The Alliance Alive HD Remastered
Nintendo Switch
POSITIVE RESPONSE met The Legend of Legacy’s release on the Nintendo 3DS in 2015. As a collaboration of industry veterans who had previously worked on such revered notables as the Final Fantasy and SaGa series, it featured distinctive elements of Japanese role-playing games in the ’90s. The finished product was as director Masataka Matsuura envisioned: a throwback to the golden age of the genre that eschewed the casual nature of mobile gaming. He moved to highlight the advantages — and limit the disadvantages — of portability, but from the perspective of those with console sensibilities.
Still, Matsuura felt an itch he needed to scratch. While The Legend of Legacy was, for him, a major step in the right direction, his experience in steering it to fruition and the feedback he received from gamers who pored through the work of his deep bench steeled his resolve to come up with an even better offering. To ensure that it would be picking up from where its inspiration left off, he brought back members of the same team — but armed with clear directions to take to heart constructive criticism in cherry-picking the best, and leaving behind the worst, aspects of their previous work.
The result: The Alliance Alive, borne of concepts from its spiritual predecessor but sporting a completely novel storyline. Matsuura’s realized opus made its way to Japanese 3DS systems in 2017 and managed to take second place in sales charts on the week of its release. And to argue that the take-up was no small feat given the handheld’s age and, more significantly, the rollout of the all-new Nintendo Switch would be an understatement. Localization plans followed, and its worldwide release a year later met with similar success. Soon enough, a mounting call to have it ported over to eighth-generation platforms followed.
For Switch owners, the good news is that The Alliance Alive HD Remastered lives up to its name. It’s a visual treat on the hybrid console; in comparison to the original 3DS release, it sports vibrant colors, sharper textures, and a much higher resolution that allow the “solid” watercolor artstyle of old hand Masayo Asano — who boasts of efforts in SaGa and The Legend of Zelda titles — to shine through. Certainly, it casts the narrative penned by Suikoden series creator Yoshitaka Murayama in superior light, a development that, in the face of Matsuura’s ultimate objective, cannot be overemphasized.
The overarching storyline of The Alliance Alive HD Remastered begins with the invasion of daemons fearful of the Chaos energy in the human realm. The occupation triggers The Dark Current, which effectively separates the world’s four regions. Barely surviving the cataclysm, mankind finds itself divided and subsisting under the reign of daemonic overlords. The gameplay picks up a millennium hence, focusing on otherwise-disparate members of the Night Crows, a rebel force out to gain freedom for the human race. And “disparate” may be too conservative a word to describe the nine given their origins and ideologies; joining Galil, Azura, Renzo, Tiggy, Gene, and Rachel in looking after their own are daemons Vivian and Ignace and beastfolk Barbarosa.
The Alliance Alive HD Remastered goes through not inconsiderable lengths to introduce the characters and examine their motivations to band together. The manner in which they then navigate the vast expanse to unite the blacksmith, recon, signimancy, tactics, and library guilds isn’t as linear as the setup. In fact, the open-world setting allows for freedom of choice; gamers can go from town to town, first on foot and then later on through the use of vehicles, talking to non-playable characters, exploring dungeons, and, needless to say, doing battle with the enemies. The ton of text to digest en route is thankfully engrossing, as there is no option for voice acting; skipping through it likewise increases the risk of missing out on important information.
As is typical of JRPGs, The Alliance Alive HD Remastered features a turn-based combat system within a fixed grid. Strategic positioning in the battle zone is crucial to the maximization of offensive and defensive skill sets, especially since no race apart from daemons can make use of magic. Parenthetically, characters deal more damage, at pain of skill points, when their Ignition meter is filled up; being in this state likewise gives them the option to launch a self-explanatory Final Strike. At the same time, they can tap the power of towers already situated or strategically built in favorable locations to secure status buffs and ability unlocks. Meanwhile, a virtual tech tree governs weaponized attacks; assimilated arts beget more arts, particularly when an Awakening occurs.
Taken as a whole, The Alliance Alive HD Remastered provides for character improvements that aren’t reliant on the genre’s usual leveling-up methodologies. That said, some form of grinding and battle-hunting by way of side quests do offer benefits, including greater experience in determining ideal combinations for front, middle, and rear lines. In any case, the reworked graphical user interface is a breeze to navigate; in place of the dual-screen setup the original had for the 3DS is a layout that wisely makes use of the Switch’s larger real estate. And for all the branches and sub-menus, and despite the absence of touchscreen functionality, it comes off as noob-friendly. It even rolls out a handful of convenient features, including the capacity to fast-forward battles and to generate save states.
For the most part, The Alliance Alive HD Remastered should do Matsuura proud. To use a sports metaphor: It’s a home run, but the inside-the-park kind. Same result, albeit through different means. And, in this regard, it may well be the one title newcomers to JRPGs will find easier to pore through. Clocking in at some 40 hours, it’s just long enough to justify its $49.99 sticker price, and just short enough not to overstay its welcome. An extremely easy recommend.
