Alundra

Otherwise known as Adventures of Alundra. Released for the Playstation by part of the original Landstalker development team (who after this game would later work on Final Fantasy III and Avalon Code). It's an Action Adventure game that plays similarly to the famous The Legend of Zelda, featuring a Silent Protagonist, lots and lots of puzzles, and a Journey to the Center of the Mind.

The story is about an elf eponymously named Alundra, whose people, called 'Dreamwalkers', have the special power to enter people's dreams. He loves adventuring and that's where we first find him, taking a journey with a ship. While taking a nap, he sees a vision of a wise man named Lars who pleads with him to stop the evil demon Melzas. His destination is a village called Inoa, which Alundra comes across by getting his ship wrecked and being stranded there.

At first Alundra is welcomed, and he helps many people by using his power to enter people's dreams and saving those trapped in nightmares that actually could kill them. However, soon after, the village suddenly turns on him, leaving Alundra with just a handful of supporters. Things get a bit more complicated when another Dreamwalker, this time an elf girl named Meia, enters Inoa. At first acting like The Rival, Meia is quickly befriended by Alundra as they share the same goal: to destroy Melzas.

Published in the US by Working Designs. There's also a sequel entitled Alundra 2 that has nothing to do with the first game.

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Tropes used in Alundra include:

• The Ace: Meia to a certain degree.
  • Broken Ace: Once you learn about her past, you see that she is actually this.
• Action Girl: Meia
• The Alcoholic: Gustav, ever since his wife died and his daughter became insane.
• Always Someone Better: Most of the villagers thoughts of Meia compared to Alundra.
• Ancient Tomb: Lars' Crypt and Despair Desert's dungeon.
• An Ice Person: The Ice Wand, The Water Scroll, and Water Book allow Alundra to do this.
• Anyone Can Die: Oh, wow. By the end of the game, only a few people of the village remains alive.
• The Atoner: Alundra, after the people in Inoa Village start to die.
• Badass: Alundra and many of the other characters.
  • Badass Damsel: Meia.
  • Badass Bookworm: Septimus.
  • Badass Longcoat: Mayor Beaumont.
  • Badass Grandpa: Wendell, who dies saving his family.
  • Heartbroken Badass: Jess, after his wife and son died.
• Bald of Awesome: Mayor Beaumont.
  • Also Nirude.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Alundra, Meia, and most of the townspeople at different points.
• Badass Grandpa: Wendell, who fights the Murgg with his son Meade to protect Rumi, Nestus, and Bergus, and dies in the process.
• Battle Couple: Alundra and Meia to a certain degree. They even team up to save Elene from her nightmare.
• Big Bad: Melzas.
• Big Brother Instinct: Giles would do anything to protect his little sister Kisha, even resist Melzas' power to keep her safe, despite him dying in the process.
• Bittersweet Ending: Alundra saves the day and kills Melzas, but in the end half the people in the village are still dead, including your mentor/caretaker, and Alundra doesn't even get the girl, being left to travel alone instead.)
• Black Comedy: Despite this being a game dealing with the suffering and death of often innocent people, Working Designs couldn't resist injecting it with their signature brand of humor.
• Blessed with Suck: Sybill. A sweet young girl like her shouldn't have to suffer visions like the ones she's having.
  • Also Nadia who make things explode when she sleeps, and can help move obstacles in different points of the game.
• Blow You Away: The Wind Book allows Alundra to do this.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Bergus and Talis, at first.
• Break the Cutie: Meia, so very much.
• Broken Bird: Meia's dream explains it all.
• Broken Bridge: Admittedly, no actual broken bridges, but there's one with a big rock on it and one blocked off by an old withered tree stump; both spontaneously disappear later in the game.
• Bubblegloop Swamp: The Lair Of The Reptilicus Maximus.
• But Thou Must!: Don't want to kneel and pray to Ronan's god at the beginning of the game? Too bad, you must. Congratulations! You just kneeled to Melzas!
• Capital City: Inoa village, of course.
