Octopath Traveler fans are finally going to play kino
Estamo en la time-line en la que live a live recibe localizacion antes que mother 3
the game development equivalent of the 93 chicago bulls developing the video game equivalent of pulp fiction. a game so wildly ahead of its time that it still feels a good twenty years past where jrpgs are at now.
this game thrives on keeping the content lean, briskly paced and engaging throughout. the varipus chapters runtimes give you just enough time to learn a character's toolkit and quirks before letting you step right into the next one. the combat system in the remake is very self-explanatory, and lets you discover most of the nuance to it with time. in keeping with staying lean, it never gets super deep or intricate but it also never really felt like i was on autopilot either. anyone who's played enough jrpgs knows this is a razer thin line to balance on, but some how live a live makes it all feel effortless.
to touch briefly on the visuals, i was never a particularly big fan of HD2D when it first rolled out. octopath's oversaturated instagram lighting had me worried this was part and parcel for the style, but live a live proved me wrong. the environments are gorgeous, the devlopers deftly utilize space to make the world feel large and real without the tacky dollhouse feel that other titles had. props to the team for making bold choices with the visuals, they somehow manage to feel true to the original but contemporary. i havent played the original to know how much was changed, but i can respect and appreciate what was done here.
i think something that hasnt been discussed much is how much agency is afforded to the player and how that connects thematically to the core narrative. i was surprised to see a pacifist and genocide routes, time-based decision making based on player intuition and context clues, and the ability to sequence break and poke around where you shouldn't pop up rather frequently as well. live a live takes a great deal of time to express its care for the player and their freedom to choose. games since have questioned what role the player has in a game's story, either catalyst or observer, but live a live takes a great deal of care in considering the player's own perspective.
in much the same way playing moon earlier this year did, i find myself enriched coming out of live a live and with a better understanding of game devlopment and how things id have had no exposure to growing up were quietly laying the groundwork for some of my favorite works. i hope the small trend of cult classic jp only releases getting worldwide rereleases with this level of care and respect continues and more titles like these can be brought to new audiences. flower sun and rain next please?
this game thrives on keeping the content lean, briskly paced and engaging throughout. the varipus chapters runtimes give you just enough time to learn a character's toolkit and quirks before letting you step right into the next one. the combat system in the remake is very self-explanatory, and lets you discover most of the nuance to it with time. in keeping with staying lean, it never gets super deep or intricate but it also never really felt like i was on autopilot either. anyone who's played enough jrpgs knows this is a razer thin line to balance on, but some how live a live makes it all feel effortless.
to touch briefly on the visuals, i was never a particularly big fan of HD2D when it first rolled out. octopath's oversaturated instagram lighting had me worried this was part and parcel for the style, but live a live proved me wrong. the environments are gorgeous, the devlopers deftly utilize space to make the world feel large and real without the tacky dollhouse feel that other titles had. props to the team for making bold choices with the visuals, they somehow manage to feel true to the original but contemporary. i havent played the original to know how much was changed, but i can respect and appreciate what was done here.
i think something that hasnt been discussed much is how much agency is afforded to the player and how that connects thematically to the core narrative. i was surprised to see a pacifist and genocide routes, time-based decision making based on player intuition and context clues, and the ability to sequence break and poke around where you shouldn't pop up rather frequently as well. live a live takes a great deal of time to express its care for the player and their freedom to choose. games since have questioned what role the player has in a game's story, either catalyst or observer, but live a live takes a great deal of care in considering the player's own perspective.
in much the same way playing moon earlier this year did, i find myself enriched coming out of live a live and with a better understanding of game devlopment and how things id have had no exposure to growing up were quietly laying the groundwork for some of my favorite works. i hope the small trend of cult classic jp only releases getting worldwide rereleases with this level of care and respect continues and more titles like these can be brought to new audiences. flower sun and rain next please?
