‘Left Alive’: Square Enix and Metal Gear Alumni Revive Front Mission Series
What do you get when the original team behind Metal Gear and developer Square Enix get together for brunch?
You get Left Alive, a third-person shooter backed by impressive talent like Shinji Hashimoto, co-creator of Kingdom Hearts and brand manager for Final Fantasy, Metal Gear character designer Yoji Shinkawa, and Toshifumi Nabeshima, who you may recognize from Armored Core, Eternal Ring, Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, and Echo Night.
The brief trailer at the 2017 Tokyo Game Show was followed up by a host of information in Weekly Famitsu, a Japanese game publication, which revealed that it was a part of the Front Mission universe, which hasn’t seen a game in seven years.
Set in a war-ridden Russian city, Left Alive focuses heavily on survival, pushing gamers to rely more on wits and item creation than full-on combat to take on the enemy and control the battlefield.
Players will control three protagonists over the course of the story and though there’s only one ending to achieve, characters can progress differently depending on the actions taken. Based on fairly cryptic quotes from Hashimoto, Nabeshima, and Shinkawa, each character may have their own story to tell and it’s up to the player to unravel their mystery.
Also, despite having a solitary conclusion, the game doesn’t follow one linear path. Each mission can be tackled a variety of ways, giving players the choice to take the enemy head on or walk a more inconvenient, albeit much safer, route.
Front Mission’s staple mechs, the Wanzer, return for Left Alive both as an enemy tool to impede your mission and as your own weapon of destruction.
A very brief look at gameplay snuck onto the internet in the evening hours of September 20th, and it’s easy to see where the influences are coming in. Shinkawa is at it again, delivering character design that’s very reminiscent of Konami’s Metal Gear series.
As of now, there is no online component planned, though the developers haven’t completely written the idea off.
Left Alive is scheduled to release in 2018. You know, somewhere within the 365-day stretch, and that’s only if Square Enix can refrain from delaying it.
Mark LoProto is a horror-loving gaming enthusiast who also has a soft spot for Ghostbusters, bubble wrap, and kittens. Look for his work here, here, and here.
