Wikipedia

The Alliance Alive

The Alliance Alive[b]is arole-playingvideo gamedeveloped byCattle Callfor theNintendo 3DS.The game was released in Japan byFuRyuin 2017, and was released worldwide byAtlus USAin 2018. The story follows a group of characters as they mount a rebellion against a race of Daemons that have ruled over humans since blotting out the sun a millennium before. Gameplay follows many traditions of the Japanese role-playing genre, including turn-based battles and navigation using a world map.

The Alliance Alive
North American cover art
Developer(s)Cattle Call[a]
Publisher(s)
Director(s)Masataka Matsuura
Producer(s)Masataka Matsuura
Designer(s)Kyoji Koizumi
Artist(s)
  • Ryo Hirao
  • Masayo Asano
Writer(s)Yoshitaka Murayama
Composer(s)Masashi Hamauzu
Platform(s)
ReleaseNintendo 3DS
  • JP:June 22, 2017
  • WW:March 27, 2018
Nintendo Switch, PS4
  • NA:October 8, 2019
  • JP:October 10, 2019
  • EU:October 11, 2019
Microsoft Windows
  • WW:January 16, 2020
Android, iOS
  • JP:February 1, 2021
  • WW:December 6, 2022
Genre(s)Role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player

Development ofThe Alliance Alivebegan following the completion ofThe Legend of Legacyin 2015, although its concept predated the creation ofThe Legend of Legacy.The aim was to create a classic role-playing game balancing gameplay and story which used player feedback from the previous game. Most of the original staff returned including director Masataka Matsuura, artist Ryo Hirao, designer Kyoji Koizumi, and composerMasashi Hamauzu.The scenario was written byYoshitaka Murayama,noted for his work on theSuikodenseries. This is the last FuRyu game to be published by Atlus USA before moving to NIS America for future titles.

A high-definition remaster under the titleThe Alliance Alive HD RemasteredforPlayStation 4andNintendo Switchwas released in October 2019. This version of the game was also released forMicrosoft Windowsin January 2020, and released onAndroidandiOSin February 2021.

Gameplay

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The Alliance Aliveis arole-playing video gamein which the player takes control of a group eventually numbering nine characters, navigating an unnamed fantasy world in a quest to free it from the control of otherworldly beings called Daemons.[1]Players explore a world map, first on foot and later using vehicles which can unlock previously inaccessible parts of the map. During the course of the story, the party unites human-staffed Guilds scattered across the land, based in Guild Towers which are either found on the world map or can be built by the player in select locations. There are five types of Guild Towers available, which grant different status buffs to the party, with the type of Guild Tower available to build depending on which characters have been recruited into the party. Guild Towers can communicate with each other during the course of the game using the Telegraph system, which allows Towers to gain experience levels and unlock new abilities.[2][3]

Enemy characters are represented within environments and on the world map as symbols, with battles triggering when the party runs into them. Multiple enemy parties can be tagged for a series of back-to-back battles. Battles are governed by aturn-based battle systemwithin a themed battle arena. Characters are arranged in formations on a three-by-five grid, with different formations granting unique defensive and offensive abilities. Magic is only accessible to Daemon characters, although certain weapon types can access magic-like abilities for human characters such as healing. During combat, characters can enter an "Ignition" state once the Ignition gauge is filled from being attacked. Entering an Ignition state, which can rise in intensity based on current skills, attack power is increased at the cost of higher skill point consumption for special abilities. When in an Ignition state, a character can launch a special "Final Strike" attack which deals high damage. If a character in the same class as the attacker is next to them, they will "Reinforce" the Final Strike, creating a longer attack chain.[4][5]

Rather than a traditional experience point-based leveling system, character skills grow more powerful through "Awakening" when used often enough. Completing successive battles will increase a skill's growth.[4]Characters have access to five weapon types with differing strengths and weaknesses: Swords, Great Swords, Axes, Spears, Staffs, Bows, Shields, and Martial Arts. These weapon types can be equipped to any character, and have specific Awakening skills tied to them.[3]Triggering a battle near a Guild Tower enables Telegraph abilities which aid the party in battle, such as creating a shield or dealing a powerful attack to all enemies at the beginning of a battle.[2]A separate "Talent" system can be raised for each character using Talent Points earned after each battle. Assigning these points to Talents will increase a character attribute such as their ability to regain health or energy, their weapon skills, and status buffs during navigation of the world map.[6]

