Alter A.I.L.A. Genesis

Writing- 4.5/5

The plot is for the most part well-executed, if a tad cliche. Lots of moving scenes and the story always has a clear sense of purpose, with few distractions, though it does drag a little near the end. There are plenty of wonderful plot twists, the dialogue is witty, and the exposition is concise and appropriately placed.

I liked the characterization. I noticed and appreciated that Neok makes an effort to avoid characterization cliches. Most named characters are sympathetic and well-fleshed out. All of the player characters, except for a couple listed in the following paragraph, have great backstories and make me really feel for them sometimes.

Terrinos, I presume the setting is named, has a very-well done sense of atmosphere. Can't have a futuristic apocalypse without zombies, robots, and mutants. It's fairly fleshed out, not too much

Of course, all is not perfect. The backstory is incomplete. A lot of signficant NPCs clearly have interesting and likely plot-relevant pasts which are not shown in any detail. The main villain gives an unsympathetic, token glimpse of its thoughts near the end, and not much characterization until then, making it feel more like an obstacle than a character. I feel that a few characters were put in only as carryovers from the original Alter AILA, and that they could have used more characterization or been cut.

The writing is strong overall, though. The story is both long and has plenty of touching and kickass moments alike.

Battle System- 4.5/5

The battle system is probably my favorite part. Not necessarily the best-done part, hence the rating, but my favorite.

The bad news- it is easy to break the system later in the game. Many bosses are too easily shut down with a proper application of AP or EX crushes, and I found it easy to use the more aggressive EX-for-health modes in conjunction with Energizer items and HP facilitators to spam limit breaks and other powerful attacks. Post-game, when revive fields are available for purchase, they can make certain battles trivial, as losing two characters can be instantly fixed at relatively little cost.

In addition, the interface has minor problems. it's difficult to tell if a player character is under multiple status effects, as only one is openly displayed on the sprites. Although Neok did a good job of balancing the all-important Speed stat, speed boost/crushes alone can make or break a battle. Static-damage syncs are similarly overpowered in the hands of characters who have multi-attack abilities. Violent, Indy, I'm looking at you. It's also somewhat hard to tell if attacks miss, since I'm used to text indicators stating "MISS" or "DODGED", whereas AAG only has a brief, hard-to-notice sound and a slight sprite movement to indicate a miss.

The good news is that despite the above problems, it's fun as hell. Rather than stick with the normal RPG mana-and-health deal, Neok aimed high with the EX and AP system, and I'd say it ended up well. There's definitely some strategy required, not simply hit-them-as-hard-as-you-can, which I like. Those bosses who can't simply be rendered useless with deprivation of EX/AP present a credible challenge and may require many different approaches.

There's a lot of potential for party customization, too, due to the many available player characters, and later bonus characters. "Modes" and "Syncs" are a nice touches to the mechanics, and most equipment and consumables are priced or placed appropriately around the game.

The player characters generally have a good variety of abilities to use, although I wish some of them had more than attack-debuff-attack-attack-limitbreak, as another review somewhere stated. There's a healthy variety of enemies as well, and the optional 100-battle tournament was a complete blast.

I also appreciated Casual mode, as a few times solving puzzles while having to deal with encounters can be annoying, and I understand that some people have a hard time with battles and need the help.

Non-Combat Gameplay- 4/5

A few of the puzzles are creative but annoying. The underwater facility (ALL of it) and the "darkened" underwater maze of one of the No Man's Lands are particularly frustrating. Most of the puzzles are innocuous, thankfully- they just need decent skills of observation and memory.

The sidescrolling perspective, while a refreshing change of pace as well as looking good, is hard to navigate around in, especially in areas that mostly look the same, namely the rebel and bridge facilities and Avalon. The platformer-esque jumping, climbing and swimming is certainly entertaining to watch, though.

The random encounter system seems unnecessary to me. Walking is boring.

I loved the exploration, however (outside of the hard-to-navigate areas mentioned). There's lots of hidden areas and secrets and bonuses to find, and the game rewards you handsomely for backtracking, talking to and finding everything and everyone.

And so, I don't particularly like the puzzles but the exploration makes up for that.

Music/Sound- 5/5

Excellent selection of music. As other reviews have noted, the final boss music is inappropriate, but that's really minor. Battle themes mostly consist of techno that I could listen to for hours. Boss themes are awesome- no other word for it. The ambient music in most areas is great at complementing the visual atmosphere.

Length/Replays- 4.5/5

AAG is long as hell in a good way. After the lengthy nine-part story, there's plenty of optional content during the storyline, and LOTS of post-game content as well. The replay features also add a lot of time to the game as well.

By replay features, I mean the bonus characters, resetting loot or character levels, and the ability to replay the storyline with varying options and said bonus characters. The story is the kind that works well on a second or third re-telling, when I can fully anticipate and appreciate the foreshadowing and character development that goes on. The dialogue just doesn't get old.

Now, the replay features, while thoughtful, have two major flaws. First, some bonus characters are rather underpowered and them all starting at level 1 doesn't help. Second, and this sort of ruined the challenge of a level 1 replay for me, stat enhancer items' effects carry over resets. For me, that means Leon and Celia, both of whom I've foolishly saddled with a ton of enhancers, can't be used anymore in Act I or II, where they'll totally blow everything away even at level 1.

I also wish there was also an option to hide or store high-level equipment and items during replays, to avoid the temptation of using them to nuke everything around.

Nevertheless, the replay features did mean a lot to me, and the optional content was well worth my time.

Visuals- 5/5

The mapping was excellent. The scenery is definitely out of the ordinary, and the backgrounds effectively conveyed the cyberpunk/dystopia feel of the setting. I'd like to single out the Orbital Prison as a level I particularly liked.

The drawn cutscenes were a refreshing change from the usual sprite-based deal. Keeping in mind RPGMaker's limited resolution, they were of quite good quality, too.

The battle animations for the player characters are superb. I would be tempted to say even overkill-good, but that might encourage Neok to limit it in the sequel, which I wouldn't want. :P The enemy sprites are also quite good-looking.

Visually, AAG is just beautiful, and I can tell a ton of effort was put into its presentation.

Overall- 4.5/5

There are a few gaping flaws in AAG, but the strong parts of it are very strong., enough to cover the flaws. It is an outstanding game, and I definitely got fifty-plus hours of fun out it.