The Legend of Alon D’ar takes place in the world of Chandar. The main character is Jarik, a warrior who has strange visions about an evil ready to take on the land. Included in the vision is a mention of Alon D’ar, a weapon that can rid of the impending evil. He meets with an attractive, young fighter Leyalla and an un-subdued attraction follows. The village seer Nefreet also sees visions of evil lurking, and Jarik sets out alone to find answers and take on evil.

TLoA has lots of customization elements. Weapons and magic can be assigned to the characters right hand and shield hang on the left. Players rack up proficiency (exp) points that can be used to increase levels in attack and magic skills. There’s even a quest log to keep track of what you’re doing and what you have to do next. All the menus are accessible via triggers and all have a clean look to make customization easy.

TLoA tries to be a traditional RPG in a vast 3D world. The world that Stormfront Studios created is amicable. Areas are very wide open and generate an epic feel that any adventurer would be proud of. Points of interest are spread out and locations are given ample space to look and feel grand. The title moves along at a swift 60 fps to make for a very fluid travel experience. The frame rate does come at an expense. To put it bluntly, the characters look like well textured Legos. When the character zooms in for in-game cinemas the characters’ true blocky form is revealed. The mouths move adequately when characters speak, but when they never blink they look more like toys than people.

But it’s not all about the graphics – it’s about the gameplay. And the Legend of Alon D’ar doesn’t have it. Players get to try out a taste of gameplay when Jarik does test-exploration and combat before his first venture. There are several puzzles Jarik must attempt, and a brief tutorial on combat. The puzzles aren’t impossible and have a “put 1 and 2 together” that RPG fans will be used to. But it’s the combat that really suffers. The title is an active turn-based RPG that tries to tie in some action. When Jarik encounters an enemy he’s locked into a combat space where he can move around. Jarik can attack via a pull down menu to select a weapon, item, or magic. The only problem is while you’re accessing the menu the battle is active and the enemy constantly pummels you. When Jarik finds a weapon, he can attack, but remains immobile. After an attack he needs to wait until a red meter lessens. While Jarik waits, the enemy, again, continues to attack – possibly three or four times. Multiply the hits by the number of enemies on screen and you’ll start to see its annoyance. If Jarik chooses to move in his combat space rather than attack, he’ll still be hit by the enemy no matter how far away he is physically. When combat is this mundane the 2-player mode doesn’t help. Another player can join in at any time once Jarik meets new characters, but it doesn’t make the game any better.

The Legend of Alon D’ar is a title that would have done much better as an action RPG. The turn-based active battle system is a haggle for players and constrains the vast area that could be used for battle. Play only if you have lots of time and patience.