The Alliance Alive – Review

The Legend of Legacy was an enjoyable take on the SaGa formula but fell short in a few areas. The Alliance Alive, developer Cattle Call’s follow-up, addresses much of what was missing and, despite another unusual title, lives up to what it promises.

Where The Legend of Legacy had almost no story, The Alliance Alive follows a set group of characters who eventually join forces on a single, far better-executed narrative. Humanity lives under the rule of Daemon and Beastkind, with the world’s continents further divided by a Great Barrier of dangerous water called the Dark Current, home to beings known as Water Devils. Tired of Daemon rule, humans begin a rebellion that requires forming an alliance with the world’s Guilds and peoples. The plot is simple but effective, and a clear step up from Legend of Legacy’s lack of direction.

Combat still emulates SaGa’s systems, with Spark-art “Awakenings” for attacks and skills and random stat generation still in play, but character stats like endurance, strength, focus, agility and sense no longer improve directly through battle; instead, only HP and SP grow, while other stats are shaped through equipment. In their place, characters gain position levels tied to attack, defense or support roles depending on where they’re placed in the party formation, growing stronger in that role the more they act from it. Guilds built at points of power on the world map can be recruited to buff the party or debuff enemies, and require a guild master plus additional recruits to raise their level. Magic is split between Signimancy, a more defensive style usable only by humans, and Sorcery, a more offensive style usable only by Daemon and Beastkind. An Ignition mechanic grants stat boosts and access to powerful skills at the cost of breaking the equipped weapon until the party rests at an inn. As before, dying in battle lowers a character’s max HP until they rest, though healing spells or items make revival easy and inns are cheap; HP won’t auto-recover only during chain battles, which offer bonus money, talent points and better loot odds in exchange.

The main criticism raised was that earning extra money and Talent Points outside of chain-battle bonuses or treasure chests is harder than it needs to be, particularly given how steep some skill requirements are, and that once a party’s roles click there’s little incentive to experiment further. Otherwise, the game was called a solid, refined follow-up to The Legend of Legacy and a good entry point into SaGa-style mechanics for newcomers, though players wanting a deeper story or character development may still come away wanting more. The Alliance Alive was scored 9.5 for 3DS.

Cattle Call, the studio behind both The Legend of Legacy and The Alliance Alive, was founded by developers with a background on Square Enix’s SaGa series, which explains why both games lean so heavily on SaGa’s trademark systems, like random stat growth and Spark-style skill learning, rather than the more conventional levelling found in most other role-playing games. In the West, The Alliance Alive was published on 3DS by NIS America, the same publisher behind several of Cattle Call’s contemporaries in the niche RPG space. The game’s reception was strong enough that it was later given a wider release as The Alliance Alive HD Remastered, bringing it to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PC for players who missed the original 3DS version.