Ah, 2D sprites in a RPG…how I've missed you so! That sentence isn't dripping with sarcasm either, because old school sprite based RPGs are my bread and butter. Final Fantasy III, Chrono Trigger, Secrets of Evermore, the Lunar series…yadda yadda yadda. I could go on and on about my favorite genre. Now comes Aveyond for the PC, and while it isn't on the same caliber as those beloved games I just listed, it does have an old school charm about it that helps it overcome some of the downfalls.

THE STORY SO FAR
Like all RPGs, the story is what ultimately drives the player to battle the same monsters over and over, all so that they can level up enough to stand toe to toe with a boss or either earn enough money to buy that armor with the better defense rating.

Aveyond – a sequel to the game Ahriman's Prophecy – starts off on a hilltop as two opposing forces battle each other. A priestess, having been defeated, sends a butterfly off to go and find the chosen one. The butterfly flies great miles until it finds you – a young girl named Rhen – and then transports you to the priestess so that you can help her. After you gather the priestess and bring her back to your village, it becomes all too clear she knows your father. But what secrets lay there?

Meanwhile, the evil Ahriman is plotting to get the priestess, as he has plans for conquest she can't interfere with. After our priestess heals up, she temporarily gives her ring to Rhen for safekeeping, a slave trader captures her (mistaking her for the priestess he came to get), and so Rhen is shipped across the world where she is forced into slavery for three months.

However, it isn't long before you are discovering your powers, freeing yourself from the bonds of slavery, and striking out to complete your destiny.

The main story of Aveyond involves this quest as you trounce about the world, gathering certain individuals for a certain rite, as you attempt to destroy Ahriman once and for all. Though this is the main quest, there are also little side quests to simply complete to complete them, because some really don't offer you anything for your troubles, unlike some RPGs that will reward you a gift or something for your troubles. For instance, a witch has a young girl captured, and she can't escape without her ruby red slippers. Well, once you manage to find who has the slippers and manage to procure them, you return them to the girl and then…POOF!…she disappears with nary a thank you gift being mentioned. Now, some will give you presents for your trouble, so it all just depends really.

When the game tells its story, it isn't all that bad, but there is a lot of downtime where hardly any story is happening, and it is just you and your team battling various monsters. I had hope that the beginning prologue like area would be a sign of things to come, as this was very story heavy, but after that I was often left with long stretches of time where I didn't really know what was happening in the story or what I was supposed to do next. Given this is an old school RPG heavy on the linear nature, a certain degree of handholding is required to move the story, but too many times I was just lost. For example, you have to eventually escort the priestess to Aveyond, but she won't leave your party when you get there. It turns out that you have to meet some lonely hermit in the woods before she'll leave you and go to Aveyond. Now, the funny thing is, you are specifically told to take her to Aveyond and NOT to find this guy. Since the game didn't tell me what to do I eventually had to go find a strategy guide and then a help forum JUST so I could find out how to get her to leave my party.

GAMEPLAY
Aveyond plays like an old school RPG. You've got your band of characters (form battle parties of up to four characters), you're leveling up, a turn based system that has you imputing all your moves at one time and then these are interspersed with the enemy battle routine to determine how quickly your side attacks and in what order they attack, you're money gathering (gold pennies in this one), equipment upgrading, etc.

Like old school RPGs, the characters are diverse and nobody can do everything, so it really becomes a balancing game of partly who you like and partly who can do the best job for you. Rhen attacks with swords and has various magical/sword attacks partially dependent on whether she has any of the special swords, Lars is offensive magic, Dameon has healing and defensive spells, Elini performs powerful creature summons, etc.

One thing different about Aveyond is that it incorporates the ability to see your monsters so there are no random encounters like in the Final Fantasy series. It is much more like the Lunar games, as you can see where your enemies are, and if you so choose, you can try to run around them instead of fighting. The problem is the hampering ability of this system, as if you hit one creature, you don't battle it's preset number of characters (such as one spider representing three spiders) but rather all you see on the screen. So if you are trying to dodge around three flying birds and you hit one, you instantly do battle with all three instead of just a group that one is attached to. This also means you can't pick them off one by one easily, as sometimes even monsters off the screen will be registered and you'll have to attack them.

