C-
		Title	Albert Odyssey Legend of Eldean
		Publisher	Working Designs	Graphics	B
		Developer	Sunsoft	Sound	C-
		Released	July, 1997	Gameplay	C+
		Platform	Sega Saturn	Longevity	B-
	ESRB Information
	Comic Mischief Mild Animated Violence
	Highlights
	Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean is a good Japanese RPG on the Sega Saturn. Made even better by the excellent text translation by publisher Working Designs. But the game stops being fun when the grinding starts.
	Full Review

Try to think of the last 16-bit JRPG (Japanese Role Playing Game) you played, because Albert Odyssey is more or less that game. This game has all the fan fare of a Japanese RPG; random encounters, grinding through levels, rigid character progression, large overworkd and a long drawn out story. If you like those things in a RPG, then read on. Otherwise, you may want to check out some of the other Sega Saturn games available.

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You start the game as Pike, a 14 year old boy with a legendary talking sword. Your parents were killed by goblins when you were a baby (because no story is complete without dead parents!). You are going about your daily life, when the crystal that supplies your town with power is stolen, and the woman who has been caring for you since your parent’s death has been turned into stone. So now, you must venture out in search of a priest to reverse the spell and become the hero. The story of the game is overall merely "so-so"... My biggest complaint is that it progresses VERY slowly. You spend a large chunk of your time being strung along from town to town, trying to find this person, or that person. For instance; when you arrive in the first town, where the priest you are looking for is supposedly hanging out, the townsfolk just give you an awkward stare and say; "Priest? There is no priest here you dumbass!" (although admittedly with less snarkiness). So you go to the next town, get more of the same, until you eventually find the priest. But of course, something happens and you have to look for the descendant of Albert, who (big surprise) is nowhere near where you currently are. If you don't mind grinding for a few hours before the game decides to throw you a new piece of the plot, my gripes probably won't bother you. The game also tries to keep you from the main story with side quests. Which would not be so bad if they were at all interesting. But for the most part, they are just a twisty dungeon of random encounters. With no real reward for killing the dungeon boss, except allowing you to return to the main quest.

On the plus side, the game won't make your eyes bleed; the Saturn does a good job of presenting all the 2D art. It is however a bit annoying when it tries to toss in the 3rd dimension. The game tries to use a flicker effect to pull off 3D transparencies and 2D transparent shadows, which the Saturn doesn't seem to have the beef to back up. Fortunately, the game only uses these effects during specific sequences in the game. So the annoying flickering shadows will not keep you from enjoying the game. But take away from the experience of the narration. You can't really take a giant dragon seriousely when his shadow is bordering on inducing a seisure. Unfortunately this effect can't be seen on videos of the game, because the compression compensates for the flickering, but believe me, it is there. As far as an obligatory comment on the music goes; it’s as generic as it gets. In particular, the single track of battle music, (which is a dingy sounding guitar riff with some sort of xylophone beat thrown in) is especially lackluster. After awhile, I just turned down the game audio and found it more enjoyable to listen to podcasts in the background, rather than hear the same music for the 800th time. For a game with as much grinding as Albert Odyssey, it would have been nice to have at least one or two additional tracks to break up the repetition.

Unfortunately though, one of the biggest reasons I can't give Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean a good score has nothing to do with the game. It's the console; the Sega Saturn stores all of the game saves in VRAM (Volitile RAM). Which means that if the Saturn looses power to the VRAM, all of your save games are instantly deleted. You can extend the battery life of the Saturn by keeping it plugged into a wall outlet. But even still the console drains juice from the internal battery. Leave your console unplugged and your saves may be gone in a matter of days, depending on the quality of the battery you have installed. So, imagine the frustration level when you dump 30 hours into this game, grinding through all the dungeons. Then you turn your console on a week later and all your progress is gone forever. Yes, there are aftermarket parts you can buy that allow you to back-up your saves to a flash device. But on a stock Sega Saturn, I can't recommend investing the time into Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean, only to have it flushed down the drain because the battery in the Saturn ran out of juice.