History YMMV / Alundra

* CatharsisFactor: Despite the game's attempt to give Ronan some measure of sympathy by pointing out that, in the end, he was just Melzas' unwitting pawn, it doesn't erase the fact that he committed many atrocious crimes, including [[spoiler:the [[WouldHurtAchild murder of a child]]]], under his ''own free will'' (unlike Giles, who at least had the excuse of being [[SanitySlippage no longer himself]]). Combine this with the man's [[TheFundamentalist overall]] [[EvilGloating unpleasant]] [[SmugSnake nature]], and you've got players who were more than happy to send his miserable, decrepit hide straight to hell; a place where he now [[EvilMakesYouMonstrous rightfully]] belonged.

** [[SinisterMinister Ronan]] is the evil priest Melzas stationed in Inoa Village. A [[PsychoSupporter loyal servant of Melzas]], Ronan corrupts the villagers--without them even realizing it--through false promises of harmony and peace. When hero Alundra arrives and begins to discover the truth about Melzas's church, Ronan attempts to rally the locals to drive him away, committing murders in secret and pinning the crimes on Alundra. As Alundra remains defiant, Ronan starts targeting those close to him,, including [[WouldHurtAChild Sybill]] and [[ParentalSubstitute Jess]]. When confronted about his actions later on, Ronan smugly speaks of his twisted piousness while laughing at all the misery he's wrought. Finally, Ronan transforms himself into a HumanoidAbomination with the intent of carrying out more evil in the name of his monstrous god.

** [[SinisterMinister Ronan]] is the evil priest Melzas stationed in Inoa Village. A [[PsychoSupporter loyal servant of Melzas]], Ronan corrupts the villagers--without them even realizing it--through false promises of harmony and peace. When heroine Alundra arrives and begins to discover the truth about Melzas's church, Ronan attempts to rally the locals to drive him away, committing murders in secret and pinning the crimes on Alundra. As Alundra remains defiant, Ronan starts targeting those close to him,, including [[WouldHurtAChild Sybill]] and [[ParentalSubstitute Jess]]. When confronted about his actions later on, Ronan smugly speaks of his twisted piousness while laughing at all the misery he's wrought. Finally, Ronan transforms himself into a HumanoidAbomination with the intent of carrying out more evil in the name of his monstrous god.

** [[GodOfEvil Melzas]] is a malevolent deity from another world who literally thrives on the misery and suffering of mortals. Upon arriving in ours, he learned that Earth's gods are empowered by mankind's prayers and decided he wanted it for himself. To do so, Melzas established his own ReligionOfEvil with the aid of his loyal acolytes (men of pure evil who share his desire to plunge the world into darkness) and began inserting his image into human culture by peering into the minds of vulnerable kings and making them his puppets. Eventually exposed as a fraud and [[SealedEvilInACan imprisoned]] by the forces of good, the weakened Melzas then took a backseat approach and instructed his evil acolytes to act on his stead. Reestablishing themselves as "holy men" under the guise of a harmless, benevolent church, Melzas' priests then began the slow process of gathering new flocks of worshippers, fooling people with false promises of harmony and wealth while secretly manipulating multiple atrocities throughout history, thus allowing Melzas to regain his lost strength with the end goal of one day destroying his prison and finish what he started. Consumed by an insatiable ego and lust for absolute power, Melzas is evil incarnate, trampling all that oppose him with sadistic, nightmarish flair and causing unprecedented chaos upon the world if left to do as he pleases.
** [[SinisterMinister Ronan]], the evil priest Melzas stationed in Inoa Village, isn't far off from his master either. A loyal servant, he carries out his dark god's orders in secret without fail, corrupting the villagers one by one without them even realizing it through false promises of harmony and peace. When the hero, Alundra, arrives and begins to unravel the truth about Melzas' church, Ronan attempts to rally the locals against him in hopes that I'd drive him away, committing murders in secret and then pinning their deaths on Alundra. As Alundra remains defiant, Ronan eventually starts targeting those close to him, and adds [[WouldHurtAChild Sybill]] and [[ParentalSubstitute Jess]] among his victims. When confronted about his actions later on, Ronan smugly speaks of his twisted piousness while laughing at all the misery he's wrought. Finally, he transforms himself into a humanoid abomination with the intent of carrying out more evil in the name of his monstrous god. Ronan stands out among Melzas' other pawns introduced in the game since he's the only one who remains perfectly in control of his actions from start to finish, and even regards his monstrous form as "beautiful". Utterly depraved and lacking conscience, Ronan gladly commits the most atrocious of crimes in the name of his master, and enjoys it with disturbing glee. Even though he's aware that Melzas will cause nothing but pure, unbridled destruction once he's free to roam Earth, Ronan chooses to ride it all to the bitter end anyway, because to him, the world being plunged into hell is the "purest salvation" one could ask for.

