If you have read my work on the site, you know that the Nintendo 64 is my personal favorite home console of all time. I loved its games (even some of the bad ones), and its pure polygon crunching power which far surpassed that of its contemporary rivals (PS1, Sega Saturn), and at least until mid 1997, it also held the bragging rights of hardware power over PC.
I pretty much played every game that there was to play on the system during the late 1990s, and early 2000s, but one did escape my grasp: THQ’s Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage.
The Nintendo 64 RPG Catalogue Could be Counted in One Hand…
Two Zeldas, Quest 64, Ogre Battle 64, Paper Mario, and the aforementioned Aidyn Chronicles, were the only RPG titles on the N64 that I know of. Of those, only one – Aidyn Chronicles – was made in the west. Because of that, I felt that Aidyn Chronicles was a ‘must-get’ title for me to play at some point…even if it took me 23 years to find the game, and play it.
Well, now that I have played it to the very end. It is time for nice historical analysis of the title.
Aidyn Chronicles comes from H2O, the developers of Tetris Sphere. So, while the team was familiar with the N64 hardware, it had never undertaken a technical challenge of the ambition and magnitude that making a fully 3-D open world RPG on mid 1990s hardware would entail.
Unlike most Squaresoft offerings on the PS1, Aidyn had an actual world that was 1:1 ratio in scale to the characters’ size. In that, sense the game had more in common with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time than it did with other RPGs of the era, which appeared to be fully “3-D” but in reality were not.
However, H2O was a small 30 man team, on a limited budget put forth by THQ (who wanted another Quest 64 type of surprise hit), and the finished product would showcase the difficulties of its 3 year development cycle. Â Aidyn, conceptually, was to be larger and more ambitious than Ocarina of Time, which was the greatest game of its (and arguably of all) time.
Miraculously, H2O did succeed in certain areas. The game is much larger in terms of real state than anything on the N64, PS1, Saturn era…and perhaps, even the Sega Dreamcast. In fact, this is a title that might have benefit from a jump to Sega’s final console, the PS2 or the Game Cube, but THQ was desperate on sticking to its deadline for the title.
As such, despite its ambitious storyline and scope, the title launched to critical ridicule, and extremely low sales. VGChartz claims that 100,000 copies were sold…but I question those numbers.
H20 was dissolved post game release due to the extremely low sales of the title, so I have to assume that the title sold much less than that, or that the development cost was so great, that nothing short of Quest 64′s 500,000 copies success was not going to cut it.
Apart from Quality Issues… Other Factors Hindered Aidyn Chronicles
From a purely commercial perspective; PS2’s Launch first and foremost. In 2000, everyone was lining up their pockets for the eventual PS2 release. Most turn-based RPG fans played on the PS1 as opposed to the Nintendo 64.
A game such as this wouldn’t find success on the N64. Zelda was Zelda, and Quest 64…in terms of graphical design looked like a cute game for kids. This fell in line with other N64 titles (it was a tough game, but parents wouldn’t know this until it was too late).
So, from a purely conceptual standpoint, THQ saw Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage as a risky venture that could either succeed (there was no other Western styled 3-D ‘open’ world RPGs on the N64 (or PS1 than I can think off), or massively fail.
By the year 2000 the N64 was in its death bed. This fact did not help the eventual 2001 release of AC.
Of course, ventures like this do start with a negative perspective in mind. THQ had great commercial success publishing a Japanese made JRPG in Quest 64.
Quest 64 sold 500,000 copies being a mediocre – but cute – full 3-D large JRPG on the JRPG starved N64. Its success was primarily due to the timing of its release. Though critics initially (and have always) panned the game, 3-D was a still a novelty in early 1998, and Quest’s large areas and day/night cycle were relatively fresh, and impressive.
Also, I suspect several parents – and kids – were lured into the purchase by Quest 64‘s colorful graphics, and child like protagonist.
Quest 64 arrived months before Ocarina of Time did, and that made all of the difference in the world for it. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was a seminal moment for gaming, and it is likely that most who played it quickly lost interest in other similar games of lesser quality. It wouldn’t be until Morrowind on the Xbox that I actually found a game that I could replace Ocarina, and Majora’s Mask with for my virtual open world adventuring.
Aidyn was a financially backed project by THQ who thought it could replicate Quest 64‘s success with a very different game (in terms of art and style) within the same genre…but the company didn’t plan on developer H20 taking 3 years to make it.
Aidyn Chronicles is too vast of a game for a 3o man team who had never worked on such an RPG before to make within a reasonable time period. In fact, as I played it, I was stunned that the team was able to pull off a working game off at all.
Aidyn Chronicles Launched at a Time Where the Nintendo 64 and its Contemporary Rivals (PlayStation and Saturn) Were Dead
Aidyn Chronicles launched 11 days before the Sega announced it was discontinuing the Sega Dreamcast on March 31, 2001. So, even a ‘next gen’ machine had bitten the proverbial dust by the time the game made it to shelves on a system that everyone had moved on from. No N64 game released on 2001 broke the one million units sold mark… and unless were you were a big hitter (Mario themed, Rare Made, Pokemon game, or big franchise) you did not sell a million copies on the system in the year 2000 either.
