It's an Action-Adventure game that plays similarly to the famous The Legend of Zelda, featuring a Silent Protagonist, lots and lots of puzzles, and a Journey to the Center of the Mind.
The story is about an elf eponymously named Alundra, whose people, called 'Dreamwalkers', have the special power to enter people's dreams. He loves adventuring and that's where we first find him, taking a journey with a ship. When he sleeps on his bed on the ship, he sees a vision of a wise man named Lars who pleads with him to stop the evil demon, Melzas. His destination is a village called Inoa, which Alundra comes across by getting his ship wrecked and being stranded there.
At first, Alundra is welcomed, and he helps many people by using his power to enter people's dreams and saving those trapped in nightmares that actually could kill them. However, soon after, the village suddenly turns on him, leaving Alundra with just a handful of supporters. Things get a bit more complicated when another Dreamwalker, this time an elf girl named Meia, enters Inoa. At first acting like The Rival, Meia is quickly befriended by Alundra as they share the same goal: to destroy Melzas.
Published in the US by Working Designs and in Europe by Psygnosis. There's also a sequel entitled Alundra 2 that has nothing to do with the first game apart from having the same developer and Japanese publisher.
This video game provides examples of:
- The Ace: Meia, who comes across as more mature, skilled, and knowledgable of her powers when compared to Alundra. Shortly after her arrival, several of the villagers even comment on how she seems to be the superior dreamwalker. Once you learn about her past, you see that she is actually a Broken Ace.
- Action Girl: Meia, although you do not control her directly and have to do all the fighting yourself. However, Meia has been curing people from nightmares, solving puzzles on her own and even helped out Alundra during Elene's nightmare.
- Advancing Boss of Doom: Nirude's challenge to Alundra.
- The Alcoholic: Gustav, ever since his wife abandoned the family to run off with a miner and his daughter became insane.
- Always Someone Better: Most of the villagers perceive Meia to be Alundra's superior, and she certainly thinks so herself. Meia later concedes that it's actually the other way around.
- Ancient Tomb: Lars' Crypt and Despair Desert's dungeon. They're both dilapidated, abandoned, and infested with monsters, so it's no surprise that the villagers speak of them in an almost mythical sense.
- And the Adventure Continues: The ending. After saying good byes with the village of Inoa, Alundra went on more adventures with Meia, but eventually parted ways... and goes to yet another adventure on his own while Meia goes on her own. The kiss might be to signify that no matter what different adventures they partake, they will still be connected and remain as friends.
- An Ice Person: The Ice Wand, The Water Scroll, and Water Book allow Alundra to do this.
- Anyone Can Die: Not only that, but every death is a plot point. By the end of the game, only an handful of villagers manages to survive.
- As Long as There Is Evil: Pretty much Melzas' final words before he's extinguished from existence. Can't have a 90s JRPG final boss without this one, right?
- Asteroids Monster: Your first boss battle, the Gelatinoid. A huge blob that, after taking enough damage, splits into four smaller blobs, which (in turn) split into four ordinary blobs themselves.
- The Atoner: Alundra, after the people in Inoa Village start to die.
- Attract Mode: There's a long opening movie consisting of gameplay footage showing puzzles and boss battles. The US version also includes an all-new opening movie mixing and matching gameplay footage with animation from the ending sequence, with a more exciting soundtrack.
- Auto-Revive: Wonder Essence can be used as an ordinary healing item to recover both your HP and MP, but it will also kick in automatically when you get knocked out. Note that you can only hold one at a time.
- Badass Bookworm: Septimus. Though he does not fight, he still trusts Alundra in finding out the truth behind the recurring nightmares that his fellow villagers suffer from. He does much of the research that will prove valuable to Alundra.
- Battle Couple: Alundra and Meia to a certain degree. They even team up to save Elene from her nightmare.
- Belief Makes You Stupid: Ronan and Giles, big time, but especially the former. They are fanatical worshipers of Melzas (who, unbeknownst to them, is actually an evil demon), willfully aiding him spread tragedy upon the poor villagers of Inoa, one after another. All this while publicly accusing the hero of guilt for the very crimes that they commit. Ronan takes it a step further by going on to personally murder innocents, including a child, all in the name of his "god". Why does he do all this? Because he genuinely believes these actions meant for "the greater good". At least Giles finally starts to realize his mistakes later on, but by then it's too little, too late.
