In modern times hearing that a Japanese game is getting a western release is pretty standard news. With this information is generally the assumption that in most cases that will mean it will get a release in North America and most countries in Europe at a bare minimum but that wasn't always the case. Back in the 90's and early 2000's if a game got a western release announcement you had to actually look what that meant. Being from Europe we missed a lot of games that were released only in North America back then. Titles like Parasite Eve, Xenogears, Chrono trigger / Cross, Final Fantasy Tactics, Xenosaga 1 & 3 (2 came out here in an odd twist) among a huge slew of others.
One of these titles was Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean for the Sega Saturn. It's the third game in the series, first to get a release outside of Japan and even then to North America only. (The original SNES Albert Odyssey does have an English patch to those interested, though it's sequel is still only in Japanese at this time). Legend of Eldean was localised into English by a company called Working Designs. They did a whole host of localisations for obscure JRPGs back then that would never have seen the light of day here without them. On the flipside however they are infamous for butchering dialogue and localising the games so that 'American audiences could understand them' which is both patronising and damaging to the integrity of the games.
The dialogue in Albert Odyssey is dreadful, there is just no other way to phrase it. At times it has pop culture references that aged terribly, mentions Sweden, Burritos as well as some extremely edgy sexism and phrasing that add nothing to the game. I have no idea how much of it was them taking liberties, and how much of it was just bad from the original game but either way I do wish there was an 'un-working' design patch to correct some of these issues when they appear. It isn't constant but it's jarring enough when it happens to be both hugely out of place and irritating when it does. The over arcing story of Albert Odyssey equally suffers though through no fault of Working Designs but the original vision. It feels like two different games merged together that don't have much in common leaving the plot feeling poorly paced.
The thing is though, this isn't a bad game, I actually enjoyed my time with it despite my issues above. Visually it's gorgeous using lovely pixel art as it started as a SNES game and the Saturn was always a 2D powerhouse. I love the artwork and character portraits. Sounding like an old man here but 80's and 90's anime designs were at their height back then. The game is extremely vibrant and colourful and has a neat little soundtrack to match it. The combat is a simple affair taking a departure from the first two games which were SRPGs to a basic turn based system with, attack, defend, magic and item. Nothing special here but kind of quaint in an old school way as someone who grew up with this as fairly standard.
It's got it's charm and it's easy and fun to play through. I appreciate it when you get non human cast members in games and Albert Odyssey leans into that. The last dungeon is a bit of a headache and the writing and pacing are questionable but overall it is an enjoyable little game that is worth the time to play.
+ Gorgeous art and colour.
+ Nice music.
+ Has a lot of charm and an almost nostalgic feeling to it.
- Localisation liberties at times make the writing insufferable.
- The over arching story is a little all over the place.
One of these titles was Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean for the Sega Saturn. It's the third game in the series, first to get a release outside of Japan and even then to North America only. (The original SNES Albert Odyssey does have an English patch to those interested, though it's sequel is still only in Japanese at this time). Legend of Eldean was localised into English by a company called Working Designs. They did a whole host of localisations for obscure JRPGs back then that would never have seen the light of day here without them. On the flipside however they are infamous for butchering dialogue and localising the games so that 'American audiences could understand them' which is both patronising and damaging to the integrity of the games.
The dialogue in Albert Odyssey is dreadful, there is just no other way to phrase it. At times it has pop culture references that aged terribly, mentions Sweden, Burritos as well as some extremely edgy sexism and phrasing that add nothing to the game. I have no idea how much of it was them taking liberties, and how much of it was just bad from the original game but either way I do wish there was an 'un-working' design patch to correct some of these issues when they appear. It isn't constant but it's jarring enough when it happens to be both hugely out of place and irritating when it does. The over arcing story of Albert Odyssey equally suffers though through no fault of Working Designs but the original vision. It feels like two different games merged together that don't have much in common leaving the plot feeling poorly paced.
The thing is though, this isn't a bad game, I actually enjoyed my time with it despite my issues above. Visually it's gorgeous using lovely pixel art as it started as a SNES game and the Saturn was always a 2D powerhouse. I love the artwork and character portraits. Sounding like an old man here but 80's and 90's anime designs were at their height back then. The game is extremely vibrant and colourful and has a neat little soundtrack to match it. The combat is a simple affair taking a departure from the first two games which were SRPGs to a basic turn based system with, attack, defend, magic and item. Nothing special here but kind of quaint in an old school way as someone who grew up with this as fairly standard.
It's got it's charm and it's easy and fun to play through. I appreciate it when you get non human cast members in games and Albert Odyssey leans into that. The last dungeon is a bit of a headache and the writing and pacing are questionable but overall it is an enjoyable little game that is worth the time to play.
+ Gorgeous art and colour.
+ Nice music.
+ Has a lot of charm and an almost nostalgic feeling to it.
- Localisation liberties at times make the writing insufferable.
- The over arching story is a little all over the place.
3 Comments
I kept meaning to get around to reviewing this, but replaying it just sounded like work. I think I come out more negatively on it than you do, though the complaints of its translation - especially in regard to its edgy misogynistic humor - I'm right with you on. I also think that the writing is the only interesting thing about it, unfortunately, as it's otherwise such an extremely dry RPG.
@Weatherby - Oh you're 100% right that it's a completely by the numbers experience. I will most likely forget everything about it 6 months from now but it was fun when playing it.
I played it before joining Backloggd and do want to log all the Saturn games I've played but, yeah, it's pretty forgettable outside occasionally going "christ, they had that one NPC speak ebonics." I vaguely remember NPCs hitting on Albert even though he's 10. Whoever it was at Working Designs that did this one needs a psyche eval.
Weatherby
3 months ago