It could be said that Aidyn Chronicles was allowed launched in 2001 because THQ had already put forth the money for its development, and they were hoping to recoup some of the investment back. I don’t think the company’s executives expected the game to set the world on fire at that point.
The planets had aligned for the game to have a disastrous commercial performance. But perhaps most damning of all, Aidyn Chronicles was – critically speaking – just a mediocre game. Holding a 53% Metacritic rating, the game was destined for failure. It lacked Quest 64‘s  (54% GameRakings rating) aforementioned perfect launch window in mid 1998.
As a game, Aidyn Chronicles did a lot of things that the two N64 Zelda games had done better first. Its 3 year development cycle can be clearly seen in the sheer size of the game’s world. I dare say that the game is larger (real state wise) than any of the Zeldas. Even if the rocky, hilly, and cliff plagued terrain might not feel like it at times due to many “hall” like sections.
Out of the three 32-64 bit era of consoles only the Nintendo 64 had the horsepower to run something like this. At the same time, the game feels like it could have benefited from a jump to the PS2, or the Sega Dreamcast.
I Can’t Say that Aidyn Chronicles is or was Beautiful…
I can’t. But, I will say this: The game is visually impressive at times…if one can put the title into the proper context. This game, even more so than Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, offered a 3-D open world template that closely resembles Morrowind.  This was impressive if we consider that Bethesda’s title was a year away from release on PC, and eventually, Xbox.
As far as consoles went, Aydin Chronicles was the first – and perhaps – most ambitious Western style full 3-D RPG that I can think of. For that alone, the now defunct H20 studio deserves a lot of credit.
If we overlook Aidyn Chronicles‘ massive size in terms of real state, we are left with a very pedestrian looking N64 title. In fact, despite the game’s use of the High Resolution mode (offered by the N64 RAM Pak), the image quality remains quite blurry.
Play this game, and then play Ocarina of Time, or any of Rare’s titles, and there is a stark difference in visual clarity, and the quality of assets themselves. Of course, comparing a start up studio such as H20 to Nintendo EAD or Rareware in the dominance of the N64 hardware is madness, but the game also suffers from some of the worst character and monster animation that you will ever see on the system.
Every movement your avatar, Alaron, makes is choppy. He lacks any sort of fluidity. As I said before, the game feels – and is likely – “unfinished” from a refinement stand point. This makes traversing the oversized world a bit of a pain in the rear end. Nintendo solved this issue by introducing a horse in Ocarina of Time, but even if I would have had to walk across that world with Link, the process of doing so wouldn’t have anywhere near as slow or as maddening as it turned to be here after 10 hours of play. Link animated flawlessly, and moved quickly across virtual Hyrule.
To further compound the game’s visual miscues, the character modeling is quite awful. Again, the game is generally unpolished from visual stand point, and because the developers really went for the “realistic” look in its visual approach (which was difficult to pull off in the PlayStation/Saturn/Nintendo 64 era). Today in 2024, the game is quite hard on the eyes despite my love for N64 graphics.
Back in 2001, the game was “average” fare, because we had already seen the Dreamcast, and some PlayStation 2 games in action. I have to admit though that I was impressed by the game’s Day/Night cycle,  and  random weather system.
I found the game to be easier on the eyes than THQ’s own PS2 launch RPG, Summoner.Â
On a plus note. Every city and settlement looks distinct, with some interesting texture work and use of color in each region. Clearly, the artists where not incompetent, and it is in that type of effort in world detail that I truly wonder if the game would have been better served by a PlayStation 2 early window release.
Where Aidyn Chronicles Truly Falters is in its Massive Size + Slow Everything Combo
Despite all of the above miscues, Aidyn Chronicles would have been easily to like if the game wasn’t so…inherently slow. I am not even talking about the frame rate (which is less than ideal). AC is just slow in every single facet of gameplay. Alaron moves too slow in the game’s oversized world, and it can take hours to explore a single section.
Hunting a goblin king in snowy mountains took me five hours of game time. While that might sound enticing to some (I mean, I am guilty of spending over 1000 hours in Skyrim), the combination of AC’s brand of turn based combat, huge world with what appears to be ‘unthoughtful’ level design, and the inability to truly avoid on screen enemies (due to Alaron’s slow movement) makes such a quest an annoying ‘never ending’ torture that will likely keep most players (no matter how devoted to RPGs) from finishing the game.
When you enter a turn based battle your party of 4 members is spread throughout the field. Enemies many times are far away from your position, and can’t be attacked without using a few turns of slow movement in order to approach them. Once you are within striking range, you will find that your characters will simply miss their attacks (because the enemies dodge them), and even simple non-boss battles will drag on for 10-15 minutes of boring slow as molasses combat.
