ALBION - part 1

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      Original author - Ramon R. Brasser (101353,3414)

WHAT IS ALBION?

Albion is a six character RPG with turn-based combat. You cannot
create characters - you start with a predefined party of two and
the program generally controls the addition and subtraction of
characters thereafter.  In the middle and end games you get more
(but limited) choices as to the party composition. It is a true
RPG, however, in terms of having character statistics that can be
improved by magic or use of items, and a wide range of items to
find, hold and use. The variety of monsters is average. The sound
is extremely good, the interface is very playable and there are
few bugs. The graphics are top-down in general and first person in
some dungeon areas - an interesting mix. In combat you move your
characters on two rows of a 6x5 grid and the monsters can move
anywhere on the grid - it is not great but quite playable. The
storyline is more complex and interesting than usual but there is
plenty for the hack and slasher. This may be the commercial RPG of
1996 since its strengths outweigh its weaknesses (after a
moderately slow start) and the competition is not fierce.

TORONTO:

You begin in the Toronto. You pilot a shuttle to the world where
the game takes place. Click on items to see what is useful. If the
menu includes "Manipulate" there is something there to do or use.
But do read a lot of the "Examine" boxes for interesting if not
useful descriptions. Check your initial room - there are some
items there. After a while you are asked to go to the shuttle.
Ignore this until you are ready - there is no disadvantage to
delay. The best thing to do first is to talk to everyone you can.
You have a friend named Joe Bernard who has his residence in the
northeast of the building. Go talk to him. He will give you the
code (1042) to enter the service level. This level is in 3D (first
person). You will find the entrance in the northeastern most

corner of the ship. The only critical item here is a pistol and
some ammo for it.

OK, now that you are there you see a door right in front of you.
Walk toward it. You see the message "Floor plate lights up" in the
corner. Now the door should open and the road is clear. In the
next room there are four floor structures (or should I say
pressure plates?) in each corner of the room.  Activating them all
will open the door. Now you will enter a similar room but this one
has no floor structures. It has two switches, one on either side
of the door on the walls in the north of the room. Activate both
to go ahead. The next room has two doors and two floor structures.
You cannot open these doors. But be patient. A robot will arrive
shortly that will open the doors for you one by one. When you have
entered the third of these rooms, there is a switch in the western
corner.  Activate it to be able to pass through the door on the
east. After a while you will enter a room with a cabinet on the
north wall.  Remember this, because you will need it later. Push
the buttons to open the door and when you get to the door with the
keypad enter the same code that Joe gave you. Now search the room
(the COM room) carefully. When you find the gun, go back to the
service level and deposit it in the cabinet. Now go back to the
COM room and leave it.

You leave by passing some security guards.  Note that they will
search you and take the pistol if you have it.  Now go back for
the gun - leaving the way you entered instead of past the guards
(which you cannot do originally because you pass a one way door).
Do search every room you can. You will also get to Snoopy's room
then, which contains some more ammo. Healing potions are very
useful. Lockpicks can open locked chests that do not require
special keys - although the documentation does not make this clear
you can click on a lock without having a pick and use your
unlocking skill.

If you get a message like "this lock cannot be picked" forget it!
If you get "Tom cannot pick this lock" it often means he can pick
it - he just needs to keep trying. There are no locked chests in
this area to worry about, however.

NARIKIDAANI:

Explore the building you start in (called the House of the South
Wind Clan). It does not pay to be cheap with your rescuers (the
game generally prefers the "good" approach although any loose item
can normally be taken with no risk or penalty). There is a
mini-dungeon here, but it is recommended not to explore it until
you have the next party member. The best thing to do now is to
leave the clanhouse and explore. Find the stores and check them
out. If you have items to sell this is done by going into the same
mode as to buy items but clicking on your inventory - you do NOT
use the offer item command in the conversation menu in stores -
you use that to give items to NPCs where this ties in with the
storyline. The documentation does not mention this! After two game
days you automatically are taken to see the local ruler (she is
the boss after all) and get a quest and a new party member called
Drirr who greatly increases your party strength.

You can now more easily do the mini-dungeon either before or after
the quest. Before the quest might be better because you can use
the ammo that you find there. You will be trapped by a cave-in
until you find a pickaxe.  You will need this object in various
dungeons - get used to clicking on walls to see if an object can
be used on them when you run out of other things to do or are
suspicious. You will probably need to use your pistol - save ammo
since there isn't much but don't be too cheap - after a while you
will be more powerful and can get by without it. Click on treasure
piles to check them out - one of them (and only one, alas) has
more ammo. There is also a clock - click on it after you get it to
make it permanently visible in the screen - it is very useful.
Don't forget to give Drirr something better to wear and fight with
whenever you go search for the murderer or when you start to do
the mini-dungeon. For example, give him the Iskai armor by
stealing it. Stealing goes as follows: walk up to the bar and just
before you reach it, click the right mouse button. You should be
able to reach much further than you normally can. Keep in mind
that this routine may take some time to get used to. And a good
sword (are you also looking at the expensive Iskai lance?) is not
a bad idea either.

If you cannot find the first dungeon, ask the cattle breeder just
outside.

He will tell you. Check the map carefully or you may miss the
dungeon once you are there. Walk onto it to enter. Before entering
buy some torches to help you find goodies (the torches are very
cheap) and a Music Crystal in the general store to give to an
entity you find right near the object you are looking for (an
Iskai Dagger). You do not have to give the Music Crystal to the
entity. You can also buy it just now and use it on the next
island.