* CompleteMonster: Melzas is a malevolent deity from another world who literally thrives on the misery and suffering of mortals. Upon arriving in ours, he learned that Earth's gods are empowered by mankind's prayers and decided he wanted it for himself. To do so, Melzas established his own ReligionOfEvil with the aid of his loyal acolytes (men of pure evil who share his desire to plunge the world into darkness) and began inserting his image into human culture by peering into the minds of vulnerable kings and making them his puppets. Eventually exposed as a fraud and [[SealedEvilInACan imprisoned]] by the forces of good, the weakened Melzas then took a backseat approach and instructed his evil acolytes to act on his stead. Reestablishing themselves as "holy men" under the guise of a harmless, benevolent church, Melzas' priests then began the slow process of gathering new flocks of worshippers, fooling people with false promises of harmony and wealth while secretly manipulating multiple atrocities throughout history, thus allowing Melzas to regain his lost strength with the end goal of one day destroying his prison and finish what he started. Consumed by an insatiable ego and lust for absolute power, Melzas is evil incarnate, trampling all that oppose him with sadistic, nightmarish flair and causing unprecedented chaos upon the world if left to do as he pleases.

* CompleteMonster: Melzas is a malevolent deity from another world who literally thrives on the misery and suffering of mortals. Upon arriving in ours, he learned that Earth's gods are empowered by mankind's prayers and decided he wanted it for himself. To do so, Melzas established his own ReligionOfEvil with the aid of his loyal acolytes: men of pure evil who share his desire to plunge the world into darkness, helping him insert his image into human culture. Eventually exposed as a fraud and [[SealedEvilInACan imprisoned]] by the forces of good, the weakened Melzas then took a backseat approach and instructed his evil acolytes to act on his stead. Reestablishing themselves as "holy men" under the guise of a harmless, benevolent church, Melzas' priests then began the slow process of gathering new flocks of worshippers, fooling people with false promises of harmony and wealth while secretly manipulating multiple atrocities throughout history, thus allowing Melzas to regain his lost strength with the end goal of one day destroying his prison and finish what he started. Consumed by an insatiable ego and lust for absolute power, Melzas is evil incarnate, trampling all that oppose him with sadistic, nightmarish flair and causing unprecedented chaos upon the world if left to do as he pleases.

* CompleteMonster: Melzas is a malevolent deity from another world who literally thrives on the misery and suffering of mortals. Upon arriving in ours, he learned that Earth's gods are empowered by mankind's prayers and decided he wanted it for himself. To do so, Melzas established his own ReligionOfEvil with the aid of his loyal subjects: men of pure evil who share his desire to plunge the world into darkness, helping him insert his image into human culture. Eventually exposed as a fraud and [[SealedEvilInACan imprisoned]] by the forces of good, the weakened Melzas then took a backseat approach and instructed his evil priests to act on his stead. Reestablishing themselves under the guise of a harmless, benevolent church, Melzas' priests then began the slow process of gathering new flocks of worshippers, fooling people with false promises of harmony and wealth while secretly manipulating multiple atrocities throughout history, thus allowing Melzas to regain his lost strength with the end goal of one day destroying his prison and finish what he started. Consumed by an insatiable ego and lust for absolute power, Melzas is evil incarnate, trampling all that oppose him with sadistic, nightmarish flair and causing unprecedented chaos upon the world if left to do as he pleases.