THE GOOD:
• Superb remaster featuring brighter colors and sharper images
• Reworked GUI a breeze to navigate
• Compelling narrative
• Character-improvement system off the beaten path
THE BAD:
• No voice tracks
• Sitting through exposition a requirement
• Map designs could be better
RATING: 8.5/10
POSTSCRIPT: Developer Sky9 Games makes no pretenses in regard to the inspirations of its latest offering published by Curve Digital. A Knight’s Quest will remind gamers of a number of their old favorites, and not simply because it’s presented in a retro three-dimensional art style that reflects its lighthearted tone. As a puzzle platformer with exploration, direct-combat, and role-playing-game elements, it likewise aims to draw the best out of the usual reliables in the aforementioned genres. Thusly, an assessment of its characteristics as those of a mimic is erroneous at best.
When A Knight’s Quest works, it works extremely well. And, fortunately, it works often enough to forge ahead without even the most critical being reminded of its muses. To this end, it has both its humorous storyline and engrossing gameplay to thank. It hangs its tale on Rusty, who disrupts his otherwise-cozy life as the son of Mayor Munsch and adventurer on the side by accidentally unleashing an evil that threatens the fate of mankind. He is thereafter moved to combat the manifestations of malevolence through Spirit Powers obtained from — who else? — Spirit Knights.
Armed with trusty sword and shield, Rusty sets out to find Henry the Great, Rocky the Rockman, and Ivan the Icebro, His encounters with them subsequently allow him to harness the powers of Wind, Fire, and Ice. As he progresses in A Knight’s Quest, he gets to engage in battle, hurdle obstacles, jump into elevated surfaces, solve brain teasers, run on walls, and accumulate collectibles — in short, do just about everything in an open-world setting. Controls are responsive for the most part, and a decided plus in cases where proper timing is crucial to advancement.
Occasionally, Rusty will find himself deep inside dungeons where A Knight’s Quest exposes what is perhaps its weakest point. “Strategy” in encounters with enemies consists of hacking, slashing, rolling, and little else. They simply lack variety and depth; for all the equipment gamers can use, button mashing gets the job done, and most efficiently. To offset the ease with which they are dispatched, difficulty is artificially ramped up by increasing their number over time. On the flipside, boss battles present far more worthy challenges, organically eliciting labors that require skills and engender satisfaction upon completion.
Visually, A Knight’s Quest is a mixed bag. It sports a rich color palette that defines the characters and backgrounds well, but statically; once there is any action, their pixelated origins become evident. Moreover, the frame rate dips when the screen is populated, particularly with the Switch in handheld mode. Meanwhile, the audio fares just a wee bit better; the music is engaging, but a voice track and a more consistent registry of effects would have gone a long way in propping up the sound design.
Nonetheless, A Knight’s Quest should prove its worth and worthiness. The technical missteps aside, it offers good value at its currently discounted $19.99 price point. It could have been tighter and more polished, but it’s still a solid puzzle platformer on the whole. (7/10)
In Vambrace: Cold Soul, gamers take on the character of Evelia Lyric, the only hope of inhabitants of the otherwise-walled-off Icenaire to be free from the clutches of the ruthless King of Shades. Her desire to look into the circumstances behind her father’s death leads her to the city, her physical assimilation of Aetherbrace having enabled her to penetrate the “frost fall” permanently enveloping it. And as she digs for answers to her deeply personal quest, she finds herself fighting for collective pursuits.
The story of Vambrace: Cold Soul is told with deliberate pace. Much of the start consists of tons of expository, if well-written, text that serve to add substance to the lore writer and designer Tristan Lee Rivan strove to create. On the flipside, it’s wrapped in compelling fashion, both literally and figuratively. The distinctive hand-drawn style is recognizably that of Minho Kim, South Korea-based developer Devespresso Games CEO and lead artist, and reminiscent of his previous works (among them The Coma: Recut).
Whether on top in Icenaire or down below in Dalearch, whether from an isometric perspective or as a side-scrolling adventure, Vambrace: Cold Soul boasts of settings and characters with remarkably sharp lines and lush colors. That said, the music and sound design are arguably even better; the mix is appropriately enveloping and on point, complementing the visuals and establishing the proper ambience. The aesthetics certainly bolster — and serve to immerse gamers in — the narrative.
While Vambrace: Cold Soul looks and feels like a Japanese role-playing game, it features mechanics that hew closer to that of a roguelike offering. Death is invariably a fixture in campaigns, with the challenges heightened by the utter absence of any leveling-up options through combat experience. Instead, primacy is accorded equipment upgrades, available from merchants in exchange for hellions, obtained as battle spoils or rewards during and after quests, or secured through crafting.
Frustration is sure to set in, but there can be no discounting the sense of accomplishment in beating Vambrace: Cold Soul after 20-odd hours of investment. Gamers are inherently prideful, and their utter refusal to lose sets up a fitting payoff. (7.5/10)
THE LAST WORD: The personal computer version of Dragon Star Varnir is now out. Originally available on the Sony PlayStation 4 (BusinessWorld’s review: https://www.bworldonline.com/deep-divergent-delightful/), it includes all gameplay and art content from the Japanese release. Steam is offering a week-long launch discount of 30% for the standalone title, and a permanent 10% discount for the Deluxe Edition, which bundles art collections, wallpapers, and a soundtrack.
