The Alliance Alive’s Guild System Scratches That Character Recruitment Itch

Recommended Videos

 

After a certain point in the story, the nine characters in The Alliance Alive meet up, and from then on the Guild Alliance becomes available for players to start up at their own discretion. Considering the name of the game, I wasn’t surprised to find out that the system is actually quite in-depth, but what did surprise me was how reminiscent of Suikoden’s recruitment system it was.

 

alliance alive 7

alliance alive 3

 

By fulfilling requirements, such as story progress or choosing certain choices, you can recruit guild applicants, like how new characters were recruited in Suikoden. However, instead of them having fixed roles, I was allowed to choose what the new recruits did from the Ark.

 

alliance alive 4

 

Guild applicants can be sent to work for the Recon, Blacksmith, Signimancy, Library, or Tactics Guilds, and each applicant has the talent to work in one out of three Guilds. Each Guild offers many cumulative advantages depending on their level, which levels up in tiers with each tier needing more people.

 

Additionally, being under Guild influences means that you receive extra benefits in battle. For example, the Recon Guild offers a ‘Sabotage’ effect that can sometimes stun enemies, while the Blacksmith Guild straight up adds to damage output through support fire. In short, it helps to play around with this system for the added effects, even though the game can be completed without it.

 

In my playthrough I took a balanced approach by leveling all of the Guilds, but thanks to aforementioned limitations placed on who can join what Guild, it’s actually impossible to level up every Guild to the max. Another approach, I’d imagine, would be to focus on receiving the maximum effect from one or two of the Guilds.

 

alliance alive 5

alliance alive 6

 

Apart from Guild Applicants, I had to recruit Guild Masters by doing sidequests or defeating them in battle, which sometimes reminded me of the additional requirements in Suikoden. However, with the Guild Masters I could build new towers that linked the guilds together through the Telegraph system. Effectively, by the end of the game, I was under at least two different Guild influences as I traveled around the various continents, walking in the bask of different effects in battle.

 

Additional spaces to create new Guild Towers are sometimes scattered on the map, but more than often I had to create them myself by liberating Water Demon nests. This just increased my satisfaction as I saw the Alliance literally coming Alive with my efforts. Because the game rewards you with human resources to improve the Guilds rather than equipment that gets outdated soon after, the Guild Alliance system ended up feeding into the gameplay flow of progression in a significant manner.

 

alliance alive 1

 

Finally, while I feel this is bound to become an understated feature, all the recruited characters appear and can be talked to on the Ark! This definitely hit home the Suikoden comparison to me, and it’s sad that I haven’t seen this sort of feature since Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 3 on PSP. Going back to the Ark just to check on my progress of recruitment with my own eyes really hammered down the significance of the Guild system in my eyes – and made me want to recruit even more people.

 

The Alliance Alive is available for Nintendo 3DS.


Siliconera is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more
related content
Read Article Nintendo 2DS and New 3DS Repairs Will Cease Soon in Japan
Nintendo 2DS and New 3DS repairs to cease in Japan
Read Article Reminder: Online Services For 3DS and Wii U Will End in April 2024
nintendo 3ds wii u online
Read Article Nintendo Offers Free Repairs to Users Affected by the Noto Earthquake
Nintendo offers free repairs to Switch 3DS and Wii U affected by Noto Peninsula earthquake
Read Article All the Shin Megami Tensei Games Available in English
Read Article Nintendo Will Discontinue 3DS and Wii U Online Functions in 2024
nintendo 3ds wii u online
Related Content
Read Article Nintendo 2DS and New 3DS Repairs Will Cease Soon in Japan
Nintendo 2DS and New 3DS repairs to cease in Japan
Read Article Reminder: Online Services For 3DS and Wii U Will End in April 2024
nintendo 3ds wii u online
Read Article Nintendo Offers Free Repairs to Users Affected by the Noto Earthquake
Nintendo offers free repairs to Switch 3DS and Wii U affected by Noto Peninsula earthquake
Read Article All the Shin Megami Tensei Games Available in English
Read Article Nintendo Will Discontinue 3DS and Wii U Online Functions in 2024
nintendo 3ds wii u online
Author
Alistair Wong
Very avid gamer with writing tendencies. Fan of Rockman and Pokémon and lots more!