Albert Odyssey: Legend Of Eldean (From A Completionist Point Of View)

Albert Odyssey (From a completionist point of view)

A couple of years ago I finished collecting for the sega saturn. I just never had much of a chance to play any of the games just because I work away from home, but the first game I always wanted to play for that system was Albert Odyssey because I literally fell in love with the artwork of game when I seen an article for this game in an issue of gamefan so long ago.

When I was home over the christmas holidays I finally decided to make time to get this game completed to 100%. This game is a very simplistic turn based rpg but despite its simplicity it is a very beautiful game to look at. I couldn't help but fall in love with how the game and the sprites looked and it was actually a wonderful feeling to travel a world map again. The music is incredibly well done and the working designs humour shines through and through. It is a very short jrpg and I wouldn't necessarily say it has a very deep story. Its typical jrpg fare but it just simply reminds me of a time in which many jrpgs offered a really enjoyable experience.

With regards to completing this game it was really hard to find information on how to complete this game to 100%. Even the faqs offered on gamefaqs didn't have all the information that was needed to complete this game. I had to check a few message boards to make sure I didn't miss anything.

In this game there are no bestiaries, no item lists, and no weapon and armour lists to fill out. This game does have quite a few missables in it. Some of the most major missables are specific story sequences. Some of them don't offer anything while one of them gives you an excellent item that reduces the cost of everything in item shops and weapon/armour shops by half.

When it comes to completing this game a few things to consider:

With every new town you visit check everywhere especially the pots and barrels. All the pots will give you an item. Every town you can revisit again, once you have the teleportation spell and later on an airship (a flying goldfish). However keep in mind that some towns will change later in the game and you may not have the same opportunity to grab those items.

Also there are quite a few dungeons that if you don't grab all the treasure chests and check all the pots when you beat the dungeon the first time, you'll never be able to go back to that dungeon again. Some examples are Valerian Castle, Balan's Fort, and the Air Castle so search thoroughly with every new dungeon you decide to visit.

The game is divided into two parts. Trust me, when you play the game you'll know when the first part of the game is finished and when the second part begins.

There are four main sidequests/story sequences you can miss throughout this game so I wanted to make people aware of what they are, if you wanted to complete this game.

1.) Before you go to the air castle, you'll be asked to go Bugdoniel in the centre of the desert. Don't go to the town just yet, if you travel to the northwest of the town, you'll see the grounded air castle surrounded by a force field. If you go to the force field you'll unlock a rather comical story section of the game. This is the only story segment you could miss during the first half of the game.

2.) In the town of Mycent, once you travel to the mayor's house you'll see a scene where a girl runs off, if you talk to another woman just outside the gates of the town mansion and then talk to the mayor. He'll ask you to retrieve his daughter. Travel North of Mycent but don't go into the graveyard of ages. If you do into the graveyard you won't be able to activate the scene. Once you see the graveyard of ages travel North and then immediately East. Keep walking east, the water should be above and you should be able to walk into a destroyed town which isn't visible on the world map. In this destroyed town you'll meet the mayor's daughter and an enemy known as the iron giant. Destroy the iron giant and you get the item called the quest pass which decreases the cost of all items/weapon/armour by half.

3.) Two lovers sidequest. In the town of Gigarl you'll meet a man that is distraught because the love of his life left him and hasn't come back. This quest should be completed once you have krishna in your part because of her teleportation spell. If you play your saturn game between 8 am and 8 pm or change your saturn clock to that time, you'll actually find his wife in a cave southeast of the town of Gadel. Keep going back and forth between these two locations and eventually the old man will follow you to the cave so that he can be reunited with his long lost love. The story sequence doesn't really give you anything in particular, but the scene itself is quite endearing and a little comical to boot.

4.) Extra scene between Pike and Eka. Once you have beaten all four towers in order to unlock the central tower which is the final dungeon in the game. Head back to the town of Solace, there you'll unlock an extra scene about pike revealing his true feelings for Eka. Its a nice little side story to see especially before you go to the final dungeon. You'll also get 5 miracle mangoes which are very useful items in the game.

Also before you go to the final dungeon (all the other towers in the game need to be beaten first). Head to the towns of Chestoria, Mycent, and Gadel. If you go to the Weapon & Armour shops you'll notice that you can purchase really powerful weapons and armour in each of the shops in those locations that are more powerful than other weapons and armour you have found throughout the game.

If you want to unlock all the character skills and spells in the game. Getting your characters to level 50 is a safe bet if you want to make sure all the characters have each and every one of their specific skills. It is incredibly easy to get to this level because each of the bosses in each of the 4 towers give you a ton of experience when you beat them.

If its one gripe I had about the game, and this is a known problem with a lot of people who have played the game. All of a sudden when you get into a random battle. The screen will freeze and there is no way to get out of it. I found this happened when I was facing random encounter in dungeons instead of facing random encounters on the world map. It has happened about 7 or 8 times and then it can be a bit of a pain since you can only save in towns and some dungeons. So just be warned that your game can and will freeze when you face a random encounter.