A sneak peak of what's coming
What an awkward place to start. I haven't played Alundra for a very long time and it's far from one of my favourite games, but it's probably kept its place on my shelf for being the very first Playstation game I bought entirely with my own money (previously older brothers had made financial contributions towards purchases).
In those days I'd occasionally do crazy things like buy games without looking at any reviews. I'm pretty sure that's what happened here. The screenshots on the back of the box made it look a bit like Secret of Mana, but because it was on the dizzyingly powerful Playstation I mistakenly assumed it could only be even better.
At the very least it helped me learn young that better hardware does not necessarily equal better games.
Sure it looked like a prettier Secret of Mana, but it lacked the wit or charm, and even back then the plot was horribly hackneyed. So unsurprisingly, when I got stuck in-between the second and third dungeons I didn't feel any great desire to get myself unstuck. Perhaps if it weren't for the puny-sized (but highly priced) official memory cards of the times I might have eventually come back, but in the end I had to obliterate all my progress so I could try to get to the end of Die Hard Trilogy without having to do it all in one sitting.
A quick look on metacritic suggests that I should possibly have perservered, although it's hard to take anyone (particularly IGN) too seriously when they write torturous sentences like:
“Besides my gaming integrity being slightly scarred by near impossible obstacles, and I use the word "near" really loosely, I do have to admit that this game is awesome.”
Perhaps one bored restless day I'll go back and see if they were onto anything.
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