Synopsis

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Setting and characters

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The Alliance Alivetakes place in a fantasy world divided into four lands separated by ocean. A thousand years before the story begins, the world of humans was invaded by Daemons, who feared an energy from the human realm called Chaos. Their invasion culminated in the creation of a barrier which caused catastrophic climate changes and generated a cross-shaped flow of energy dubbed the Dark Current to destroy much of humanity. Those that remained were quickly subjugated, and the Dark Current settled into the world's oceans, cutting off each land from its neighbors and turning the sky black. By the game's events, the world is divided into zones ruled by a hierarchical government with the Daemons as its supreme rulers.[1][7]

The nine main characters are members of the Night Crows, a human resistance group who fight the Daemons and seek to restore control of the world to humanity. They are Galil, a young boy with a kind personality; Azura, a cheerful woman who often drags Galil on her adventures; Renzo, an optimistic young man with a wealth of information; Barbarosa, a monster soldier who swore loyalty to Azura's father after he saved his life; Vivian, a historian and the daughter of a Daemon overlord; Ignace, Vivian's Daemon butler; Tiggy, a young girl studying the Dark Current; Gene, a man who has acquired magical powers due to an associated with the Daemons; and Rachel, a kind-hearted mercenary.[1][8]

Development

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Following the release ofThe Legend of Legacyin 2015, Masataka Matsuura looked at what his next project could be. During discussions for a new game on theNintendo 3DS,the suggestion of a sequel toThe Legend of Legacywas frequently raised, but Matsuura felt that an adequate sequel which addressed player criticisms could only be done on more powerful gaming hardware. The main requests following the release ofThe Legend of Legacywas for a deeper story and characters, but as this would make the game a sequel "only in name", he insisted that the game should be completely original. Concepts forThe Alliance Alivewere around during the development ofThe Legend of Legacy,and Matsuura was determined to develop the game as a "normal RPG" using his experience makingThe Legend of Legacy.When pitching the project, he was afraid its scale and budgetary requirements would result in it being rejected.[9]The game was primarily developed by Japanese studioCattle Call,with additional design work byGrezzoand general supervision by the game's publisherFuRyu;these developers had also worked onThe Legend of Legacy.[9][10][11]Matsuura, who acted as both producer and director, wanted to gather a prestigious team indicative of the type of games he wanted to emulate to develop the game.[9]SaGaseries veteran Kyoji Koizumi acted as game designer, andSaGabackground artist Masayo Asano was the game's art director. The prestigious development team were part of Matsuura's wish for a high quality role-playing game.[9][12]Grezzoassisted with development.[13]

Design

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The aim was to create a game that would evoke the character-focused narrative and role-playing experience of theUltimaandWizardryseries, in addition to classic RPGs from the genre'sgolden age.[10]While there were several gameplay similarities betweenThe Alliance AliveandThe Legend of Legacy,Koizumi noted that the biggest difference was the expanded party size in battle and their more stable job-based roles. The character stance, Awakening skill learning, and grid positioning systems were improved versions of those used inThe Legend of Legacy,but with more explanation given to players through character interaction. The Ignition and Final Strike features were included to attract players while not making it convoluted. Talent points were implemented based on users wanting an equivalent toexperience point-based leveling up from other RPGs without compromising the Awakening mechanic.[14]In contrast to other games of the time, a world map was implemented for navigation, which in turn expanded the number of enemies and locations to explore. The aim was to allow players to explore and picture the world as had been done in classic games of the genre.[9][14][15]Much of the game was built using the same engine and multiple assets fromThe Legend of Legacy.[10]

The scenario was written byYoshitaka Murayama,one of the creators of theSuikodenseries.[9][12]Murayama was brought on board the project by Matsuura alongside Koizumi. The world concept was created by Matsuura and Koizumi and given to Murayama, who then created the rest of the game's scenario and characters. Murayama was the one who proposed nine protagonists, and due to its leaning towards a young cast, Matsuura and Koizumi requested an older sister and mentor figure, as well as a non-human party member. As was common with Murayama's scenarios, the cast included a number of upbeat and empowered female characters. It was decided from an early stage that controversial actions such as party betrayal would not be included, as that could potentially annoy or alienate players. UnlikeThe Legend of Legacy,players could not choose which protagonist to start out as while still keeping it as an ensemble experience. This was done to help build a stronger connection with the cast and improve the storytelling elements over the previous game. The expanded story was one of the elements that differentiated the game fromThe Legend of Legacy,and became much larger than originally intended. As withThe Legend of Legacy,no voice acting was included in the game, putting it in contrast with the majority of RPGs at the time which used famous Japanese voice actors to help with promotions and potential multimedia adaptations. The reasons for not including it were its effect on the game's pacing and the wish to allow players to imagine the characters' voices.[9]

