Alundra 2 (PS1, 1999)
Graphics-7 Sound-7.5 Control-6.5/6* Challenge-7 Story-6.5
Level Design-7 Frustration-8/8.5* Fun-6.5 Originality-5.5
Overall Score-6.5
*Underwater and disappearing path room in final dungeon and the final escape sequence
+
Run button (can set it to tap to activate or hold, no "always run" option though and can't tap again to stop) and running attack+slide moves
3 camera angle and zoom settings (zoomed in and near isometric, near isometric view, zoomed out and bird's eye view)
In medias res beginning (infiltrate an airship)
Can learn basic combo attacks (give puzzle pieces to lord Jeehan - up to 5 hits but nothing interesting compared to something like DMC as you're just mashing the same button) and a charge attack (need to find 3 toilets and tell Jeehan's apprentice about them)
Some decent-good puzzles (lure enemies to trigger bombs and onto switches (Landstalker), luring fire spirits into unlit torches, platforming puzzles, one-way/conveyor belt tiles puzzle in the seagull ruins dungeon, bomb chain puzzles after the volcano, change direction of moving green statue puzzle and green statue "facing to create platforms" (similar to light beam puzzles) puzzles, spatial awareness puzzle in final dungeon) and timing-based challenges
Skippable cutscenes (would've been better if there were subtitles and you could skip ahead on a per sentence or scene basis though since they get pretty long (sometimes pretty slow as well) and you want to watch them the first time around), skippable staff roll
Full control config
Difficulty options (easy and normal)
Pretty good cutscene animation and overall VA (cutscenes only)
Decent dialogue
Dialogue portraits for important NPCs (but no animation or expressions)
Some interesting items (float in place in mid-air+stun enemies+manipulate green blocks with the fairy/pixie ring, steal HP and breath underwater with the siren ring (can't be removed while underwater), stomp enemies (? doesn't seem to work) or make rocks fall on them+temporarily activate certain platforms with the dryad ring, walk on lava and light torches+destroy red statues with the newt ring; elemental lord summons w/ level 2 rings which become stronger at level 3), some decent humour (silly, slapstick, some meta jokes - the key, when the bull returns, etc)
Several mini-games (rollerball - into the camera chase segment (similar to Crash but with checkpoints+boosters+obstacles to hinder the chasing bull+item rewards) - decent, darts - slider like in a basic golf game (meh and it's the one you go back to since it has various useful rewards), minecart/trolley ride - good except there are no items to pick up and you can't both throw rocks at the same time, pot catching - ok, bomb chain - would've been good if you could place the bombs without physically moving them with the avatar since that takes so long and most rewards aren't worth it (also weird how bombs cost more the more you've saved and kind of bullshit since you couldn't know about that beforehand), dog attack (lure dogs into jumping onto switches) - kinda fun but has some issues (dogs can get stuck or their landings on switches not register, too zoomed in), RC car "race" (really a sandbox stunt course - decent but you can't rotate the camera here so some jumps are awkward), the run - basically pac-man w/ one ghost (meh), the rally - zoomed in micro machines w/ one hit deaths (so-so), the shooter - basically robotron except some enemies also drop medals (fun until the bullshit trap on level 20), )
Some decent bosses (giant spider, seagull ruins demon, whale heart, final boss's second phase though it's weird how it can end without hitting the head; most have 2 phases)
Some mini-bosses
Enemy bombs also hurt enemies
Slow MP regen if standing still (a bit too slow; can also gain HP regen but it's equally slow)
Sometimes have to consider what to put in your pocket/quick item menu (3 slots only and can only have one ring there at a time; one ring increases AP while one increases DP and the amulet lets you shoot 2 side by side elemental shots at once for the MP cost of one, wonder orb allows HP regen when still)
Pretty good boss introductions
Can jump over some enemies and projectiles (can also bounce slightly on small enemies without damaging them as well as use certain enemies as platforms)
New gear is shown on your avatar (Ys; there's no armor/helmets/boots though)
Some memorable locations (robot whale dungeon, mansion, ox tower) and characters (the pirates, alexia in the early game)
Outdoors areas during dungeons (Zelda II)
Some environmental storytelling (foreshadowing with the screw in the intro (and the other symbolism)+the ducks+the mini-boss that you can see through a telescope for example)
Escape sequence after the final boss
Some minor sequence breaking possibilities (can steer your avatar in mid-air to skip some platforming segments, )
+/-
Mostly linear structure (backtracking to various previous areas with new abilities for items (as well as 3 optional mini-games in kindra forest) and sometimes to progress, can go to a couple of areas early but there's not much point (mini-game areas which require darts and money respectively), some non-linear dungeons (cave of prunewell, parts of varunia ruins/nightmare), can't go back to the early areas in the mid-game and in the late-game you can't reach some of the islands for a while)
Hub map (popful mail-style except there's 2 entry points to each area and which one you'll use depends on which direction you came from on the map)
Save points and HP/MP restoration points - 1-2 of each per area (can also carry hp/mp and hp+mp potions)
