...Alundra follows the story of a young lad (its almost always a young lad) who has the ability to enter the dreams of people and surmise what is going on. With great power, comes a degree of responsibility and Alundra's power gets him tangled in an epic that spans the world that he lives in. The last Sony RPG was Wild Arms which did very well but it was a standard format rpg where you would have world map scenes and battle scenes. Alundra is the first action-RPG for the PS where all the action takes place right on the map screen. As you travel the countryside, enemy agents will appear and you will fight them right on the spot with no shifting to a separate battle scene.

Think of Alundra as a PS variant on the succesful Zelda and Secret of Mana game engines. Like both of those earlier SFC games, you can pick up various objects throughout your travels and loft them at opponents or simply watch the trajectory of your 'missle as it travels through the air. Rock, vases, bushes and other objects are interspersed throughout the grounds for your hefting. The other borrowed feature is a running action move where you can run instead of walking around in the Alundra world. You can also run and then strike an opponent for more forceful attacks.

One of the new moves that Alundra can perform is a burrow move where you dig into the ground to hunt for suspected treasure or artifacts. When you encounter water, you can get right in and swim to another part of the area. The main character has an immense arsenal of moves and antics at his disposal and his movements and varied animations are a pleasure to watch. It would be safe to say that Alundra takes the best features from the Super Famicom versions of Zelda and Secret of Mana and improves on them with a 32-bit game engine and sharp graphics. The impressive looking elemental attacks don't hurt either.

Here, Alundra dashes towards an enemy soldier garbed in knightly armor. The features on the main character and the cast in general is highly detailed with armor, equipment, garb and weapons rendered in bright colors. In the pirate ship scene, you will meet a group of seadogs who wear caps and have bulging stomachs. You can even make out the detail of the beards on these guys. In the many towns that you will visit, you will occasionally meet a grandmotherly type. She will come with dour face, a frilly bonnet, an outfit that looks something like a night gown. Other denizens of the towns have varied garb for some fashion diversity.

Alundra will be able to buy many types of weapons throughout the game. Some weapons can be gained by conquering a particular foe or boss. As usual, swords and axes may be used for short range attacks while bows and magic wands are available for long range attacks. Like all good rpgs, there are mega versions of weapons, such as a mega-wand that can shoot out flaming projectiles or a sword that imparts an extra elemental attack in conjunction with the normal blade damage. An arrow attack is shown in good detail with Alundra plucking the bow and the resulting smooth sail of the arrow

When a boss comes into view, you battle him on screen, running around and dodging any oncoming attacks as well as launching your own offensive. A mix of physical and magical attacks is necessary to dispatch most of them. Of course, there is the usual mix of musical drama and visual fireworks to signify that a boss has come into your presence and is about to attempt to kill you. A large assortment of enemy presences and grunts will provide a lot of sword play. A mix of character interaction as well as puzzles will keep you intrigued, perplexed and busy.

The graphical quality of the game is high and the animations are top notch. A wide range of role playing games is now available in the import market but Alundra signifies the first action-adventure with everything done in real time which is more exciting in my opinion to play. Attacks are performed by you alone and do not rely on statistical data or computations of hit or miss percentages. It also keeps everything in perspective, literally, with no shifting of game screens. Recommended for fans of Japanese RPGs.