- Big Bad: Melzas. Originally a demon from another world, he was impressed by the belief system the humans in this world have, and so manipulates them into worshiping him for him to gain more power.
- Big Brother Instinct: Giles would do anything to protect his little sister Kisha, even if it means resisting Melzas' power to keep her safe, despite him dying in the process.
- The Big Guy: Kline is this to the village, being their primary hunter and first line of defense from monsters. Unfortunately, this also makes him one of Melzas' first targets since taking Kline out of the equation early on makes the village much more vulnerable to manipulation and attack.
- Bittersweet Ending: Alundra saves the day and kills Melzas, but in the end, half the people in the village are still dead, including your caretaker, and Alundra doesn't even get the girl, being left to travel alone instead.
- Black Comedy: Despite this being a game dealing with the suffering and death of often innocent people, Working Designs couldn't resist injecting it with their signature brand of humor.
- Blessed with Suck:
- Sybill. A sweet young girl like her shouldn't have to suffer visions like the ones she's having.
- Nadia makes things explode when she sleeps, and can help move obstacles in different points of the game.
- Block Puzzle: Like Landstalker before it, these usually consist of the find-something-to-weigh-down-that-pressure-plate instead of the push-blocks-around variety. But there are a few of those too...
- Blow You Away: The Wind Book allows Alundra to do this.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Bergus and Talis, at first. The former gets over this pretty fast and warms up to Alundra like one would an older brother while the latter continues to be a snot-nosed, sarcastic brat and continuously refers to you as "peasant" throughout the game... albeit somewhat affectionately towards the end.
- Break the Cutie: When you first met Meia, she looks like The Rival. Then you barged into to her dream and found out that young Meia was The Cutie with cute giggling and all... until you dig into her past and witnessed how her Dark and Troubled Past broke her into being more aloof. The game even prepared one voice clip of the cute young Meia sobbing as she eluded fanatics trying to burn her after her mother.
- Broken Bird: The things you witnessed on Meia's dream explained just how she became like that: Dad died and people thought he got punished by God (Melzas), but Meia thought it was just an accident. Mom got too obsessed with the nature of God because of it, and got burnt on a stake for it and the same fanatics doing it are about to do that on Meia because she's just skeptical about the God's presence. Yeah...
- Broken Bridge: Admittedly, no actual broken bridges, but there's one with a big rock on it and one blocked off (on the far end of it, too!) by an old withered tree stump; both spontaneously disappear later in the game.
- Bubblegloop Swamp: The Lair Of The Reptilicus Maximus. Cephas even mentions how he likes to soak in the slimy mud of the swamp from time to time. Apparently, it's good for the skin.
- But Thou Must!: Don't want to kneel and pray to Ronan's god at the beginning of the game? Too bad, you must; and it becomes a plot point later on after discovering that Ronan's "god" is none other than Melzas! This leads to Sybill's death.
- Captain Ersatz: With elven ears, Heroic Mime traits, puzzle-solving, and mastery over multiple weapons and magic and tools... let's say that Alundra might as well be Sony's answer to Link.
- Catchphrase: Oy! Jess has a few of these, you know what I am saying? He even writes it in a letter left for Alundra in the event of his death.
- Central Theme: Faith and Loss. At what point does faith become fanaticism? Furthermore, the dangers of not truly knowing who (or what) you believe in. When faced with the hard truth of being unable to save everyone, will the losses you endure destroy or inspire and encourage you?
- Charged Attack: For most of your weapons, holding the square button for a few seconds before attacking unleashes a stronger version of your normal attack.
- The Chessmaster: What makes Melzas such a formidable foe. Knowing that Alundra has been saving the villagers of Inoa from their nightmares, he eventually stages a trap to try and lure Alundra into somebody's nightmare so that the Murgg can break in to the victim's house and kill him while he's helpless in the real world. After discovering Sybil's prediction that leads to the creation of the Holy Sword, as well as figuring out that the dead villagers are inspiring Jess to create weapons for Alundra, he not only has Ronan do whatever he can to keep Lutas (whose death leads to the Holy Sword's creation) alive, but eventually kill Sybill and Jess so that the sword can't be forged in the first place. Finally, near the end of the game, he stages another trap by kidnapping Burgus and putting him to sleep, forcing Alundra to enter the dreams of his twin brother Nestus to locate and teleport to him. Since twins are linked by dreams, Melzas takes advantage of it and launches a surprise attack on Inoa while Alundra is away, sending a hoard of Murgg through the same link, causing them to pop out of Nestus and raze Inoa to the ground.
