When you were in High School or College, did you ever register for a
class or joined a club that you didn't have any interest in just because
of an extrenous circumstance, like a much-needed extra credit or to meet a
girl/boy that was part of that class/club? I remember joining a Home
Economics class in High School, just to be close to this girl named Tammy
that I really liked. I flunked the class badly, and to this date I
can't organize my kitchen resources or cook anything that doesn't require
boiling water... but I did get to be Tammy's "significant other" for my
Junior year (let's leave it at that). In College I joined an
activist environmental club that was trying to shut down General Electric
for contaminating the Upstate NY river next to our college; I couldn't
give a flying f%*@ about the cause, because I just wanted to be close to
this girl named Sydney that was a member... we became kinda-friends for a
few years. And there is this Devil-adoring animal-sacrificing club
that David Koresh came to town to organi... well, let's leave it at that
:-P.The point of this demented rant is that some of us just aren't meant
to like, understand or ever be able to get gaming satisfaction out of
RPG's, despite our best efforts to try to understand the cult-like
devotion many gamers feel toward the genre. For a gamer that doesn't
like RPG's, I sure have played my fair share of them over the past few
months: "Final Fantasy VII", "Panzer Dragoon Saga", "Sword & Sorcery"
(import), "Wild Arms", "Dragon Force", even the recently released "Quest
64". And with any future domestic Saturn releases (if any) likely to
be RPG's, I better get acquainted with the genre if I ever intend to get
enjoyment out of "Magic Knight Rayearth" and "Shining Force III", the next
two releases for 1998. So a couple of months ago I picked up Working
Design's best-seller RPG "Albert Odyssey: The Legend of Eldean" for under
$30, and gave it a methodical and relaxed shot over a few weeks; since I
watch way too much TV and work odd hours, it's impossible for me to
"inmerse" for hours at a time with a story-telling media like this Saturn
game. But I finished the sucker, and I'm ready to pass judgement on
Victor Ireland's next-to-last release for a Sega platform, unless (a)
Bernie Stollar leaves or (b) piles of dough get thrown Working Design's
way. I say to those two fools: chill, grab a Coke, smile, and let's
all watch "The Secret World of Alex Mack" together like a big happy
Nickelodeon family (shameless plug, I know!).
The basics: there is this magician-created town named Fargasta, which
is home to three brothers and a sister from the Eldean clan that are
powerful enough to keep Fargasta free from the assault of the Black Dragon
named Vlag. There is rivalry between the brothers over the Madriker
sword (Vlag's spirit is in it), with Radoria going evil, and Cirrus/Estan
staying good. In a last-ditch attempt Cirrus transforms herself into
a Holy Sword, which Estan uses to land Madriker a lethal blow... in the
aftermath of the battle, the Eldean clan had vanished without a
trace. That's were the player comes in and takes control (after a
hilariously-dubbed intro sequence) over Pike, a young man that will have a
long-time friendship between himself and Cirrus the sword (Pike's father
used to have it). Got it? ------------------
Based on a series of strategy-RPG's released in Japan by the Sunsoft
Co. of Japan for the Super Famicom (which never made it to the States),
"Albert Odyssey" started life as the next installment of the 16-bit series
until the market for Super Famicom fell through the floor in 1995/96; then
the work-in-progress got moved to the Sega Saturn. The result is a
game that doesn't push the next-gen technology housing it, and leaves a
lackluster impression to those of us spoiled by the look of true 32-bit
RPG's like "Final Fantasy VII" and "Panzer Dragoon Saga". Sure, the
graphics are awash in vivid colors and the resolution of the sprites is
crisp and sharp; even the movement of the Super-Deformed characters in the
game are fluid and better than what you'd see in older RPG's (comparable
to those in "Wild Arms"). A good point (or a strike against it,
depending on your love of the genre) is that "AO" doesn't have any
pretensions of being ground-breaking or extraordinary in its settings,
character or artistic design; you've seen this medieval settings,
costumes, beasts and spells before in hundreds of games since the 8-bit
days of the Master System and the NES (although not every average-looking
Saturn RPG has the designer of the "Lunar" series working on the graphics,
which happens to be the case with "AO").
A nice touch is that, whenever you encounter an enemy while you're
walking by a particular background (like a jungle or a lake), that
background will be the backdrop for the fighting sequences; compare that
to the "stock" background that pops up when you fight in "FFVII" or "Wild
Arms". Still, this game's visuals could use a hell of a lot more
bells and whistles (not that it makes a difference for tried-and-true RPG
fans): the intro is just a series of still pictures with a voice-over, and
there is no FMV cinemas to advance the game's plot and at the end of the
game (didn't Working Design's go out of their way to re-edit the opening
of "Alundra" for PSX??!!). There are no bonus segments with sketches
or document designs, which was a nice bonus in "FFVII International", and
so forth. A bare-bones 16-bit RPG gets injected with a healthy dose
of color and eye-candy for its 32-bit debut, but "AO" still looks mighty
dated when compared to the other big RPG Sega released in 1997, "Shining
the Holy Ark".