This review contains spoilers
Compressing the words and feelings I have for Live A Live is difficult. It was one of the first games I've emulated, let alone one of if not the first fantranslated work I've touched, back during my late teens when I figured out what a SNES9X was, along with being one of my bigger recommendations when it comes to friends wanting to play something from within this era of RPGs. As a result, there's loads of bias and unabashed positively I hold for it, so do bear with me as I essentially explain the whole story in a rather jittery attempt on detailing why I find it captivating.
One of the things about it that makes it stand so strong in the face of other RPGs is how its upfront about its influences, while playing around with and around the structure and general form of what they bring onto the table, a feat not unfamiliar within the likes of anime, music, and films, for a few examples. One chapter you're Sundown going through an adventure format in the guise of a puzzler a la Wild West, the next you're witnessing the abstractions of level ups and experience being taught and trained within three new pupils - Lei, Yun, and Hong - from the martial artist master within Imperial China, after that you're playing as dedicated fighter Masaru in the present era where you grow and prosper from being hit by and utilizing new moves from the opponents' repertoire, and prehistory has you within Pogo's world where oral speech has yet to come, instead getting by with pure instincts within the confides of a format similar to those within 8-bit RPGs. The core function of the combat remains the same, a lite-Strategy approach where positioning and careful use of different abilities reign supreme, along with a few mixes of counter attacks and status ailments - this isn't to say you can play this 1:1 with a Tactics Ogre or Fire Emblem though, the ball game's in a different court with strengthened importance for some and lessened emphasis on others - it's just the approach and feel of the mechanics that make each encounter within a particular chapter stand out.
There's a few things within the HD2D remake that makes things better for newcomers of course, some of which being optional. The radar is nice for getting your bearings on some of the more non-linear and open areas, there's now a charge meter to give you a sense as to what each character will do and when, presentation has come a good ways in from Octopath Traveler's offputting and distracting use of effects like bloom and DoF resulting in a blurred smear (though unfortunately that still tends to happen every now and then), indeed enhancing the look of the 16-bit original, a title that was already a visually distinct and commendable. I can't say much about the English side of the voice acting aside from some good snippets here and there, but the Japanese voices are superb, matching each individual like how I thought they'd sound and once again doing a fantastic job on selling the pieces and beats of the narratives. Only thing I'm not too sure on just yet is the music, less so on Yoko Shimomura's compositions and more so on what the new symphonic styling has done; this change was a given looking back, and while some are better, or at least on par, with the originals alongside some new and appreciated arrangements of each theme, others feel like they lost a bit of magic. It's a personal thing, and even then I'd still classify the music as great as it always has been.
During these treks of wildly changing eras, the narrative slowly unfolds its tale through various means. In the near future where a toku-dripped city lies, Akira faces a trio of Legally Distinct Mazinger Z cult leaders as they use liquefied human energy to bring forth the resurrection and conquest of Odio, the opposite of what his acquaintance Doc Tobei has done which is using this liquefaction process to save and transfer the energy of Akira's little sister's turtle so that it won't die and can grant her wish of it living forever; Shinobi Oboromaru carries out an order from his clan within the twilight period of Edo Japan to help rescue a prisoner which allows you to follow pacifism and sneakily avoid human enemies and instead deal with the numerous spirits that live in Ode Clan's residence, go for a ruthless all-kill on everyone living there, or do a mixture of the two and only harm those that happen to cross you. Either way, it's at the end where the power-driven authoritative leader Ode Iou reveals his plan to conquer Japan and drive the world unto its knees; Cube, a robot built within the engineer's room in a spaceship far into the future, is caught within a brewing conflict of disobedience and foul play, as each person grows to distrust one another and tensions flying high, until it's revealed the ship's computer OD-10 has taken its programmed goal to its fullest, believing that simply maiming the crew and their means of travel and transportation is the only way after believing the probability of success and togetherness is fruitless.