Asano was brought on as art director by Matsuura, having previously held the role forThe Legend of Legacy.[9][16]Asano was chosen due to his preferred "solid" watercolor artstyle, qualities Matsuura felt were needing to create a distinctive world map design rather than the "fancy" style used byThe Legend of Legacy.[9]The character designs were drawn by Ryo Hirao, who had been character designer forThe Legend of Legacy.[12]As there were nine distinct locations with their own narratives, each playable character was designed to appear like the game's protagonist. The characters were designed by Hirao based on Matsuura's requests and Murayama's scenario, with the artstyle shifting from that used inThe Legend of Legacywith characters having smaller heads and slimmer builds. The design colors emulated Asano's concept art, with individual coloring and clothing directly inspired by their homeland and backstory. The character models were rendered from the completed character artwork using a similar technique toThe Legend of Legacy;mapping portions of the artwork onto a three-dimensional model and adjusting it to be distinct. The process was supervised by Hirao and Yuichiro Kojima. The entire graphic design department of Cattle Call worked on designing character models, with these models being used for both gameplay and cutscenes.[10]Kojima and Ryoji Shimogama worked on monster designs, returning fromThe Legend of Legacy.[17][18]

Music

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The music was primarily composed byMasashi Hamauzu,who had most notably worked on games in theFinal Fantasyseries, in addition to being the composer forThe Legend of Legacy.[12]When creating the music, Hamauzu used his trademark style of merging orchestral and synthetic elements to portray multiple emotions and feelings in a single piece of music. Hamauzu was given concept art and completed cutscenes, then composed musical pieces in line with the images. With each realm in the game, which could vary in theme and style, unique musical elements were incorporated. Rather than an orchestra, Hamauzu used a small group of performers with instruments such as a violin and a guitar, then overlaying them when adding the synthesized elements.[9]Two tracks were composed by Hamauzu's daughter Ayane Hamauzu, with one arrangement by Toru Tabei.[17]

Release

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The Alliance Alivewas first announced in October 2016, along with its principle staff, development studio and publisher.[16]When the game was announced, the staff were optimizing several elements such as distances between locations and encounter rates on the world map.[15]Originally scheduled for release on March 30, 2017, the game was delayed by nearly three months to increase its quality.[19]Agame demowas released on its original release date of March 30.[20]Using player feedback from the demo, the development team were able to make adjustments to the game, such as gameplay speed and font size.[9]The game released on June 22 of that year, with a special soundtrack and 3DS themes releasing along with the game as compensation for the delay.[19]

The game was announced for a Western release in September 2017, three months after its Japanese release. The game, released in March 2018, was localized byAtlus USA.It received physical and digital releases in North America, and was exclusive to digital platforms in Europe.[7][21]A launch edition was released in North America, featuring a 20-track soundtrack CD, artbook and keychain packaged with the game.[22]

A high-definitionremasterunder the titleThe Alliance Alive HD RemasteredforPlayStation 4andNintendo Switchwas released on October 8, 2019. Unlike the original game published outside Japan by Atlus, this western release was handled byNIS America.[23][24]NIS America also published theMicrosoft Windowsversion, that was released on January 16, 2020, in all territories.[25]The ports of the remastered version were released onAndroidandiOSin February 2021.[26]

Reception

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The Alliance Aliveand its remaster received mixed reviews, with all versions receiving a 74/100 onMetacritic.

During its first week of release in Japan,The Alliance Alivedebuted in second place in gaming charts behindNintendo SwitchexclusiveArms,with sales of over 31,000 units.[36]

Notes

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  1. ^Additional work byGrezzo.
  2. ^(Japanese:アライアンス・アライブ)