No fast travel until the late game (teleporters between the three ruins dungeons are unlocked after beating eden ruins, one-way teleporters out of the ox tower and some other dungeons near the end of them before that - being able to teleport into one at a mid-way or player specified point (or at least have the exit portal be two-way) would've made backtracking into them for items that can only be accessed later smoother (that or a spell/item that let you teleport out of a dungeon from anywhere in it), some teleporters in the whale dungeon and varunia ruins, gain a dragon mount in the late-game which lets you travel anywhere on the hub map)
Can't move while swinging the sword besides the running attack which has a short delay after using it and can't be canceled while doing it
During some boss fights and other segments the angle is changed to a fixed side view perspective where you can only move left/right and during others it's a tilted view/beat 'em up style perspective where you can move freely
Doesn't show enemy or boss health bars
Enemies and items in bushes respawn when exiting the room/sub area they're in (trap/puzzle objects also reset)
Somewhat randomized damage
Can loot people's houses without them reacting
Can't lock onto enemies
Silent protagonist
More lighthearted/adventurous/comedic tone overall
No story connections to Alundra 1 and no dream theme
Frequent loading screens (~7-9 seconds)
Can't carry objects between rooms/sub areas
Features violence between a male and female character
Can't move while charging up a charge attack - makes it less useful against various enemies
No dodging - shields can block some projectiles (not melee) if you position yourself correctly
Can't pick up and throw stunned enemies
Can farm for money from the piggybank in the shop at puerto medusa and in a house in Gwaba town (30 coins at a time) - this can also be done for unlimited elixirs at the room before the underground lake in the volcano
Some of the music as well as the cult concept are pretty similar to FF7
Can't play as Alexia (she acts like the main hero of the land but when shit goes down turns into a damsel in distress)
Borrows some gimmicks/puzzle elements (from Zelda 3: floor layout changing switches, Lolo?: one-way tiles, Soul Blazer?: enemy spawners)
Escape sequence without a timer in the sunken ship
Bull betting mini-game (uninteractive; hold r2 to speed up the money slider)
The dart mini-game is actually rigged so that you can't get 100 (middle) too many times in a row - have to get a different score a few times after a streak before you can start getting 100 again
Long item trade quest
Elixirs aren't really worth buying (tonics are also less cost efficient than herbs but since you can only carry 9 of each they can be worth it)
Mostly meaningless dialogue choices (however in a couple of spots you can ask an NPC things and there's a basic dialogue tree+sometimes you can choose whether to give an object to an NPC and at one point can haggle for more money from one)
New shields don't seem to increase def against physical attacks (seems they instead protect against stronger projectiles)
Can't unlight torches with water magic or water pots
Cheesy vocal staff roll song
-
Control/interface issues (if you attack right before landing from a jump then the attack is canceled, no dual analog support (rotate camera with shoulder buttons, the item quick slot has another menu baked into it so you have to hold down the button and select again - cycling with a button press would've been better, both you and enemies get knocked down each time you're hit and this really slows the pace down since you can't hit enemies that are knocked down - some later enemies don't always knock you over so it's weird that all the earlier ones do, no subtitles during cutscenes, you easily get stuck on walls and other objects while moving around, can't jump cancel out of a sword swing, can't simply put down a block in front of your avatar, movement is a bit sluggish compared to Alundra 1 - lower framerate?, the running attack should've done more damage considering the risk in using it vs various enemies and also should not have made you get hit if your swing connects with the enemy before Flint moving into them or their attack (really annoying vs the cat boss for example), can't combine a running attack with a combo - combined with the risk of using one against various enemies and bosses it's often not worth it, very slow movement on the hub map - can't run here (can speed up as the dragon in the late-game so why not?), sometimes sloppy hit detection (on the rock that the bull boss kicks around and if you hit him with either a running attack or a charge attack then he isn't knocked over (wtf?), on the second phase of the final boss when trying to jump onto it), somewhat unforgiving hit detection on some other objects and vs mantis baron, can't hold down the button after a combo to follow up with a charge attack - have to swing again and then charge (works when using a single swing so why not a combo?), can't quickly replace an item in the pocket - have to remove the item you want to replace first, have to confirm dialogue choices with a different button than the one you initiate dialogue with, no jump height control, the second swing in a 2-hit combo has a shorter reach for some reason, have to shoot once with the ring to start swimming again every time you swing your sword underwater, no quest log/journal feature - this combined with the lack of maps makes it easy to forget about rooms and puzzles to come back to later with gained abilities, the status menu (shows current gear, rings levels, etc.) is in the options sub menu for some reason - can't unequip swords or shields, the underwater moving bombs that you need to lure into destructible blocks can get stuck on walls - forces you to redo the segment and they move slowly, sometimes jumping while pushing towards a wall shortens your jump)
