Alundra 2 is an Action-Adventure game for the PlayStation by Matrix Software, published by SCE in Japan and Activision overseas, released in 2000. The game is unrelated to the first Alundra apart from the same developer and Japanese publisher.
Set in the kingdom of Varuna, the story focuses on Flint, a young man famed for his pirate hunting abilities. The backstory reveals that the king has recently been forced to abdicate in secret; the evil Baron Diaz has taken over and replaced the King with a literal puppet.
As the game opens, we see Flint sneaking aboard a huge airship. On board, he encounters a crew of strange mechanical men with wind up keys in their backs, along with a trio of pirates, who, while ostensibly in league with the baron, are more than a little uneasy about it. Flint's presence results in a scuffle that wrecks the airship and sends it down; Flint bails at the last second, plummeting into the sea and having a very strange encounter with a sperm whale before washing ashore near the tiny village of Paco.
In Paco, Flint is introduced to the Princess Alexia, who has been seeking him in the hopes that the "famed pirate hunter" can help her defeat the baron (though she was Expecting Someone Taller). Hearing rumors from the villagers of a great bird that passed over recently, they set out for Mt. Sparrowhawk. There they find the crashed remains of the airship, along with definitive proof that the baron is working with the pirates. Unfortunately, they are interrupted by the arrival of former court wizard Mephisto, and a platoon of mechanical men. Mephisto is revealed to have power over bizarre magic wind up keys that can turn normal creatures and people into cyborg monstrosities. After narrowly escaping him, Flint and Alexia begin a journey to figure out how all these pieces fit together, and hopefully save the kingdom before something truly terrible happens...
This videogame provides examples of:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The sewers under Mileena's mansion.
- Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The overseas version replaced the bright and colorful Japanese opening intro
with a storytelling narration. - Asteroids Monster: Hitting the jelly-like enemies makes them split into smaller versions of themselves.
- Beastly Bloodsports: The town of Toroledo has a bullfighting ring as a Betting Minigame. The twist is that the fights are bull vs bull rather than bull vs matador.
- Block Puzzle: There are lots of these.
- Boarding Party: Despite the game being full of pirates, only one instance of this is seen at Flint's flashback.
- Bound and Gagged: Tough princess Alexia for almost 1/3 of the game.
- Cartoon Bomb: There are two types of these: ones with a normal fuse and ones with skull emblems and very short fuse. Oh, and they're all pink.
- Chain of Deals: Starts with the wind-up key you find at the airship, and ends with best sword in the game.
- Charged Attack: You will learn the Sunburst Attack, which is a Shockwave Stomp, when you find all the toilets in the world. All three of 'em.
- Clark Kenting: The Pirate Queen's Bodyguard is so obviously Flint's father, but he never realizes this.
- Critical Annoyance: Tambourine chimes will constantly remind you of your low health.
- Damsel in Distress: Princess Alexia for about 1/2 of the game as she's captured two times during story, you rescue her the first time she's captured but is kept as a Bound and Gagged hostage for the rest of the game after her second capture.
- Dragon Rider: Flint becomes one once you finish the Draconia Bomb Factory, where he frees a captive talking dragon that agrees to help him in his quest.
- Electric Jellyfish: Prevalent in the underwater levels. They must be hit when they start charging their attack, as it is the only way to avoid it.
- Epic Flail: Red Fang boss' weapon of choice.
- Evolving Attack: Swordmaster Jeehan teaches you to extend your basic sword attack as you find the puzzle pieces for him. Collecting all of the puzzle pieces gives you a 5-hit combo.
- Expecting Someone Taller: Mentioned by name when Flint and Alexia meet the first time.
- Eyepatch of Power: Zeppo has one. He is a Pirate, after all.
- Faux Action Girl: Alexia talks tough, but she always gets knocked out and kidnapped when she actually tries to fight.
- Fetch Quest: After Alexia gets kidnapped (for the last time), you are sent to a series of these on behalf of the kidnapper.
- Forced Transformation: Mephisto's wind-up keys can turn people into soulless workers or into weird monstrosities.
- Frictionless Ice: One of the puzzles in Seagull Ruins.
- Gang Plank Galleon: Puerto Medusa, a pirate town.