See below.  Keep in mind that exploring this dungeon can be very
useful. This dungeon is actually pretty straightforward, so I will
only mention a few things. Note that outdoors or in dungeons
monster pieces may be left after battle and they are usually
sellable.  This dungeon has two types of stationary plants that
take the evolutionary niche of dungeon traps. Big mouths in the
floor can be deadly but will close for a while if given chunks of
meat that you get killing Krondirs (the big beasts). In town you
may have been offered fruit to feed to the other type of guardian
plant but it is cheaper just to turn the lights out - this puts
them to sleep.

Use Drirr (your local guide) as party leader - he sees better in
the dark.  Explore the entire dungeon for experience and loot (and
fun for some). The entity will then tell you how to increase your
attributes after you promised him the music crystal. This is
critically important - you REALLY need this boost. But be patient
- do it after you finish the quest and get a new member so she can
share in the benefit, or wait (a LONG time) until you have all six
final party members. You get three attributes up one at a time -
to get the third up you need to pickaxe a wall. You have to make a
path of light. What you do is walk from one glowing rainbow
toadstool shaped like a triangle to another in the room where your
footprints glow - this opens a wall.

To finish the quest go see Frill, the old Iskai in the council
house. He tells you to go see Bradir in the Former Guild in the
northwest of town. Bradir will fight you but is not a challenge.
After the problem is solved, you may think that it is a pity you
could not keep that beautiful little Iskai Dagger. Well, you can.
Although the leader took it away, go back to the Former Guild and
talk again to Bradir. When you end the conversation, he will give
you 100 gold and the dagger. I recommend that you give it to Sira
(put it on her tail), because she can do with the extra strength.

You can now ship out. DO NOT!!! The trip is one way until late in
the game (that is what the stone outdoors that is shaped like an
eye is for but it is useless to you now). Don't leave the island
until you have the following:

1) Sira is level 12 and has Frost Avalanche (at maximum is best
but it is essential to have it).

2) Sira and Rainer's Long Range attacks are at maximum (assuming
you prefer them to attack long range. You probably do for Sira as
she is better at this then Close Range).


3) Tom and Drirr's Close Range attacks are at maximum (if you
prefer them to attack close range. Again, you may want this too as
the Close Range weapons are more powerful, and Tom is better at
it).

4) Drirr has the Iskai Armor (steal it) and the Iskai Lance
(unless you prefer lighter weapons or armor).

5) Sira and Drirr each have the Iskai Metal Helmet.

6) Sira has lots of seeds (200+). (Find them outdoors or buy them
in the Mages Guild (southwest)).

Note: This is merely a recommendation but the seeds and Frost
Avalanche seem all but essential.

Kill the enemies and sell their parts, as I said before, to get
lots of money. Spells do far more damage and the frost spells last
much longer after fully learned.

GRATOGEL:

The first thing to do here when you arrive is to talk to the king
of the village. He will tell you he needs an amulet that you need
to get for him.

Then go to the east until you find the next village, and then
north, following the path. That is where you need to be. If you
have saved the Music Crystal from Narikidaani, go a little further
north and give this to the man guarding the oak tree. He will give
you a very good weapon in return.

When you have the next party member, a Druid named Mellthas, train
the spell named Small Fireball that he has. When it is on full
power, go to the pass south of the Druid village (called Vanello).
It contains a valuable supply of bandits (but they run out after a
while, <sob>) and it leads to a trainer, who only trains Close
Range combat and a store. If you want to train the party, except
Mellthas, who cannot be trained here, then do so, but this trainer
is much more expensive then the Iskai warrior on Narikidaani.
Another useful thing is to go to the shop there and to buy the
Music Crystal, unless you saved the one from Narikidaani. The
Dreamshield is also excellent. It is the only powerful shield that
Sira is able to wear, so I suggest you consider buying it. And, of
course, have a look for seeds outside. It is advisable not to
enter the dungeon without a rope.

In the dungeon part of Arjano, you will be stopped by fire. Use a
bucket of water to extinguish it. There is also a place where
there are nine grey pressure plates close to one another. Walk
over the plates so that a + sign appears (you should not walk over
all the plates but they can always be reset). Then the passage is
clear. In the first party view part of the dungeon right near the
start there is a secret button nearby on the right hand side. Push
it. Now you can get through the first gate after you get to a
switch and use it. After that, in the big room with the three
flames, step on all the pressure plates. A door in the southwest
will open.


On the second level you need to step on a plate that releases
moving flames. Step on it three times first to open the way to a
button that will open up a passage in the east wall. Then keep on
stepping on it until the road is clear. When you come to an area
with a pit and two locked doors fall through the pit. There are
three gates with Warniaks behind them. Open the gates, kill them
and get the treasure. If you pull the lever behind one of the
doors, the wall opens up, and you can look in a chest (guarded by
a demon). It contains the key to the doors you could not pass.

On the third level, there are more tricky bits. In the large room
with the big beasts trapped behind the red, transparent walls,
only walk over the green pressure plates, otherwise they escape,
and they are no joke. Of course, if you have Frost Avalanche at
full power and make sure all party members stand on the last row
of the grid and have lots of potions, then they are no big deal.

On the next level you will find some force fields. There is one in
the east that you will have to walk through. But later on, you
will find staffs that will get rid of them. Only use them on the
six in a row you meet at the end of the level. Talking about
staffs, in the room where you get them if you do not want to
fight, go to the exit of the room as quickly as possible and pull
the lever again. This will trap the enemies. And in the room with
the three levers on the south side, you need to pickaxe some
walls. Look carefully, or right-click on the walls. If you fall
through the pits a little bit further, do not worry UNLESS you do
NOT have a rope. There is some minor treasure down there.

@~Continued in Issue 52









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