No area maps besides one on a sign in Gwaba town (can find a compass early on but a. it's big and placed in the middle of the screen (while it is semi-transparent it's distracting enough to not want to leave on) and b. it's an active item so you have to put it in your pocket and select it to use it (it's also not particularly useful), fairly easy to miss certain paths either because of the relatively zoomed in view or the camera angle; there being few spatial awareness puzzles and tons of single room ones is probably a result of this)
Enemies and bosses hit really hard even in the first area and take a bit too long to go down (On Normal they do more than 3 times as much damage to you as you do to them - only evened out a bit once you get a 2-hit combo and charge attack)
Some other tedious aspects (falling into pits in the seagull dungeon forces you to fight a few enemies to get back up and also resets the room you were in (you fall down in the eden ruins too but at least there's a point to it there as you can reach a chest this way), slow swimming - can run if on the ground but not swim faster with the run button, while it's cool that every room is named in dungeons it's annoying how gameplay pauses each time you enter a new room just to show the name (you also have to re-press the run button afterwards) - in overworld/town areas rooms aren't named but you still have to re-press the run button, can't sell previous weapons and shields, grinding if you want to buy the available gear in each new town, it takes too long to win anything at the dart mini-game (way too long to get the materials for the best shield; various items are also locked behind progress elsewhere in the game which is a bit of a shame as it could've been a way to sequence break) - you also have to grind for the darts to be able to play, the birds and shelled creatures in the beach area are both tedious to fight, too much handholding in the first hostile area after the intro and it's annoying since it pauses gameplay, kind of annoying how Alexia keeps stopping you as you enter a new sub areas just to tell you either what you know or that it's ladies first, unskippable get item jingles and in-game cutscenes that show what happened when triggering a switch (same with summon animations), annoyingly short damage window for the second phase of the bull boss and the fight is quite tough for when you face it (the second ruins demon and whale heart boss also have short damage windows and the gorilla boss's invincibility times are just plain weird), rare MP drops from enemies and none from bushes - can lead to backtracking for restore points before you can buy such potions (which requires a bit of grinding) and you also don't find such potions before you can buy them, catching the goo goo bird - you just follow it until it gets tired, can't move the seashells from defeated mollusk enemies - means you have to kill or stun them in just the right spot and re-enter the room if you failed since the bounce is very short, some parts of the whale dungeon (timed puzzles with the small moving spikeballs in narrow paths, underwater part, slowly destroying a bunch of blobs in one room), some enemies and the last moving green block puzzles in the church dungeon, backtracking through the volcano twice! - the red ring does let you move on lava but it didn't do much damage anyway and the path is pretty much the same so it's really just padding), sometimes too much switching between rings in the menu - ironically the quick slots don't speed things up since you want to have accessories equipped for combat (the rings could've been switched between vertically in the quick slot menu), the switch puzzle where you need to throw multiple barrels onto hovering switches, some of the vertical rooms with tight platforming, final boss's third phase has some cheap attacks)
Some trial & error (escape sequence after the final boss - have to do the tower switch puzzle again in reverse and then find a small crack in the wall after getting to the first floor+you can't save after the boss nor restart after the boss if you die so you'll have to refight the boss and it's a pretty long fight, the appearing and disappearing path room in the final dungeon, the colored screws puzzle?, trapped chest on a small raised platform in the church dungeon, the amulet's description is misleading (you shoot two shots side by side for the MP cost of one rather than it letting you shoot them individually to stun or attack two enemies in a row for example - the latter would've been much more useful), have to say no to the bone collector guy in eden village to make him tell you that he's running a shop - wtf, some shots from off screen, some bullshit traps in the sunken ship underwater segment - can't look up/down and it's a bit zoomed in, chase mini-game, bull boss, two chests hidden inside yellow totems in one dungeon, some boss patterns - have to use a slide to tackle the demon in the seagull ruins (other attacks have no effect), some missable items in the sunken ship, item trade quest - even if there were clues there's no journal/log feature and too many NPCs in the game to talk to, super tight jumps at times)
Item drops disappear quickly (about 5 seconds) - sometimes it happens during an in-game cutscene
Repeated sfx when low on health
Unskippable tutorial (short but pauses gameplay each time there's a message)
Various invisible walls (low fences, rooftops, can't jump over the blockade in dun webb from the floor above, can't enter the water near the beginning of the volcano dungeon - you dive underwater at the end of it, etc.)