I understand that action-combat is more difficult to implement (especially in that 32-64-bit era), but action combat might have saved this game from oblivion. In fact, such a massive open world game was made for action combat. I guess that since THQ wanted a “Quest 64” clone, H20 was forced into this system. Then again, turn based combat ruled the 1990s market for the most part.
Aidyn Chronicles has the worst turn combat system that I have ever played. The idea of free movement within an enclosed map (when taking a turn) was not bad, but its execution, and sloppiness of the entire system makes any of the great ideas it had behind it, quite irrelevant in actual practice.
Leveling up itself is a tedious process, and you have to constantly save the game (using the game’s ultra useful save anywhere feature) because if a party member dies…that party member dies forever. While this is a ‘realistic’ take on the party formula, it is also an annoying one. Each individual party member has its own combat, and dialog traits, but the characters are not deep enough to be missed if killed.
However, if you spend hours and hours of slow turn based combat building them- the party – up, having one them killed is certainly counter productive. So, when one of them died, I just reset the N64 to boot up my last save. Good game design, and just plain QC (quality control) time would have identified this as an issue. The entire “party member dies forever” system is unnecessary.
Slow open world traversal, and slower turn based combat drive a game in Aidyn Chronicles that could have been a solid 70/100 Metacritic game into the 50/100 territory that it finally settled in.
Ambitious Storyline, Awful Music, and Worse Sound Effects
Aidyn Chronicles has forgettable tunes. It would be easy for me to blame the hardware, and the system’s cartridge limitations…but Aidyn’s failure in this regard lies more with the composer than it does with the limits of the N64 hardware in terms of sound. The N64 had a sound chip that could out perform the SNES sound chip in every way conceivable, and this was shown in stellar Rareware, and Nintendo EAD game soundtracks.
Aidyn Chronicles just lacks any congruent or memorable melody in its tunes. The composer phoned in his work it seems. But the game’s sound effects are even worse. The grunts and screaming noises that the characters (and enemies) make during battle are of low sound quality. So low, that I truly think that the game was rushed to meet a deadline, and neither the music nor the sound effects were polished or finished to N64 era standards.
After immersing myself in Ocarina of Time’s living world, which was full of crystal sharp sound effects, and unforgettable melodies, it is hard to give Aidyn Chronicles a pass here.
Aidyn’s 50-70 hour quest is fueled by a more elaborate storyline than one would expect from a product that falters so much in pretty much every other artistic area. But the lack of voice acting, and the ultra slow pace, makes it difficult to get truly immersed in it. A useful journal system helped me to keep track of things despite the game’s largely directionless world. The developers had enough foresight to see that the world was so vast that one could easily lose track of where to go next.
The Best N64 Pure Turn Based RPG?
There is not a lot to choose from in the N64 gallery if you want RPG games. The pair of Zelda’s are by far the best RPGs, but they are action-RPGs. Ogre Battle is a tactical RPG, and that would leave us with Paper Mario (which I don’t think fits in this narrative) and Quest 64. I think Aidyn Chronicles – given the its ambitions – is a more interesting, forward thinking game. It wouldn’t be until Morrowind on the PC and Xbox that we would see another 3-D RPG with the similar aspirations of size and style pushing the hardware of its time to its limits. Morrowind succeeded, and Aidyn did not.
I would recommend this over Quest 64 for its educational potential to retro gamers as one of the first attempts at a true open world within a western RPG setting on home consoles. Â Aidyn Chronicles succeed in crafting a ‘working’ massive open world, but failed in making said world feel alive, and fun to play.
There is a decent narrative buried underneath the unpolished/incomplete implementation of gaming fundamentals here for those with enough patient to persevere through the hours of slow world traversal, and ever slower, turn based combat.
Overall Score: 5.0
This is obviously a retro score. Today, it would rate within the 2.0/10 range. The game has a gigantic world with a decent draw in distance for land mass and mountain like elements, but equally poor draw distance for near enemy and object rendering.
Poor character model and enemy rendering permeates throughout, and this is more evident on the N64 because other quality contemporary examples of rendering and animation exist. Nintendo, Acclaim, Konami and Rareware in 1996-1998 were miles ahead of what H20 accomplished here in 2001. The animation of AC’s models fares even worse with choppy and stiff movement.
Even with the help of the Expansion Pak, the game looks blurrier than most launch window N64 titles, and the texture work leaves a lot to be desired.
The developers did make an effort to give each region, village, castle and location with in the game a distinct look. Indoor areas are filled with – a surprising – amount of detail. In some ways, it seems that the developers were handicapped by the lack of experience, older hardware, and time.
The sound work present in the game is a throwaway, and it appears to be the area with less planing and attention to detail in the title. The story is quite deep for an early western 3-D RPG, and has a lot of writing and dialog to sort through. However, the lack of thoughtful level design, and record holding slow world traversal and combat makes it difficult to enjoy, and fully recommend in 2024.
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