Alter A.I.L.A.

Disclaimer
'Why play Alter A.I.L.A? Neok released a remake, redoing the same story, that vastly improved on damn-near every aspect! Screw Alter A.I.L.A.!'

Well yes, random imaginary nay-sayer, he did do all of these things. Buuut, I'm a completionist and I don't like leaving things out. Plus, Alter A.I.L.A. is great! Sure, Genesis is phenomenal but the original is also a great experience and gives great insight storywise. Besides, having played Genesis after finishing the original, there was more than one moment during the game with a much greater impact on me due to my prior knowledge (One word - Black.) So you should certainly play the original! If nothing else, play it for the full experience and to see how the story evolved.

Introduction
This will be a short review, as this game has received plenty in the past. Still, I shall briefly list my opinion.

Story
The story is one of Alter A.I.L.A's selling points, a post-apocalyptic, futuristic tale of prisoners escaping their confines and proceeding to influence the world. From there, 3 options are initially available to us for the story to take, with a fourth, 'true' path opening up upon completion of all 3. Each path is a relatively solid story in their own right, though there are holes in each which the final path properly addresses.

The story is ultimately compelling, and thought-provoking, leaving the player to speculate. The final ending is a minor cliffhanger, though with the relaunching of the series with Genesis, any resolution would occur in the new storyline.

My only real gripe is the repetition of certain events to the letter in 2 or all 3 of the original story paths - without the ability to skip the dialogue, this gets stale. Fast.
Score: 4/5

Characters
Wow. The characters in this game are brilliant, to say the least. That is - each is brilliant in certain places, and... well, disappointing in others. Our leads are each given colour-coded names as prisoners, due to losing their former names from memory erasure. The colours generally accentuate their personalities, which are quite distinct and memorable.

With 9 playable characters though, juggling is hard. This is evidenced in the story paths. The first three each show our bland lead character Blue following one of the other prisoners, who gets the spotlight as group leader (even though Blue's still in he first party position). The other prisoner (White, Red or Yellow depending on the story) is invariably awesome and well developed, while Blue is underused. The stories are also very pattern-based, and this really destroys the Green character.

The fourth story fixes this, but at a cost. Blue and Green become the leads, are well-developed and well-handled, but Red, White and Yellow are pretty much afterthoughts. Each is removed from the story FAR too quickly and, with the exception of White, too emotionlessly. All in all, 9 was too much for one story.
Score: 3/5

Gameplay - Out of Battle
Ehh... out of battle, the game was quite standard. No real minigames (which isn't necessarily bad), just field exploration and treasure hunting. Enemies were not random encounters (except in one bitch of a location), rather figures on the screen, which I appreciated. The world map is not traverisble, rather you select an area to go to. This suited the game well, I think. Ultimately, the gameplay was fun though not remarkable.
Score: 4/5

Gameplay - Battles
Not this game's crowning achievement. Battles in Alter A.I.L.A. are simply... dull. Each character can attack, use items and use one unique ability. Just one, per character. This is not exactly... detailed. Plus, healing items seemed a little less effective than they should have been for balance, and a little too expensive (though to be fair, I'm not well suited to any game where items are your only healing option).

As many have said, too, the characters were not balanced. Two were good, and one was a game breaker, while the rest floated somewhere between mediocre and 'aaaaaaaaaaaaagh.'

I will say though that I did like the varied types of guns and different effects they had. The only issue there was the inferiority of the handgun type.
Score: 2/5

Music
Certainly worked for the atmosphere. No complaints here.
Score: 5/5

Graphics/Mapping
Not bad! The scenery looked brilliant and definitely suited the story perfectly, so I have no complaints regarding the look. I was able to walk in a few places I shouldn't have once or twice, though.
Score: 4.5/5

Conclusion
Ultimately a very enjoyable game with forgivable flaws. I'm biased as a story person rather than a gameplay person, so if the battles are most important to you then you should skip straight to Genesis (which has, quite simply, a better battle system than most commercial RPGs.) Still, I would highly reccommend the original first to enhance your enjoyment of Genesis, and to experience all sides of such a brilliant story.
Score: 4/5