No dodging+the lack of manual blocking makes combat pretty simplistic (can at least use the charge attack for invincibility frames at times)
Pretty basic and sometimes ugly character models for 1999 (sometimes they also glitch out a bit)
Mostly uninteractive environments (can't examine doodads in towns and odd looking objects in hostile areas)
Some enemies just ignore you if you walk away a bit - even after hitting them
Somewhat amateurish looking hub map screen
Summons don't work on bosses
Can't push enemies into pits to take them out
Weird that you can push certain huge blocks but then not push bombs for example (this makes the bomb mini-game kinda tedious)
Re-uses some music tracks a few times
Some puzzles are so easy that they might as well not have been there
Enemies and bushes keep dropping items which you have a full stock of (HP/MP)
Some plot oddities (bad idea to take a ship back to Baron when you knew about the robot whale, can't run from or beat the guards after escaping baron's dungeon so what was the point?, can't use the dragon against baron instead of helping him again)
Puzzles get a bit repetitive in the late game
Sometimes annoying instrumentation in the final dungeon track
Pretty cliché story at its core and one-dimensional main villains
Level Design-7 Frustration-8/8.5* Fun-6.5 Originality-5.5
Overall Score-6.5
*Underwater and disappearing path room in final dungeon and the final escape sequence
+
Run button (can set it to tap to activate or hold, no "always run" option though and can't tap again to stop) and running attack+slide moves
3 camera angle and zoom settings (zoomed in and near isometric, near isometric view, zoomed out and bird's eye view)
In medias res beginning (infiltrate an airship)
Can learn basic combo attacks (give puzzle pieces to lord Jeehan - up to 5 hits but nothing interesting compared to something like DMC as you're just mashing the same button) and a charge attack (need to find 3 toilets and tell Jeehan's apprentice about them)
Some decent-good puzzles (lure enemies to trigger bombs and onto switches (Landstalker), luring fire spirits into unlit torches, platforming puzzles, one-way/conveyor belt tiles puzzle in the seagull ruins dungeon, bomb chain puzzles after the volcano, change direction of moving green statue puzzle and green statue "facing to create platforms" (similar to light beam puzzles) puzzles, spatial awareness puzzle in final dungeon) and timing-based challenges
Skippable cutscenes (would've been better if there were subtitles and you could skip ahead on a per sentence or scene basis though since they get pretty long (sometimes pretty slow as well) and you want to watch them the first time around), skippable staff roll
Full control config
Difficulty options (easy and normal)
Pretty good cutscene animation and overall VA (cutscenes only)
Decent dialogue
Dialogue portraits for important NPCs (but no animation or expressions)
Some interesting items (float in place in mid-air+stun enemies+manipulate green blocks with the fairy/pixie ring, steal HP and breath underwater with the siren ring (can't be removed while underwater), stomp enemies (? doesn't seem to work) or make rocks fall on them+temporarily activate certain platforms with the dryad ring, walk on lava and light torches+destroy red statues with the newt ring; elemental lord summons w/ level 2 rings which become stronger at level 3), some decent humour (silly, slapstick, some meta jokes - the key, when the bull returns, etc)
Several mini-games (rollerball - into the camera chase segment (similar to Crash but with checkpoints+boosters+obstacles to hinder the chasing bull+item rewards) - decent, darts - slider like in a basic golf game (meh and it's the one you go back to since it has various useful rewards), minecart/trolley ride - good except there are no items to pick up and you can't both throw rocks at the same time, pot catching - ok, bomb chain - would've been good if you could place the bombs without physically moving them with the avatar since that takes so long and most rewards aren't worth it (also weird how bombs cost more the more you've saved and kind of bullshit since you couldn't know about that beforehand), dog attack (lure dogs into jumping onto switches) - kinda fun but has some issues (dogs can get stuck or their landings on switches not register, too zoomed in), RC car "race" (really a sandbox stunt course - decent but you can't rotate the camera here so some jumps are awkward), the run - basically pac-man w/ one ghost (meh), the rally - zoomed in micro machines w/ one hit deaths (so-so), the shooter - basically robotron except some enemies also drop medals (fun until the bullshit trap on level 20), )
Some decent bosses (giant spider, seagull ruins demon, whale heart, final boss's second phase though it's weird how it can end without hitting the head; most have 2 phases)
Some mini-bosses
Enemy bombs also hurt enemies
