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Possibly the most underappreciated console RPG of all time.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 21, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I remember preordering this game, how it drew me in from the moment the power button was pressed, and had me playing through multiple times for the various endings. Everything is clear to me so many years later, except for why this game got poor reviews from so many popular critics. Even reading the full review from GameSpot, I had a hard time seeing how a written review that appeared very positive could translate to a number as mediocre (literally) as "5.9". Reading that review I would expect to scroll up to the top of the page and see number similar to what games like Mass Effect, who received some similar gripes, had. Mass Effect's initial release on the Xbox 360 bolstered an 8.5 rating from GameSpot, by the way. Many people only give games a chance after seeing what they feel is an accurate and trusted review, so this is particularly saddening.

What this game lacked in graphics, it made up for in so much more. Ways that quenched the turn-based RPG thirst of the few who ignored the horrible reviews and gave this game a chance, as you can well see by user review average which is more true to this game's actual stature. For the type of setting this game took place in, I don't think I've ever, to this day, seen a better story with more immersion than Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage. The developers took a chance with many things, and perhaps the world wasn't ready for it just yet. They made a RPG with a darker tone, deeper characters, broader setting, and created something older gamers could get excited about. This wasn't just another Final Fantasy spoof; this was real deal innovation.

I won't speak much on the details of the actual story, but it is a mind full. By a mind full, I mean there is a lot going on in this game, in a lot of places. You will often find yourself pausing the game, sitting quietly for a moment just to take it all in and try to figure out what just happened, what's happening now, and where all of it is leading.

The characters are deep, memorable, and come in nice variety. There's someone for everyone to relate to, from the deviant and sexy thief, to the hulking and honorable knight, and many personas in between. Many of these characters struggle with very human problems and thoughts, which we hadn't seen a lot of in games before this one. Now, we see this sort of thing all the time.

My final words in defense of this game would be this:

You can enjoy a game when it releases, and it's a -good- game. If you can look back on it fondly seven years later, and still enjoy thinking about the characters and the story, then you have a, not good, but great game. Aidyn Chronicles is a great game.

DO NOT BUY!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 29, 2007
Author: Amazon User

even if you're in love with classic games like me, you will hate this game. it's so sketchy and dull. even with all of the detail they tried using, the game just comes out as bland.

- bare with me now - the game features an "over the shoulder" 3rd person view, where each character has a limited space to move and can use basic skills to attack. think of Fire Emblem, but without the squares.

the game i compare this to is Quest 64. they're practically the same game as far as the style of play, yet i believe Quest 64 to be a much greater game because of it's rich color and the simple fact that it features music (this game does not.)

trust me, you will not have fun playing this game.

An awful review I wrote 4 years ago

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: March 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

"Aidyn Chronicles is pure bliss."

Aidyn Chronicles is easily one of the best games I have ever played. It is also very different from any other game I have ever played. The battle system, storyline, character customization, and the overall feel of the game is completely unique and original.

Story: 9

Aidyn Chronicles is about a young orphan named Alaron who searches for a cure for his poisoned body and ends up searching for his true name. He also meets a strange spirit who tells him many strange things. I absolutely loved the story. It becomes more and more interesting the more you progress through the game. You get to travel to many large towns and meet many interesting characters. The towns are very different from each other. One is near snowy mountains, one is in the desert, and another is a port near the ocean (my personal favorite).

I think there are 13 different characters that can join your party. You can only have four party members at a time. Every character has his or her own unique personality. You will have a very different experience depending on who you choose.

The game takes place in a medieval fantasy setting. I think the setting is perfect.

There are two downsides to the story. One is the fact that the characters make the same motion over and over again while talking. This gets extremely annoying. The other is the ending. The ending is very bad. I better not say anything else about it.

Gameplay: 10

The gameplay is wonderful. There are two different modes of gameplay. They are trek mode and battle mode.

In trek mode you explore the world of Aidyn and go from town to town. Most of the areas of the game are incredibly expansive. The mountains and desert in particular are just amazingly huge. There are many different caves and other secret areas that aren't part of the main quest. Most of them don't have anything very good in them though.