• Catch Phrase: Jess starts most of his sentences with "Oy!" and ends most of his sentences with "You know what I am saying?" He even writes it in a letter left for Alundra in the event of his death.
• Charged Attack
• The Chessmaster: Melzas, so very much.
• Chest Monster
• Child Prodigy: Nestus, to a certain degree.
  • Also Meia.
• City of Adventure: The main city of the entire game is Inoa Village, where most of the important events happen.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: This went horribly wrong. Repeatedly, in fact, but primarily in the creation of Melzas in the back-story.
• Combined Energy Attack: A literal and figurative one is the Holy Sword, which is created by the spiritual energy of everyone's dreams.
  • Also when you defeat Dread the Dragon and are about to fight Melzas, everyone of the remaining villagers give you some of their power and completely refiil your health and your magic so you can fight Melzas at full power.
• Cool Old Guy: Jess, Nava, and Wendell. Too bad they all die by the end of the game.
• Cool Old Lady: Yustel the fortuneteller, who will tell you where to go next and refill all of your health and magic for only 15 gilder.
• Creepy Child: Subverted with Sybill and Elene. Sybill's visions scare people, and Elene went insane after her mother died and her father became the town drunk afterwards.
• Creepy Twins: The Bosses of Nestus' Nightmare.
• Curb Stomp Battle: If you fight Wilda while wearing Nava's charm which blocks certain elements, his fire attacks are useless, which makes that fight a walk in the park.
• Curse: The whole village suffers from nightmares, and everyone fear that they will be the next victim. Also, some villagers suffer from more powerful nightmares and curses than others:
  • Nadia is making stuff blow up as soon as she falls asleep. When you arrive in the village, she's been awake for 6 days straight, and is becoming more and more tired and irritated. If you go visit her in her house as soon as you arrive in Inoa village, you'll see her briefly fall asleep while standing, which cause the nearby table to explode. When the mine crumbles, she's on the defensive, stating that she didn't fall asleep (as it turns out to be, it indeed wasn't her fault). Later, when she falls asleep again, she blows up Olen's house (good thing he's dead when this happens... You'd better have got the Gilded Falcon inside before that).
  • Sybill's curse involves her dreaming while being awake, and she dreams of things to come, most of them being bad news. People are kind of scared of her because of this.
  • Kline's curse is so powerful that even if you save him from his nightmare, he will turn into a werewolf, prompting you to kill him before he harms anyone.
  • Elene's curse made her insane, experiencing split personalities.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Meia, who witnessed her mother being burnt at the stake by her people due to Melzas' manipulation.
• Death Mountain: Mt. Torla.
• Dead Little Sister: Subverted with Sybill to Alundra, who were not directly related, but she admired and looked up to him like she was his little sister before she was killed.
  • Inverted with Giles and Kisha, where Giles dies to save Kisha's life.
• Deadpan Snarker: Meia.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: Unfortunately, many different characters sadly qualify for this.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Meia.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The end of last fight when Alundra defeats Melzas.
  • Also when Zorgia kills Nirude.
• Dishing Out Dirt: The Earth Scroll and Earth Book allow Alundra to do this.
• Doomed Hometown
• Down the Drain: The Coastal Caves and Nava's Keep in the Undersea Caves are some of the water based levels in the game.
• The Dragon: A literal and figurative one is Dread the Dragon, the last boss you fight right before Melzas.
• Dream Land: Alundra and Meia are Dreamwalkers who have the abilities to step into people's dreams and nightmares.
• Dug Too Deep: The Coal Mine.
• Eldritch Abomination: Some of the enemies fall under this, especially the Ronan Incubus.
• Emotionless Girl: Sybill borders on this.
• Everyone Loves Blondes: Alundra for Meia.
  • Also Kein for Lutas.
• Everything Is Better With Monkeys: Subverted very hard by the murggs, they are really, really nasty monkeys they burn Inoa Village and kill half of the villagers.
• Expy: Alundra kind of looks like a fusion of Link and Crono.