Slow MP regen if standing still (a bit too slow; can also gain HP regen but it's equally slow)
Sometimes have to consider what to put in your pocket/quick item menu (3 slots only and can only have one ring there at a time; one ring increases AP while one increases DP and the amulet lets you shoot 2 side by side elemental shots at once for the MP cost of one, wonder orb allows HP regen when still)
Pretty good boss introductions
Can jump over some enemies and projectiles (can also bounce slightly on small enemies without damaging them as well as use certain enemies as platforms)
New gear is shown on your avatar (Ys; there's no armor/helmets/boots though)
Some memorable locations (robot whale dungeon, mansion, ox tower) and characters (the pirates, alexia in the early game)
Outdoors areas during dungeons (Zelda II)
Some environmental storytelling (foreshadowing with the screw in the intro (and the other symbolism)+the ducks+the mini-boss that you can see through a telescope for example)
Escape sequence after the final boss
Some minor sequence breaking possibilities (can steer your avatar in mid-air to skip some platforming segments, )
+/-
Mostly linear structure (backtracking to various previous areas with new abilities for items (as well as 3 optional mini-games in kindra forest) and sometimes to progress, can go to a couple of areas early but there's not much point (mini-game areas which require darts and money respectively), some non-linear dungeons (cave of prunewell, parts of varunia ruins/nightmare), can't go back to the early areas in the mid-game and in the late-game you can't reach some of the islands for a while)
Hub map (popful mail-style except there's 2 entry points to each area and which one you'll use depends on which direction you came from on the map)
Save points and HP/MP restoration points - 1-2 of each per area (can also carry hp/mp and hp+mp potions)
No fast travel until the late game (teleporters between the three ruins dungeons are unlocked after beating eden ruins, one-way teleporters out of the ox tower and some other dungeons near the end of them before that - being able to teleport into one at a mid-way or player specified point (or at least have the exit portal be two-way) would've made backtracking into them for items that can only be accessed later smoother (that or a spell/item that let you teleport out of a dungeon from anywhere in it), some teleporters in the whale dungeon and varunia ruins, gain a dragon mount in the late-game which lets you travel anywhere on the hub map)
Can't move while swinging the sword besides the running attack which has a short delay after using it and can't be canceled while doing it
During some boss fights and other segments the angle is changed to a fixed side view perspective where you can only move left/right and during others it's a tilted view/beat 'em up style perspective where you can move freely
Doesn't show enemy or boss health bars
Enemies and items in bushes respawn when exiting the room/sub area they're in (trap/puzzle objects also reset)
Somewhat randomized damage
Can loot people's houses without them reacting
Can't lock onto enemies
Silent protagonist
More lighthearted/adventurous/comedic tone overall
No story connections to Alundra 1 and no dream theme
Frequent loading screens (~7-9 seconds)
Can't carry objects between rooms/sub areas
Features violence between a male and female character
Can't move while charging up a charge attack - makes it less useful against various enemies
No dodging - shields can block some projectiles (not melee) if you position yourself correctly
Can't pick up and throw stunned enemies
Can farm for money from the piggybank in the shop at puerto medusa and in a house in Gwaba town (30 coins at a time) - this can also be done for unlimited elixirs at the room before the underground lake in the volcano
Some of the music as well as the cult concept are pretty similar to FF7
Can't play as Alexia (she acts like the main hero of the land but when shit goes down turns into a damsel in distress)
Borrows some gimmicks/puzzle elements (from Zelda 3: floor layout changing switches, Lolo?: one-way tiles, Soul Blazer?: enemy spawners)
Escape sequence without a timer in the sunken ship
Bull betting mini-game (uninteractive; hold r2 to speed up the money slider)
The dart mini-game is actually rigged so that you can't get 100 (middle) too many times in a row - have to get a different score a few times after a streak before you can start getting 100 again
Long item trade quest
Elixirs aren't really worth buying (tonics are also less cost efficient than herbs but since you can only carry 9 of each they can be worth it)
Mostly meaningless dialogue choices (however in a couple of spots you can ask an NPC things and there's a basic dialogue tree+sometimes you can choose whether to give an object to an NPC and at one point can haggle for more money from one)
