This fictional Fighting Game is what happened when Wax played with the Mayan Doomsday theories and ran with them.
After a meteor crashed on Wall Street the 21st December of 2012, Earth was covered under a giant dust cloud. The USA immediately fell into disarray, and soon war. All nations were quickly broken by private military contractors, and the Earth is now at the hands of six tyrannical corporations, known as the Six Independent Consortiums. The New United Nations rise after years to rebuild the old world, but even they are not much better than the Six...
Alternate Realm's story provides examples of:
- After the End: A meteor wiped out most of humanity. Five years later, the world is still recovering.
- Corporate Warfare: Each of the Six Independent Consortiums has its own military. They are now the only noticeable military powers in the world.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: And lots of them. Any leading figure of the Six Independent Consortiums or the New United Nations is one. Roland's backstory outright states that he quit the U.N. bureaucracy because it was full of corruption.
- Expy: More or less everyone, with varying degrees of subtlety.
- Fighting Clown: Subverted. While the Thundergate Club are a trio of soccer players, not only one of them is a strong Artificial Human, but the three are serious contenders.
- For Want Of A Nail: What If? the Mayan Doomsday came in the form of a meteor dropping on Wall Street on December 21st, 2012...
- The Hero: There's a team labelled as "Hero Team", lead by Hiro Yazuchi, except he's not the sole heroic character. He's also not personally involved in the grand scheme of things and is just another pawn for Yi-An.
- I Want My Jetpack: No discovery of magic, no war robots, and this happens in 2017.
- Law Enforcement, Inc.: The Six Independent Consortiums all have this going within their domain.
- The Mafia: Zodiac and its twelve branches are a new world-wide equivalent. Stereotypes wanted that the three members of the "Zodiac Team" are Capricorn, Aries and Taurus, who are respectively Italian, Japanese and Columbian.
- Magitek: What triggered the lead the Six Independent Consortiums took over their concurrence is that they equipped their private militias with this.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Every single team has their own mechanic no other character has access to.
- N.G.O. Superpower: Once again, the Six Independent Consortiums. In fact, they even subjugated all world governments.
- One Nation Under Copyright: Each country in the world is now ruled by one of the Six Independent Consortiums. Even the New U.N. haven't managed to establish a government in a single state.
- No Name Given: The leader of the Future Team is known as "No Name". Even his teammates have to call him by way of Hey, You!.
- Privately Owned Society: Each of the Six Independent Consortiums, but especially Yi-An, who minimizes contact with the rest of the world.
- Serious Business: The New Age Tournament, organized by the New United Nations, is Not Just a Tournament. It is a symbol of power for whichever corporation wins it. And in all alternate timelines the "Future Team" has travelled through, Zodiac wins, but the rest of the branches are betrayed by Capricorn who takes over the world.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Several teams represent the Independent Consortium that they hate.
- The Hero Team is sponsored by Yi-An, even though Hiro hates them.
- Both the Future Team and the Thundergate Club are sponsored by Zodiac.
- The Future Team is a case of In Name Only, as they paid their entrance with money stolen from another timeline.
- But the Thundergate Club is blackmailed by Zodiac into entering.
- The New Order Team are sent on The Uriah Gambit by the New United Nations.
- The Bad Guys of Sol are sponsored by Bluecoal, once again In Name Only, as they hacked into Bluecoal's bank account.
- On a more personal level, Youshi and Sho on the Hero Team are bitter rivals, Mimiko is a slave of Crimson, the Sandao Team's three members don't get along, and the Kamiya must tolerate Koji, their black-hearted serial killer of a cousin.
- Time Master: The "Future Team".
Alternate Realm's gameplay provides examples of:
- Desperation Attack: Being under a certain amount of life gives a unique super that can be used repeatedly, but becomes the most powerful move in your arsenal if you use it with a super gauge.
- Immune to Flinching: Super Armor is this, and your only form of defense except from evasive dodges.
- Lag Cancel: It's possible to use special cancels, but the cake is taken by the Dodge Cancel, where you can cancel attacks on hit into a dodge that you can cancel into a dash or an attack.
- Optional Boss: The Zodiac Team can only be fought with specific requirements. Finding them gives you a True Final Boss fight against Capricorn alone.
- SNK Boss:
- Final Boss Housei. The fastest character in the game, who can backdash moves on reaction and get right back in with his extendable dash, during which he is constantly Immune to Flinching. Plus, once he combos you he deals very high damage.
- True Final Boss Malone. He's a king of traps since his static fireballs stay almost indefinitely, allowing him to easily hit you out of any attempt to go through his pokes. While not as fast as Housei, he is another league of difficult.
- If you met the Zodiac Team, you will get Capricorn solo as a True Final Boss. As the pre-battle cinematic where he appears with his victims Max Callahan and his teammates Aries and Taurus at his feet tells you, he is very dangerous. His specials are always the fully-charged version, though he can still delay them. The ability to dispense of charging makes his damage rise through the ceiling.
- Unblockable Attack: Everything. There is no guard in this game. However, there are attacks that can bypass the other forms of defense.
- Super Armor loses to throws, but also the universal Wall Breaker attack.
