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A Demonic Adventure To Restore The World!

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Developed by  Cattle Call Games and published by NIS America, Alliance Alive HD is a remaster of the 3DS JRPG of the same name which was met with a somewhat mixed reception from critics, but we rather enjoyed the game and this version is a great game as well in our opinions! Continue reading our review to find out why we think this game is worth a purchase!



The story in Alliance Alive is pretty good, but is decidedly retro with very simplistic story-telling as well as no voice acting. It all ties together with the old-school look and feel of the game. The game is pretty short only clocking in at around 20 hours in length. As for the gameplay the battles are done in simplistic turn-based fashion with a slight twist to the skill learning formula which is actually quite advanced as you learn skills based on the way you battle, but the algorithm is extremely complex and thus is difficult to figure out what actions trigger certain skills to "spark" and be learned.

The game has a ton of side-quests as well so completionists can expect to add an additional 15-20 or so hours into the game just for the side-quests and if you want to unlock every skill for every character chances are you'll need to sink 80+ hours into this game. As short as the game is, it truly shines in its replayability which is fantastic news! Now for the downsides, the dungeons are too simplistic and can be boring at times, the story is very predictable and uses many overused tropes, there isn't enough variety in enemies, there are a few glitches here and there, though none we experienced were game-breaking, and in-general Alliance Alive is simply solid to good in its best aspects, luckily there isn't a whole lot wrong with the game so it's still a fun game for JRPG fans.



The audio-visual presentation of the game is quite nice, but of course it won't wow gamers though that's sort of expected from a game that was designed from the ground up to be a love-letter to the classic 32-bit era classics in the genre. The world map feels like it was ripped straight out of a PSOne era JRPG and that's a good thing in our opinions! The character models are gorgeous however thanks to the unique art direction the game uses, and some locales look breathtaking as well, but again it's a result of the amazing art direction rather than the actual graphics engine the game's assets utilize. LUL

The soundtrack is pretty enjoyable as well with some catchy tunes here and there that fit the game quite well, but there are other tracks that feel out of place or are rather forgettable which is a shame, but overall the audio-visual presentation is good!



Bottom-Line: With a good, but cliched story, solid gameplay, and good audio-visual presentation Alliance Alive HD Remaster is an enjoyable experience for all fans of the JRPG genre, but a few issues do hold the game back a bit. Overall, however we give the game a solid to good level of recommendation!

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Score: ★★★★★★★½☆☆ 7.5/10

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#Review #NISAmerica #CattleCallGames #JRPG #PS4 #Retail #PSN #Switch #eShop

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