Alter A.I.L.A.

I had a lot of hype playing this game, having read reviews saying things like "it deserves to be published and sit right next to Chrono Trigger in the RPG hall of fame", so I expected something out-of-this-world-good. Well, it is a good game indeed, and I don't say it like "it's good for a rpgmaker game"... it is a good game, period. But I wasn't blown away that much. I'm gonna comment in terms of what I like, and what could've been better.

Story: 3/5
Apparently most of the hype had to do with the originality and appeal of the story. It's definitely interesting and innovative, and I have to praise any game that doesn't fall into the major rpg cliches. Being able to follow 3 different paths (rebel, independent and imperial) that merge together into something else is awesome, made me feel like I was taking part in something bigger, which is fun. But following the storyline, I felt like the only major twist/surprise was when I found out that my enemies were my fellow-soldiers. That was awesome. But it gets really repetitive after that, and nothing really new comes up. I had no good sense of story progression (having played only the independent's route), felt like the same conflicts were being re-enacted over and over. Even though I haven't played the other routes yet, I know what to expect since I met the imperials and the rebels often through my own route. In other words, the story was cool, but it was NOT what kept me going, kept me playing.

Characters: 3/5
Character concepts are nice, associating each one with colors and all. And yes, each character has their own personalities (though the two girls felt somewhat the same), which is cool. But they were somewhat one-dimensional and lacked charm. I didn't get to feel any empathy for anyone, and it's important in my opinion. Maybe it'd be fun to know about each character's personal tastes and opinions about minor stuff, not just their major attitude towards life. Gameplay-wise, I really liked how characters differed in looks, skills and powers.

Gameplay: 4/5
Even though there's nothing greatly innovative from RM2K3 default systems, I think Alter A.I.L.A. made a really nice and smart use of them all. Battles were simple yet elegant, items were varied yet not confusing, difficulty was incredibly balanced, I really have no complaints on this. There were moments when I just wanted to train to get more money, more experience, and buy more equipment, and it wasn't boring. I just missed some sort of non-battle challenge.

Music: 5/5
Great song choices, especially the boss battle songs. They really set the mood of the places.

Pacing: 3/5
I felt like the game was just a sequence of dungeons and cutscenes. There was no real exploration, no fun breaks, no minigames, just talk-walk-battle. Dungeons not being too big is a plus.

Graphics 4/5
I loved the characters' faces and battle sprites. Really liked them. Mapping was great too. But the overall scenery of the world was excessively dark, gray and repetitive, which may help setting the dark atmosphere, but does get annoying.

Overall, it's a great game. I believe it's the second RPGMaker game I managed to play all through (well, sort of), and I did have fun, which is all that matters. As a last note, I was disappointed to find that the New Game + option erased all character progression, reset their level, stats, items, etc. Keeping all progression and playing everything over again JUST to find out new things about the story, NOT having to struggle on the battles again (like Chrono Trigger) would be much better and more motivating.