Albert Odyssey: LoE was released in 1997 to hungry US Saturn owners who would take any RPG that was thrown there way. Even though Albert Odyssey LoE wasn’t what you would call an “epic” or “classic” RPG, it did have enough substance and Working Designs humor to make it a worthwhile purchase to Saturn owners who were desperately starving for an RPG that they didn’t have to import.
The story of Albert Odyssey: LoE is not what you would call “developed” or “original” but it still is a somewhat enjoyable quest even if it goes through a library of cliches along the way. AO:LoE stars the a generic hero named Pike who sets out on a qu
est to eventually save the world. Sure the plot is basically generic and cliche but Working Designs’ translation makes the plot much more enjoyable thanks to the added humor and well written dialogue. Some may say that the humor goes to far at some points and at times it does but it is still a lot better than the horribly translated RPGs that some US publishers crap out nowadays.
AO:LoE has one big fault, the battles. There is nothing wrong with the actual turn-based battle system but it’s the loading times in the battles that make them so horribly boring and slow-paced. Each command takes an eternity to pull off and it completely took all of the fun out of the battles. I still cant believe that the loading times in the battles were actually worse in the Japanese version of this game. I’m not one that usually complains about loading times but this is ridiculous. AO: LoE is also not that difficult and you wont spend much time planning strategy against most bosses. If you can stand the horrendous load times then you should enjoy the 25 – 35 hours of game-play in AO:LoE.
I really liked the graphics in AO:LoE, the graphics were in the traditional 2D style but they were vividly colorful and very detailed. However, the over-world was done in full 3D and reminds looks exactly like the over-world in Tales of Destiny. Albert Odyessy LoE is one of the best looking 2D rpgs, even to this day.
Albert Odyssey: LoE has a solid soundtrack with its fair share of great tracks. The quality of the music is very high since most of the tracks were done in red-book audio that is playable via a CD player. The soundtrack may not be as well composed as Xenogears or Lunar 2 but it is still a solid soundtrack nonetheless.
Overall, Albert Odyssey: LoE would be just an average RPG if it wasnt for the great translation by Working Designs. Sadly the horrible loading times in the battles brings this game down a lot and the cliched plot may bore some people. Its a solid RPG to add to your collection but I wouldn’t suggest going nuts to track it down.