There are two main faults of Aveyond that hamper the enjoyment factor to a degree: the uneven balance and walking around with no sense of what to do next.

I've already mentioned an instance regarding how it can be frustrating to figure out what to do next, and it carries over to every corner of the game. You are supposed to go save these druids to complete your quests, and they are stationed at various temples and such throughout the game, but there is no clear cut way to go about saving them as you don't really know which one should be your first, second, etc.

As for the uneven balance, the battle areas can have drastic jumps between difficulty extremes, as one area can be filled with easily dispatched enemies that don't do a lot of damage, while just one screen over can lead to instant death. For instance, I was leveling up through this area to earn some money, I find a giant tree community, head down one hole and instantly saw these frog like creatures. Since the areas are in such a close proximity, you'd assume they would be on the same difficulty level, but these monsters hit me for over a 1000 hit points at a whack!

And that is another problem…the hit point values. You can easily find yourself going from just a couple double digits worth of damage to over 1000 in a matter of seconds, just depending on if you find the right weaponry or not. Defense is the same, because while something can be attacking you early on for a good amount of damage, as soon as you find the best armor and upgrade it usually nulls all their attacks so zero hit points will be all that registers until you move on to the next area.

Though the problem is pretty severe early on, it does slowly seep into the subconscious as you gradually just let go of your frustrations and accept it for how it is. As soon as you get your first party of four well-equipped characters, you should be dealing with the issue by then.

GRAPHICS
The graphics are cute…there is no way around it. The main characters of the game (as well as the NPCs in the game) all have this anime look to them with cute little small frames and big ol' eyes. The enemies aren't that bad looking, but they aren't all that detailed either and are just kind of there.

The environments are nicely stylized in their sprites as the scenery changes from snowy fields of the North to the dark of the vampire ridden town to the tree top houses that would make any Ewok proud. So while you may be running around with no sense of where to go, you'll at least be running through some interesting environments, which have a nice and popping color palette so everything is typically upbeat with little in the way of drab, muted colors.

There isn't much in the way of animation, as the only things that move are typically your characters (about two or three frames of animation) and some animated bits in the environment, but overall it is lacking. For example, battles could be more engaging had battle animations been included, but typically it is just a character quickly flashing white to signify they are attacking, and then a number value appearing over who they attacked to show how much damage they did.

SOUND
Sound? Sound? Well, there isn't much. This was the most disappointing aspect of the entire game. Now, when I play old school RPGs, I play through the game with the music on, and only mute it and crank my own tunes during long hours of leveling up. With Aveyond there is essentially no music. Sure, the opening starts with music, but after that there is almost zip, zippo, nilch, nadda, etc. Battles are silent affairs for the most part, as the only sounds will be the ambience of the environment (either no sound at all, a few birds twittering away, or the drip of water in a cave) with absolutely no sound effects whatsoever and the only music being the winning ditty that plays after a successful battle.

I actually thought my speakers were broken, because nothing that should generally produce noise was doing so, and I thought they had gone kaput. Given the indie nature of this game and how one woman essentially did it all, I can look past this to a degree, but it did affect my enjoyment.

Editor's Note: Apparently the music problem wasn't that of the game but rather my media player (Windows Media Player 10) as it does have a soundtrack that plays during the game.

CLOSING COMMENTS
There are some things in this game you'll have to look past if you want to enjoy it. Aveyond is far from the flawless diamond I had hope for, but if anything it did make me miss this style of RPG gameplay. I love stories and RPGs do them the best. Sure, by now they might all use the same clichéd (young child goes around world collecting something to beat someone), but you know what, it works.

I didn't play the game's predecessor, so perhaps some elements of the story were supposed to be implied and were thus lost on me. That might be the case, I don't know yet. I'd have to play the other game to get a feel. I know the game is certainly referenced, but it didn’t really feel as if you had to have played it.

For what it is, it is an enjoyable game that will appeal to the old school RPG fans out there. It isn't the greatest, and it doesn’t evolve the genre, but it did leave me wanting to play the first game in the series. With a reported 50+ hours of gameplay and 60+ quests, there is certainly a lot in this game to keep you busy.

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