The release of Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean, comes at a time of much controversy for its publisher, Working Designs. The controversy stems from the recent delay of Lunar; a game that was announced over a year ago, and the decision that Working Designs has made in dropping Saturn support and picking up Playstation support. Many role playing game fans are angry that Alundra, a just announced Playstation game, is on track for a release ahead of the eagerly anticipated Saturn Lunar. The recent announcement of a December release for Alundra coincides with the announcement of a delay until 98 of Lunar. While the two events may have nothing to do with each other, role playing game fans can't help but notice the coincidence. While Working Designs is dealing with adversity, the rest of the role playing game world is doing better than ever. The way Sony is going about releasing Final Fantasy VII, with a big old marketing blitz and hype up the wazoo, role playing games are beginning to enter the mainstream. This event has been preceded with various role playing games for both Saturn and Playstation making huge splashes in the top seller lists, with relatively no hype what so ever. So where does the release of Albert Odyssey fit into this picture? Filler. The release of Albert Odyssey will barely make a blip on the role playing game radar screen. That is not to say Albert Odyssey is a bad game, because it's not. In fact, Albert Odyssey is a decent game to pass the time with until the Final Fantasies and Lunars of the world come out to play.

The back story of the game is presented to you via use of a slide show introduction with a nicely done narrator. The slide show tells of how in the ancient times, the three Eldean siblings fought a dragon that was terrorizing their land. The three siblings combined to defeat the dragon. The people of their land rejoiced as they thought they'd finally found peace, but it was not to be. One of the Eldean brother's, Radoria, had become evil. Using the powerful fiend sword to bring terror on his own land, he killed many. The remaining brother Esten, and his sister Cirrus, struggled mightily to kill their evil brother. As things got desperate, Cirrus used her last ditch effort, turning herself into a powerful sword. With this sword, Esten slayed his brother. Here the slide show ends, and the game story begins. The game introduction is done using the in game graphics. The neat part is, unlike the game where the dialogue is done by text, the introduction is done with voice actors. This is a nice touch that adds tremendously to the game. The story is this: a town is attacked by ogres, the main hero is just a baby, a baby of the royal family. The royal family tries to escape but is slain by the ogres. The baby, named Pike, lives protected by a magical sword called Cirrus (the Eldean sister that turned herself into a sword). Pike is adopted by a harpy and is raised by them, believing all the while that his harpy mother is his true mother. You begin to take control of Pike at the age of ten, and from here on the story develops in game.

The story unfolds in stereotypical role playing game fashion. You will see the story line develop by the completion of smaller sub-quests that fit into the big picture to give you a rounded out story line. The story does feature a few twists, but none that a experienced role player could not have guessed. While the story is not the most original, Working Designs makes sure that it never gets dry. Good writing is a characteristic of a Working Designs game and Albert Odyssey has it in bundles. The players retort with sharp wit when appropriate and get serious when the time comes. Also of note are times in the conversation where you are given an option on what to say. I thought this feature was neat because it gives you the feeling that you can steer where the conversation is going. As in other Working Design games, (most notably Lunar: Eternal Blue) littered throughout the conversation are a few jokes that border on childish, but it's nothing to throw a fit over and I for one enjoyed them greatly. If there can be any greater compliment to a game, it's that I actually laughed at some of the dialogue.

As your party grows to five characters big, management of items and equipment becomes a hassle in most role playing games, not in Albert Odyssey. The user interface in the game is kept simple and easy to understand. This is most likely because Albert Odyssey uses many of the traditional role playing menu standards. Equipping and using items is a breeze and saving through the glowing orb thing is textbook and is actually fast compared to the pace of the rest of the game. The only problem I had is in the shops in the game. When buying new equipment, you are only told what it is and how much it costs, no where does it mention how much or how little it will raise your levels. This is a feature I had grown accustomed to from most other role playing games and to find it missing here was extremely disappointing. Why Albert Odyssey's designers insisted that we shop blind is beyond me.

