Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean

About Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean

Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean (1996) is Sunsoft's Saturn RPG in which Pike, raised by harpies, travels with a talking sword to cure his petrified sister and stop the revival of the god Vlag.

Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean in Depth

Pike's family was murdered by monsters when he was an infant, and he was raised by a family of winged humanoids known as Harpies. Twenty years later, an evil mage turns his adoptive sister to stone, and with Cirrus, a talking sword holding the spirit of one of the legendary Eldean siblings, Pike sets out to find a cure. He uncovers a plot by evil magicians to turn the world's races against each other and revive the ancient god Vlag, and with friends met on the way must stop its resurrection. Companions include Eka, a withdrawn singer who wields throwing weapons and powerful spells; Leos, a priestess and martial artist with healing abilities; and Gryzz, a dragonman, the eldest and strongest of the party, who fights with two katana and breath weapons.

It is a traditional RPG with an overhead view and menu-driven combat. Originally made for the Super NES and moved to the Saturn late in development, it was conceived as a "gaiden", or side story, with backstory, characters and plot independent of earlier Albert Odyssey games, and it is the first in the series with traditional turn-based RPG play rather than tactical strategy. EGM's Dan Hsu called it "not only beautiful (both musically and graphically)" but one of the most involving RPG stories, with "witty" dialogue.

Making Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean

Sunsoft produced it for the Sega Saturn, porting it from the Super NES late in development, and released it in Japan in 1996. The North American version, released by Working Designs, received mixed reviews, though EGM's Dan Hsu gave it an Editors' Choice award.