Alter A.I.L.A.
I randomly decided to play some old RPG Maker games from back in the day, and stumbled upon possibly my favorite homebrew RPG game. Alter AILA. This game just blew my mind when I first played it a few years back, and playing through it again, it seems to retain all the charm and awesomeness that I remember.
Here's the setup: You are Blue, a quiet brooding fellow who is locked in the Beyond Thunderdome style game with eight other people, with equally color-based code names. Everyone reports to this brutal Kugar character, who forces them to fight every day in the game just to get enough food and money to survive, as only the winning team gets anything to eat. From there though, it branches out, as the whole group escapes and you're given the option to either run away, join the rebellion again Kugar, or even join Kugar as one of his cronies. Plus, beyond all that, there's a hidden fourth option that you can't unlock until after you beaten the other three.
The characters are awesome, and surprisingly well written. I have a personal fondness for White, Orange, and Green, though the path you take determines which characters will be on your side, and which ones will be your opponents. The battle system is simple at first, but very fun. Each character only has a single inherent ability, but later battles are very dependent on item usage. Finding enemy weaknesses is key, and taking advantage of your character's weapon types in order to deal out solid damage to difficult foes. All the characters use guns, and of a variety of different types. Everything from pistols to shotguns to White's badass machine gun.
There is also a sequel/remake of this game called Alter AILA Genesis. I have yet to start playing this one, but the videos have gotten me pretty excited. This is definitely one of the most creative and enjoyable homebrew RPGs out there, in my opinion, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys those 16-bit styled games.