- Chest Monster: They make one heck of a roar when they awaken, but aren't actually much threat. They sometimes even spontaneously drop gold while you're fighting them.
- City of Adventure: The main city of the entire game is Inoa Village, where most of the important events happen.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: This went horribly wrong. Repeatedly, in fact, but primarily in the creation of Melzas in the back-story.
- Colour-Coded Timestop: Melzas pulls a gray and misty one off in an ultimate attempt to stop Alundra from reaching him in the interior of the Lake Shrine. All it takes to restart time is by activating the clock towers on the left and right sides of the shrine.
- Combined Energy Attack:
- A literal and figurative one is the Holy Sword, which is created by the spiritual energy of everyone's dreams.
- When you defeat Dread the Dragon and are about to fight Melzas, everyone of the remaining villagers give you some of their power and completely refiil your health and your magic so you can fight Melzas at full power.
- Convection, Schmonvection: The Charm Boots allow you to walk on lava. Possibly justified, as the boots could be magical.
- Cool Old Lady: Yustel the fortuneteller, who will tell you where to go next and refill all of your health and magic for only 15 gilder.
- Creepy Child: Subverted with Sybill and Elene. Sybill's visions scare people, and Elene went insane after her mother died and her father became the town drunk afterwards.
- Curse: The whole village suffers from nightmares, and everyone fears that they will be the next victim. Also, some villagers suffer from more powerful nightmares and curses than others:
- Nadia is making stuff blow up as soon as she falls asleep. When you arrive in the village, she's been awake for 6 days straight, and is becoming more and more tired and irritated. If you go visit her in her house as soon as you arrive in Inoa village, you'll see her briefly fall asleep while standing, which cause the nearby table to explode. When the mine crumbles, she's on the defensive, stating that she didn't fall asleep (as it turns out to be, it indeed wasn't her fault). Later, when she falls asleep again, she blows up Olen's house.
- Sybill's curse involves her dreaming while being awake, and she dreams of things to come, most of them being bad news. People are kind of scared of her because of this.
- Kline's curse is so powerful that even if you save him from his nightmare, he will turn into a werewolf, prompting you to kill him before he harms anyone.
- Elene's curse made her insane, experiencing split personalities.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: Even with the English localization toning down the amount of HP for each boss, Zorgia still has way too much of it.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Meia, who witnessed her mother being burnt at the stake by her people due to Melzas' manipulation and then nearly burnt by the fanatics as well due to being connected with her mother. And even beforehand, she witnessed just how Melzas manipulated her mother and people into worshipping him
- Darker and Edgier: By an absolute mile compared to its spiritual predecessor, Landstalker. While Landstalker was a light-hearted and comedic romp through and through, Alundra is a dramatic tale fraught with tragedy and actual child death that ends on a bittersweet note.
- Dark Fantasy: It has its roots in here. Religion of Evil, innocents dying left and right, and overall it is a crappy place to live in. Interestingly, the music is upbeat. But other than that, the game is really depressing.
- Deadpan Snarker: Meia has an incredibly blunt and dry wit that plays to her very cynical nature.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Meia is cold and antagonistic toward Alundra at first, but warms up after he enters her dream, and even helps him in a few occasions.
- Demonic Possession: Kline, and later Giles, slowly lose their minds to the lycanthropy curse thanks to Melzas' machinations. Both cases end in tragedy.
- Denial of Diagonal Attack: Alundra can move diagonally, but only attack in four directions.
- Depth Perplexion: Also like Landstalker before it. The addition of shadows to judge elevation by helps slightly, but the non-isometric top-down perspective does not ... is that platform to your right actually straight right of you, or is it actually a few tiles higher and south? It's also mitigated a little once you get the Bow, as you can fire arrows and watch where their shadows fall on the ground.
- Difficulty by Region: Claimed to be for the better by the localization team for the US version's manual, where some bosses supposedly have less HP but greater attack power, to balance out boss battles where the team felt they didn't pose much actual threat but just "took forever to kill". Judging by actual stat differences, however, only one boss takes more damage from magic, and they still had an HP increase to compensate; almost every enemy and boss in the game was jacked up in HP on top of some of the extra damage they deal, to instead inflate the game's difficulty.
- The Dragon: A literal and figurative one is the (unnamed in-game) Dread, a flying dragon Melzas summons for you to battle before he decides to fight you himself.
