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"A BLAST FROM THE PAST?"

Released in the summer of 1997 after an almost year-long delay, Working Designs released their American port of Sunsoft of Japan's "Albert Odyssey"; the game may look and play like a 16-bit game (although it definitely doesn't sound like one), but that can be easily overlooked if the storyline and quests are engaging enough to involve the members of the card-carrying RPG fanatic club (to which I do not belong). "AO" has a decent bag of old storylines that are full of cliches but also has dumb/funny humor to keep the quest engaging: the Eldean clan (three brother and a sister) were instrumental in the defeat of the evil Black Dragon Vlag, which was threatening the peace of the kingdom of Fargasta. When the evil creature was defeated and the Eldean clan inherited immortality by drinking from Vlag's blood (??!!), sibling rivalry and greed split the clan into different camps: Radoria moved to the dark side, while Estan and Cirrus defended the bright side of truth.

At a crucial moment when Radoria was about to defeat their last-ditch efforts, Cirrus called upon her desperate measure: she transformed into the Holy Sword of Eldean, which Estan used to wipe Radoria off the map with a tremendous blast of energy that vanished all members of the Eldean clan. You enter the scene as a youngster named Pike which inherits the Cirrus sword (with whom he has developed a fond relationship!) from his father and mother, which were killed by some evil goblins at the beginning of the game (made funny by the God-awful voice-acting). Raised by an angel-like character named Laia in the Harpy Forest, Pike has led a pretty uneventful life under the cloud of his folks' brutal murders (shades of Conan the Barbarian).

GRAPHICS / VISUALS: C
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Originally intended as another chapter in the long-running line of successful "Albert Odyssey" RPG's released in Japan for the Super Famicom, Sunsoft of Japan decided to switch development of the game to the Sega Saturn when the 16-bit cartridge market collapsed in the mid-90's. As a result "AO" looks dated by 32-bit standards: the graphics use the Super Deformed artisitic design of Japanese RPG's and anime of yesteryear, with loads of little sprites parading over a host of medievil backgrounds (caves, dungeons, palaces, villages, forests, etc.); the special effects, resolution and color palette, although featuring a slight upgrade from what could have been possible on the Super Famicom, are nothing out of the ordinary for older systems.

There are no FMV cinemas or anime movies, like in other WD RPG's like "Magic Knight Rayearth" and "Alundra" (the intro is a series of narrated still images); also lacking are any sort of visual extras, like artwork sketches of any major bells and whistles. Fans of the "Lunar" series will be thrilled that the same Japanese artist that designed the characters in that venerable WD series also did the artistic work for "AO", but that is only for the true die-hard fans to appreciate. In the end, games like "Final Fantasy VII", "Shining Force III", "The Granstream Saga", "Panzer Dragoon Saga" and "Shining the Holy Ark" show true 32-bit visual power that couldn't be achieved on the 16-bit platforms; the same can't be said about "Albert Odyssey".

MUSIC / SOUND EFFECTS: B-
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The voice acting, while limited to a handful of speech samples here and there (unlike the upcoming voice-filled "M.K.Rayearth"), borders on the laughably bad at certain spots (the narrator doing the voice-over during the opening sounds like a drunken Jack Perkins); in a cheese-o-meter scale the laughs help break out the monotony of a rehashed cliche-to-the-bone storyline, but Victor Ireland should look to expand his dubbing budget for future releases. Sound effects are suitably predictable for the genre, with loads of swords clashings and fire-breathing monsters making an appearance with the predictable chest of environmental fillings (check out those birds chipping). It all comes thru with crystal clarity that is a welcome relief from the usual assortment of muffled sounds coming out of the Sega Saturn.

By far the biggest improvement that "Albert Odyssey" has experienced after going from 16-bit cartridge to 32-bit CD is in the soundtrack (kiss those MIDI-composed buzz sounds goodbye!). The score is rousing and packs plenty of melodrama and orchestral histrionics; the power of the CD medium and the Yamaha sound chips is put to good use for this game, and the use of real instruments and real compositions adds a lot of flavor to the proceedings. Just don't expect the soundtrack to raise your pulse to the level of a John Williams ("Jaws", "Indiana Jones") or James Horner ("Titanic") composition.

GAMEPLAY / FUN FACTOR: C
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The good news first: this version improved on the Japanese version's two major flaws: a ten-second loading time everytime the party engaged in battle was cut down to five/six seconds for the American release. Also, the frequency of the battles on the Japanese version was high and led to frustrated gamers and tedious battles; Working Design reduced the frequency of the battles for the US version, which guarantees that the flow of gameplay is faster and less-tedious on the American "Albert Odyssey". Although lacking the flash and gameplay improvements of other next-generation RPG's (this one plays like every other RPG that came out before it), "AO" has that 'classic' feel of an old-time genre that might sell gamers the "AO" experience on the strength of nostalgia alone (especially those turned off by the angular and personality-free polygon-filled graphics of newer RPG's).

And let's not discontinue the power of laughter to give a semi-serious and tired affair a swift kick in the pants (something that saved "Shining Force III" from tediousness but made "Panzer Dragoon Saga" too straight-faced for its own good). Working Designs has a reputation for being a weird but lovable bunch of videogame nuts with plenty of creativity (they recently snatched hilarious PSXtreme journalist/reviewer Zach Meston, as well as the previous webmaster from this site, Dave Z.), and that translates into some inventive creativity in the conversation sequences of "Albert Odyssey": the use by several characters (Lulu in particular) of the term 'swordmaster', the way Pike refers to Krishna as 'Indiana Jane', etc. There are even a few references to ebonics in there somewhere, giving the game a shot of personality that keeps the proceedings light on seriousness but packed with smiles (gamers looking for less cheese in their RPG storylines might want to look to Sega's other RPG's instead).

Unfortunately "AO" has just as many negatives as positives, and those flaws can't be ignored and sink the score down a few notches. Despite improving the loading times and the frequency of battles, the game still feels too slow and the battles too frequent to be considered an acceptable pace for an RPG ("Panzer Dragoon Saga" having the best pace in an RPG I have ever played); a 'run' button like the one in Sony's "Wild Arms" would have helped speed up the game's pace considerably by running away from unnecesary and tedious fights. The game is quite short, despite having those loading times and random battles, clocking at about 18-25 hours depending on your obsession with finishing and/or finding every single secret; there might be hidden subquests in the game, but the linearity of the game has you led by the hand of the developers right until the very end (the same happened on "P.D.Saga", but the game played different enough from other RPG's to make the experience memorable).

OVERALL: C+
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What ultimately sinks "Albert Odyssey" into the expendable column is the lack of any major 32-bit next-generation improvements, in either graphics and/or gameplay enhancements. Two recent RPG's for the PSX, Sony's "Wild Arms" and Capcom's "Breath of Fire III", look straight from the 16-bit school of SNES visuals but pack lengthy quests, plenty of missions, extras (like a fishing minigame), minor visual fireworks, FMV intros and cinemas rewarding the gamer and advancing the plot; "AO" may be on a 32-bit platform, but it feels too much like an old game trying to sneak a fast one on the undiscriminating casual gamer. If you find it cheap enough, give it a shot; even the worse Working Designs game has a cool little color manual that is a joy to read and hold in your collection, even if the game described on it has passed its prime.

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