- Getting Eaten Is Harmless: The protagonists are swallowed alive by a once-docile, now monstrous cyborg whale, all unscathed. While exploring, Flint finds many people who were also gulped up long ago by the enormous cetacean. They're doing all right, only noticing the internal anatomy became 'more hostile' after the transformation. The heroes return the sea beast to normal, escaping via the blowhole in the end, but these stranded sailors are not shown. Its implied they remain trapped forever inside the whale.
- Giant Eye of Doom: Mid-Bosses of Underwater Cave are big floating eyes that throw bombs at you.
- Giant Spider: The boss of Dunn Webb is a giant spider with mechanical attachments.
- Going Through the Motions: Flint gets a lot of stuff across despite being unable to speak. All he does is shrugging his shoulders or doing triangles with his hands.
- Gotta Catch Them All: Jeehan's puzzle pieces. Collect enough and your combo attack chain gains another strike.
- Hailfire Peaks: The insides of Demon Whale, which is a mix of Womb Level and Eternal Engine.
- Heart Container: Hearts provide health upgrade. They come in two sizes, big ones that give +100 HP and are rewarded after boss fights, and small ones which give +25 HP and are found in stores and dungeons.
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Alexia is wearing a helmet in her first appearance, but then she removes it and it is never seen again.
- Heroic Mime: Similarly to Alundra, himself (who he himself is similar to Link), Flint is mute, and communicates through hand gestures. His voice is otherwise used for Kiai.
- High-Class Glass: Baron Diaz wears a monocle. It's on even when he is turned into a mantis-monster.
- Hook Hand: Zeppo has one. He can do shockwave attacks with it when you have to fight him.
- In Name Only:
- This game has nothing to do with the first Alundra, except for the genre, same developer and Japanese publisher.
- More than that, in the original game Alundra is the main character. In the second game, that character, that scenario, that world, and everything like it is completely absent.
- Indy Escape: Before you fight Mutox, he turns himself into a giant ball and a minigame starts where you have to run away from him in this fashion.
- Invisibility Flicker: Red Fang can turn itself invisible.
- Lethal Lava Land: Mt. Firedrake, which requires the fire ring for you to be able to run on lava.
- Lighter and Softer: The first Alundra was a very dark and serious game where a good amount of the cast dies by dreaming; this game fells like a Saturday-Morning Cartoon, being more colorful, humorous and overall more lighthearted than the original. The death counts are far fewer, with only the Big Bad being shown dying, and animals turned into monstrosities beyond belief are shown to be easily recovering.
- Like Parent, Like Child: Ruby inherited her mother Mileena's beauty, but she also inherited her father Zeppo's short temper. This is best shown in their first Toroledo cutscene where they get into a fight. Zeppo wallops his daughter in the face after she insults his looks, but then Ruby responds with a pissed kick in the nads to her father.
- Living Statue: Anubis and Horus bosses, though they try to pretend to be otherwise when Flint reaches them in comedic fashion.
- Load-Bearing Boss: Once Flint kills Mephisto, the Star Key falls from the sky, collapsing into the sea and the player has 180 seconds to escape.
- Lock and Key Puzzle: Lots of these, with Interchangeable Antimatter Keys of course.
- Losing Your Head: Mephisto's head removes itself and latches onto a new body during the second part of the final battle.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Averted. Mileena's bodyguard Belgar is Flint's lost father Radcliffe, but he never reveals himself to Flint.
- Macro Zone: The roof of Draconia Bomb Factory features two giant versions of common enemies.
- Made of Explodium: All the bosses explode upon defeat.
- Maniac Monkeys: The first type of enemy you encounter in Kindra Forest are monkeys armed with clubs.
- Mecha-Mooks: Mephisto's mooks. Overlaps with Gas Mask Mooks.
- Minecart Madness: At the end of Dunn Webb, Flint and Alexia must escape the place by using a minecart. This starts a minigame where player must avoid various enemies and obstacles.
- Minigame Zone: Gamar Isle, a tourist resort which has a gambling den in its basement.
- Money Grinding: Required to get the best stat-boosting artifacts in Gamar Isle, either by playing its minigames or constant defeating enemies in dungeons.
