The Alliance Alive

The Alliance Alive invokes the finest elements of the JRPG genre, modernizes them, and innovates where necessary. Its gripping fantasy plot can be worshiped for its emotional center or parsed for statements on equality, order, and free will. Whether or not you enjoyed The Legend of Legacy, this one stands as an authentic classic that captures the majesty of a Super Nintendo/PlayStation era masterpiece while also gazing forward.

If there's one title that deserves a spot in the upper echelons, it's The Alliance Alive. Its battle system is reminiscent of the SaGa franchise, except taken to the next level through superb balancing and design. No matter the player's skill level, they are treated to an adventure that caters to them, without coming off as condescending or frustrating. Not only is the world filled with wonders to explore, anyone who takes the time to do so will find their efforts appropriately rewarded. Simply put, this game is a modern classic.

Cattle Call has done a fantastic job with The Alliance Alive, addressing the complaints of its predecessor while building on its strengths to make something that’s truly special. Whether it be the engaging story, expansive overworld, deep combat, or unique progression options, this is a game that oozes quality in just about every aspect. The Alliance Alive is a must-play for fans of JRPGs, and we would give it a strong recommendation to anyone looking for another great game to add to their 3DS collection.

Even if you hated Legend of Legacy (you monster!), The Alliance Alive is still worth a look. The story is interesting, the battle system is complex, fun and bizarre and the overall package is a polished adventure that will keep you playing until the very end. The 3DS may be on its way out, but hopefully this isn't one of those late-in-life games that gets overlooked for year until people realize how good it really was. Check it out.

For us, Spanish players, this game is only digital, only in English and a little bit pricey, so many of us might decide to ignore it, but if you give it an opportunity you'll find a great RPG.

The Alliance Alive is an easy recommendation to make to my RPG-loving friends. If you’re not intimidated by dense menus and the concept of micromanaging your team to perfection, all while not being able to count on level grinding to brute-force your way through difficult sections, you’ll enjoy The Alliance Alive. For everyone else, come back when you’ve got a bit more experience.

The Alliance Alive delivers a charming and satisfying JRPG adventure with a mix of traditional and fresh gameplay elements. It's simply a joy to experience the characters and their engaging story as they traverse their varied and vibrant world. It's a must-have 3DS JRPG.

There’s a lot to love about The Alliance Alive: a well-paced story in an interesting world, a meaty mashup of unique combat elements, and a fantastic soundtrack that keeps you pumped and eager to explore. If you can put up with a bit of a learning curve, you’ll find a great portable adventure well worth dusting off your 3DS for.

The Alliance Alive is a good game that's held back by some unfortunate missteps. Its fantastic premise and strong narrative provide a storyline that feels surprisingly fresh compared to other JRPGs, while its combat provides some welcome depth to its turn-based gameplay. The title often feels too easy, even by JRPG standards, and several features could have been better fleshed out, but the overall product is a stark improvement over studio Cattle Call's previous effort.

The Alliance Alive may not reinvent the JRPG, but it still offers a solid game experience thanks to good tactical battles and to a fun character progression.

Even though it's not the best JRPG out there in the vast 3DS library, The Alliance Alive comes in the twilight of the portable system, and it offers 40-plus solid hours of adventuring for the ones who were left wanting more from The Legend of Legacy.

The Alliance Alive's one-of-a-kind atmosphere and decadent soundtrack are high notes in an experience otherwise subject to the whims of random number generation.

The Alliance Alive is a straightforward and fun JRPG with enough to keep the player invested throughout its story, but it could use some work on difficulty balancing and the inclusion of voice over.

I had hoped that after a few initially rocky hours, The Alliance Alive would somehow turn it all around and be a game that I would love. Unfortunately that's not quite the case here, and on a system with no shortage of good RPGs, it's hard to sell The Alliance Alive to anyone but the most ardent of fans.

Despite its terrific combat, The Alliance Alive is far from a spectacular experience. With the 3DS having such a vast catalogue of RPGs to choose from, it's not enough for Alliance to simply be passable. It's hard to truly recommend the game to anyone except those who have already exhausted their options on the system.

A JRPG that combines classic concept with original decisions, but that remains in the shadow of the greats of Nintendo 3DS.

The Alliance Alive is a successful effort at justifying why the 3DS is still relevant. Thanks to its wide and varied world, well implemented sense of progression, in-depth combat system and rich visual component, this is an RPG that should feature in a great number of 3DS systems, even as the console is past its prime.

While it may not stand out as an individual title, The Alliance Alive gets by with somewhat unique ideas and a memorable soundtrack. The varied cast doesn’t leave much impression and the combat gets too easy late-game with minimal grinding which makes it a chore more than anything. There are some great ideas here that fail to work together in a way that makes for an overall fun time.

The Alliance Alive tries to make improvements on its predecessor, but only to a certain level of success. It still gets bogged down by a somewhat repetitive gameplay loop, and the expanded story focus is merely adequate. However, the game can be comforting if you are longing for an RPG that feels like the ones of the days past.

The Alliance Alive is a solid RPG with a lot of flaws (generic characters and story) but balanced with a lot of strong points too (fun gameplay and combat). Despite its annoying shortcomings, the game can be recommended to anyone looking for an RPG that plays like it's straight from the golden era.

A few frustrating moments aside, I generally enjoyed my time with The Alliance Alive.

RPG superfans who are craving something different, who absolutely need a 3DS game, and who have not played February’s much better 3DS RPG, Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology, will find a thing or two to like about The Alliance Alive. Cattle Call moved a bit closer to greatness with The Alliance Alive, but they are still not quite there as one of the 3DS’s last RPGs falls short.

The story and characters of The Alliance Alive will stay with me far longer than anything else in the game. Yoshitaka Murayama has proven '90s-style storytelling is still as enrapturing today as it was two decades ago. His work just needs to be paired up with a better game. I respect all of the new gameplay ideas present here, but without fine-tuning, they bring down what should be one of the last great 3DS games.

The Alliance Alive is a great-looking game with an interesting premise and intriguing battle mechanics, but in the end it falters from its combat decisions.

If anything, go back and check out The Legend of Legacy. [Issue #33 – May/June 2018, p. 69]