• Extreme Omnivore: The Murgg who apparently ate Sierra during the attack on Inoa village.
• Far Side Island: Nava's island qualifies for this.
• Feelies: The game had six different disc arts, randomly inserted into each box, and the box itself came with a map Feelie
• Fingerless Gloves: Alundra and Meia have them.
• First Town: Inoa Village.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Poor Sybill.
• Garden of Evil: The garden section of the final dungeon the Lake Shrine meets this requirement, complete with its own hedge maze.
• Genki Girl: Meia in her youth during her dream sequence.
• God Is Evil: And the friendly priest is his dragon.
• Guide Dang It: Getting all of the Gilded Falcons; some can be Lost Forever due to secret timer mechanisms or being locked away in one-time-only dungeons. Also, the Fiend and Infinity Plus One Swords aren't exactly something you'll just happen across by yourself.
• Hailfire Peaks: Elene's dream is a fire level AND an ice level AND a water level AND a desert level!
• Happily Adopted: Jess thinks of Alundra as his own son, after he lost his wife and actual son several years ago.
• Happily Married: The mayor and his wife, Lutas and Kein, and Rumi and Meade until he dies fighting the Murgg.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: A lesser example. Alundra can use many weapons, but the most powerful ones are the sword types.
• Heroes Want Redheads: Meia for Alundra.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Nadia, who's suffering from a nightmare tells Alundra to first save her love interest Bonaire from his nightmare that he's suffering from at the same time. Unfortunately after Bonaire is saved, Nadia dies shortly afterwards, before you could save her. This doubles as a Tear Jerker later on when Bonaire dies in the fire caused by the Murgg invasion, along with Nadia's mother Myra.
  • Also Giles, when he overcomes Melzas' evil after discovering the truth, chooses to fight back so that his little sister Kisha wouldn't be killed, and dies in the process.
  • Later on, Meade and Wendell fight the Murgg to protect Rumi, Nestus, and Bergus. They succeed, but die in the process.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Alundra at first, due to most of the villagers beliefs that he is responsible for Melzas tormenting the city and using nightmares to kill the townspeople.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Giles.
  • Also Talis.
• The Horde: The Murgg just seem to keep on coming. Just when you think you've finally conquered them for good, their remaining numbers attack and burn down Inoa village.
• Hot Witch: Meia's magical powers classify her for this.
  • Cute Witch: Meia was this as a child.
• Ice Palace: Kline's Nightmare and the Ice Mansion.
• Infinity+1 Sword: Two of them.
  • The Legendary Sword. It has no Charge Attack, but it doesn't need it since its normal attack is even stronger than the Charge Attack of the next strongest weapon. Annoyingly, tied to Mercy Mode, requiring you to die and Quick Restart a lot to get it.
  • The Spirit Wand. Grants infinite MP in exchange for having no physical attack. It requires collecting all the Gilded Falcons in the game, several of which are prime examples of Guide Dang It and Lost Forever. One of it also requires getting five straight wins four times on a Roulette Table, which is a Luck-Based Mission and is as frustrating as it sounds.
• Irony: Almost every person whose life you save from a nightmare ends up dying in one way or another by the end of the game.
• Infant Immortality: Averted HARD with Sybill.
• The Insomniac: Nadia. If she falls asleep, things tends to blow up around her. Also, some villagers will admit that they are afraid to sleep and are keeping themselves awake in order to avoid nightmares, such as Fein.
• It's All My Fault: Bonaire blames himself for Nadia's death.
• It's All Upstairs From Here: Zazan's treehouse in the Murgg Woods.
• Jerkass Gods: Melzas, to an ungodly degree.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Giles.
  • Also Talis later on.
• Journey to the Center of the Mind: Apparently there's a lot of block puzzles in people's minds...
• Killed Off for Real: Like you wouldn't imagine.
• Kill the Cutie: Poor Sybill.
• Knight Templar Big Brother: Subverted with Giles who destroys himself, rather than letting Melzas use him to harm his little sister Kisha.
• Lethal Lava Land: Mt. Torla so very much.