- Monochromatic Eyes: Mephisto has pupilless white eyes.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Mephisto, who is named after a demon.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: Boss of sewer level underneath Mileena's mansion is a crocodile which has been set there to guard the place from possible intruders.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Quite a few bosses. Highlights include a crocodile with a huge mushroom on its back and a giant violet pirate gorilla cyborg.
-
Nintendo Hard: While the combat might not be so bad, the puzzle and several Unexpected Gameplay Change will test the skills of even the wittiest of players. - Noob Cave: Kindra Forest, your first level to fight through to reach the site of the crashed airship.
- Ominous Floating Castle: Star Key, even more ominous in sense that if it ever lands, world is doomed.
- Our Minotaurs Are Different: The second boss fight is against Mutox, a cyborg boxer minotaur.
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Puerto Medusa's pirates don't do much piracy. The pirates in Flint's backstory avert it.
- Pivotal Boss: Metal Heart. It stays in the center of its chamber, and shoots lasers at you.
- Pretty in Mink: Ruby wears a white fox wrap around her neck.
- Princesses Prefer Pink: Alexia. Even her hair is pink.
- Puzzle Reset: Puzzles will automatically reset themselves if you do them wrong.
- Recurring Traveller: The merchant who manages to end up in the worst of the places.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Red Fang and Mephisto's One-Winged Angel form.
- Religion of Evil: Church of the Key, which is actually a ploy of Mephisto's to recruit more mooks.
- Ring of Power: The Summon Magic rings.
- Ring-Out Boss: The Giant Spider in Dunn Webb doesn't take numerical damage like the rest of the bosses. Instead, it has to be struck several times, first to make it destroy the railings on the elevator where the fight is happening, and secondly to knock its opisthosoma into the depths.
- Running Gag: Everyone expects Flint to be taller when first met.
- Shields Are Useless: Flint's shields are very small which makes them useless in actual combat. However, standing still in the face of oncoming projectiles will allow Flint to deflect them.
- Ship Tease: Practically every main female (even previous enemies) shows attraction to Flint at one point or another
- Strong Family Resemblance: Ruby is quite similar to her mother Mileena.
- Summon Magic: Your elemental rings enable you to do these when you upgrade them.
- Suspicious Video-Game Generosity: There's always a save and a health recharge point before a boss battle.
- Swallowed Whole: An entire level takes place inside the belly of a once gentle whale, now turned into a cyborg "demon whale". Its internal anatomy, a cross between a Womb Level and Eternal Engine is vast, and Flint has to return it back to normal to escape it.
- Sword Plant: Used on one of the covers, as seen above.
- Terrible Trio: Zeppo (the leader), Ruby (the one who questions said leaders decisions) and Albert (the smart one). Note that they are father, daughter, and son, respectively.
- Teleporting Keycard Squad: Whenever a key is found in a chest, nearby doors will slam shut and group of enemies will drop out of nowhere.
- That Man Is Dead: After believing he lost both his wife and son, Radcliffe discarded his old identity and became Belgar.
- This Is a Drill: Demon Whale is armed with one on its forehead.
- Threatening Shark: Sunken Ship's boss battle is a giant orange shark with vacuum powers.
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: As Flint is quite short, most of the female cast of the game is taller than him. However, this trope is taken to quite the extreme when it comes to the difference in height between Flint and Alexia. According to the official Japanese strategy guide Flint stands 138cm (4'6) tall while Alexia stands 180cm (5'11) tall. The kicker? They are both 16 years of age.
- Training Dummy: One resides in Jehan's dojo, which you can use to try out your freshly learned combos and special moves.
- Under the Sea: The sunken ship level, which accessible once you find the water ring, which makes able to breath underwater.
- Underwater Boss Battle: The aforementioned orange shark.
- Use Your Head: Zeppo's melee attack is a headbutt when you fight him for the first time.
- Verbal Tic: People with Mephisto's wind-up keys on their backs tend to end their sentences with 'Gi'. It is actually a sign of their impending dehumanization, since the fully transformed Mecha-Mooks are shown to only say "Gi."
- Waddling Head: Birdlike ones are encountered in Mt. Firedrake. For some reason, they spit cannonballs.
- Was Once a Man: Mephisto's mooks are humans who have gone through a full transformation into obedient servants due to the magitek wind-up keys that have been put into their backs. It is implied that there is no going back from that.