References

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  2. ^abStenbuck, Kite (2017-05-25)."The Alliance Alive Guild System Explained in Detail".RPG Site.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-06-16.Retrieved2017-11-06.
  3. ^abIke, Sato (2017-03-10)."The Alliance Alive Details Battle System Features, Weapons, And Vehicles".Siliconera.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-03-10.Retrieved2017-11-06.
  4. ^ab『アライアンス・アライブ』バトルに dịch lập つ năng lực “Ấn thuật”, “Ma thuật”, “Trận hình”, “Liền chiến” の tình báo が công khai(in Japanese).Famitsu.2017-06-15.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-11-06.Retrieved2017-11-06.
  5. ^『アライアンス・アライブ』バトルで uy lực を phát huy する tất sát kỹ が công khai(in Japanese).Famitsu.2017-06-21.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-06-21.Retrieved2017-11-06.
  6. ^Romano, Sal (2017-04-07)."The Alliance Alive 'Talents' system gameplay".Gematsu.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-07-04.Retrieved2017-11-06.
  7. ^abIke, Sato (2017-09-13)."The Alliance Alive Gets A New Trailer And Details For The West".Siliconera.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-09-23.Retrieved2017-11-06.
  8. ^『アライアンス・アライブ』 lên sân khấu キャラクター の vận mệnh を thôn sơn cát long さん の シナリオファンが thắng tay に đại dư tưởng!?(in Japanese).Dengeki Online.2017-05-27.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-06-14.Retrieved2017-11-06.
  9. ^abcdefghijk『アライアンス・アライブ』 tùng phổ P＆Dインタビュー. “Lấy り phản し の つかない yếu tố” だらけ の リハビリゲーム?(in Japanese).Dengeki Online.2017-05-18.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-05-18.Retrieved2017-11-06.
  10. ^abcd『アライアンス・アライブ』キャラクターメイキング＞＞3D hóa を tiền đề としたデザイン& lượng sản hóa を thấy càng したデータ chế tác(in Japanese). CGWorld. 2017-09-06.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-11-03.Retrieved2017-11-06.
  11. ^"Grezzo - Games".Grezzo.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-11-02.Retrieved2017-11-06.
  12. ^abcdTân tác RPG『アライアンス・アライブ』 の ゲーム tình báo をおさらい. “ゲーム の điện kích cảm tạ tế” で thí du しよう(in Japanese).Dengeki Online.2017-03-10.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-03-14.Retrieved2017-11-06.
  13. ^"Grezzo".Grezzo(in Japanese).Archivedfrom the original on 2022-09-22.Retrieved2022-11-30.
  14. ^ab『アライアンス・アライブ』 tùng phổ chính 尭 thị ＆ tiểu tuyền hôm nay trị thị へ の インタビューでさらに tường しいシステムが thấy えてきた(in Japanese).Famitsu.2017-06-01.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-08-07.Retrieved2017-11-06.
  15. ^abRomano, Sal (2016-10-18)."The Alliance Alive is a" new classic RPG "developed by the studio behind The Legend of Legacy".Gematsu.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-09-23.Retrieved2017-11-06.
  16. ^abVitale, Bryan (2016-10-19)."The Alliance Alive revealed for 3DS".RPG Site.Archivedfrom the original on 2016-10-25.Retrieved2017-11-06.
  17. ^abFuryu. "The Alliance Alive Original Soundtrack -Buryoku Choutei-liner notes. "(in Japanese) Monomusik. 2017-08-18. MNMK-011. Retrieved on 2017-11-06.
  18. ^Romano, Sal (2014-09-23)."The Legend of Legacy reveals seasoned staff".Gematsu.Archivedfrom the original on 2014-09-24.Retrieved2017-11-06.
  19. ^abIke, Sato (2017-03-06)."The Alliance Alive Delayed By About Three Months In Japan To June 22".Siliconera.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-03-06.Retrieved2017-11-06.
  20. ^Ike, Sato (2017-03-29)."The Alliance Alive Demo Arrives In Japan On March 30 For 3DS".Siliconera.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-03-31.Retrieved2017-11-06.
  21. ^Vitale, Adam (2017-09-13)."The Alliance Alive to come west in Early 2018".RPGSite.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-11-05.Retrieved2017-11-06.
  22. ^Vogel, Mitch (2017-10-31)."Atlus Unveils The Alliance Alive Launch Edition for the Americas".Nintendo Life.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-10-31.Retrieved2017-11-06.
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  26. ^Romano, Sal (December 24, 2020)."The Alliance Alive HD Remastered coming to iOS, Android in early winter 2021 in Japan".Gematsu.Archivedfrom the original on December 24, 2020.RetrievedDecember 25,2020.
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  36. ^【 chu gian ソフト buôn bán ランキング TOP50】3DS『アライアンス・アライブ』が3.1 vạn bổn で2 vị ( ngày 19 tháng 6 ～25 ngày )(in Japanese).Dengeki Online.2017-06-29.Archivedfrom the original on 2017-11-06.Retrieved2017-11-06.
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