This review contains spoilers
Welp! I finally finished this game after buying it in store 20 years ago.
It's a tough game to review, as it holds a bit of a special place in my heart as one of the first RPGs I played; however, there's a lot wrong about this game in spite of its ambition.
For starters, the pacing of the plot is completely all over the place, and nonsensical. It's also a challenge sometimes to parse what you're reading with the broken dialogue that I would assume was translated from a different language to English. Sometimes the characters will just be spouting dialogue that doesn't match up to what was said previously and it feels like everyone is having their own separate conversation.
As for the characters themselves, there's really not too much to say. Alaron, the main character, is kind of blank slate with his main trait being that he is bound by the quest he is on to cure himself of poison and, further along, to find his "true name." Apparently, not having a "true name" will doom him to madness, and the world to chaos unless he can find someone to name him soon; this is the backbone of the plot.
Ultimately, the game's plot boils down to your character visiting various people to have them give him his "true name" through a magical ceremony, but finding they are unable to help him and instructing him to find someone else who can. This ends up being a dragon that you blow a horn at and then it tells him that, "he is himself." And thus, his true name is Alaron, and he is saved. Also, his dad turns out to be the King of Gwernia (that he was serving as a squire) that boinked some lady who lives in the woods, thus making him the next in line for the throne after the King dies in the ending cutscene.
Throughout the game you'll run into different side characters that you can add to your party, but in this playthrough I only added the side characters you get at the start of the game: Brenna, Abrecan, and Rheda. There are more side characters you can get on the way but you can only have up to 4 in your party, and the late game side characters are easy to miss. There are cutscenes involved for the characters, however, the writing is quite clumsy at times, which makes the characters themselves seem bumbling. Also, some of the cutscenes take a bit of, uh, "imagination" from the player, as they are usually limited to the characters standing in place and talking. As for following the main plot of the story, which is pretty much what you'll be doing, since there are incredibly few side missions, you'll definitely be finding yourself at a loss what to do more than once; the game does a poor job of instructing the player on where they should go next. Adding to this, the map is huge, by n64 standards, but quite sparse with only a few landmarks spread throughout. Most NPCs will also offer little in the way of dialogue, and they are usually rude to your character or outright aggressive.
I would certainly be lying if I said I completely understood the history of the world of Aidyn Chronicles, or remembered the different factions exactly, but none of those things felt important enough to try to understand.
The turn based combat system itself is also rather glacial with its pace. For instance, encounters will usually start with your party on one side of the map, and the enemies on the other side. This usually ends up with around one minute of your characters slowing making their way to the other side of the map to fight. Along with this, area of effect spells take too long to cast on each of your party members, as well as when the enemies cast the same spells. There's also an issue with how weak your party is at the start, which ends in having to power level in order to beat one of the first bosses. After that point, however, you'll find most encounters can be beaten by casting air shield (enemy attacks do way less), and mirror (magic spells have no effect), thus making your party almost immune to damage, and throwing out any strategy needed. Oh right, and there's a spell you can acquire called "wall of bones" that will freeze an enemy forever, which can be used to cheese boss encounters. This can also be used on your party, so look our for that lol.
The graphics are okay enough; however, some NPC faces are rather painful to look at because they're so ugly, and the environments can look bland almost to the point of it being difficult to figure out where you are, or if you're going in circles.
As for the music and sound effects? Well... It's definitely nothing you'll be wanting to remember.
And that's all I can really say about the game. It's a long game that definitely overstays its welcome but I'm still happy to have completed it after all these years. Perhaps, if the developers had more time to work on it there would have been a potential classic on their hands, but alas, as it stands, I would give the game a 2/5, and I think that's being generous.
It's a tough game to review, as it holds a bit of a special place in my heart as one of the first RPGs I played; however, there's a lot wrong about this game in spite of its ambition.
For starters, the pacing of the plot is completely all over the place, and nonsensical. It's also a challenge sometimes to parse what you're reading with the broken dialogue that I would assume was translated from a different language to English. Sometimes the characters will just be spouting dialogue that doesn't match up to what was said previously and it feels like everyone is having their own separate conversation.
As for the characters themselves, there's really not too much to say. Alaron, the main character, is kind of blank slate with his main trait being that he is bound by the quest he is on to cure himself of poison and, further along, to find his "true name." Apparently, not having a "true name" will doom him to madness, and the world to chaos unless he can find someone to name him soon; this is the backbone of the plot.
Ultimately, the game's plot boils down to your character visiting various people to have them give him his "true name" through a magical ceremony, but finding they are unable to help him and instructing him to find someone else who can. This ends up being a dragon that you blow a horn at and then it tells him that, "he is himself." And thus, his true name is Alaron, and he is saved. Also, his dad turns out to be the King of Gwernia (that he was serving as a squire) that boinked some lady who lives in the woods, thus making him the next in line for the throne after the King dies in the ending cutscene.
Throughout the game you'll run into different side characters that you can add to your party, but in this playthrough I only added the side characters you get at the start of the game: Brenna, Abrecan, and Rheda. There are more side characters you can get on the way but you can only have up to 4 in your party, and the late game side characters are easy to miss. There are cutscenes involved for the characters, however, the writing is quite clumsy at times, which makes the characters themselves seem bumbling. Also, some of the cutscenes take a bit of, uh, "imagination" from the player, as they are usually limited to the characters standing in place and talking. As for following the main plot of the story, which is pretty much what you'll be doing, since there are incredibly few side missions, you'll definitely be finding yourself at a loss what to do more than once; the game does a poor job of instructing the player on where they should go next. Adding to this, the map is huge, by n64 standards, but quite sparse with only a few landmarks spread throughout. Most NPCs will also offer little in the way of dialogue, and they are usually rude to your character or outright aggressive.
I would certainly be lying if I said I completely understood the history of the world of Aidyn Chronicles, or remembered the different factions exactly, but none of those things felt important enough to try to understand.
The turn based combat system itself is also rather glacial with its pace. For instance, encounters will usually start with your party on one side of the map, and the enemies on the other side. This usually ends up with around one minute of your characters slowing making their way to the other side of the map to fight. Along with this, area of effect spells take too long to cast on each of your party members, as well as when the enemies cast the same spells. There's also an issue with how weak your party is at the start, which ends in having to power level in order to beat one of the first bosses. After that point, however, you'll find most encounters can be beaten by casting air shield (enemy attacks do way less), and mirror (magic spells have no effect), thus making your party almost immune to damage, and throwing out any strategy needed. Oh right, and there's a spell you can acquire called "wall of bones" that will freeze an enemy forever, which can be used to cheese boss encounters. This can also be used on your party, so look our for that lol.
The graphics are okay enough; however, some NPC faces are rather painful to look at because they're so ugly, and the environments can look bland almost to the point of it being difficult to figure out where you are, or if you're going in circles.
As for the music and sound effects? Well... It's definitely nothing you'll be wanting to remember.
And that's all I can really say about the game. It's a long game that definitely overstays its welcome but I'm still happy to have completed it after all these years. Perhaps, if the developers had more time to work on it there would have been a potential classic on their hands, but alas, as it stands, I would give the game a 2/5, and I think that's being generous.