Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage

About Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage

Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage (2001) is H2O Entertainment's 3D Nintendo 64 RPG in which a poisoned young squire, Alaron, seeks a cure, with turn-based tactical battles and permanent party deaths.

Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage in Depth

While searching for a missing farmer named Kendall, the young squire Alaron meets a strange spirit and is poisoned by goblins. He wakes from a terrifying vision of monsters in the hut of Oriana, a healer, who tells him the poison is beyond ordinary medicine. Back at Castle Gwernia, King Phelan sends him to seek help from the Mirari people. The player moves Alaron around a 3D world, indoors and out, from a mostly overhead third-person view, with real-time day and night affecting visibility and combat; neither his speed nor the camera can be changed, and other party members can only be controlled in battle. A menu handles equipment, abilities, stats, items and the world map.

Combat is turn-based, with turn order influenced by characters' and monsters' stats. The party is moved to a separate battlefield of varied terrain, where each member can move a limited distance shown by transparent borders. Height and attacks from behind affect damage, and each character's solar or lunar aspect makes them stronger or weaker depending on the time of day. Spells and talents show their area of effect with a red flame border that grows with skill level. Party members who die in battle are removed from the game permanently, and if Alaron dies the game ends.

Making Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage

H2O Entertainment developed it and THQ published it for the Nintendo 64 in 2001. It received "mixed or average reviews" according to Metacritic, IGN feeling its scope was too large and that it had no way of drawing players into its story or play.