* CompleteMonster: Melzas is a malevolent deity from another world who literally thrives on the misery and suffering of mortals. Upon arriving in ours, he learned that Earth's gods are empowered by mankind's prayers, and decided he wanted it for himself. Melzas established his own ReligionOfEvil with the aid of his loyal subjects: men of pure evil who share his desire to plunge the world into darkness, helping him insert his image into human culture. Eventually exposed as a fraud and [[SealedEvilInACan imprisoned]] by the forces of good, the weakened Melzas then took a backseat approach and instructed his evil priests to act on his stead. Reestablishing themselves under the guise of a harmless, benevolent church, Melzas' priests then began the slow process of gathering new flocks of worshippers, fooling people with false promises of harmony and wealth while secretly manipulating multiple atrocities throughout history, thus allowing Melzas to regain his lost strength with the end goal of one day destroying his prison and finish what he started. Consumed by an insatiable ego and lust for absolute power, Melzas is evil incarnate, trampling all that oppose him with sadistic, nightmarish flair and causing unprecedented chaos upon the world if left to do as he pleases.

* CompleteMonster: After arriving on Earth, Melzas learned of Gods empowered by prayer and decided he wanted this power for himself. He inserted his image into human culture, and created a few followers. When the worship began, and his powers manifested, he used them to peer into the minds of the humans, making the human king his puppet. After being exposed and [[SealedEvilInACan imprisoned]], Melzas manipulated multiple atrocities to increase his powers, using priests to keep his human subjects subdued and loyal. Melzas was also responsible for dark nightmares that could actually kill people, and when he perceives a human as a threat, he has forces sent to destroy the human's entire village. Melzas might be a GodOfEvil but solely because he chose to become one himself, out of nothing more than ego and a lust for power.

* EightPointEight: This game has received critical acclaim upon release and is considered as a masterpiece for the Playstation. Well, you would be surprised that the french website [=JeuxVideo.com=] gave a severe 11/20 to the game! For their defense, while the test was poorly written and clearly rushed, [=JeuxVideo.com=] was still a new website composed of amateurs when it was written in 1998, during a time where video games were making a 3D leap, so it's easy to think that the reviewer basically thought: "It's 2D so it's sucks". Lightman, the writer of this review and founder of [=JeuxVideo.com=] even acknowledged the poor quality of his review. Still, Even to this day, this review is a broken-base within the website own redaction and community and is always brought up when debating about wether games should re-reviewed or just leaves those as products of their time.

** Meia's dream doesn't have any enemies in it whatsoever. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], since for once you are visiting a normal dream, and not a nightmare.

* PlayerPunch: Don't be fooled by the rocking intro and [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Zelda-style]] gameplay mixed with a 90's anime aesthetic; this game will get you to know the villagers of Inoa, and then [[AnyoneCanDie brutally gut punch you.]] ''Repeatedly.'' And just when you think you're almost through, [[spoiler: half of the remaining villagers are given a SurprisinglySuddenDeath out of sheer spite by Melzas, including all but two of the people you managed to save previously, almost coming into a hair's breadth of a ShaggyDogStory.]]

* ThatOneSidequest: Collecting '''all fifty''' of the Gilded Falcons to get the Spirit Wand. Doesn't sound too bad? Well guess what: you can miss some of them permanently and in some cases, you have only ''seconds'' to retrieve them unless they're gone for good.

* ThatOneSidequest: Collecting '''all fifty''' of the Gilded Falcons to get the Spirit Wand. Doesn't sound too bad? Well guess what? You can miss some of them permanently and in some cases, you have only ''seconds'' to retrieve them unless they're gone for good.

* ThatOneSidequest: Collecting '''all fifty''' of the Gilded Falcons to get the Spirit Wand.

* EvilIsSexy: Subverted with Sara, from Bonaire's Nightmare. She appears as an atractive blonde woman, but in reality is an ugly monster using a spell to trick him.
* GameBreaker: The Legendary Sword (which can be obtained after geting the Power Glove) has the highest attack power in the game, and can defeat any non-boss enemy in one hit (and the bosses themselves don't last much longer).

* {{Narm}}: In a game with such a depressingly dark story at times, the fact that Working Designs published and localized it in the US cracks through given their tendency to slip in random jokes at times, though thankfully never in the main story itself. Well, except for one particular moment [[spoiler: of a pun made about Bonaire's SurferDude speech habits in the localization - [[BlackComedy while checking his corpse.]]]]