MUSIC / SOUND EFFECTS: B-
---------------------
A very pretty and rousing musical score, using loads of heroic
histrionics straight out of soundtracks from movies like "Willow" and
"Legend". The move to CD allowed "Albert Odyssey" to upgrade what
would have been a bunch of 16-bit " MIDI tunes into a John
Williams-wannabe musical score using real instruments and red-book
audio. It lacks that certain "pizzaz" that makes a score stand out
from the rest of musical scores out there, but it gets the job done; if
Square RPG soundtracks are the equivalent of the "Star Wars" theme, then
the music in "AO" is the equivalent of the theme from "Independence Day"
(weird analogy!).
The sound effects, although crystal-clear and sampled at an acceptable
rate, are dead-average and not extraordinary in any way, shape or form; if
you've heard a fireball striking a foe, or the sporadic incidental sounds
of locations that you happen to be walking by (Mycent), then you've
already heard them before. There are a few voice samples here and
there, but not as many as I'd expect from the upcoming "Magic Knight
Rayearth"... why is the CD space not filled with tons of voice samples and
spoken lines? (Oh yeah, the music! Gulp!).
GAMEPLAY / FUN FACTOR: C
---------------------
There were only a handful of things even remotely exciting or
interesting about playing this game, considering it's my first Working
Designs RPG ever: admiring the artwork and artistic design of Toshiyuki
Kubooka, the man that designed the "Lunar" series and "AO" itself.
Although wholy unoriginal and cliche to the core, it is interesting to see
how young Pike evolves from a klutzy kid into a warrior that will save the
day, again! (yawn). I like that, like an old-time book or novel, the
game unfolds in numeric chapters (1, 2, 3...) and that it feels you're
advancing toward a conclusion instead of randomly going around without a
clue what to do next (can you say "Saga Frontier"?). And there's of
course the cool and " well-designed color manuals that are always a
pleasure to hold and read because it feels like they were designed by
someone who gives a f*@$ about the game (what other company out there
delays the relase of their games just to perfect the game's packaging, as
was the case with "Alundra"?).
The writing in the game stands out for using modern references and
humor, which was sharp and on-the-mark most of the time (no surprise
considering Victor Ireland is one fruity guy himself); you'll hear
references to anything from homosexuality (in a 'PG' sort of way) to
ebonics, with a fair degree of puns and word-play thrown in for the heck
of it. Samples: Lulu using the name "swordmaster" when addressing
another character, Pike saying "Welcome Indiana Jane" when meeting
Krishna, etc. The subtle humorous touches of "AO" make it an ideal
hook to motivate players to talk with as many townspeople as possible to
see what weird stuff they might say next, which is a sharp contrast to the
boredom and tediousness associated with the task of talking to other
characters (try it on "Quest 64", and tell me how long you can keep your
eyes open). RPG purists might be mad at Ireland and his WD
translators for messing up the heroic touches and dramatic storytelling
needed to make the hero's story rousing and touching; I say that it's WD's
money and reputation, and that they can do with their projects as they
wish. Don't wanna have modern references in your RPG? Learn
Japanese, and start importing grasshopper!Alas, the game still suffers
from a load of gameplay imperfections, despite being delayed for over a
year from it's initial 1996 release. The loading time when you go
into battle mode is excrutiatingly long (5-6 seconds), and it happens
again when your party goes back to the map; this wouldn't be such a pain
if the frequency of the encounters with the enemies was better paced and
timed (like in Sega's "Panzer Dragoon Saga"), but sometimes it feels like
you can't walk more than a few steps before another battle must take place
("Beyond the Beyond" anyone?). To compound the problem Pike and Co.
can't run or walk faster than the default speed, which is quite slow; a
"run" button (like the one in "Wild Arms") would have made a world of
difference. How did our fellow Japanese gamers were able to put up
with even longer loading times and frequency of battles (which WD toned
down for the Japanese release) is beyond me. "AO" is also lacking on
sub-quests and bonus stuff to do beyond the main game, although I've read
on the net that there are additional tasks hidden in the game; as it
stands right now, "AO' could easily be finished in 15-20 hours by a
seasoned RPG veteran (took me over 25 hours, but I suck at RPG's and took
my sweet time getting there).
OVERALL: C+
-------
It would be easy to dismiss the 16-bit look and feel of "Albert
Odyssey" as the main reason behind the game not living up to its
pre-release hype, despite being Working Design's best-selling game ever up
to 1996 (since then "Alundra" has taken that honor). But there have
been other RPG's with a similar "classic" look that used the 32-bit
technology to add length and/or bonuses to the quests; "Wild Arms" and
"Breath of Fire III" come to mind. "AO" came with too little extras,
too little bonuses, too much baggage from its Super Famicom roots, and too
late to a market on the verge of making "FFVII" the new standard-bearer
for the genre (for better or worse). I'd recommend it to those
looking for an affordable nice little time-waster until the arrival of the
much-delayed "M.K.Rayearth", but there are other RPG's ("Guardian Heroes",
WD's own "Shining Wisdom", "Shining the Holy Ark", "P.D.Saga" if you can
find a copy, etc.) to consider before making "Albert Odyssey" the premier
RPG for your Saturn console. Wake me up when Victor Ireland grows up
and realizes there's money to be made localizing games for Sega's
Dreamcast or even the Saturn (yeah right!).Did I mention that there is
this TV show called "The Secret World of Alex Mack" that is ten times more
fun to watch and make fun of than to play "Albert Odyssey"?
- J.M.
Vargas
