Left 4 Dead: Survivors

"Eyes and ears, people. Eyes and ears."
This article needs attention and dedicated editors.
What needs to be addressed: Now that the game was dumped online, we can explore it and expand this page. For example, we can list minutely the alterations on each level of each campaign, create pages for the new characters and their dialogue, create pages for the new weapons and the new skins, etc. This game is the closest official thing we have as a Left 4 Dead 3..

Left 4 Dead: Survivors (LEFT 4 DEAD -生存者たち-), also known as Left 4 Dead: Arcade (L4DAC), is a Japanese version of Left 4 Dead 2 redesigned for Japanese arcades, featuring an entirely new cast of survivors.

The game still takes place in the United States, featuring the same scenarios from Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, but the characters are seemingly designed to appeal to a Japanese audience. This game was initially teased as Project Z before the actual game's reveal on April 30, 2014.^[1]^[2]

The game used Nesica.Net to enable online play, events, and in-game items that could be purchased with ZG Points (in-game currency gathered by playing and collecting ZG Bags) to get special items, costumes and clothing, and weapons. However, on July 26th, 2017, the game officially went offline, disabling these features, limiting the gameplay to Single Player and Local Multiplayer.

Eventually, in March 2019, the game files were leaked. Quickly, fans of the series ported most of the game's content through the Steam Workshop for Left 4 Dead 2.

Characters[]

Left-4-dead-survivors — The characters (from left to right): Yusuke, Haruka, Sara, and Blake

Yusuke Kudo (工藤祐介) (Voiced by Ryuichi Kijima, replacing Nick and Bill)
"A Japanese college student who was visiting America during a long-sought trip when the outbreak began."
Haruka Hirose (広瀬遥) (Voiced by Ayane Sakura, replacing Coach and Francis)
"A Japanese high school student who was also visiting America during a school trip when the outbreak began."
Sara Kirishima (霧島沙良) (Voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro, replacing Rochelle and Zoey)
"A Japanese-American tour guide. Her father is Japanese, and her mother is American. The outbreak occurred during a Japanese high school's field trip under her supervision."
Blake Jordan (ブレイク・ジョーダン) (Voiced by Hidenori Takahashi, replacing Ellis and Louis)
"An American bartender who worked in the hotel lounge when the outbreak began and used to be a member of the Navy. He always tries to be positive, but he can't help but worry about the dog he left back home."

Stages (Campaigns)[]

Stage 1: "Dead Center"
Stage 2: "Dark Carnival"
Stage 3: "Swamp Fever"
Stage 4: "Hard Rain"
Stage 5: "The Parish"
Stage 6: "The Passing"
Stage 7: "Cold Stream"
Stage 8: "No Mercy"
Stage 9: "Death Toll"
Stage 10: "Dead Air"
Stage 11: "Blood Harvest"
Stage 12: "Crash Course"
Stage 13: "The Sacrifice"

Differences[]

The cast is completely different, despite the game taking place in previous locations seen in Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2. The new Survivors are younger and anime-ish, unlike The Infected and the Left 4 Dead 1 survivors seen in "The Passing" and wear more casual clothing. These changes were made to appeal to the Japanese arcade audience.
Maps have minor edits making them more linear due to the game's time limit. Furthermore, there are floating arrows on the maps pointing to where the Survivors must go in order to proceed.
- The game now has an objective system to prompt Arcade players what to do, especially for newcomers.
The game defaults to the German and Australian versions' censorship due to being adapted as an arcade game.
New costumes, weapon skins, Infected skins, weapons, and perks were added.
Events were introduced, where players could play special game modes for limited amounts of time, and various rewards were handed out.
Every single existing character has received a new voice actor, dubbed in Japanese, including the Left 4 Dead survivors (in "The Passing") and NPCs.
The results screen is completely revamped. Instead of just showing the kill count of all four Survivors, the game now shows their score and place while the Survivors perform a celebratory animation. Afterwards, the game will show the player's overall performance along with a Common Infected kill count and the Clear Bonus. Furthermore, damage dealt to the Tank and Witch were merged into one stat. The game will then prompt players to either continue to the next map, insert more credits to increase SVP Points, or quit the game.
- At the end of each Campaign (Stage), the end credits, showing the stats of the entire run, are no longer shown. Instead, this new results screen appears after the "The Survivors have escaped!" or "In Memory of" text.
The health bar had a complete overhaul. The player's health bar is moved to the left side of the screen, with the titles placed on the bottom of the bar. When the Survivors get incapacitated, the health bar shows three hearts to indicate the Survivors' incapacitation count (decreasing after each one) with a "Help!" text instead of an image of an incapacitated Survivor.
Due to the game being adapted as a timer-based arcade game, it now uses timers to count down play time before the game goes into "Idle Mode" to prompt players to insert credits to increase "SVP Points" (Survival Points) and continue the game. If the timer runs out, the game will spawn endless amounts of Tanks to end your game. The remaining SVP Points will be converted to a ZG Points to buy weapons, costumes, and special items.
If all Survivors are incapacitated or killed, the game will take you back to the main menu with a result screen of your performance at the end, instead of restarting the entire map back to the Safe room.
Judging by the disconnected order of the stages (Campaigns), it's quite possible that each stage of the game takes place in a separate timeline rather than being a continuation. For example, the game has a port of "The Passing" with Bill's death and a port of "The Sacrifice" with one of the new protagonists sacrificing himself/herself.
The Special Infected appear to have different designs than in the original game, some of which include black clothes for the Witch, a random color for the Hunter's jacket, and a different color for the Tank's pants.

Notes[]

Despite the game replacing the Left 4 Dead 2 team with a new team exclusive to this game, there are snippets of 2's original Survivors seen in the Stage Select screen, using the cropped texture from any of the campaign's loading screen texture from their game.
- However, if this game was to be played with a keyboard to check the status of the Campaign (Stage) by pressing TAB, it reveals the original game's Survivors' (depending on the map) mugshots in the Status Screen weren't altered for the Arcade Survivors. This is because the game uses a custom health bar with different coding from Left 4 Dead 2's health bar, with new mugshots for the Arcade Survivors.
- The subtitles' colors still match those of the original games' Survivors, which oddly change based on the map instead of recoloring it for the new Survivors. For instance: Yusuke's outfit is black, but the subtitles still use blue and green due to him being a replacement of both Nick and Bill.
It is possible to replace the Arcade Survivors' voice files with the original Survivors' by copying the contents of the Survivors' audio files from Left 4 Dead 2 to the directory of the arcade game.
Since Taito discontinued the servers on July 26, 2017, "The Last Stand" is the only campaign that is not playable in this arcade port, meaning that the update containing L4D1 Common Infected on L4D1 maps, Versus Survival, Counter-Strike Weapons, and new weapons like the Shovel and the Pitchfork didn't make it in this port.
The game's header and the .exe file still read Left 4 Dead 2. This further adds to the information that this game was modified from Left 4 Dead 2.

Gallery[]

Project Z Trailer

Project Z

LEFT 4 DEAD -生存者たち- PV

Left 4 Dead Survivors PV

LEFT 4 DEAD -生存者たち- チュートリアルムービー

External Links[]

References[]

[1] Project Z teaser.

[2] Actual Project Z Title Reveal.

[1]

[2]