Left Alive Launches in West Amid Poor Reviews, Streaming Shutdown in Japan

Left Alive, an action shooter set in the Front Mission universe and developed by Square-Enix, is out today in the West for the PC and PlayStation 4.

While there are currently no reviews for the game from Western outlets, it’s clear that Left Alive isn’t doing too well in Japan. Since releasing there on February 28, Left Alive has garnered an abysmal 1.5/5 rating on Amazon Japan. As of this writing, the game is already heavily discounted on the retail site, coming in at 49.5% off its original launch-day price. 

Adding to the game’s early woes, live streams of the game have currently been banned in Japan as well. 

Despite initially allowing reviewers and players in Japan to stream Left Alive with a handful of typical NDA exceptions, Square Enix has now decided to fully suspend streaming of the game. According to Siliconera, streamers are being met with a “not authorized” message when attempting to stream any part of Left Alive in Japan.

It is currently not clear if there is a streaming ban currently in place for Western regions. 

Although some have postulated that such a change in course is Square’s way of controlling the message surrounding Left Alive prior to its Western launch, that’s not much more than speculation at this point. 

What isn’t speculation, though, is that perception around the game is predominantly negative. A quick look at several YouTube walkthroughs of Left Alive (seen here and here) highlights the developing narrative.

Echoing many of the same sentiments found in the majority of Amazon Japan’s negative reviews, interested players and commentors are primarily concerned with the game’s sub-par graphics, poor voice acting, and many bugs. At the time of writing, the game currently has a 6.2 User Score out of 44 ratings on PlayStation, and a 7.2 User Score on PC out of 28 ratings. 

Last year, we included Left Alive in our most anticipated survival games of 2019. With our review of the game forthcoming, it remains to be seen if the Square-Enix developed title will actually be one of 2019’s best or another maligned release like last year’s The Quiet Man.