As with the rest of the game, the fighting in Albert Odyssey has a simple interface. Simply pick attack, defend, magic, item or run icon pick, what character you want the action to be done on and off you go. The system is nice and simple, but the execution is lacking. Lets begin with the loading time. It takes about five seconds to load into a fight, and five seconds to load out. After a couple of 'steps, load in, fight, load out' affairs, you are just about ready to throw the game and your Saturn out the window. If your idea of fun is staring at a black screen then you will have a blast, the rest of us will be extremely frustrated. The waiting doesn't end there. Once the fight begins the game pauses. You pick what your going to do, the game pauses and then executes your action. You hit the enemy, the game pauses, shows the hit animation, pauses slightly, shows hitpoint and then if the enemy is going to die pauses yet again before the death animation. The delay reaction times in the fighting, really, really, really, pause, really bother me. If I am Working Designs and I have decided to fix the fighting loading times, why not fix the in game slugginess first? Doesn't Victor Ireland extol the virtues of perfectionism? Then why isn't this vital part of the game "perfect"? My personal thought, based on pure speculation, is that fixing the sluggish feel and reaction of the fights would of taken too long and we all know Working Designs can't afford any more delays.

The game's dungeons, with the exception of the very last one, are pretty easy to breeze through, as are most of the battles. In fact the first few battles don't even allow the enemy to damage you. Leveling up also comes with ease, one could say this game is too balanced. You acquire the necessary experience to level up to which ever level is needed to defeat a boss with out the hassle of having to go out of your way to pick fights to gain experience. This is a double edge sword in that it doesn't annoy the gamer with too much excessive fighting, but it makes the game that much shorter because you didn't need to go out and find someone to fight to level up. Likewise, sufficient gold is won in battle, allowing you to purchase pretty much any equipment and items which you may want or need. In an effort to ensure that your quest doesn't end too soon, three side quests are included. They are definitely hidden and can only be completed when you are at the right place at the right time, literally. That's right. The side quests use the Saturn's internal clock so that you must be at say the graveyard during nighttime on your Saturn's clock for a certain event to unfold. This is so neat, and very much like the time activated features in Christmas Nights. In fact I liked the side quests so much, I hope other role playing games take advantage of the Saturn's internal clock in the future.

The graphics in Albert Odyssey are a mixed bag. You see, Sunsoft had planned this game to be released on the SNES, but when they saw that the SNES was at the end of it's life cycle they decided to port what they had to Saturn code and go from there. This would explain the 16-bit like overhead world. The overhead world is a funky, mode seven looking "3-D" and it's not pretty. It also makes for bad depth perception until you get accustomed to it. One thing that I found the over world missing is town names appearing on the screen as you neared a town. This feature found in Wild Arms (for the Playstation) is extremely useful, and would have been one of those things that I wish Working Designs would had added when they ported the game into English. The town and dungeon graphics are all strictly 2-D and decent 2-D at that. There's nothing better than average looking super deformed characters, than good looking super deformed characters. That said, the graphics will never, ever blow you away; yet they get the job done proficiently. The fighting scenes follow suit with the rest of the game and look well in themselves. The characters are always doing something, even when it's not their turn to attack or defend themselves. The magic spells are typical role playing game fare, and far from spectacular. When it comes to the fighting graphics, you hope that they look good, but in the same vein don't interfere with the game play. Sadly, in Albert Odyssey, one can tend to make the conclusion that the excessive animations are one of the main causes for the "sluggish and delayed" reaction times.

The graphics may not scream next generation, but the music certainly does. It's great to see that someone has utilized CD-ROM technology properly and provided some of the best redbook tunes ever. The music is a definitive plus in Albert Odyssey. Never on any other 32 bit role playing game have I ever heard a better soundtrack. The tracks are moody and blend in with the game almost seamlessly, it's just beautiful. I don't think I could praise the soundtrack enough, "encore!, encore!".