The Legend of Alon D'ar is a fantasy role-playing game for the PlayStation 2. Developed by Stormfront Studios and published by Ubisoft, it was one of the earliest releases for the console, coming out in 2001. The game operates on a similar mechanism to Active Time Battle, in which the player must wait his turn to attack. This wait time is dependent on the weapon being used; light weapons will be used faster than heavy, etc. There are also a variety of spells to use. Like other such games, it has a fairly vast setting, with several towns to explore and a number of monsters to fight. Once more characters are unlocked, two players can work together.
The game's story takes place in the world of Chandar (which is not so much a world as a single floating continent). Jarik, the protagonist, has a dream about some nightmarish being called Zaharanar awakening and begins to take hold of the magical energy binding the world, called the Wyrd. Not long after, his village gets attacked by shape-shifting creatures in the form of Dagani, one of the other races that call Chandar home. After killing one, Jarik gets burned by a stone it spits up, branding him with a strange rune. He's soon sent on a quest to find out the meaning of the rune and why these creatures are being sent out to raid and turn the races against each other. Along the way, he acquires three other companions: Tahir the Dagani, a member of an amphibious swamp-dwelling species, Tylonee the Kemarran, an Amazonian-like people and Sun-Deep the Sarojin, who are basically lizard people.
The game was not well received upon its release. While it was certainly considered ambitious and its lore is well developed, it was bogged down by mediocre graphics, a tedious playthrough and all around generic atmosphere.
The Legend of Alon D'ar contains the following tropes:
- A God Am I: Zaharanar considers himself to be this and as such holds all others in contempt.
- To a much lesser extent, there were some Sarojin way back when who tried to become gods by changing themselves with the Wyrd. It failed miserably and turned them into twisted, primitive monsters called Darkfell who hate everyone.
- All There in the Manual: Much of the setting's background is told in-universe from sources like books and in one case a Dagani storyteller named Riffen.
- Background Magic Field: The Wyrd, or the Sacred Weave as it is referred to by the Sarojin, functions much like the Force does; it can be channeled to power spells, is regarded as the power that shapes reality and the natives believe that when they die, they all become part of it.
- Bad Boss: Drindathar is really fond of killing off his subordinates if they displease him.
- His own master is arguably even worse. When he is finally confronted by the heroes, Zaharanar's first action is to devour Drindathar's life force for no other reason than to make a point on how powerful he is.
- Break the Haughty: When you first meet Sun-Deep, he's an enormous arrogant prat. Much later, his master Silver-Scale betrays him and locks him away in a cell underground, leaving him to die. Needless to say, Sun-Deep becomes much more humble after that.
- Lord Grandar, the ruler of Jarik's village, was about as arrogant and unlikable as they come, openly scorning Jarik's desire to be a warrior because he's a peasant. He later gets imprisoned in a labyrinth of lava-filled caves and is nearly dead when Jarik's party finds him. With his dying words, he admits he was wrong about Jarik and states that he was indeed a fine warrior.
- Celibate Heroine: Tylonee is a Dagger of Virtue, which means she has forsworn intimacy in the pursuit of being a warrior.
- Chosen One: An interesting version in the case of Jarik. While he is indeed the reincarnation of Alon D'ar, the greatest Chandarath to have ever lived,it's revealed that he wasn't the first reincarnation. There have been four before him: a Dagani, a Sarojin, a Kemarran and another Orin, but they all failed due to some intrinsic flaw.
- Dirty Coward: Silver-Scale might be fond of grandiose speeches about how great he is, but spends much of the game running away from Jarik and his friends. He only fights once he's got nowhere left to run.
- Drindathar, Zaharanar's servant, is about as cowardly as they come. When Jarik receives memories from his past life, he claims that Drindathar was both craven and treacherous to pretty much everyone.
- Driven by Envy: Leyalla, Tylonee's younger sister, always felt that she could never measure up to her example. It's this jealousy that leads her to sign on with Silver-Scale in the hopes that she will become the greatest Kemarran ever.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: The reason Chandar is just a single continent floating around in space is because Zaharanar and Alon D'ar fought so hard they smashed the world apart.
- Eldritch Abomination: Zaharanar is the Cthulhu of this setting; hell, he even looks like something Lovecraft would come up with. In fact, his entire race would count, but he was the strongest. The minute he wakes up after eons of slumber, he begins to take hold of the magic binding Chandar, which causes everything to fluctuate horribly.
- Fatal Flaw: The Heroes from ancient times, who were the former incarnations of Alon D'ar each had a major flaw that led to their undoing.
- The Sarojin Hero Whip-Tail had Suspicion. He was incapable of trusting others, no matter how well he knew them and scorned any help offered. When his family was killed by Darkfell, he flew into a rage and went off on his own, again refusing all help. He killed hordes of the creatures, but in the end, he was slain as well. His tomb reflects his flaw, named the Spire of Suspicion.
- The Dagani Hero Charak had Arrogance. He had a relic that made him invincible, and he let that go to his head. He ended up dying alone and unloved
- The Kemarran Hero Zonra had Apathy. She felt no empathy for anyone, even her own daughter who threw herself off a cliff when she realized that her mother didn't love her.
- The Orin Hero Drommar Nine-Fingers had Pride. He was the greatest warrior of his age but his overconfidence got him killed.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Like most of his people, Tahir gets angry very easily.
- Humanoid Abomination: Jarik becomes this after he gains the ability to change form into a massive brute called the Juggernaut and later Alon D'ar reborn.
- Humans by Any Other Name: Orins are the humans of this setting and the Kemarrans are just a different tribe.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After watching Drindathar get away with all his crap on a constant basis, it is immensely satisfying to watch as he gets consumed by Zaharanar.
- The Legend of X: Alon D'ar, which means "Eternal Blade" in the Chandarath language.
- Lizard Folk: The Sarojin are this, complete with dependency on the sun.
- Magic Wand: Well, more of a magic glass ball. All spells are channeled through various orbs, which include Fire, Earth, Water, Sound, Barrier, Absorption and White (healing).
- Our Dragons Are Different: Tylonee has a dragonette familiar named Yil, who is basically a mini-dragon. Supposedly, there were real dragons, but got killed off long ago.
- Precursors: The Chandarath, the first inhabitants of Chandar, were a very powerful race, able to do pretty much anything they wanted with their mystical abilities and later become the central focus of Jarik's quest. Of course, if Zaharanar is any indicator, they weren't very nice to those they deemed lesser.
- Proud Warrior Race: The Dagani are a very martial culture and Tahir is very proud of it.
- Racial Remnant: The Ethereals who are encountered throughout the game are actually the spirits of Chandarath who died during the Great Catastrophe that destroyed the world.
- The Right of a Superior Species: Zaharanar believes that it is his right as a Geomancer to shape the world as he sees fit and if the lesser beings die off in the process, well too bad.
- Shapeshifting: Jarik gains the ability to transform into two beings: the Juggernaut who is incredibly strong and Alon D'ar who can cast powerful spells.
- This is the power of the Changelings (as if the name itself wasn't obvious), goblin-like creatures who can take the appearance of different races after they swallow a stone with the Sigil of Transformation inscribed on it.
- Undying Loyalty: Jarik, Tahir, Tylonee and Sun-Deep are all completely loyal to each other.
