Not as bad as it seems...
People automatically dismiss Alundra 2 because it has nothing to do with the original game, but then what has Final fantasy 7 got in common with Final fantasy 6? That’s right game play mechanics, although granted FF7 was an improvement technically over FF6 where as Alundra 2 is… well… a step in the wrong direction.
Having played both games there are actually many similarities between the first and second games:
1. Two main heroes in Alundra 2 “Flint” and “Alexia”, Two main heroes in Alundra “Alundra” and “Meia”.
2. A small part of at the start of the game that leads to the hero being washed up on a beach and subsequently being saved by a kindly man.
3. Nuts and sometimes oversized boss creatures.
4. Lengthy dungeons with sometimes impossible to solve (In a figure of speech) puzzles.
5. A story line that keeps you going but doesn’t FULLY draw you in (Don’t get me wrong I LOVED the storyline in the original Alundra game but I found that I never full was drawn in).
6. Great music (Though obviously this is just my opinion and lots of people dislike the games music)
The fact is that Alundra 2 is a solid action RPG that unfortunately has two MAJOR problems. The first problem is the graphics, they just look plain messy, I believe that they should have tired to do the game in the same graphical style as the original game, that way people wouldn’t mind so much that it is not a direct sequel. The other problem is the games name “Alundra 2”, obviously it has nothing to do with the original game beyond the aforementioned game play mechanics. If they had called the game “Flint the pirate hunter” I feel that the game would have had a much better reception.
The only other problem with the game is that you get the impression that the combat is A LOT slower than it could have been. It seems to take an age for Flint to regain his footing after he has been knocked down by an enemy.
Personally I enjoyed playing through this game, but then I am a huge fan of Action RPGs and I can see why the majority of people are not impressed with Alundra 2.