- Dream Walker: Alundra and Meia are Dreamwalkers who have the abilities to step into people's dreams and nightmares, and even change them.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Sybill's dreams are actually premonitions, allowing her to have a glimpse of the possible futures. Many people in the village are scared of her because of that. Apparently, according to one of her dreams, if Lutas had died, Jess would have used his spirit's energy to create the Holy Sword, which is one of the most powerful weapons in the game and the weapon you use to defeat Melzas. This is why Ronan, who was Melzas' loyal stooge, saved Lutas' life at that point in the game to ensure that his spirit could not be used to make the Holy Sword at that time. Good thing you can get it later anyways.
- Dual Boss: When fighting Elene's split personality, you'll face off against one Hidden Eye, then two later, and two more even later. Then there is the "Twin Terror" boss of the twins' shared nightmare.
- Dug Too Deep: Workers in the Coal Mine knew they were digging pretty close to the Murgg's sacred tree, but they didn't realize how close....
- Dwindling Party: The residents of Inoa become fewer and fewer as the game goes on until only half of them are left by the end of the game.
- Establishing Series Moment: You venture into Olen's dream, slay the nightmare and then he dies anyway. You then go to the mine to rescue the cave-in survivors, only to find everyone inside is already dead or dying. These events firmly establish that no, this is not a game where the hero will be able to save everyone.
- Feed It a Bomb: One strategy for defeating the Soul Leech is to let his Vacuum Mouth suck your bombs, damaging it.
- Fire Keeps It Dead: After defeating the demon Melzas in battle, Alundra finally kills him by destroying his body with fire from the Fire Rod, as commanded by Lars.
- Flunky Boss: The Soul Leech can summon blobs as an attack; whereas Reptilicus Maximus relies almost exclusively on lizardmen-spawning statues to fight you.
- The Fundamentalist: Ronan, and to a lesser extent, Giles. The idea that their so-called "god" might actually be (and is, in fact) a being of pure evil does not even cross their minds until it's all too late. Actually averted with Ronan. He never stops believing Melzas' lies up to his last, dying breath.
- Game Changer: The researcher Septimus explains how he sought out the village of Inoa to research what's afflicting the inhabitants with cursed nightmares, only to discover he can't actually do anything to stop it (and getting a bit depressed over it), and how everything changed when Alundra, who can enter and change people's dreams, washed up ashore of the village near the beginning of the game.
- Gentle Giant: Kline definitely seems to fit this trope. All of the townspeople speak very well of him, including the children, and he commands a lot of respect from everyone in and around the village. He's also very nice to Alundra and assures him several times that he has his trust, no matter what the other villagers say. This just makes what happens to him all the more tragic.
- Godhood Seeker: Melzas is a demon wishing to be the one and only god the people worship. And the not-so-friendly priest is his dragon.
- Gods Need Prayer Badly: The world of Alundra is not a monotheistic world, there are multiple Gods, they thrive in prayers, Nirude being one of them. It's also why Melzas does his evil things and manipulates things to his favor, so he gets more prayer for himself. If anything, Melzas doesn't want people to worship ANOTHER God.
- Gotta Catch Them All: Exactly what are Gilded Falcons worth? Life Vessels, rare accessories, and unless you can get at least 45 (many of which are easily Permanently Missable), you'll never find out what the ultimate prize (for all 50) even is, let along get your hands on it.
- Guide Dang It!:
- Getting all of the Gilded Falcons; some can be Permanently Missable due to secret timer mechanisms or being locked away in one-time-only dungeons. Also, the Fiend and Infinity Plus One Swords aren't exactly something you'll just happen across by yourself.
- Some of the puzzles (especially the late-game ones) can get really, really complicated and obtuse. The increasing reliance on platforming (combined with the aforementioned Depth Perplexion) definitely doesn't help matters.
- Happily Adopted: Jess thinks of Alundra as his own son almost from first sight, given how he lost his wife and (actual) son several years ago, and Alundra is about the same age.
- Happily Married: The mayor and his wife, Lutas and Fein, and Rumi and Meade until he dies fighting the Murgg. They all speak affectionately about their spouses to Alundra and clearly care very much for each other, although Fein is more than a little displeased by Lutas' flirting with other women.
