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Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage is a video game developed by H2O Interactive and published by THQ. It is one of the few console RPG released for the Nintendo 64. Due to a combination of the poor reviews and even poorer sales, projects for a sequel were dropped. The game has developed somewhat of a cult following, leading some groups to try to remake the game for Wii or DS homebrew with improved graphics and more rigorous bug testing. [Info from Wikipedia]
In the gallery below you can see some screenshots from a target render that was created in the early days of the project, when it was still know as “Nomen Quest”. In these images the graphic was much more detailed and definited than the one in the final game. Some other screens are from a later beta version, with a different HUD.
Thanks to Myron Mason, we found out more beta differences in these early screens:
The beta for Aidyn Chronicles is indeed very different from the finished game. I have the game and I can already noticed the major differences. The characters are either wearing different clothing or have different colored versions in the beta version and the compass and solar/lunar indicator are different as well. Some of the monsters looked different like the Minotaur as well as the cities. For example, in image 5 it shows the observatory in Gwernia castle, the first city you basically start in. It stands next to the shops and is black in the beta version, but in the finished version it is inside of the castle.
Also, it appears that in the beta version you could pick who you wanted to represent the party when walking around outside of battle. And you could also make that character carrie a weapon around with them. In the realeased version, only Alaron (the main character) represented the party and no weapons could be carried around.
If you played the game and you can notice some more interesting changes, please let us know!
Images:
U64 is an archive with articles, screens and videos for cancelled, beta & unseen videogames. Every change & cut creates a different gaming experience: we would like to save some documents about this evolution for curiosity, historic and artistic preservation.
4 Responses to Nomen Quest / Aidyn Chronicles [N64 - Tech Demo / Beta]
Myron Mason
July 2nd, 2010 at 3:05 am
The beta for Aidyn Chronicles is indeed very different from the finished game. I have the game and I can already noticed the major differences. The characters are either wearing different clothing or have different colored versions in the beta version and the compass and solar/lunar indicator are different as well. Some of the monsters looked different like the Minotaur as well as the cities. For example, in image 5 it shows the observatory in Gwernia castle, the first city you basically start in. It stands next to the shops and is black in the beta version, but in the finished version it is inside of the castle.
Also, it appears that in the beta version you could pick who you wanted to represent the party when walking around outside of battle. And you could also make that character carrie a weapon around with them. In the realeased version, only Alaron (the main character) represented the party and no weapons could be carried around.
monokoma
July 2nd, 2010 at 2:03 pm
Thanks for the info Myron! I’m going to add them in the description =)
Alexander
September 18th, 2010 at 2:35 am
Is there any type of beta for Aidyn Chronicles/Nomen Quest still around, like a ROM-Type Image, or an actual game cartridge? I’d love to see the full Beta for this game, or see a bit more. If you guys have any info on this, I would be eternally grateful.
monokoma
September 18th, 2010 at 10:24 am
As far as i know, there is no beta ROM of Aidyn Chronicles/Nomen Quest, but maybe some collector has one…