LEFT ALIVE
Japan’s best mech designers are on a mission
With a dev team reading like a supergroup of Japanese designers and artists, the newly announced Left Alive can’t fail to excite you. The lineup for Square Enix’s third-person survival shooter includes the Front Mission series’ Shinji Hashimoto, it’s being directed by the Armored Core series’ Toshifumi Nabeshima, and character designs are being handled by none other than Metal Gear Solid’s Yoji Shinkawa. Still with us? Finally, some mech concepts are in the hands of Mobile Suit Gundam 00‘s Takayuki Yanase. We’re impressed.
FULL FRONTAL
The game is set in the Front Mission universe, taking place between Front Mission 5 and Front Mission Evolved. Producer Shinji Hashimoto told Japan’s Famitsu magazine: “We wanted to make a Front Mission with a new lineup. We started this new title to see Front Mission in a slightly different perspective.”
This new direction points to a survival structure in which you’ll need to escape the Russian city of Nova Slava, caught in ‘a one day incident’ while mecha, or wanzers, as they’re known in the game, and other enemies hunt you down. (‘Wanzer’ comes from the German for ‘walking tank’.) There’s an emphasis on survival, with crafting and looting central to the game’s design – items are used to create traps to enable you to steal mechs from the enemy and turn the tables.
There are three playable characters (the ones at the top of this page), and you’ll swap between this group as you pick your route through the city. While the ending will remain the same regardless of your actions, the three characters will develop in unique ways depending on how you play and the path you take through Nova Slava.
CHARACTER DESIGNS ARE BEING HANDLED BY METAL GEAR SOLID’S YOJI SHINKAWA.