- Heart Container: Red Life Vessels scattered throughout the game (typically one per dungeon/boss) for your HP, and Magic Crystals for your MP. They're certainly not as plentiful as Landstalker's Life Stocks were, but they also give you a free HP refill.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- Nadia, who's suffering from a nightmare tells Alundra to first save her love interest Bonaire from his nightmare that he's suffering from at the same time. Unfortunately after Bonaire is saved, Nadia dies shortly afterwards, before you could save her. To make things worse, Bonaire dies in the fire caused by the Murgg invasion, along with Nadia's mother Myra.
- Giles, when he overcomes Melzas' evil after discovering the truth, chooses to fight back so that his little sister Kisha wouldn't be killed, and dies in the process.
- Later on, Meade and Wendell fight the Murgg to protect Rumi, Nestus, and Bergus. They succeed, but die in the process.
- Hero of Another Story: Meia has the same power like Alundra and has saved a set of people through dreams outside Inoa before arriving there and before her story converges with Alundra's, she has saved a few Inoa villagers on her own. Notably, she wasn't even called upon by Lars to stop Melzas, she just did that on her own after her Dark and Troubled Past caught up to her. May be why she eventually decided to part ways with Alundra in the end, her story is not his; while it may converge again in the future, she has to walk on her own.
- Hero with Bad Publicity: Alundra at first, due to most of the villagers' belief that he's responsible for Melzas tormenting the city and using nightmares to kill townspeople.
- Hidden Depths: Cephas the gravekeeper. At first, he looks just like your typical creepy hunchback. Talking to him throughout the game slowly reveals a far more insightful being than what he appears to be. He's actually one of the Zolist; a race of humans born with amazing lifespans. And there's more to him than that...
- The Horde: The Murgg just seem to keep on coming. Just when you think you've finally conquered them for good, their remaining numbers attack and burn down Inoa village.
- Hub City: Inoa village. It's home to many people who aid Alundra in his quest to end the nightmares, and has an item shop and a blacksmith shop to top it off.
- Infinity +1 Sword: Two of them, in fact...
- The Legendary Sword. It has no Charge Attack, but it doesn't need it since its normal attack is even stronger than the Charge Attack of the next strongest weapon. Annoyingly, tied to Mercy Mode, requiring you to die and Quick Restart a lot to get it (otherwise, its keeper will declare that you "seem a good swordsman" and probably don't actually need it).
- The Spirit Wand. Grants infinite MP in exchange for having no physical attack. It requires collecting all the Gilded Falcons in the game, several of which are prime examples of Guide Dang It! and Permanently Missable Content. One of it also requires getting five straight wins four times on a Roulette Table, which is a Luck-Based Mission and is as frustrating as it sounds.
- The Insomniac: Nadia. If she falls asleep, things tends to blow up around her. Also, some villagers will admit that they are afraid to sleep and are keeping themselves awake in order to avoid nightmares, such as Fein.
- Interface Spoiler:
- Every sequence has its own title when you save the game. Beware of any titles that have character names in them, as it's a guarantee something bad has either happened to, or is about to happen to that character.
- Subverted with the number of graves at the graveyard. You expect the deaths to stop after every empty grave is used, but they don't. It just that most of the new victims don't leave a corpse to bury.
- Irony: Almost every person whose life you save from a nightmare ends up dying in one way or another by the end of the game.
- It's All Upstairs From Here: Zazan's treehouse in the Murgg Woods. While it contains two elevators, the rooms are laid out in a complex way for the Murgg to ambush any trespassers.
- Jerkass Gods: Melzas, the very god the villagers worship, turns out to actually be the very demon tormenting them, using their worship in order to empower himself further.
- Journey to the Center of the Mind: An important part of the game, as Alundra dives deep into certain villagers' minds to vanquish the nightmares within as a Dreamwalker. And apparently, there's a lot of block puzzles in people's minds...
- Kill It with Fire: How Melzas is finally killed off by Alundra. After Melzas' humiliating defeat, Lars commands Alundra to deliver the coup de grace with the sacred flame, i.e. the Fire Rod.
- Kill the Cutie: Sybill is the first character to die outside a nightmare.
- Likes Older Women: The mayor's young son Talis, who openly admits his crush on Meia. Hilariously, Talis admits that her response to him hitting on her was to smack him and then call him a little weasel.
- Like a Son to Me: Jess clearly thinks of Alundra as a surrogate son and is very protective of him. Several villagers mention that Jess' deceased son would be about Alundra's age now.
- Load-Bearing Boss: After defeating Melzas, the sanctuary begins to collapse into the lake. Seeing as the Lake Shrine was used as the center of worship (and later a sealing place) for the demon posing as a god, it's destroyed for good once its host is dead.