Within these short narratives, you can eek out the common themes, some brought about more than others: The carrying of love, forgiveness, and similar manners of empathetic teachings from our hero, dealing with a villain's regret and grief, hatred born out of jealousy and selfish desire. It's with this that LAL pulls its best hat trick, set within the Middle Ages. Even upon the start, it feels incredibly off, and I don't mean the sudden use of Shakespearean prose and wit. You as Oersted are already at the final stretch of Lucrece's tournament unlike Masaru, you're suddenly courted into an arranged marriage due to Alethea being the reward for winning unlike Pogo, your friend Streibough has better capabilities of toughening out battles due to black magic, almost unlike Akira where he and his friend Lawless are opposites to bring out the best of each other's strengths and completely unlike Sundown who's skills with Mad Dog are near parallel, you haphazardly recruit old heroes Hasshe - who beforehand was a hermit that sought solace to not have to deal with human company - and Uranus into the fight, unlike Cube where he at least manages to prosper the trust and camaraderie of the discordant crew, and unlike Oboro, they're dealing with a threat that hasn't really shown itself in full force, just glimpses and following an olde legend. It's also where the SNES RPG-ness is straight and most to-the-point, a far outcry and contrast to the other chapters willing to experiment and stand apart under the structure of an RPG, all of this culminating into an experience that bathes in eeriness and, dare I say, paranoia. Of course, that could've just been me reflecting on when I first learned and played it.
Upon reaching the end of Archon's Roost, Hasshe dies following a ruse. Streibough "follows" suit. You're then tricked from an illusion spell into killing the King of Lucrece, demonized and outcasted from the same people that once crowned you a champion. Once thrown into the dungeon, Uranus frees you from captivity then passes on as well. Once trekking back to the Roost, Streibough appears and goes into a spiral fury and rage, revealing his jealousy and anger towards Oersted, for taking Alethea away from him. Once he passes, Alethea, succumbed with grief, commits suicide as well. Hate begets hate. Forlorn doubt grows into spiteful rage. What good is love and compassion if these same people casted me aside the moment an opportunity and misunderstanding has risen? What can be done now that the ones we care and cherish have either revealed their true colors and died because of it, or revealed their actual feeling of apathy once all's been done? Instead of driving someone into persevering, they've now been demoralized into eschewing their mortal shell and give in to the distilled negativity wrought about - Odio.
Upon the start of the final chapter (won't exactly cover Oersted's unique scenario since I've yet to redo it again), the World Of Ruin format FF6 is known for is used again, so you know the drill: Make way through the areas, find and recruit the other protagonists and do their personal dungeon for the best items and gear they could possibly equip, level up, then take on Odio for one final time. Truthfully, I do feel the claims of grinding and doing the things necessary to progress are a bit overblown. Don't get me wrong, doing some of these optional content suck just enough to warrant a use of a guide, in my case RPGSite's, and starting out or picking up Masaru immediately basically means you're gonna be in a rougher spot due to their pitiful starting place of LV2, but considering XP output can be fairly adequate and result in an increase of level within 3-5 battles, as well as characters like Akira, Pogo, and Oboro being able to grind it out beforehand in their chapters (though still not in a pleasant manner in the latter's case), and the Disciple, Sundown, and even Cube having the necessary capabilities to carry on no problem, it's doable. I've seen worse around this era and now, but again, personal bias is speaking here. That said, the battle system isn't exactly suited for this long endeavor due to each animation spectacle and charges tallying up over time, the constant menuing of going over to the Flee button just to run away, and even I got sick of hearing the epic, invigorating main theme as the new battle theme ad nauseum, would've been better served as the mini-boss dungeon themes with Megalovania being served for The Cosmic Boys.