To get into a battle you must get near enemies that are in trek mode. A lot of them guard roads or paths. If you have a high enough stealth rating you can sneak past them if you want. If you sneak up on them it gives a better position in battle.

The battles themselves are very original and fun. Your party members and the enemies have a certain amount of space in which they can move. It is a little bit like the Shining Force games. When you get close enough to the enemies you can attack them. Characters with a high thief rating inflict more damage from behind. If you want you can equip some characters with long-range weapons like bows but it never seemed to work well for me.

You can build up your characters however you want. It's probably a good idea to build up ratings like strength, dexterity, and warrior at the beginning of the game, but you certainly don't have to. Some skills don't have anything to do with combat.The loremaster skill lets you read more information from books and scrolls. The diplomat skill makes people give you more useful information.

The magic system divides magic into four schools. Each character can only learn magic from their own school except Alaron. He can learn magic from any school. Some spells could be more useful. I ended up using some spells constantly (like fireball) while never using others (like stupidity).

When the characters die they don't come back to life. If you want to keep them you will have to save your game often (which you can do anywhere). I personally like this feature even though it wasn't intentional. It contributes to the overall oddness of the game.

Graphics: 7

The graphics are a mixed bag. Some of the environments look great. I really like the way the mountains near Erromon look. But most of the characters look pretty bad. They have hooves for hands. Alaron's hair looks pretty ridiculous. It isn't as distracting as it might sound, though.

Music and Sound: 10

The music in this game is just grand. The song that starts when you first enter the town of Port Saiid is an absolute masterpiece. All of the music in the game is very strange. The chants that play during battles are bizarre. I love the weirdness of it all.

The sound is equally superb. The sound of footsteps changes whether it is on stone, grass, dirt, or many other textures. The flowing noise the rivers make sounds very realistic. There is no voice acting but I really don't care.

Length: 10

Aidyn Chronicles is a very long game. If you try to rush through and beat it as quickly as you can it will probably take about 50 or 60 hours. If you take the time to do absolutely everything it could easily take over 100 hours to complete.

Replay Value: 9

I have beaten the game twice and my two experiences were very different. Since there are 13 available characters and you can only have four at a time, you can have a completely different party every time you play through the game.

There are some negative things about playing through the game again. A lot of the characters that can join your party aren't available until quite late in the game. This is irritating if you just want to get one particular character. Also irritating is the first boss battle. It is extremely difficult to beat. It isn't very fun building up a few more hours to beat that boss again. But problems aside, the game has very good replay value.

Overall: 10

Aidyn Chronicles is an excellent RPG set in a massive medieval world. It is one of the strangest games I have ever played. It is also one of the best.

Perfect RPG

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: April 27, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I have never played an RPG better then Aidyn Chronicles. Every aspect of your stats can be raised, and there are dozens of unique skills and spells. The Enormous world is realistic and larger then any other game before it. You can explore virtually everywhere in the game, and although the battles are turn based, it still involves action, unlike many RPGs(final fantasy). Over a dozen characters allows much depth to gameplay, and tons of cutscenes change depending on which characters are in your group. The hundreds of hours of gameplay that I spent on Aidyn on my first two tries did not stop me from wanting to play a third , fourth, and fifth time. This game can be played a hundred times over and never be exactly the same. All RPGs of today should model themselves after Aidyn Chronicles.

best game ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: May 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

play this game if you are the kind of person that loves rpgs
and you are board alot and have alot of time on you're hands
you cannot be a joyful happy ritch pearson they all hate this game. because on this game thier is alot of reading i mean alot!!
but it makes up a great storyline if you love final fantasy or the way the game works get this game. (the same) factors
the fighting is the same as final fantasy but the graphics arnt as good you can learn over 800 spels and abilityies and equip over 200 kinds of wepaons to you're peoples. and you will not find them all! one hidden one i shoult tell you all is a wizards hat. spell baterie + 20 and it is inbetween tailwok and portsailid . i think!!! i aim for shure it on the right side a hidden opening with a big hole go in and find. it looks like a cave but it is not. i will check and if it is not between tailwok ans port sailid. i will write another review. I aim in love with this game . ihave had to restart the game 4 times because of the stupid memory card pack being corupted and if you have beat the game like me you probiely think they should make a book out of it. i want to find the guy who made it . or who wrote the script.