- The Lost Woods: The Murgg woods. Alundra can't even enter it until the last quarter of the game, where the Murgg scourge needs to be contained.
- Luck-Based Mission: The roulette minigame, which you have to win five consecutive rounds of to get 100% completion — Four times. Even if you understand the algorithm behind the minigame, the odds of guessing the correct answer once is 40% on average.
- Macguffin Delivery Service: The only way to confront Melzas is to remove the seals locking away his palace — which is exactly what the Murgg have been trying to do, for the opposite reason.
- Maniac Monkeys: The Murgg are a race of simple minded white monkeys, used by Melzas to kidnap and murder anyone who gets on their way. They're also responsible for burning down Inoa village and killing most of its inhabitants.
- The Maze:
- Once again, the Murgg woods.
- Nava's Keep. There are thirteen rooms connected in strange ways by a myriad of passages.
- Mega Manning: Inverted in a saddening way. Every time someone in the village dies, you get a new weapon, item, or upgrade.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: Considering how protective Jess was for Alundra like a father would, and how desperate Melzas was to kill him, Jess' death was all but guaranteed in the end. He even prepared a letter for him, only to be read after his expected passing.
- Mercy Invincibility: You get it, regular enemies don't. Oh, and bosses get it too, generally meaning that when you damage them, you should immediately get out of the way in case they try to counter-attack.
- Mercy Mode: The Legendary Sword. The only way to get it is to approach King Snow's statue after dying over 15 times, at which point he takes pity on you and gives you the sword. Congratulations! You have the most powerful weapon in the game, but only because you really suck at it.
- Missing Mom: Elene's mother abandoned her and her father several years ago and ran off with a miner. This is apparently what led Gustav to become The Alcoholic.
- Moon Logic Puzzle: Clues to the colored-sages puzzle inside the Tomb of Lars might be Lost in Translation — it's still possible to reason out which sages are greater than their peers, but does "with utmost respect" mean speaking to them in this order or that? At least you can tell when you finally get it right: their spirits don't disappear after talking to all five and you hear a small chime.
- More than Mind Control: The other trait which makes Melzas so formidable. He's just that good at finding the right type of fool to manipulate: ones who'd sooner immolate themselves than question a single word he says. All without having the need for direct brainwashing (bar Kline and Giles). He uses said fools to act as proxies; spreading his dark influence all over the world, and the main reason why he generally favors churches, where zealot priests like Ronan prove effective at influencing the common folk into his side. Case example: the fate of Meia's mother. She was branded for blasphemy, then burned at the stake for trying to expose the truth.
- My Greatest Failure:
- Alundra being unable to prevent the deaths of many of the villagers was bad enough, but the Murgg's destruction of the village took this up to eleven.
- Bonaire thinks this way about being unable to prevent Nadia's death.
- No Hero Discount: Eventually averted... once the entire village puts their trust in you to save them, you can take healing items from the shop for free.
- Non-Action Guy: Septimus is your ally, and his role is giving you advice, doing researches or encouraging you. He can't fight or enter dreams, but he's your best, most trustworthy dude.
- Non-Mammal Mammaries: Wilda has a pretty obvious set of breasts; why a dragoness needs breasts is up to the player's imagination.
- Noob Cave: The first dungeon for Alundra to explore is Tarn's manor, located just east of Inoa. While it serves as the tutorial dungeon, it'll still kick your ass, with the first taste of the Murgg.
- No-Sell: Nava's Charm grants you complete immunity to fire attacks (though you'll still flinch and get Mercy Invincibility when hit).
- One-Winged Angel: Melzas's final form has multiple parts (two hands, two eyeballs with eye stalks, and a mixture of a brain and a head) that all attack independently. This is justified, as Melzas draws Alundra into his twisted mind as a last-ditch effort to subdue him.
- Orbiting Particle Shield: Ronan surrounds himself with them during your battle against him; you can knock them out in a few hits. The Water Scroll / Water Book also momentarily surround Alundra in whirling ice shards.
- Our Gods Are Different: Nirude is similar to a golem; Melzas is an evil alien empowered by praying.
- Papa Wolf: Jess definitely qualifies for this, considering that he confronted Ronan to protect his surrogate son Alundra, and dies in the process.
- Permanently Missable Content: Pretty much anything in a dream world — including Life Vessels and Gilded Falcons — can be lost if you don't pick it up before beating the local boss.
