Code Age Commanders

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, while stages already completed can be re-explored. The game features four successive main playable characters, and items and skills learned by one is each time passed to the next.

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.

Code Age Commanders is set in an "intraglobular world" (球内世界, kyuunai sekai), a fictional hollow world similar to a Dyson sphere, with people living on its internal surface. The center of the sphere is occupied by the "Central Code", a spherical structure which goes through a transformation called "Reborn" about every ten thousand years, destroying all life on the globe and allowing for the birth of a new one.

The game begins near the end of a Central Code cycle, while mankind has learned about the impending disaster and built "Arks", flying stations intended to float in the sky and house most of them in a deep sleep state for the duration of the Reborn. The operation works for one hundred years before objects falling from the Central Code hit the Arks and cause them to crash to the surface. Its passengers die or awake, now at the mercy of those who remained on the ground as well as the Otellos; a new, warped species which arose from the dropped pieces of the Central Code. The Otellos seek humans to turn them into mindless puppets named "Coded", although the mutation fails on people from the Arks and results in free and extremely evolved hybrids called "Warheads".

Artist Yusuke Naora created the concept for Code Age in 2002, wanting to create something unlike his work Final Fantasy and SaGa; a world which could play host to multiple stories. He created the concept prior to the 2003 merger of Square and Enix to become Square Enix. Code Age formed part of Square Enix's plan to develop "polymorphic content", a marketing and sales strategy to "[provide] well-known properties on several platforms, allowing exposure of the products to as wide an audience as possible"; this approach included Compilation of Final Fantasy VII and the World of Mana. 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 development team was nicknamed "Warhead" and specifically assembled for the game, with its lead developers Naora and Toshiyuki Itahana belonging to the art field rather than project management. The production team of Commanders shared multiple staff with Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Naora acted as producer and concept artist. Itahana acted as both director and character designer, with Code Age Commanders being his debut as a director.

Code Age Commanders sold 37,000 units in its first week of release in Japan, a strong start for a new franchise; debuting at number two in the charts behind Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi. It sold over 61,000 copies in Japan by the end of 2005. The game scored 32 out of 40 in the Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu; 7.5 out of 10 in the American Play Magazine; and 78 out of 100 on the gaming website GameBrink.Com. Nevertheless, the gaming site Siliconera reported overall low sales in Japan and attributed the absence of a North American release to this lukewarm response.

GameBrink.Com highly praised the quality of the graphics and animation of the game, and compared them to those of the Kingdom Hearts titles. The site greatly lauded the music and sound effects, stating that they set the mood well and tie in with the visuals; and comparing their style to that of "Final Fantasy and Phantasy Star mixed together". Siliconera also considered the character design interesting and original, although they felt the textures were "blocky sort" and the environments consisted mostly of wide fields.