The GWJ JRPG Club - Q2 2021 - The Alliance Alive!

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Welcome to a bleak world, devoid of sun, ruled by Daemons. It's time to overthrow the oppressors in The Alliance Alive, our second game for 2021!

According to HowLongToBeat, a playthrough of this game clocks in at about 30 hours, more if you want to do some optional bosses and such. I've also read about NG+ options and -- at least on Playstation -- trophies for finishing the game in under 10 hours, which I assume requires a NG+ to pull off. But for club purposes, none of that's necessary.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/2H4CLCF.png)

And with that, let's go!

you know what...since it looks like Disco Elysium is going to be the next CRPG club game, and since i'm KINDA in the mood for a JRPG....I think I might actually temporarily defect to this thread and sit in on this one, since it also has a (currently half price) Steam version. *thinking emoji*

I’ll probably NG+ this one but I don’t think I’ll rush to start it. Still in the final push for Chronotrigger, phew!

Looking forward to reading everyone’s thoughts!

I will be giving this a try, just trying to decide whether I want to get the Steam version or the PS4 version. I'd like to get away from the computer a bit, and am leaning toward the PS4 version.

I'm so in!

FYI, the PS4 digital version is $20 until March 31.

The Steam version's on sale too--but not for quite as long as the PS4 digital version. Looks like that sale ends at about 1 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time on 3/29 .

Aristophan wrote:

FYI, the PS4 digital version is $20 until March 31.

I'm updating my PS4 now, last time I did that appears to be 2019. Just set up 2-factor authorization on the main account, too.

I'm leaning towards the PS4 version.

Yay!

I picked up the PS4 version this morning and it finally showed up on my PS4 account for download. I had the confirmation email that I paid for it but I could not see it on my download list on either my PS4 or the website on PC. Downloading now so I am ready to go April 1st!

Malkroth wrote:

I picked up the PS4 version this morning and it finally showed up on my PS4 account for download. I had the confirmation email that I paid for it but I could not see it on my download list on either my PS4 or the website on PC. Downloading now so I am ready to go April 1st!

Yeah, I went with the PS4 version too. PS4 is all updated and game is downloaded and installed.

This time. For sure. Level 2.

This has been on my pile forever but the timing couldn’t be worse for me. In the middle of Bravely Default 2 and RDR2, and MH Rise came out yesterday.

While I'm very excited to start, Monster Hunter is taking a lot of my time. I may be a little bit slow!

Started yesterday! Will play a bit more once I'm up but I left it off after visiting the forest linguist (as you do).

Some notes:

- was very disappointed when I found out that armour guy isnt a woman. (And constantly thinks his ladyfriend is too weak and precious to go adventuring, the chauvinistic/abelist jerk). But at least I can switch to the woman visually.

- The fact that even the cut scenes aren't voiced caught me off guard, but that means I can switch the audio down low (so I don't have to listen to terrible jrpg music) and start working my way through my podcast backlog.

- It's constantly raining, everyone believes a blue sky is a myth, and the lakes and rivers are full of murderous kelpie...I feel right at home!

OH ALSO

- Come on game! We're only, like, an hour in and it's dude-central in this adventuring party. Three blokes with reasonably "varied" personalities and then token lady tag-along. Why d'you have to be like this, game industry. Give. Me. More. Powerful. Ladies. Not just...flippin' Lady UwU here.

Anyway....the adventures of Sir Whiteknight, Lady UwU, the sex-pest and .... the monster one(?) will continue... (honestly i kinda wish this was one of those JRPG games where I can rename all the characters)

Unless I'm mistaken, it seems like Alliance Alive is no longer available on the 3DS eshop. I eventually worked out how to access my purchase history and could download it that way. Seems like an odd choice.

*4 hours of play later*

Oh. I see there's a menu for spending talent points.

I...see....

pyxistyx wrote:

*4 hours of play later*

Oh. I see there's a menu for spending talent points.

I...see....

I quite enjoy the mechanic where using various different skills unlocks the opportunity to learn more skills (similar to in Tales). It stops me from getting stuck on a skill that’s working well enough. Anyway, if you don’t seem to get any new skills for a while, it’s worth checking the usage counts and switching to skills you haven’t used much yet.

pyxistyx wrote:

*4 hours of play later*

Oh. I see there's a menu for spending talent points.

I...see....

I kind of loved that from the jump, this game just said: Push R3 to open up the tutorial. And that's it. That's all the tutorial I got. It definitely takes a lot less time teaching systems than some games! I feel like there's plenty I don't yet understand.

