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Well, it’s finally here…the N64’s second (and final) traditional RPG. It’s no secret that, while the N64 has seen some excellent RPG hybrids (Zelda: OoT, Ogre Battle 64, etc.), the system’s traditional RPG lineup has sucked. That "lineup" only consists of one game, Quest 64, and that game was a horrible early attempt at a RPG. Oddly enough, that game was also from publisher THQ. So, is THQ’s second attempt at a traditional RPG for the N64 a better one? For the most part yes, although Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage certainly won’t make N64 owners forget about the Final Fantasy series.
This game takes place in the mythical world of Aidyn, and revolves around a young squire to the King of Gwernia named Alaron. The game opens up with Alaron searching the woods for a lost villager by the name of Kendall. During his search, he is attacked by a band of goblins and poisoned. Soon afterward, he awakes in the home of a mysterious healer who has healed him of most of the poison. However, a trace of the poison still remains…and thus Alaron sets out on a quest to rid this poison from his body. The storyline is your typical RPG fare. Along the way Alaron will meet different companions who can aid him in his quest, but he’ll also soon realize that there’s much more going on than a simple poisoning. The storyline is really deep (easily rivaling PS2 offerings), with a number of interesting characters to meet, quests to go on, and other situations to be found. Unfortunately, the total experience doesn’t come close to the promise the storyline holds, simply because most other technical aspects of Aidyn are adequate at best. For the battle system H2O tried to create a hybrid of real-time and turn-based RPG systems and for the most part they did a good job with it. Characters do move in a turn-based manner, with their "dexterity" rating determining the order in which they go. Once a character’s turn comes up, a ring will pop up around that character showing the area in which they can move. You’re then free to move around in this ring as much as you wish. When you’re satisfied with your positioning, you can press "A" to attack, "Z" to end your turn, or one of the C buttons to use a potion or magic spell. There is a good selection of both spells and potions to choose from, and each will have different effects on their intended target. This premise itself is good as it provides a lot of strategy. Faster characters will be able to circle around enemy monsters, and positioning yourself for your next turn (while not putting yourself in harm’s way) really requires you to think about what you’re doing on each turn. The current weather conditions even affect the battle, as rainy or snowy conditions will reduce the accuracy of attacks. My only complaint with the battle system is that battles can be too tedious at times. Not only are your characters often placed far away from enemy characters (thus forcing you to waste a couple turns as you move into position), but early on in the game your weapons will be very inaccurate. It’s very frustrating (and not uncommon) to spend three moves getting into position, only to miss the monster you’re attacking the next five turns in a row due to shoddy equipment. This isn’t helped any by the fact that there’s no in-game training, which should be required by law for a battle system this complex. Naturally, after each battle is over you will be awarded experience points and items for your conquest. Your characters have a number of different traits (Strength, Dexterity, etc.) and skills (Shield, Missile, etc.) that you can level up at this time if you’ve got the required number of experience points saved up. You can also train many skills in each town from merchants for a combination of experience and gold. You’ll also find a number of magic items that will augment your stats, such as a hat that ups your Wizard ranking by 1.
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