It’s a
textbook Japanese action RPG,
complete with obligatory health
potions, bombs, conspicuous
cracks in walls, dungeons and
quirky characters – even the
protagonist bears striking
resemblance to Link. However,
the game is a far darker and
challenging experience than any
Zelda instalment. Developer
Climax created a game world
that is melancholy and reflective,
awash with barren landscapes
and a surprisingly sinister tone.
NPCs die rather frequently,
despite your efforts to save them.
The village becomes increasingly
depopulated and, as the plot
begins to take on somewhat
religious overtones, the sense of
impending doom becomes ever
more tangible and unsettling.
Alundra is also an incredibly
hard game. In fact, some consider
it one of the hardest games ever
made. But while the ruthless
bosses, awkward platforming
sections and unfathomable
puzzles literally caused us to
break a PSone pad, it never stops
being fun to play. Moreover,
despite its simple narrative and
graphical style, Alundra actually
makes you care about the world
you’re trying to save and the
characters in it, something even
some of the best RPGs could
learn a lot from.
Despite critical praise Alundra
did not sell terribly well, and
therefore can be hard to track
down. Expect to pay somewhere
between £10-15 for it on eBay,
or you can get the US version
for around $30 on Amazon.
Stay away from Alundra 2,
though, it’s rubbish. |