** The Soul Leech from Giles' Nightmare is more annyoying than hard, as all you have to do is to stay far away from his VacuumMouth, ignoring his minions, and spam bow attacks (or use bombs) until it dies; what makes him tough is that you have to prevent Giles from being swallowed up by the boss, which will lead to a NonstandardGameOver (and the last save point is very far from the boss room). Giles himself don't help much, as he [[ArtificialStupidity keep walking in circles instead of going to the southern side of the arena]].

* TheWoobie: There are many possible candidates such as Kisha, Meia, Nadia and Sierra [[spoiler:after her daughter, Sybill is killed]], but Sybill is the obvious choice.

** Downplayed with the Soul Leech from Giles' Nightmare. The boss itself is not that hard, as all you have to do is to stay far away from his VacuumMouth, ignoring his minions, and spam bow attacks (or use bombs) until it dies; the problem is that you have to protect Giles, and if he gets swallowed by the boss, it's Game Over (and the last save point is very far from the boss room).

%%* EnsembleDarkhorse: Meia and Septimus.
* EvilIsSexy: Sara the Succubus, who seduces Bonaire in his nightmare. [[spoiler:This is inverted when you see her true form.]]
* GameBreaker:
** If you collect all fifty of the Gilded Falcons, [[spoiler:Captain Merrick will reward you with the Spirit Wand when you go to his shop. This item takes away your physical attack, but grants you infinite magic making the remainder of the game all too easy.]]
** The [[spoiler:Legendary Sword]] can destroy most bosses, including the last one in just a few hits.

** The Soul Leech in Giles' dream. Not only you have to kill him with bombs or the weak bow, if it eats Giles, you die instantly.

** Kline's Nightmare, [[NintendoHard mainly for all the ice puzzles.]]

** The Lake Shrine is a fitting [[VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Very Definitely Final Dungeon]]. Long, convoluted, puzzles that will make you tear your hair out, troublesome and difficult enemies, dearth of healing items... and at the end, three tough sequential boss fights.
* ThatOneSidequest: Collecting '''all fifty''' of the Gilded Falcons.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Meia and Septimus.

* MoralEventHorizon: Ronan is simply a {{Jerkass}} at first, graceful to the villagers but hostile to Alundra for being an outsider. However, he gets more and more riled up, and gradually begins to blame Alunda (and Meia) for everything bad happening to the village, though [[JerkassHasAPoint he's technically half-right]] given Melzas' violent escalations to counter the pair. [[spoiler: Then he [[WouldHurtAChild snaps Sybill's neck]] in the middle of the night and just leaves her corpse to be found in the street.]] And even worse, he's doing this entirely of his own free will and blind devotion. At this point, all sympathy of potentially being BrainwashedAndCrazy goes flying out the window, and is further compounded when he subsequently [[spoiler: murders Jess, an adoptive figure and mentor for Alundra, and ''[[KickTheDog tries to pin the blame entirely on Alundra himself.]]]]''

* NightmareFuel:
** Characters can die by dreaming. You may start skipping sleeps if the concept of 'sleeping and dreaming ''kills'' you' gets over your head. The music itself ''doesn't help''.
** Lars Crypt in its entirety counts for this. Everything from the scary music to the haunting mist in the area and the undead monsters attacking along with the fact that you are under a graveyard during this sequence.
** Kline infiltrating your house: it is nightime, with Alundra sound asleep in his bed. Suddenly, you hear a chilling '''roar''', Kline jumps on your bed (from the ''roof''), and begins to ask you to show him how your body will soon turn into bloody dead meat. ''Brrrr''. Without the timely intervention of Alundra and Septimus, who knows who else might have been attacked during that night (several doors of houses in the village are wide open, and another character was awaken by Kline, screaming in horror)?
** The game's spritework allows for some horrifying monster designs, but usually anyone dead might as well be collapsed on the ground. [[SarcasmMode Have no fear,]] because checking the corpses is a mix-up between either a brief eulogy, or [[NothingIsScarier supplementing your imagination]] through just enough words to detail how they died and letting your mind fill in the blanks. What would be otherwise simple dead bodies turns into something much worse when the game almost gives you a mental visualization of what caused it, or perhaps describing their last moments.
** Amongst those horrifying monster designs, the scariest one would be the Soul Leech. Unlike the Gelatinoid or Sara before it, this thing is a HUGE monster that has a gigantic gaping maw on its chest, which eventually opens and then sucks everything in front of it to be devoured. Since it appeared only in dreams, it devoured SOULS and can leave people and whatever Dreamwalker within it dead. And with appearance like [[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Tamyr62YMS4/maxresdefault.jpg this]] and this is [[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CKhlb4rT8bI/hqdefault.jpg how it opened its maw...]] Looking at it alone may give you nightmares.

