YMMV / The Alliance Alive

• Slow-Paced Beginning: The game's prologue lasts a whopping 20 chapters, which usually takes around 9 hours to complete. Only afterwards does the game really open up and introduce key mechanics such as building and upgrading guild towers.
• That One Level:
  • Chapter 25 as a whole is often considered to be the absolute worst chapter of the entire game, to the point where many players dropped the game because of this chapter alone, and for a lot of reasons: just like the battle at the bridge, you must defend Hakurei Castle from the Daemon Army with no means of recovering SP or repair your broken weapons. However, you must divide your party into three teams: one will be in charge of protecting the pagoda's 5th floor while the other two are in charge of not only protecting the east and west sides of the residential zones, but also not letting any enemies reach the pagoda's top floor. To make matters worse, everytime you go down to another floor, you have to decide if you want to save a citizen from monsters or stop the remaining forces from reaching the pagoda. Want to stop the Daemons from reaching the pagoda? That citizen you left behind is dead. Did you just save someone? Well, congratulations! Now the first team will have to deal with that group! But there's more! Once you're done dealing with the Daemon Army, all three teams are forced to fight Grossa again in one of the most unfair and punishing boss fight in the entire game. Why? Because every single one of his attacks can kill you in one hit, and the game wants you to beat him by using Igntion with every character. Did I mention that you can't recover SP or repair your broken weapons?
  • The Rainbow Pillar. 7 floors of climbing, while you're being attacked by Goddamned Bats, with no chance to rest (the Guild Girls will let you save and buy items, but that won't restore your Max HP or SP). Because the entire thing consists of thin ledges and ladders, you're restricted to only one dimension of movement at a time, making it impossible to avoid some enemies. Between each floor is a Mini-Boss which are the least annoying part. And if you want 100% Completion, you'll have to climb it again later.

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