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Albert Odyssey is a traditional rpg (a la Final Fantasy) that's takes place in the usual medieval-type of world.

Graphics-
Nice, but not incredible. In fact, they don't stand up to Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy 3, which is a disappointment because this game was meant to be retooled for the Saturn. The towns are the one bright spot, though. They all have their own unique feel to them unlike most other rpg's. The enemies don't look great and are in fact dull. The programmers evidently got bored with making enemies because the recycle the same types of baddies (just with a different color). The airship is neat. I also liked the flickering light in the caves and final four castles. A nice touch. Overall, I'd give the graphics a 7.

Sound-
This is the saving grace of this game. Beautiful sound in the towns and in the cut scenes (which there are many of). The caves and dungeons have nice music which compliments the feel for where you are. The music when your out of town and walking is okay, not annoying so I could stand it. What is annoying is the battle music. It's nice that in battle you hear your guy attack and say something, and same thing for the enemies. But the background music is bad. The airship music is nice. But don't expect any kind of thunderous, in your face kind of thing. Music gets an 8.

Control/Gameplay-
Control is hard to evaluate because this is an rpg, so control isn't the biggest thing. Its nice when you heal that the cursor stays there so you can keep on healing. But control doesn't need to be rated because it spills over into gameplay. See, the biggest problem with control is when you pause it during the map, there is a five second load time! Yeah! This leads to gameplay. I don't know how it is with other traditional rpgs in Japan, but load time is a bitch. And this is for only at most a minute battle. Why not utilize the ram cart or something? I got used to the load time but it is still annoying when I look back on it. I think the programmers should have done some trick like they did in Wild Arms or Finally Fantasy 7. Mask the loading. Enough of that. The game also is extremely easy. The only place that's hard is the final dungeon. There are so many cut scenes, you feel like you aren't playing the game. The game isn't that big and it was only because of work that it took me a week or so to complete. Maybe because I never really got "into it" too. The game has personality, though. The humor, most of which is sexual innuendos, is hilarious. Ill give credit to Working Designs for that. The game gets an overall score of 6.5.

Don't get me wrong, I love rpgs. But this wasn't enough folks, especially for that long of a wait. I loved Shining the Holy Ark and all those other good rpgs on the he SNES. But I hope Magic Knight and Lunar aren't this disappointing. If they are, who cares about Working Designs.