Title: The Alliance Alive HD Remastered
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Developer: Cattle Call (3DS original and HD remaster)/Grezzo (design assistance on the 3DS original)
Publisher: FuRyu (JP)/NIS America (NA and EU)
Release Date: October 8th, 2019 (NA)
File Size: 5GB
Review copy provided by NIS America
Hey look at that another NIS America game review! This time we’re looking at The Alliance Alive HD Remastered, an HD version of the 3DS game by Cattle Call and FuRyu released back in 2017. The 3DS original even had close Nintendo ally Grezzo help out on design! Cattle Call seemingly did the remaster on their own (makes sense as Grezzo seems strictly Nintendo-exclusive and just put out Link’s Awakening on Switch). Actually, all parties involved in Japan actually worked on an earlier game for 3DS; The Legend of Legacy back in 2015.
Literally the same director, character designer, composer, Grezzo, the works came back for this game. But they actually got a big name to write the story; Yoshitaka Murayama, the creator of Suikoden! So with that out of the way, how’s the game? Does it make you feel alive or as dead as Chunky Kong? Let’s find out!
Meet Azura! Yes, the forced watermarks are annoying.
The Alliance Alive is a JRPG. As said it originated on the 3DS and obviously it’s very apparent, but before I get to the presentation as always, I’ll go over the basics and the gameplay first. The story begins when two friends; a girl named Azura and a boy named Galil, live in a town where it never stops raining. Worse, the humans are under the rule by the awful Beastfolk, which in turn serve the Daemons, who are very powerful beings (makes sense). Azura and Galil go to see Azura’s father in the pub and get their first mission. This mission is to bring a letter to the family friend Renzo and the Silver Rain resistance group he works with over at a Recon Guild Tower some distance away, alerting him that a very important Daemon is coming to town. Worst of all, the letter is hidden inside a basket of delicious homemade cookies!
Once introductions and the cutscenes are done, you can explore more and roam about town. Actually you can skip cutscenes with + if you want, or restart them with -, or pause them with R. Surprisingly handy. Anyway, in town you check out the Inn where you can save, the Shop where you can buy some weapons and armor and such, and you can even invade people’s homes to just grab whatever they have laying around. You know, like a typical JRPG! After you’re done, you can head to the exit south of town and head into the overworld. The town is explored in a sort of isometric camera position and is fairly small, where as the overworld is a full 3D and rather expansive explorable land, rotating camera and all!
Azura and Galil in a battle.
Upon entering the overworld, you’ll see that enemies are pseudo visible, meaning that they’re shown as a beast (like a buffalo?) or a ghost. Only when touching one of them, an actual battle will flash onto the screen and the real enemies’ identities will be shown. Usually the buffalo-looking guys turn out to be these… beastly purple things called Afancs (apparently named after a mythical Welsh lake monster). Ghosts will more typically spawn these fat bat things called Sinisters, but sometimes will have Afancs accompany them. There’s actually a lone giant beast (a large, more violet Lonely Afanc it’s called) standing not far from the town that just stands there waiting for you to fight, but is much tougher to fight but is beatable after some buffing up. Come back when you’re a little… MMM… tougher!
Battles are tutn-based and you can select your attacks as normal (and different sorts by toggling the command menu with left and right on the d-pad), but there’s a twist to everything else. The best way I can explain it, is that attacks (called Arts) while are used normally, gain more permanent attack, defence, and support attributes randomly when using them, but what gets buffed depends on your position. See, in the Quick Menu when exploring and selecting Formation, you can change where your characters are positioned, which determines how their attacks and other techniques get buffed over time. Also I need to mention the really cool speed-up function where hitting ZR will speed up the action 2x or another press for 4x speed! SUPER handy for any grinding you’ll want to do.
Here’s a look at the overworld.
By the way, there is NO TRADITIONAL LEVELING SYSTEM. The thing is, when you win in battles, you don’t get the usual experience, but your HP and/or SP (attack energy) sometimes get boosted. There’s no real indication that I’m aware of on how or when these happen, they just do. Same goes for the aforementioned buffs. Oh and I don’t know what defence for attacks boost. My guess is that the buffs best match the technique. Such as attack for attacks for more damage, defence for any defending move for less damage from enemies, and support for healing moves for more health. It’s pretty complicated honestly and frankly I’m not a big fan of this idea. I far prefer the straight forward experience point and level-up system like in Pokemon and other classic JRPGs.
