The Legend of Alon D'ar review (PlayStation 2)

Collecting a large number of special items is another improperly implemented device used in Legend of Alon D'ar. While the rewards for the painstaking process of finding items--such as silver acorns and tree frogs--may appeal to those with undue amounts of time on their hands, this element of the game is as much a chore as any other. Similar side quests are strewn throughout Alon D'ar, but none are particularly compelling, and most feel like simple chores.

If Legend of Alon D'ar has a definite strong point, it would be the customization options available to players. Each character gains experience in the form of proficiency points, which with training can be spent in any manner desirable. The types of weapons your characters use, as well as their magical specialties, are yours to decide. However, in doing so, Stormfront has also given players control of a group of essentially lifeless characters who have little to set themselves apart from each other. You are rewarded, however, for breathing life into these characters by appearances that change over time as their skills progress. As further incentive to delve deeper into Alon D'ar, a second player can assist in controlling additional acquired characters, so two can share the duties of battle and experience the game cooperatively. The second player can jump in and out of the action at any time, which is a feature that many other games should consider implementing.

What will drive away most players is the learning curve, which in Legend of Alon D'ar is extremely unforgiving. If the battle system were easier to use or were more balanced, the lone protagonist would avoid countless horrible and frustrating deaths within the first few hours of your adventure. Monsters have incredible immunities to certain weapon types, and you will find yourself having to constantly swap between slashing, blunt, or chopping armaments in the slim hopes of surviving. In its effort to create exciting real-time combat, Stormfront has instead punished players who would want to fight tactical battles, rendering any value that the game's character customization factor may impart null and void. Legend of Alon D'ar is a game that should have undergone several more sessions of rigorous testing, which may have curtailed the serious graphical issues, gameplay flaws, and generally haphazard behavior, including a tendency for the game to lock up at inopportune moments and for monsters to magically appear from out of nowhere. Players who feel the desire to play an RPG on their PlayStation 2 would be better served by taking a look at any of the other RPGs released on the platform or perhaps investing in any of a number of excellent RPGs available for the original PlayStation. To put it bluntly, in a race with few competitors, Legend of Alon D'ar has firmly secured last place.