New shields don't seem to increase def against physical attacks (seems they instead protect against stronger projectiles)
Can't unlight torches with water magic or water pots
Cheesy vocal staff roll song
-
Control/interface issues (if you attack right before landing from a jump then the attack is canceled, no dual analog support (rotate camera with shoulder buttons, the item quick slot has another menu baked into it so you have to hold down the button and select again - cycling with a button press would've been better, both you and enemies get knocked down each time you're hit and this really slows the pace down since you can't hit enemies that are knocked down - some later enemies don't always knock you over so it's weird that all the earlier ones do, no subtitles during cutscenes, you easily get stuck on walls and other objects while moving around, can't jump cancel out of a sword swing, can't simply put down a block in front of your avatar, movement is a bit sluggish compared to Alundra 1 - lower framerate?, the running attack should've done more damage considering the risk in using it vs various enemies and also should not have made you get hit if your swing connects with the enemy before Flint moving into them or their attack (really annoying vs the cat boss for example), can't combine a running attack with a combo - combined with the risk of using one against various enemies and bosses it's often not worth it, very slow movement on the hub map - can't run here (can speed up as the dragon in the late-game so why not?), sometimes sloppy hit detection (on the rock that the bull boss kicks around and if you hit him with either a running attack or a charge attack then he isn't knocked over (wtf?), on the second phase of the final boss when trying to jump onto it), somewhat unforgiving hit detection on some other objects and vs mantis baron, can't hold down the button after a combo to follow up with a charge attack - have to swing again and then charge (works when using a single swing so why not a combo?), can't quickly replace an item in the pocket - have to remove the item you want to replace first, have to confirm dialogue choices with a different button than the one you initiate dialogue with, no jump height control, the second swing in a 2-hit combo has a shorter reach for some reason, have to shoot once with the ring to start swimming again every time you swing your sword underwater, no quest log/journal feature - this combined with the lack of maps makes it easy to forget about rooms and puzzles to come back to later with gained abilities, the status menu (shows current gear, rings levels, etc.) is in the options sub menu for some reason - can't unequip swords or shields, the underwater moving bombs that you need to lure into destructible blocks can get stuck on walls - forces you to redo the segment and they move slowly, sometimes jumping while pushing towards a wall shortens your jump)
No area maps besides one on a sign in Gwaba town (can find a compass early on but a. it's big and placed in the middle of the screen (while it is semi-transparent it's distracting enough to not want to leave on) and b. it's an active item so you have to put it in your pocket and select it to use it (it's also not particularly useful), fairly easy to miss certain paths either because of the relatively zoomed in view or the camera angle; there being few spatial awareness puzzles and tons of single room ones is probably a result of this)
Enemies and bosses hit really hard even in the first area and take a bit too long to go down (On Normal they do more than 3 times as much damage to you as you do to them - only evened out a bit once you get a 2-hit combo and charge attack)
Some other tedious aspects (falling into pits in the seagull dungeon forces you to fight a few enemies to get back up and also resets the room you were in (you fall down in the eden ruins too but at least there's a point to it there as you can reach a chest this way), slow swimming - can run if on the ground but not swim faster with the run button, while it's cool that every room is named in dungeons it's annoying how gameplay pauses each time you enter a new room just to show the name (you also have to re-press the run button afterwards) - in overworld/town areas rooms aren't named but you still have to re-press the run button, can't sell previous weapons and shields, grinding if you want to buy the available gear in each new town, it takes too long to win anything at the dart mini-game (way too long to get the materials for the best shield; various items are also locked behind progress elsewhere in the game which is a bit of a shame as it could've been a way to sequence break) - you also have to grind for the darts to be able to play, the birds and shelled creatures in the beach area are both tedious to fight, too much handholding in the first hostile area after the intro and it's