I started too, and for each character I bought that skill for their primary weapon that makes them a little more likely to learn techniques, and the skill that makes their techniques cost a little less SP. This basically lets me use low-level skills (arts?) in lieu of basic attacks, which seems to be helpful.

I just got a party of 4, and man oh man, those 2 new guys have a lot more HP and SP than Galil and Azura.

I didn't finish Chrono Trigger, because it was just too soon for another playthrough. I think I'm done with that game for at least another five years. I mean, I absolutely love it, I think it's one of the best games ever made, but it is way too fresh in my memory, and I just didn't want to finish that run.

Alliance Alive, however, is entirely new to me, and since it was only $20 on Steam, I picked it up. Let's see how it goes!

Had a random CTD and lost about an hour of progress - quicksave often!

That sucks!

Are you all seeing any restriction on quicksaving? I've done it a couple times, just to be safe, and the game does not force me to return to the title. But I haven't yet tried loading from a quicksave, so I don't know if doing that will purge it.

Mr GT Chris wrote:
pyxistyx wrote:

*4 hours of play later*

Oh. I see there's a menu for spending talent points.

I...see....

I quite enjoy the mechanic where using various different skills unlocks the opportunity to learn more skills (similar to in Tales). It stops me from getting stuck on a skill that’s working well enough. Anyway, if you don’t seem to get any new skills for a while, it’s worth checking the usage counts and switching to skills you haven’t used much yet.

I misremembered this. Each skill actually has a % analysed score. It starts from 0 when you haven’t used the skill yet and goes up to 100 once it’s fully analysed. So once you get to 100%, it’s better to switch to a new skill unless you really like it for some reason.

LastSurprise wrote:

That sucks!

Are you all seeing any restriction on quicksaving? I've done it a couple times, just to be safe, and the game does not force me to return to the title. But I haven't yet tried loading from a quicksave, so I don't know if doing that will purge it.

When i crashed and reloaded it went back to the previous place i had quicksaved so i don't believe it purges it.

Sneaked in 30 minutes today, it seems really quirky. For one, I don't think I've ever played a 3DS game on the PS4...Or any Sony console.

The presentation reminds me a little of Bravely Default and the combat mechanics remind me of the little I know about the Saga series. It looks like there are no strict levels...But randomly learn skills and get points to dump into talents? What an intriguing little game. Very keen to see more.

I think there is indeed some personnel tie to SaGa.

Edit: mhm from Wikipedia- SaGa series veteran Kyoji Koizumi acted as game designer, and SaGa background artist Masayo Asano was the game's art director.

A_Unicycle wrote:

Sneaked in 30 minutes today, it seems really quirky. For one, I don't think I've ever played a 3DS game on the PS4...Or any Sony console.

The presentation reminds me a little of Bravely Default and the combat mechanics remind me of the little I know about the Saga series. It looks like there are no strict levels...But randomly learn skills and get points to dump into talents? What an intriguing little game. Very keen to see more.

From what I've seen, there's very little available online about how "random" these gains are. But I read somewhere that they're more likely if you're fighting stronger monsters or using better weapons. I'll bet those measures are meant to ensure relatively steady "leveling" throughout the game.

Does anyone know if your stats ever go up? I haven't seen a gain yet to any of those five stats like STR.

A few early thoughts: wow, if this is the HD remaster, the original must have been awful.

The baby-level monsters do a good job of introducing the mechanics, but I hope fight complexity increases. I'm still a little unclear on how SP preservation works.

The talent system looks pretty interesting. It reminds me a bit of Bravely Default, although with more customization allowed.

(edit: I've gotten to the second tower, but I haven't started into the first ruin yet.)

I just barely dabbled in the game tonight. Read through the guide then left town. I fought the giant wolf and died. Wandered a bit more, waded into the water and died. Went to the forest up north and got scolded by Azura. Finally went to the tower and handed over the secret note. Now I am suppose to go explore a ruin, guess I will go do that after running around a bit more.

Malor wrote:

A few early thoughts: wow, if this is the HD remaster, the original must have been awful.

Well, it was a 3DS game, after all, right?

Yes, the 3DS game is cute but very primitive, graphically. Love the soundtrack however.

One of the talents you buy reduces the SP cost for different skill categories. There's definitely a balance between using powerful skills and giving your characters enough time to regenerate SP (which they do at the end of each round).

Malor wrote:

The baby-level monsters do a good job of introducing the mechanics, but I hope fight complexity increases. I'm still a little unclear on how SP preservation works.

I believe you get 1 SP back per turn. As Mr GT Chris mentions, each weapon has a talent that reduces the SP consumption of that weapon's skills.

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