It is part of the Code Age series, a franchise created by video game artist Yusuke Naora and designed to span different interweaved titles in multiple platforms and media.

The story depicts the struggles of people surviving in a fictional "intraglobular world" menaced by impending destruction, mysterious warped creatures, and different factions warring against each other.

The concept for Code Age was created in 2002 by Yusuke Naora, becoming incorporated into Square Enix's polymorphic content policy of showing off their properties across multiple media.

Reviews of the game were relatively positive, with high praises of its graphics and art direction but more mixed feelings for its complex and atypical gameplay.

[1] 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,[2] while stages already completed can be re-explored.

[3] In addition to Coded, enemy creatures include "Otellos", which can either be defeated normally or be absorbed, mutating one of the protagonist's arm into a new form with new abilities.

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.

[3] 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.

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".

[6] While searching for his sister Aliz kidnapped by a strange creature, Gene is mutated into a Warhead and watches his arm turning into a weapon during a battle against some Otellos.

[7][9] 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.

Kazuhiko Aoki acted as planning director, the lead programmer was Mitsuru Kamiyama, and the event planner team was led by Masato Yagi.

[30] While at one point Commanders was reported as being scheduled for a 2006 North American release,[31] none of the Code Age projects ultimately left Japan.

[32] Localization staff member Christopher "Koji" Fox, who later notably worked on Final Fantasy XIV, said that he completed the translation of Commanders before Square Enix decided not to release the game outside Japan.

[33] 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.

[4][35][39] Nevertheless, the gaming site Siliconera reported overall low sales in Japan and attributed the absence of a North American release to this lukewarm response.

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.

The Code Extension mode was considered imperfectly implemented, seeming as if it were "tacked on […] late in development", being totally optional yet difficult not to use to survive in the later missions.

[40] Siliconera praised the story and did not report any issue concerning it, although it regretted that playing and reading the other installments of the franchise was necessary for a thorough understanding of all plot points.