Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage

One of the last N64 RPG, Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage was released on March 14, 2001. The game requires a Controller Pak to save.

The story takes the Swords and sorcery setting to places it's been many times before. The game stars Alaron, a prince, who gets ambushed and shot with poison arrows by Goblins when he wanders into the bad part of the woods. He is rescued and partially cured, but now he and a party of followers must travel outside of the kingdom to find a permanent antidote.

The battle system is another important part of the RPG, and this one is a hybrid of turn-based and real-time. When you run into a random battle, your characters & the enemy take turns moving. This is the turn based part. However, you move in real time, your area is restricted to a circle that appears around that particular character. This circle gets bigger depending on speed. When your circle touches an enemy circle, you hit the A button to attack, or a C button to do magic. This lets you use some strategy, such as trying to position yourself behind enemies for better attacks, or gathering your units to focus on one baddie.

Your party will always have Alaron. Everyone else is cycled in and out according to the story. You don't get to choose who to replace who with who. Guy-with-stick will just leave in a city and then soon you'll pick up Girl-with-axe to join your party. This party restriction is similar to Skies of Arcadia.

The level up system is standard. Gain EXP, level up, get better stats. The option to buy experience also exists, but money is scarce.

Similar games

 * Quest 64
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