• Light Is Good: Alundra's charge attacks have a light based power.
• Light Is Not Good: Both Ronan and Melzas use light attacks in their battles against Alundra.
• Likes Older Women: The mayor's young son Talis, who openly admits his crush on Meia.
• Load-Bearing Boss: After you beat Melzas, the sanctuary begins to collapse into the lake.
• The Lost Woods: The Murgg woods, of course.
• Maniac Monkeys: The Murggs, in spades.
• Making a Splash: The Water Scroll and Water Book allow Alundra to do this.
  • Also, the Watcher In The Water literally defines this trope.
• The Maze: Once again, the Murgg woods. Also Nava's Keep.
• Mega Manning: Inverted in saddening way. Every time someone in the village dies, you get a new weapon, item, or upgrade.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Considering how protective Jess was for Alundra, and how desperate Melzas was to kill him, Jess' death was all but guaranteed in the end.
• Me's a Crowd: Elene, so much so that her dungeon consists of four multiple parts.
• Minecart Madness: The Coal Mine.
• Moon Logic Puzzle: How are you supposed to figure out the colored sages puzzle on your own now? May also qualify as a Guide Dang It and Lost in Translation.
• My Greatest Failure: Alundra being unable to prevent the deaths of many of the villagers was bad enough, but the Murgg's destruction of the village took this Up to Eleven.
  • Also Bonaire thinks this way about being unable to prevent Nadia's death.
• Nerds Are Sexy: Meia, who's both very pretty and highly intelligent.
• Never Say "Die": Averted. It's pretty hard to avoid mentioning the word "death" when villagers are dropping like flies. Even the young twins openly say that they don't want their grandfather Wendell to die, and cry when he eventually does.
• Nice Guy: Alundra and Septimus.
• Nice Girl: Meia, and few of the girls in Inoa Village.
• Nintendo Hard: The puzzles! Especially the ice mansion and Kline's Dream, which were so bad Working Designs had to post a solution on their webpage for a short time.
• Noob Cave: The House Of Tarn.
• Our Elves Are Better: They can enter dreams!
• Papa Wolf: Jess definitely qualifies for this, considering that he confronted Ronan to protect his surrogate son Alundra, and dies in the process.
• Parental Abandonment: Unfortunately, quite a few characters actually have this in common.
• Playing with Fire: The Fire Wand, The Fire Scroll, and Fire Book allow Alundra to do this.
  • Numerous enemies and bosses do this, like Wilda and Dread who are dragons.
  • Also the Murgg, during the destruction of Inoa Village.
• Posthumous Characters: Lars and the other spirits trying to help Alundra stop Melzas.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: It's no coincidence that you gain new items whenever someone dies: Jess is able to craft new weapons thanks to the spirits of deceased villagers who wants to help Alundra.
• Power Incontinence: Nadia. Everytime she falls asleep, things go KA-BOOM!
• The Power of Love: This is what frees Giles' mind from Melzas long enough to prevent himself from killing his little sister Kisha. Too bad he dies shortly afterward.
• Precocious Crush: Talis has one on Meia.
• Promotion to Parent: Giles and Kisha's parents died when they were very young, so Giles has been looking out for Kisha ever since.
• Purple Is Powerful: Meia, who wears purple clothing qualifies for this.
• Randomly Generated Levels: Nava's Keep so very much.
• Redemption Equals Death: Giles, when he dies fighting Melzas' evil to save his little sister Kisha.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Many enemy characters and bosses have these.
• Redheaded Hero: Alundra.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Bergus is the Red Oni to his twin brother who is the Blue Oni.
• Religion of Evil: Your village is unwittingly worshipping Melzas. Uh oh.
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The Lizardmen prove this all too well.
  • Also Wilda and Dread, who are both dragons.
• Revenge: This is what drives the Murgg to burn and destroy Inoa village after Alundra defeats King Zazan.
• The Rival: Meia, at first.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: The Murgg King, Zazan who fights Alundra at the top of the Murgg tree hideout.
