Alice One in the central region of the map, Syu's father Eddy, a famous bounty hunter, puts Syu in contact with Leon, a researcher who has discovered evidence of a pre-Great Destruction facility codenamed, "Ziggurat". Visiting Leon's office later results in Syu finding Scarlett searching Leon's room for information, but she accidentally injures Syu's arm in the encounter, requiring him to receive a cybernetic replacement. After the player visits a certain number of cities, Leon is attacked by Bonnie and Clyde, who ransack his house; he informs Syu that they took his information on Ziggurat, and gives Syu the facility's location near the city of Hell's Keep, in the world's western desert. Syu travels to Ziggurat, revealing it to be a massive missile silo containing an intact ICBM from before the Great Destruction. Eddy, who arrived prior, reveals that Alex is attempting to re-activate the facility and launch the missile, but he has been injured fighting the tower's defenses, and tasks Syu with finishing the job. Fighting past Bonnie, Clyde, and the defenses, Syu encounters Alex, who reveals he is actually an android built by "Noah", the supercomputer which caused the original Great Destruction in an attempt to destroy humanity to prevent an ecological disaster. Alex explains that, after Noah's defeat, he was given the directive to finish what Noah had started, and that he intends to launch the intact ICBM and start a nuclear holocaust; Syu defeats Alex and destroys the missile as it is launching. Afterwards, Syu, his team, and Eddy return home to recover, where Syu may choose whether to continue bounty hunting, or retire, though afterwards he may elect to continue their adventures. Development Since the first game was published in 1991 by Data East, the series was famous for having a "high degree of freedom". However, in 2003, Data East became bankrupt, and the trademark "Metal Max" was registered by Shinjuku Express, so this entry of the series had to use a new trademark — "Metal Saga". The series' producer, Hiroshi Miyaoka was not involved in the development from the beginning and said: "I can't make anymore with Metal Max, I thought it was really dying". The game was published in June 2005 in Japan; and in March 2006, a "Best" version of the game was published and was cheaper than the original. The game received a Lite/Demo version that was published in North America