- The absolute worst offender of this is Olen's nightmare. Alundra goes into Olen's dream to try and find out what happened to the miners and helps them blow open a passage, leading to three Murgg popping out. You have about 30 seconds to kill all three AND grab the Gilded Falcon before you're forced out of the dream...
- Portal Network: Scattered around the village of Inoa are eight Stonehenge-like rock formations. They all link up to each other.
- Post-Defeat Explosion Chain: After defeat, bosses erupt all over with brilliant explosion, then give a death cry and fade into blue light.
- Powered by a Forsaken Child: It's no coincidence that you gain new items whenever someone dies: Jess is able to craft new weapons thanks to the spirits of deceased villagers who want to help Alundra.
- Power Incontinence: Every time Nadia falls asleep, something explodes. She has no control over this, and actively tries to keep herself awake.
- The Power of Love: This is what frees Giles' mind from Melzas long enough to prevent himself from killing his little sister Kisha. Too bad the stress of fighting it off kills him, anyways.
- Promotion to Parent: Giles' and Kisha's parents died when they were very young, so Giles has been looking out for Kisha ever since.
- Really 700 Years Old: Nava and Cephas, of the Zolist race, have exceedingly long lifespans and personally witnessed Melzas's rise to power and subsequent sealing in the Lake Shrine.
- Redemption Equals Death: With his last bit of humanity, Giles fights off Melzas' evil influence to keep himself from harming his little sister Kisha, which results in him dying from the mental strain.
- Religion of Evil: A variation in that no one participating is aware that their patron deity is actually an evil demon. Your village turns out to be worshipping Melzas, paving the way for his ascension to true godhood. Uh oh.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: The Murgg King, Zazan who fights Alundra at the top of the Murgg tree hideout.
- Sanity Slippage: The werewolf's curse has this effect on both Kline and Giles, corrupting their minds 'til they end up as deranged shadows of their former selves. The former goes from "humble forest hunter" to "people-targeting madman". The latter's fanaticism consumes him to the point of becoming a murderous zealot.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Olen and his three friends are the first casualities of the game. Their deaths demonstrates that Alundra won't be able to save everyone.
- Sacrificial Lion: Jess (Alundra's caretaker) and Sybill (one of his major allies) are killed by Ronan and Giles to show that Melzas won't allow him to continue interfering with his plans.
- Save Point: The Diary, like the one in Jess's house. (Unlike Landstalker, you don't need to take them to a priest this time.) Dungeons frequently include a purple-glowing warp tile that takes you to an isolated room with a diary and HP/MP recovery points, and the island's Portal Network contains one as well.
- The Scapegoat: Many villagers will end up blaming Alundra for their misfortune, beginning with Myra, Nadia's mother. Giles certainly is the most aggressive toward Alundra, even calling him a demon (at least until Alundra saves his life; he tones it down after that).
- Scarily Competent Tracker: Kline is noted to be this by the villagers. He somehow manages to deduce where you would come out of the collapsed mine and Cephas recommends that you tell Kline about the Murgg at Tarn Manor so that he can hunt down and kill them. It's probably one of the main reasons why Melzas targeted him so early in the game.
- Self-Duplication: Elene suffers from multiple personality disorder, so much so that her dungeon consists of four multiple parts, each themed with the four classical elements and with their own boss battles.
- Shielded Core Boss: To damage the Corpse Worm, you must attack its armored body first before you can strike at its head; the boss regenerates its armor regularly throughout the battle. And in order to strike the weak point of the Hidden Eye boss(es), you must attack the boss repeatedly to lower their core to within striking range.
- Shifting Sand Land: Despair Desert, filled with Sand Worms and a permanent sandstorm that gets in the way of jumping through platforms.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: The main conflict against Melzas doesn't follow this, but every single character except Bergus and Nestus that Alundra saves from their dreams are killed by the end of the game anyway, most of them when the Murgg torch Inoa.
- Shoplift and Die: Invoked. You can't actually steal from shops, but the shop owner will make herself very clear that if you try to steal something, she'll have to break your knees.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: As Meia describes it, Nestus and Bergus are "complete opposites" psychologically: Nestus is calm while his twin brother Bergus is energetic.
- Smooch of Victory: Meia gives one to Alundra in the ending, before they go their separate ways.
- Sole Survivor: In the end, Kisha has lost her parents, brother, and fiancée, meaning that everyone she cared for is now gone.