annoying since it pauses gameplay, kind of annoying how Alexia keeps stopping you as you enter a new sub areas just to tell you either what you know or that it's ladies first, unskippable get item jingles and in-game cutscenes that show what happened when triggering a switch (same with summon animations), annoyingly short damage window for the second phase of the bull boss and the fight is quite tough for when you face it (the second ruins demon and whale heart boss also have short damage windows and the gorilla boss's invincibility times are just plain weird), rare MP drops from enemies and none from bushes - can lead to backtracking for restore points before you can buy such potions (which requires a bit of grinding) and you also don't find such potions before you can buy them, catching the goo goo bird - you just follow it until it gets tired, can't move the seashells from defeated mollusk enemies - means you have to kill or stun them in just the right spot and re-enter the room if you failed since the bounce is very short, some parts of the whale dungeon (timed puzzles with the small moving spikeballs in narrow paths, underwater part, slowly destroying a bunch of blobs in one room), some enemies and the last moving green block puzzles in the church dungeon, backtracking through the volcano twice! - the red ring does let you move on lava but it didn't do much damage anyway and the path is pretty much the same so it's really just padding), sometimes too much switching between rings in the menu - ironically the quick slots don't speed things up since you want to have accessories equipped for combat (the rings could've been switched between vertically in the quick slot menu), the switch puzzle where you need to throw multiple barrels onto hovering switches, some of the vertical rooms with tight platforming, final boss's third phase has some cheap attacks)
Some trial & error (escape sequence after the final boss - have to do the tower switch puzzle again in reverse and then find a small crack in the wall after getting to the first floor+you can't save after the boss nor restart after the boss if you die so you'll have to refight the boss and it's a pretty long fight, the appearing and disappearing path room in the final dungeon, the colored screws puzzle?, trapped chest on a small raised platform in the church dungeon, the amulet's description is misleading (you shoot two shots side by side for the MP cost of one rather than it letting you shoot them individually to stun or attack two enemies in a row for example - the latter would've been much more useful), have to say no to the bone collector guy in eden village to make him tell you that he's running a shop - wtf, some shots from off screen, some bullshit traps in the sunken ship underwater segment - can't look up/down and it's a bit zoomed in, chase mini-game, bull boss, two chests hidden inside yellow totems in one dungeon, some boss patterns - have to use a slide to tackle the demon in the seagull ruins (other attacks have no effect), some missable items in the sunken ship, item trade quest - even if there were clues there's no journal/log feature and too many NPCs in the game to talk to, super tight jumps at times)
Item drops disappear quickly (about 5 seconds) - sometimes it happens during an in-game cutscene
Repeated sfx when low on health
Unskippable tutorial (short but pauses gameplay each time there's a message)
Various invisible walls (low fences, rooftops, can't jump over the blockade in dun webb from the floor above, can't enter the water near the beginning of the volcano dungeon - you dive underwater at the end of it, etc.)
No dodging+the lack of manual blocking makes combat pretty simplistic (can at least use the charge attack for invincibility frames at times)
Pretty basic and sometimes ugly character models for 1999 (sometimes they also glitch out a bit)
Mostly uninteractive environments (can't examine doodads in towns and odd looking objects in hostile areas)
Some enemies just ignore you if you walk away a bit - even after hitting them
Somewhat amateurish looking hub map screen
Summons don't work on bosses
Can't push enemies into pits to take them out
Weird that you can push certain huge blocks but then not push bombs for example (this makes the bomb mini-game kinda tedious)
Re-uses some music tracks a few times
Some puzzles are so easy that they might as well not have been there
Enemies and bushes keep dropping items which you have a full stock of (HP/MP)
Some plot oddities (bad idea to take a ship back to Baron when you knew about the robot whale, can't run from or beat the guards after escaping baron's dungeon so what was the point?, can't use the dragon against baron instead of helping him again)
Puzzles get a bit repetitive in the late game
Sometimes annoying instrumentation in the final dungeon track
Pretty cliché story at its core and one-dimensional main villains