The Alliance Alive is a 2018 Eastern RPG for the Nintendo 3DS, created by FuRyu and published by Atlus in the US. An HD remaster was released on October 8th, 2019 for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, with a PC version to follow in 2020. The Alliance Alive serves as a Spiritual Successor to 2015's The Legend of Legacy.
The story follows a group of characters as they mount a rebellion against a race of Daemons that have ruled over humans since blotting out the sun a millennium before. Gameplay follows many traditions of the Japanese role-playing genre, including turn-based battles and navigation using a world map, but also several differences, most notably the absence of experience points and levels and the combining of revival effects with regular healing.
The Alliance Alive contains examples of:
- After-Combat Recovery: The HP of your characters is restored after every fight, but their SP is not. Additionally, if a character is reduced to 0 hit points in battle, they will suffer damage to Max HP that persists until you rest at an inn.
- After the End: The story takes place 1000 years after humanity lost a war against the Daemons. Except for a few isolated city-states, mankind has fallen from grace and ruins scatter the globe.
- The Alliance: It's the title of the game. The heroes set forth to overthrow an oppressive demon empire and replace it with a multiracial republic that embraces equality between all species.
- Battle Butler: Ignace.
- Beast Man: The "human with animal head" type.
- Beating A Dead Player: Characters who reach 0 HP in combat can still be attacked by enemies, which decreases their max HP. If just one character's max HP reaches 0, you lose even if your other characters are still able to fight.
- Big Bad: Kuwalsa, the leader of the council of Daemons, is revealed to be the main villain.
- Crystal Spires and Togas: The appropriately named Crystal Realm.
- Desert Punk: The Burning Realm is an extreme example, with active volcanoes and lava lakes everywhere. Visitors often complain of the sulfur smell.
- Didn't Think This Through: Yes, Azura is only fifteen, but why would she think that breaking into a place guarded by her people's dystopia-esque overlords is a good idea?
- Evil Counterpart: The Dark God Machine that the Big Bad intends to destroy the world with is an ebony color Brionac.
- Fantastic Racism: The world has three dominant species, from lowest to highest on the social ladder: Humans, Beastfolk, and Daemons. As it turns out, about 1000 years ago Humans were the only species until magical genetic engineering produced the Beastfolk, who were actually failed experiments in the quest to create what became known as Daemons. Humans are short lived and can't use Sorcery. Beastfolk can use Sorcery and physically superior to humans, but are "disfigured" with significant animal features. Daemons can use Sorcery and have minimal animal features, but more importantly do not die of old age. Thus humans became the most inferior species in the modern age.
- Fantastic Slur: A lot of Beastfolk refer to humans as apes. Thus, Son of an Ape.
- For the Evulz: There's really no reason for Beastfolk to systematically treat humans like trash, other than it amuses them and to vent off steam.
- Global Airship: The Brionac and the Dark God Machine.
- Godhood Seeker: Kuwalsa's plan to wipe out the entire world and create the new order counts.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Wyatt performs this at Bastille so the party can defeat Baldr without any hesitation.
- Hell on Earth: Daemons won the great war and humanity is either enslaved or under watchful occupation. The only region still in conflict is the Snow Realm, but after generations under siege its collapse is unavoidable without outside assistance. The world is divided into four quadrants separated by an Eldritch Location ocean, with an overpopulation of monsters roaming the planet.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: The first fight against Grosso is this.
- Journey to the Sky: Azura lives in a perpetually rainy world, so she's fascinated by old artwork of a clear blue sky. She doesn't get to see the sky after it's cleared (due to her blindness) but she does get to live in an airship and feel sunlight on her face.
- Leeroy Jenkins: A prisoner freed by Vivian and the team decides he has nothing to live for and charges the oncoming Beastfolk head on as a distraction.
- Little Bit Beastly: Some of the Daemons; Vivian and Ignace in particular play this straight.
- Magitek: Though humanity lacked natural talent for spellcraft, they excelled at imbuing objects and machinery with magic.
- Medieval Stasis: Daemons hate change because it causes uncertainty. Therefore they enforce slowing or eliminating technological progress. Beastfolk are fine with this decision, but Humans disagree due to a natural inclination for innovation and invention.
- Muggles: Humans are the only race that is unable to use Sorcery. They can still use magic via Signimancy, but only if they have an Etheract equipped, and the selection of Signimancy spells is different from Sorcery spells.
- New Game Plus: Available in two forms. New Game + lets you keep all your items, money, field guide data, and character abilities. EX New Game lets you keep your Order Gems, Talent Points, and grants you 10000 bonus TP.
- Nominal Importance: Be sure to remember which NPCs have a name tag on their dialog boxes. Once you reach chapter 20 or clear the realm's main quest, you'll probably be able to recruit them into your guild.
- Non-Lethal K.O.: In an interesting variation, unconscious characters can be revived with normal healing (except for items that specifically have "survivor heal" as their effect). However, their maximum HP is decreased each time they faint or if they are hit some more while unconscious. If just one character reaches 0 max HP, it's Game Over, implying the character has died.
- Permanently Missable Content: Some guild recruits can be killed (generally by you), which prevents you from recruiting them later on. To make this more confusing, there is at least one point where this is inverted, and you need to kill in order to save some potential recruits. There are also a few items that cannot be obtained if you spare some characters, meaning a few New Game Plus runs are necessary to get everything.
- Power at a Price: Beastfolk and Daemons are actually artificially evolved Humans. Daemons are immortal and possess immense Sorcery potential, but tend to lack the drive to improve. Beastfolk are stronger than humans and can also learn Sorcery, but tend to lack inventive intellect. Of course there are rare exceptions to the rule, such as Vivian and Barbarossa.
- Spark of the Rebellion: Azura losing her sight and Wyatt's death is what spurns Galil to lead the Alliance to set things right.
- Steampunk: Gearsrock in the Burning Realm with a hint of The Apunkalypse for fashion sense.
- Stronger with Age: First generation Daemons like Kuwalsa and Charlotte are significantly more powerful than second generation Daemons like Vivian and Ignace. First generation Daemons typically have horns, while second generation Daemons exhibit animal ears.
- Sufficiently Advanced: Signimancy and Sorcery used to be fields of science before the Human-Daemon War.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Strongly averted. Several monsters can join the Alliance, representing that random encounter creatures are also intelligent and seek peaceful coexistence with the species that can speak languages.
- White Hair, Black Heart: Averted with Tiggy, who is on your side. However, it's still played straight in that out of the eight daemons in the game, the three that serve as villains are also the ones with white hair.
- World of Action Girls: While the men aren't push overs and pull their fair share of the heroics, its ultimately Azura, Vivian, Tiggy, and Rachel who run the show and get the story moving. The men were powerless when their ladies decided upon a course of action, melting into submission from withering stares or pouting faces. Galil, Ignace, and Gene each fought against getting involved with adventure, but had no choice when told they would.
- Wutai: The Snow Realm has a feudal Japan-inspired aesthetic in its architecture.
