Ring of Red Official Trailer (2000, Konami)
14Alternative History Strategy RPGs are a thing, a wonderful thing!
Ring of Red (リング・オブ・レッド) is an alternate history turn-based strategy video game released by Konami for the PlayStation 2 console. It was one of the first PlayStation 2 games made with CD-ROM-based technology. Ring of Red was released in 2000 for Japan followed by North America and Europe in 2001.
The game is based on an alternate history theory that after the defeat of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy near the end of World War II, Japan was conquered and occupied by both Soviet and American forces - rather than solely by the US, as in actual history. The occupation created two countries, consisting of the north governed by a pro-communist government and the south by a pro-democracy government with Hokkaidō occupied by Soviet forces. Tensions between the two Japans were in an all high in the Cold War with a Japanese War (similar in cause to the actual Korean War) taking place with Armored Fighting Walkers, giant walking mechas being used with great success by the both North and the South militaries.
Combat is split between a turn-based battlefield for moving units, and a real-time mode for combat. The latter includes the AFWs moving through their attack patterns and support troops that have their own abilities.
Ring of Red is set in the 1960s in the aftermath of World War II. According to the alternate timeline, Japan did not surrender in 1945, and the United States of America did not deploy the atomic bomb, although it was still produced and the plans stolen by the USSR. Instead, Japan was captured after a daring invasion costing many lives on both sides in Operation Downfall by the Allied Forces. With the Cold War looming over the horizon, Hokkaidō was ceded to the Soviet Union and occupied as Vastokayasak, and Japan was partitioned into Communist North Japan and Democratic South Japan. North Japan was supported by the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, while the United States and other democratic countries supported the democratic South while Germany made engineering contributions to both sides.
In 1950, like the Korean War, the Japanese War took place when communist-backed North Japan invaded the south. The north and the south fought for three years in which South Japan, with the help of its Western Allies, repelled the invasion but neither side was able to gain the upper hand. The war finally ended in 1953 in a stalemate mainly dictated to both Japans by both super powers.
A significant development in this timeline is the design and deployment of Armoured Fighting Walkers (AFWs), mechanised walking self-propelled artillery mechas with high mobility and durability. They were used with negligible effect in the European theatre of war after Hitler ordered their deployment. But in the rugged Japanese terrain, AFWs were used with devastating effect, acting as the backbone of military forces of both sides during the later period of the Asian theater of World War II (referred to in the game as the "Great Asian War") and the Japanese War (1950–53).
In addition to the rough terrain of Japan, there was a treaty in place called RACINE. To prevent the use of nuclear weapons, as it was thought at the time they could only be used in an air raid delivery, a treaty called RACINE was signed by both Japans, the USA, the USSR, and other countries which established a no fly zone over Japan, which led to further development in AFW warfare in the country. However, this treaty does not prevent the use of nuclear weapons by AFWs or ballistic missiles should one of the sides decide to develop such weapons.