big fan

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: May 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

if you havent played aidyn chronicles the firstmage you need to if you are a rpg (role playing game)er you run around on missions to save you'r self and others while gaining levels on the huge inviroment while fighting zombies and goblns and giant creatures the graphics are just barely ok but you get more party members and equip you'r people and buy potions, armor and shelds
the storyline is awesome! it sounds corney but it rocks and if you don't get new games often i wil remind you that it will take the average player a year to win. if you plan to buy this game and you need help email me at mayfieldj400@aol.com ask for johnny and also i had some memory pack trouble and my game was corupted a few times so it is a good idea to get a new one.

A reviwe and a bit more.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I don't need to sat anything, since people can clearly see my star rating. I just plain like this game. It seems so unique. For one, death actually has a meaning. You lose a valuable party memeber that has been fighting at your side, as opposed to "Oh I'll just use some phoenix down next turn", or "I'll bring him back to life when I get back to town". Afterall, I think that what made Aeris's death so significant. Who didn't want to kill Sephiroth right there and then for doing that? True, the game is slow and graphis are a pretty bad (Even I wanted to quit playing during the first twenty minutes) but this good isn't about looks or speed. It's about something deeper, the actual adventure. I mean, Alaron's life is in jepardy. How exciting would it be if you solved that in an hour and then just went home for dinner? The length of the game should be a lure, like popular television series. When I first talked about this with a friend of mine, he told me about how many people thought the game sucked, and it really got me depressed. Then I looked here and saw that there were people that enjoyed it just as much as me. I'm not going to say that people that down like the game are wrong, thats what you want to believe. But think about it, alot of the complants are about the dragged out story line. Has anyone here heard of Gungrave? The game has almost no story line, just a whole bunch of action. I liked it, but it left me feeling empty. Then I saw the anime of Gungrave, and it just seemed so much cooler. I'm not going to get preachy any longer so I'll just wrap this up with the points that I think makes a good RPG.

1. Choices
2. Consequences
3. Tough situations
4. Realism

P.S. Maybe I just feel this way because I play Dungeons & Dragons

A great RPG

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I really like this game. The story is interesting and well laid out, yet you have the power to make your character complete his quest by means of number of different paths - and with a choice of forming your party out of a group of potential companions with varying strengths and weaknesses. The game contains a large 3-D world that is fun to explore and is full of all sorts of hidden treasures, caves, and ruins. The combat in this game is a sort of combination of the live-action and turn-based systems. For example, on your turn you can move your characters around the combat zone and strategically position them in places to maximize their offensive or defensive abilities - but you don't control the actual "swordplay", rather you just give a command to the character to attack or cast a spell upon a particular enemy. The only gripe I had with this game was in this combat system, I wish it was more live-action oriented than turn based; but that is merely a matter of personal preference. Other than the combat, I highly recommend this game and I liked all of the other aspects of its design, programming, artwork, story, and play.

One of the best RPGs

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 31, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is one of the best games for n64- by far.
So what if its extreamly hard(I've had it for two years now, not even close)?The gameplay is great!You run around and talk to people like normal games, but when you run into an enemy, you go in to a complety different mode.Based on you states,some of you four charecters can move or attack.You have a certain space to move in to attack enemys.
The storyline is complacated, the game play never gets old or repetative,over all, this is a great game.I recommend it.

Don't waste your time or money

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: February 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I rented this yesterday, and it's absolute .... The gameplay is gawky, the main character moves very slowly, and combat is very stupid and hard to figure out. You have to start the whole game over when you die unless you save, but then again, isn't "new journal entry added" SUPPOSED to mean the game saved in most RPGs? The graphics weren't very good either. Go buy Zelda.

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