Alter A.I.L.A.

Imagine yourself as a prisoner who, one day, is offered a chance to forge your own destiny by escaping together with your "friends": what would you do? who will you trust? But wait! Nothing is as simple as it seems,because in this grim and dark future even one single man can decide the destiny of an entire planet,if he is determined enought; for the better or for the worse.But who will that man be?

GAMEPLAY:

AA has an active turn based combat: each character has a gauge that, once filled, let him perform a single action; basically it's like in the earliest Final Fantasy. Each character can equip different weapons with different attributes: pistols, being light weapons, let you perform an action as soon as the fight begins, machineguns can attack up to three times the same target but have a low accuracy, shotguns do AOE damage but have the same drawbacks as MG,etc... Like any RPG, some weapons are userful, some weapons are useless outside certain fights,and others are overpowered. Each character has also a unique hidden weapon tied to him which, in most cases, is incredibly overpowered.

CHARACTERS:

There are nine playable characters; they no longer remember their names or their crimes,having had their memories wiped out when they entered into jail: instead, each of them wears a black suit painted in a different color,through which they identify themselves.You are Blue;who you will become,that depends on you.This doesn't change the fact that you and your "friends" are trained killers, though.

Each of the protagonists has a special ability to be used on the battlefield, altough only a few of these can really change the outcome of a battle, the others can only help evening the odds(hopefully).These abilties consume MP when used, as if they were magic, with the difference that the "Guard" command will also restore part of the used MP: quite userful actually.

DIFFICULTY:

As a rule of thumb, the first playthrough is hard. Healing items will be few, money won't be enought, you will have no idea about what is coming at you nor when you will be able to save again;some bosses won't just give you any mercy.Yes, nothing beats the emotions of the first time.On later playthroughs, you will regain all your previous money, so things should be easier.But even then...

HIDDEN STUFF:

A lot.Items.Weapons.More powerful weapons.Bosses and superbosses.You will have to play at least four times before claiming to have seen everything this game has to offer.Which is also a not-so-great drawback.

OVERALL:

Overall,Alter AILA's greatest flaw is the battle system: it is identical to your everyday FF clone and fails to be innovative.Luckly it's remake,Alter AILA Genesis,got that one fixed.With excellent results.Nevertheless, the plot is solid and doesn't fall into the typical RPG cliches; the characters, while not exceptionally developed, are different enought from each other to have their own personality, and the maps, filled with dirt and litter, perfectly fit into this desperate post-apocaliptic world.