Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage (Nintendo 64) review " I anticipated this game as being one of the best ever to pass onto the Nintendo 64. I reserved it, and got it the very first day it was released, and that was where it started going downhill. The first castle you enter, where I spent hours upon hours trying to search for the king, I learned that Aidyn was not at all what I expected, and it never improved from that. "

I anticipated this game as being one of the best ever to pass onto the Nintendo 64. I reserved it, and got it the very first day it was released, and that was where it started going downhill. The first castle you enter, where I spent hours upon hours trying to search for the king, I learned that Aidyn was not at all what I expected, and it never improved from that.

STORY (18/25): This story develops out extremely slow. You are a boy who desires to help out all that is good. You leave your castle to save a farmer, and after you fied himself dead, you are defeated in battle and meet a strange witch. I did not at all like how it started, with the shadow guy watching you and all, but the story does develop and this was not too disapointing. Only problem is many players will not even try to develop their story.

GRAPHICS (11/20): The characters do not look human at all. They gave sharp edges, and in the battles look very jerky. I do not know if the creaters made the humans look so much in extrememes (the theif is really skinny looking, and the warriors are just plain huge) but all in all this is not a realistic experience. The backgrounds aren't too bad and neither are the Marari who look alot like the Tribals in Jet Force Gemini. But all in all, for a game that uses the Expansion Pack this was depressing.

SOUND (8/10): The sound is not that bad. It is quiet when it has to be quiet, and you can hear the movements of Alarons feet when he is running. There is no in-game voices, but many Nintendo 64 game do not have that. The music is also very well sorted and arranged. This is the only part which Aidyn did not displease me.

GAMEPLAY (2/30): First there is the horribly thought out battle-system. Each battle takes about 10 minutes, and there are NO random battles (this makes it hard to train yourself up to high levels). Now the actual battle-system is you move each character in a placed grid for a certain amount of area during their turn. The amount of turns they get depends on agility and skill. They then may attack by hitting the ''A'' button, and pray that it hits. You will probably miss more than you actually hit your enemies, which will surely drive you crazy. They also start your characters off in crazy positions across the field, and Alaron barely ever gets to fight. This system is tedius, and is not of a true RPG nature. The second problem is the mapping. The castles are huge, but not filled with useful facts, but instead with empty rooms. As I said earliar, I spent the first 2 hours trying to find the King. You then get to decide your teamates, which if they are killed they will never return. This means if you die in battle, you will likely have to return where you last saved, and that is also tedius and annoying. You also do not get to choose which character you are going to replace when you add one in. This kept me from additions cause I was not about to get rid of my strongest member, Abrecan. This game has possibly the worst gameplay ever.

REPLAYABILITY (1/10): If you actually go spend all the time to beat this game, you will probably sell it as soon as you can, and I can definitely see why. I am deep into Aidyn, but not very happily, and each day I consider trashing it, but I still desire to beat, because I had so much expectations. But if I do beat it, this is one game I will not keep around.

DIFFICULTY (2/5): This game is insanely hard. I have spend around 7 months on and off trying to beat this game, but with the inability to train your members up with random battles, this game is very difficult to master. Any man who has beaten this gets my congratulations.

VARIOUS NEGATIVES (-20): Well, I really didn't know which category to put these peeves of mine in, but they had to be included. First thing they really never tell you where you are going, or give you any hints for sidequests. This will just get you walking in circles. Next problem is the how large and pointless the castles and towns were. You would find yourself journeying, and yet you would just keep going in one huge circles, and all the rooms look the same. This will be very annoying and will keep you going. Also the characters can be killed, so be careful for they will ruin the storyline then. These are my biggest faults with Aidyn.

OVERALL (22/100): The sound saved this from being a even worse. There were so many expectations for an RPG on the Nintendo 64. The closest thing to it was Quest, and that game also was not too succesful. This was a big disapointment for many people. I know that alot of people just trashed it after the first 4 hours, and there is a good reason too. I definitely do not reccommend this game, and I hope you consider renting it first if you actually plan on getting it.

Community review by ratking (Date unavailable) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.