• The Scapegoat: Many villagers will end up blaming Alundra for their misfortune, beginning with Myra, Nadia's mother. Giles certainly is the most aggressive toward Alundra, calling him a demon.
• Sequence Breaking: Once you get the Long Boots in the desert area, you can actually start the sequence to activate the teleporters set in the game.
• Shifting Sand Land: Despair Desert, filled with Sand Worms.
• Shock and Awe: The Wind Scroll allows Alundra to do this.
• Shoplift and Die: Invoked. You can't steal from shops, and the shop owner will make herself very clear that if you try to steal something, she will have to break your knees.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Nestus is calm while his twin brother Bergus is energetic.
• Silent Protagonist: Alundra.
• Simple Score of Sadness: "Ashes to Ashes".
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Kline's nightmare.
• Smooch of Victory: Meia gives one to Alundra in the ending, before they go their separate ways.
• Sole Survivor: In the end, Kisha has lost her parents, brother, and fiancée, meaning that everyone she cared for is now gone.
• The Starscream: Zorgia to Nirude.
• Surfer Dude: Bonaire.
• Swamps Are Evil: The Lair of the Retilicus Maximus. Complete with endless amounts of Lizardmen enemies.
• Teen Genius: Septimus, although he might be a little too old to qualify.
• Temple of Doom: Nirude's Lair.
• Time Stands Still: Melzas pulls one of these in an ultimate attempt to stop Alundra from reaching him.
• Tonight Someone Dies: This is pretty literal, as every sequence you see at night is always going to be bad in someway.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Olen, whose tombstone is marked "Loved By All, Feared By None."
  • Also Sybill.
• To Serve Man: After Inoa Village is burned down, during the meeting at Mayor Beaumount's house, someone says that Sybill's mother Sierra was eaten by the Murgg during the attack.
• Town with a Dark Secret: It turns out that the citizens of Inoa village has been inadvertently praying to Melzas all of this time and unknowingly making him stronger in the process.
• Troubled but Cute: Meia, so very much.
• Tsundere: Meia, at first.
• Underground Level: The Coal Mine and Lars' crypt are only some the many underground levels in this game.
• Under the Sea: The Fairy Pond where you receive the Fiend Blade from Steina at the end of it.
• Underwater Ruins: The final dungeon the Lake Shrine.
• Undying Loyalty: Jess and Sybill to Alundra, considering they both die to help him in the end.
  • Also Giles to Kisha, which is proven when he dies to save her.
• Ungrateful Bastard: So, you just saved Giles from a nightmare! Is he going to show some gratitude to you? He suddenly blames you for the death of Sybill instead.
  • Also Zorgia, considering he betrays and kills Nirude who raised him until he joined Melzas.
• Unwitting Pawn: Ronan to Melzas.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Meia, until her mother was killed due to Melzas' manipulations.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: The Shrine of the Lake. Packed full of the hardest monsters and the toughest of puzzles, the entire place is incredibly confusing. The Shrine was previously underwater, and it was constantly referred to in the game--it was submerged due to Melzas' wicked ambitions. It also has a hauntingly beautiful tune to go with the place.
• The Vamp: Sara, in Bonaire's nightmare.
• Waif Prophet: Sybill.
• Wham! Episode: Every sequence has it's own title when you save the game. Beware of any titles that have character names in them, as it's a guarantee something bad has either happened to, or is about to happen to that character.
• What Could Have Been: Apparently, according to one of Sybill's dreams, if Lutas had died, Jess would have used his spirit's energy to create the Holy Sword, which is one of the most powerful weapons in the game. This is why Ronan, who was being manipulated by Melzas, saved Lutas' life at that point in the game to ensure that his spirit could not be used to make the Holy Sword at that time. Good thing you can get it later anyways.
• White-Haired Pretty Girl: Sybill and Kein.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Thanks to (or rather because of) her dreams, Sybill.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Ronan, when you learn that Melzas deceived him, and was using Ronan all along so that he could destroy Alundra, only to have Ronan defeated by Alundra in the end.