Another thing to mention are the Talents. These are passive upgrades unlocked by spending Talent points gained in fights (closest thing to experience I guess). With these you can gain neat stuff like lowering SP costs for Arts, having learning new Arts be quicker, having enemies notice you less in the overworld, etc. Also in the overowld, you’re told to stay away from the water as the enemies there are SUPER strong. You can run from a fight, but your max HP is temporary decreased. Thankfully, you can recover the lost HP by healing at an Inn or by the healer at one of the Recon Guild Towers. Towers actually also provide special benefits in fights that are within range, like one can sometimes stun enemies giving you more turns before enemies attack again. If you lose a fight, you can use these sun shaped items (you start with one) that’s like a retry. But use it all up and you get booted back to the title screen. If you choose instead to just go back to the overworld after dying, you lose more of the stones, so… just be careful and save often!
Here’s the results screen of a battle showing your buffs gained.
Eventually you’ll meet up with Renzo and he’ll tell you to go to investigate the Ancient Museum, and when there you’ll see more of what the overworld has to offer, as in there’s some puzzle-solving to be done! One example is just getting into the damn thing. See, it’s guarded by two Beastfolk who obviously don’t want you in. So Azura suggests sneaking in somewhere close by, but you’re not really told from where, just that this other place is close by. So I run around clicking A for a few minutes before finding this area at the right stairwell where Azura uses Signimancy (magic) to break open a wall where you can get in. That one’s free! 😛 Anyway, further in you’ll see statues that you have to turn to face different directions to find the right combinations to progress, and other such puzzles like that.
Visually it’s a mixed bag. It’s VERY vividly a 3DS game, and the backgrounds show this more than anything. The character and enemy models actually look perfectly fine! But the backgrounds have horrifically low-res textures. Trees look really icky as well (even worse than in Pokemon Sword and Shield! OH SNAP! :P). So as long as you remember it was a fairly low-budget 3DS game, you won’t really care since context matters here. They likely would’ve had to rebuild everything and eh, it’s alright as it is I guess. If only it was half as impressive as Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate which is a similar 3DS-to-Switch remaster. 😛
Here’s a big mean Beastfolk named Badr, along with the little, also mean Beastfolk!
Audio-wise it’s also mixed. There’s literally ZERO voice-acting. So just use your *makes arch movement with arms* imaaaginaaatiooon! You get used to it after a bit. Enemies do make little sounds in fights though, like the Afancs make puppy sounds and the batty Sinisters squeak or whistle, so that’s something at least! The music was composed by Masashi Hamausu, the same person who composed The Legend of Legacy and I think every SaGa game? In fact The Legend of Legacy was hyped up as being a game by former SaGa folks (which is true as I believe some are at Grezzo?). The weird thing is, when in the overworld, the music usually stays the same when in battles. Like there’s usually not a battle theme. The music did change in the Ancient Museum though when you entered battles if I recall. I remember The Legend of Legacy having amazing battle themes. What happened here? The music is alright but it’s definitely lacking compared to its predecessor.
Overall this is a toughie to recommend. It’s an alright JRPG, but it’s a bit on the pricey side at $50 USD and $62.99 CDN (on the eShop but it’s available at retail for $64.99 CDN). Even NISA themselves put out better JRPGs on Switch (really you can’t go wrong with Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA or even Disgaea 5 Complete for example). Sadly I’m leaning on the “wait for a sale” side on this one. Watch footage, see if you’re willing to overlook the flaws I mentioned, and who knows, it may be for you! 🙂
You’ll Love:
+ In general it’s a simple JRPG and those are always at least pleasant to play.
+ The characters while not super in-depth are well-written I think. It was written by the creator of Suikoden after all!
+ The music is decent.
+ The Talent upgrade system is pretty cool and is certainly a proper incentive to grind.
+ The enemies do make some sounds, from puppy sounds to squeaks. Hey it’s better than Pokemon‘s still ancient crusty cries, that’s for sure!
+ The resolution does thankfully seem very high-res, likely at 1080p docked. You can tell since the 720p screenshots are blurrier than playing the game. The framerate also seems to be at a locked 30fps.
+ Has screenshot and video capture support.
You’ll Hate:
– Not a fan of the lack of a proper level-up system and the Arts upgrade system is confusing.
– At least in the overworld, the music doesn’t change when entering fights. The music also isn’t as good as in The Legend of Legacy.
– The lack of voice-acting is odd but not exactly out of the ordinary. Would’ve liked NISA to have hired English voice-actors. Maybe Banjo-Kazooie-styled HUH-HUH-HUH-HUH would’ve worked… *thinking emoji*
– Not really against the game since it was a 3DS game, but it’s a bit rough to look at, especially the textures in the backgrounds.
Score: 7.5/10
