Code Age Commanders

2005 video game

Code Age Commanders: Tsugu Mono Tsugareru Mono (コード・エイジ コマンダーズ ～継ぐ者 継がれる者～) is a Japan exclusive action role playing game developed and published by Square Enix on October 13, 2005, for the PlayStation 2. It is part of the Code Age series, a franchise created by video game artist Yusuke Naora and designed to span different interweaved titles in multiple platforms and media. The series consists of Commanders, the mobile phone game Code Age Brawls, and the manga Code Age Archives. The story depicts the struggles of people surviving in a fictional "intraglobular world" menaced by an impending destruction, mysterious warped creatures, and different factions warring against each other. The game focuses successively on the viewpoints of four main protagonists. The concept for Code Age was created in 2002 by Yusuke Naora, becoming incorporated into Square Enix's polymorphic content policy of showing off their properties across multiple media. The development was handled by a group dubbed "Warhead", and featured multiple developers from Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles including director and character designer Toshiyuki Itahana, and composer Kumi Tanioka. Reviews of the game were relatively positive, with high praises of its graphics and art direction but more mixed feelings for its complex and atypical gameplay.

Code Age Commanders is an action role playing game divided in missions, in which the goal is to fight enemies called "Coded" to reach a certain area of the map, where a boss must sometimes be defeated. The player controls one character while other allies are computer controlled and must not die for the mission to be successful. Between two missions, the player can select in a menu numerous optional cut scenes to watch and which reveal the memories of the Coded defeated,

Weapons are equipped on both hands of the characters and are used with the circle and cross buttons. Pressing both buttons in succession is necessary to execute combos. The other buttons are used to lock focus onto an enemy, guard, dash, or manually change the camera angle. The number of attacks and blocks is limited by an energy meter for each arm, which decreases after each move but replenishes with time. A third meter increases after each combo and allows when maxed out to perform a "Code Drive" attack. Executed with the triangle button, a Code Drive triggers a brief close up sequence in which a blue circle appears around the character. If the player presses a second button before the circle shifts to red, a powerful special attack will be unleashed. If the enemy blocks the Code Drive, a second, shorter close up sequence is triggered. Enemies can also perform Code Drives, in which case the player's button press allows for protection rather than attack. Executing Code Drives frequently can cause the weapon used to upgrade, or the character to go into a "Code Crisis"; a mode which reduces speed and renders immune to attack, but slowly drains hit points. When replaying completed stages, the number of Code Points earned is the difference between the player's highest past score for the mission and the new score obtained. Knowing this, several humans seek Otellos voluntarily to become Warheads and try to protect mankind with the powers gained from the mutation. Several armed factions form with differing points of view on the way to save the world, while the Reborn still has not been completed.

The events of the game unfold successively from the viewpoints of four different Warhead protagonists. The first one is Gene, a young man who becomes amnesic after the Arks accident. He is the son of professor Alvin, one of the builders of the Arks, who disappeared some time after the accident. The second protagonist, Fiona, is a soldier of the White Army of Guinevere, who saved her life. Commander Guinevere, a Warhead, was a female scientist who worked in the Arks with professor Alvin. Fiona is initially very loyal to Guinevere, but becomes more reluctant following the death of a friend and the commander's changing, more dominating behavior. Naora's concept was created independent of this policy, and he later said that while there was pressure from the company when creating Code Age as a multimedia franchise, the greater pressure was finding the right staff. The production team of Commanders shared multiple staff with Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Additional character designs were created by Yasuhisa Izumisawa. Kazuhiko Aoki acted as planning director, the lead programmer was Mitsuru Kamiyama, and the event planner team was led by Masato Yagi. Kazuko Shibuya worked on the UI design. Akitoshi Kawazu acted as executive producer. Naora wanted to create a unique world, with the main narrative theme being how people react and behave when terrible events happen around them; he was inspired by a phenomenon he saw of people having detached attitudes to car accidents and natural disasters not experienced in person. The complex control system was intended to mimic the feeling of dual wielding weapons in each hand. The focus on customization features in the gameplay was designed by Naora to appeal to the American market.

The music was primarily composed by Kumi Tanioka, who had previously worked on Crystal Chronicles and also created the music for Code Age Brawls. Some tracks were composed by Yasuhiro Yamanaka. who also worked as an arranger and remixer. Tanioka described her work on the game as emulating "rhythmic dance music" with a melodramatic atmosphere. The music was highly frenetic with few gaps between waveforms, with Tanioka later feeling she musically attacked the game. The game had a sound staff of six, covering the arranging and remixing of Tanioka's music, sound effects and sound programming. Due to Yamanaka's particular mixing style, Tanioka did not do all the arranging herself as she had done on earlier projects. A soundtrack album was released by Square Enix on October 19, 2005, covering two discs and featuring 80 music tracks. "Memory Pocket" was released as the B side to Shibasaki's single Sweet Mom by Universal Music Group on October 5, 2005, in Japan, and was included in her second album Hitori Asobi published by Universal Music Group on 2006 12 14 in Japan.

A trademark for Code Age Commanders was registered by Square Enix in September 2004 alongside other trademarks relating to the Code Age project. The game was announced in March 2005 through an issue of Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, at which time the game was 50% complete. As with the Compilation, each project was abbreviated using a lettering formula; "CAA" stood for Archives, "CAB" for Brawls, and "CAC" for Commanders. A strategy guide was published on November 30. A subtitled trailer for the Code Age project was shown off by Square Enix at E3 2005. In another interview where concern was raised about it not appearing in Square Enix's Western release schedule, Naora said the team had concerns about launching it within the release window of the PlayStation 3. While at one point Commanders was reported as being scheduled for a 2006 North American release, none of the Code Age projects ultimately left Japan. Localization staff member Christopher "Koji" Fox, who later notably worked on Final Fantasy XIV, said that he completed the translation of Commanders before Square Enix decided not to release the game outside Japan.