Alundra , released in Europe as The Adventures of Alundra, is an action-adventure video game developed by Matrix Software and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. It was originally released in 1997 in Japan, January 1998 in North America by Working Designs and June 1998 in PAL territories by Sony-owned Psygnosis.

The Story Behind Alundra

Ronan, the priest of the village, was also on the side of Melzas and helped him to deceive the villagers, and keep them praying for Melzas, the false god. It originally began development as an action role-playing game. The game's protagonist is a young man named Alundra, who learns that he has the power to enter people's dreams.

Alundra is considered a spiritual sequel to Climax Entertainment's Landstalker on the Sega Genesis, particularly because several members of the game's programming and design team had worked on Landstalker. After Melzas is destroyed, Alundra and Meia bid farewell to the villagers and depart together, before going their separate ways. Another dreamwalker, Meia, from the clan Elna arrives to the city and helps Alundra fight off the nightmares of the villagers.

How Alundra Plays

The game was followed up by Alundra 2 in 1999. A range of terrain and surfaces affect the player character, from sand, which causes the player character to move more slowly, to lava, which damages the player character. With his dream walking ability, Alundra proceeds to try to help the locals.

The sequel uses 3D graphics and has little in common with the original game. He is shipwrecked on an island, near the village of Inoa, where locals have been suffering from recurring nightmares that sometimes cause death. His goal is to make the villagers pray for their god, and thus make Melzas himself gain power from their prayers.

Why Players Still Load It Up

Following its North American release, Working Designs sold over 100,000 copies of the game in North America within a single month in early 1998. The game had sold 143,114 copies in Japan by the end of 1997. GameSpots Chris Johnston said that "For those who have bagged on WD for its past liberties with American humor, there is little to complain about here.

GamePro commented that "the game's heroic battle music will make you feel good about being the fighting savior of tormented sleepy souls." Reviewers for Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) and GameSpot also praised the translation as being noticeably more restrained than Working Designs' earlier projects, in which the humor was often overdone to the point where it compromised the mood. Alundra is maturely written and has a tone and feel that fits the game to a T." The one significantly criticized element of the game was the graphics. It has a score of 86 out of 100 at Metacritic based on 9 reviews, making it the sixth highest-rated PlayStation title of 1997, and held an 84% at GameRankings based on 13 reviews at the time of the site's closure in 2019.

Alundra — Frequently Asked Questions