Otherwise known as Adventures of Alundra. Released for the Playstation by part of the original Land Stalker 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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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