The Legend of Alon D'ar, on the outset looked comparable to previously released console RPG, Summoner. Scheduled to have an in-depth storyline, RPG-based gameplay consisting of magical and phsyical spells, and eventual team battle - Alon D'Ar sprung up into the game world relatively quickly and unexpectedly. While we all enjoy surprises, especially those of us in the often varied, and dearly loved RPG genre - we generally only enjoy pleasant surprises. Unless you're ready to stick through some awkward controls and an overly-complex inventory battle system, Legend of Alon D'Ar will not fall into the positive range of this spectrum

Even from the beginning, you'll smell trouble. Now let me make it clear that graphics are not everything, but when they seem this outdated, you can't help but wonder how much work was put into the rest of the game. The faces of the characters, including your lead, Jarik, seem disfigured and unattractive - definitely not even close to seeming geared towards a PS2 system. To be fair, the cut-scenes are the less attractive of the two views, and while the regular gameplay view isn't as hard on the eyes, it is rather open and bland. 

That being said, I tossed this trepidation aside and, as always, waited to see how the most important part, the gameplay, fared. Everything seemed fine at first. Run around, talk to people, search for a weapon, and explore. Even the fact that my first quest was to run around and find things scattered on the ground (hey, the first puzzle can't always be spectacular, right?), didn't bother me too much. I figured that would change. Then... I went to train.

Battle in Alon D'Ar is more an encounter with patience and frustration than mere fights with evil's minions. While you are supposed to be able to switch weapons, spells and tactics, they aren't organized for quick access and require some rapid thumbing through. What's worse is that the difficulty curve is so steep in the beginning of the title that you'll get ruthlessly wiped out by small critters while you helplessly wait for your initiative to come up (either for healing or fighting). There is an elemental type theme to your magic - and each monster has a particular element which it is the most damaged by. It would all be fine and dandy if it didn't take so long and involve so much work to switch multiple weapons (even if you do happen to have them in your belt, which is rather limited) - most of the time, the monsters have practically killed you before you figure it out. Hence the real problem with the title, it's just so hard (and not just because of gameplay aspects, but some structural ones), that you'll have a hard time really getting into the game. 

Shortly after making my way out of town, I received my next puzzle. First I found 5 drinking horns on the ground everywhere, now I had to find 20 acorns. These kinds of basic, and mostly patience testing, puzzles rather than mind bending puzzles are a little too common throughout your experience, and quite frankly, just aren't very inspiring. It's pretty much like this all the way through, and it's just like that "busy work" the teachers used to give you in grade school that was really mundane, and usually inflicted as a punishment.

On the positive side, you do retain the RPG aspects to distributing experience points and molding your character fairly freely. The fact that many games don't allow this sort of flexibility is something I've heard more than one RPG fan complain of. Each character basically starts out as a blank palette - with no preconceived notions or directions pre-set for them. You can either love that or hate that, as you may or may not be good at creating diverse parties. There are also plenty of different specialty items (weapons with special attributes, for example) to work with on your character that also adds to a somewhat faithful RPG experience. In the end though, it's just not enough to save the game as a whole.

While I am usually loathe to make the decision a game isn't even worth a rental, I'm afraid Alon D'ar has left me with that feeling. The flaws and frustrations far outweigh any positive aspects to the title - and to recommend this would go against my conscience. There's just too many things wrong for this game to feel right.

Graphics: 4
Graphics don't make a game, but they can make it harder to look at. Closeups of characters look rather distorted, and regular gameplay screens are more open and bland.

Sound: 4
Voices of human and monsters become repetitive (and can be annoying as a monster pounds quickly away at you while your initiative drags).

Concept: 6
To be fair, not too many RPG's stray far from the "commoner becomes gifted and saves the world storyline." This one just doesn't bring any interesting aspects to the genre we haven't seen before.

Overall: 4.5
Alon D'Ar, despite my hopes for it to be a sleeper hit, never really woke up my gaming instincts. Despite my reluctance to classify any game as less than average, Alon D'Ar had a long way to go before even becoming an average experience.