- The Starscream: Zorgia to Nirude and the Guardians of the Seal. He used to be loyal to the Guardians, but his sadistic and ruthless nature made him switch loyalty to Melzas.
- Stationary Boss: Ronan and Melzas's final form fight like this. There's also a battle against seven stone statue heads while navigating Nirude's lair, with one such head shooting Frickin' Laser Beams.
- Swamps Are Evil: The Lair of the Reptilicus Maximus. Complete with endless amounts of Lizardmen enemies.
- Sword of Plot Advancement: The Holy Sword. Subverted as, your Fire Wand does more damage to Melzas than it.
- Tactical Suicide Boss: While numerous bosses can be flinched out of their attack animations by striking them (making those battles pretty easy if you can keep it up), ancient fire dragon Wilda is the winner as she's completely out of range by default, but lowers her head within striking distance when executing a particular attack.
- Taking the Bullet: In a meta-example, when facing the Soul Leech, you're warned to not let the owner of the mind get swallowed by it (especially when it's Giles, where it will trigger an instant Game Over). So if you can't keep them away from the boss's mouth, you can at least throw yourself in in their place.
- Tautological Templar: To his dying breath, Ronan is arrogantly assured of his own righteousness, even in the face of the glaring evidence that the very god he worships is evil.
- Temporary Platform: While navigating certain puzzles, platforms may fall or crumble seconds after stepping on them. It's not always possible to spot these in advance.
- To Serve Man: After Inoa Village is burned down, during the meeting at Mayor Beaumount's house, someone says that Sybill's mother Sierra was eaten by the Murgg during the attack.
- Town with a Dark Secret: It turns out that the citizens of Inoa village have been inadvertently praying to Melzas all this time, unknowingly making him stronger in the process.
- Underwater Ruins: The Lake Shrine, which was sunken before the events of the game. It emerges after you obtain all seven crests, only to sunk again after Melzas is defeated.
- Ungrateful Bastard:
- So, you just saved Giles from a nightmare. Is he gonna show some gratitude to you? Not exactly. He suddenly blames you for the death of Sybill, instead! Made all the more twisted when irony reveals that it is he, along with Ronan, who's actually guilty of the heinous act.
- Zorgia, considering he betrays and kills Nirude who raised him until he joined Melzas.
- Unwitting Pawn: Ronan to Melzas. His faith was completely genuine; he was just too stupid to realize who he was praying to.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Meia used to be not too unlike Alundra until her mother was killed due to Melzas' manipulations, leaving her incredibly cynical.
- The Vamp: Sara, in Bonaire's nightmare. She reveals her true form as a hideous demon, much like a succubus.
- Verbal Tic: Jess has a habit of starting many of his sentences with "Oy" and ending them with "You know what I'm saying?", giving him a somewhat unique speech pattern.
- The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: The Lake Shrine. Packed full of the hardest monsters and the toughest of puzzles, the entire place is incredibly confusing. The Shrine was previously underwater, and it was constantly referred to in the game — it was submerged due to Melzas' wicked ambitions. It also has a hauntingly beautiful tune
to go with the place. - Victory Dance: Alundra strikes a pose (to a musical fanfare) after defeating each boss.
- Waif Prophet: Sybill's dreams always seem to come true. (Except for one.)
- Wham Episode: The whole "Baptism by Fire" sequence, where Inoa village is burned down by the Murgg and most of the cast dies.
- Wham Line:
- Just the sound of Jess smithing a new weapon can be this if you hadn't heard about someone dying beforehand like with Sybil.
- Similarly, any time you wake up and don't hear the opening bars of the town's theme tune after the cockerel crow.
- When Trees Attack: Melzas resembles a giant humanoid tree. His feet look an awful lot like roots, and his teleportation animation looks like he's sprouting from the ground and taking his humanoid form.
- Would Hurt a Child: With people dropping like flies, you would think that at least the children are safe. Sadly, it is not the case. Sybill will die, but not because of a nightmare: she will be assassinated by Ronan in person. Elene also meets her tragic end in a similar manner: she dies when the Murgg raze Inoa to the ground.
- You Don't Look Like You: Other than Alundra and Meia, none of the residents of Inoa are even recognizable in the ending cutscene.
- Zero-Effort Boss: If you fight Wilda while wearing Nava's charm which blocks certain elements, his fire attacks are useless, which makes that fight a walk in the park.