* 8.8: This game has received critical acclaim upon release and is considered as a masterpiece for the playstation. Well, you would be surprised that the french website JeuxVideo.com gave a severe 11/20 to the game! For their defense, while the test was poorly written and clearly rushed, JeuxVideo.com was still a new website composed of amateurs when it was written in 1998, during a time where video games were making a 3D leap, so it's easy to think that the reviewer basically thought: "It's 2D so it's sucks". Lightman, the writer of this review and founder of JeuxVideo.com even acknowledged the poor quality of his review. Still, Even to this day, this review is a broken-base within the website own redaction and community and is always brought up when debating about wether games should re-reviewed or just leaves those as products of their time.

* CultClassic

* ThatOneSideQuest: Collecting '''all fifty''' of the Gilded Falcons.

* 8.8: This game has received critical acclaim and is considered as a masterpiece for the playstation. Well, you would be surprised that the french website JeuxVideo.com gave a severe 11/20 to the game! For their defense, while the test was poorly written and expeditive, JeuxVideo.com was not in 1998 experienced as they are today, and Lightman, the writter of this review and founder of JeuxVideo.com did actually admitted years later that his review was unfair. Still, Even to this day, this review is a broken-base within JeuxVideo.com own redaction and community and is brought up when debating about wether games should re-reviewed or just leaves those as products of their time.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: The game tries to give Ronan some measure of sympathy by pointing out that, in the end, he was just Melzas' unwitting pawn. Doesn't erase the fact that he committed many atrocious crimes, including [[spoiler: [[MoralEventHorizon murder]] of [[WouldHurtAchild a child]]]], under his ''own free will'' (unlike Giles, who at least had the excuse of being [[SanitySlippage no longer himself]]). Combine this with the man's [[TheFundamentalist overall]] [[EvilGloating unpleasant]] [[SmugSnake nature]], and you've got players who were more than happy to send his miserable, decrepit hide straight to hell; a place where he now [[EvilMakesYouMonstrous rightfully]] belonged.

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: Every boss defeat qualifies, but a special mention has to go to [[spoiler:the moment after the final boss fight where you use the fire wand to burn Melzas to death right before you escape the sinking Lake Shrine and are able to watch the ending and credits.]]
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: The soundtrack defines this perfectly. Particularly the music from the final dungeon [[spoiler:the Lake Shrine.]] and the song that plays during the credits.

* MostWonderfulSound: The sound of Jess smithing a new weapon. On one hand, hey, new weapon. On the other hand, somebody had to die for it to be made.

* PlayerPunch: Don't be fooled by the rocking intro and [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Zelda-style]] gameplay mixed with a 90's anime aesthetic; this game will get you to know the villagers of Inoa, and then [[AnyoneCanDie brutally gut punch you.]] ''Repeatedly.''

* MoralEventHorizon: Ronan is simply a {{Jerkass}} at first, graceful to the villagers but hostile to Alundra for being an outsider. However, he gets more and more riled up, and gradually begins to blame Alunda (and Meia) for everything bad happening to the village, though [[JerkassHasAPoint he's technically half-right]] given Melzas' violent escalations to counter the pair. [[spoiler: Then he [[WouldHurtAChild snaps Sybill's neck]] in the middle of the night and just leaves her corpse to be found in the street.]] At this point, all sympathy flies out the window, both from the player and the rest of the cast once the truth comes out.