Upon reaching Odio, he envelops darkness around you, and then displays his purest form, matching up with one of the most impressive final fight themes if playing the SNES verison, with an equally impressive remix in the remake here that I can't link because goddamn it no one has yet to do on Youtube, and I suspect Square's doing takedowns on those trying to do such a thing, ironic given they've spoiled some of this shit during the trailers. Pushing the mini-rant aside, upon following the true ending path you get when you obtained everyone and then chose to run away as a form of peace, Odio throws you into a short boss rush that shows how far each character has come from their initial spars and beginnings, and then, new to this version, showcases a new form as it fully develops from Oersted's hateful feelings. This leans more on the "story-driven" side of a final battle given how easy it is compared to the first one, but hey, it works superbly and got me feelin hype, so it's all good. Whoever you choose as the final lead for this venture, they offer words of wisdom to the young knight, now redeemed after combating and successfully plunging the influences of the Dark Lord away from inside him. Since I chose Sundown due to already knowing the distinction of the loner gabbing wisdom towards the outcast, the talk of companionship is brought about and how despite everything, despite all they've done... Oersted can't help but long for this as well. There's also some hints that he still harbors something for Alethea, with having a move almost reminiscent of her, her spirit praying to give him some help needed in Akira's dungeon, as well as the general plea and final reflection he said almost being about her.
Comes the finale, and in comes the mantra:
With regret comes sorrow,
With sorrow comes grief,
With grief comes solace,
With solace comes empathy,
With empathy comes forgiveness,
With forgiveness, comes life anew.
Live a life, live again, and continue to live forevermore. That's what it means to be human.
One of the things about it that makes it stand so strong in the face of other RPGs is how its upfront about its influences, while playing around with and around the structure and general form of what they bring onto the table, a feat not unfamiliar within the likes of anime, music, and films, for a few examples. One chapter you're Sundown going through an adventure format in the guise of a puzzler a la Wild West, the next you're witnessing the abstractions of level ups and experience being taught and trained within three new pupils - Lei, Yun, and Hong - from the martial artist master within Imperial China, after that you're playing as dedicated fighter Masaru in the present era where you grow and prosper from being hit by and utilizing new moves from the opponents' repertoire, and prehistory has you within Pogo's world where oral speech has yet to come, instead getting by with pure instincts within the confides of a format similar to those within 8-bit RPGs. The core function of the combat remains the same, a lite-Strategy approach where positioning and careful use of different abilities reign supreme, along with a few mixes of counter attacks and status ailments - this isn't to say you can play this 1:1 with a Tactics Ogre or Fire Emblem though, the ball game's in a different court with strengthened importance for some and lessened emphasis on others - it's just the approach and feel of the mechanics that make each encounter within a particular chapter stand out.
There's a few things within the HD2D remake that makes things better for newcomers of course, some of which being optional. The radar is nice for getting your bearings on some of the more non-linear and open areas, there's now a charge meter to give you a sense as to what each character will do and when, presentation has come a good ways in from Octopath Traveler's offputting and distracting use of effects like bloom and DoF resulting in a blurred smear (though unfortunately that still tends to happen every now and then), indeed enhancing the look of the 16-bit original, a title that was already a visually distinct and commendable. I can't say much about the English side of the voice acting aside from some good snippets here and there, but the Japanese voices are superb, matching each individual like how I thought they'd sound and once again doing a fantastic job on selling the pieces and beats of the narratives. Only thing I'm not too sure on just yet is the music, less so on Yoko Shimomura's compositions and more so on what the new symphonic styling has done; this change was a given looking back, and while some are better, or at least on par, with the originals alongside some new and appreciated arrangements of each theme, others feel like they lost a bit of magic. It's a personal thing, and even then I'd still classify the music as great as it always has been.
During these treks of wildly changing eras, the narrative slowly unfolds its tale through various means. In the near future where a toku-dripped city lies, Akira faces a trio of Legally Distinct Mazinger Z cult leaders as they use liquefied human energy to bring forth the resurrection and conquest of Odio, the opposite of what his acquaintance Doc Tobei has done which is using this liquefaction process to save and transfer the energy of Akira's little sister's turtle so that it won't die and can grant her wish of it living forever; Shinobi Oboromaru carries out an order from his clan within the twilight period of Edo Japan to help rescue a prisoner which allows you to follow pacifism and sneakily avoid human enemies and instead deal with the numerous spirits that live in Ode Clan's residence, go for a ruthless all-kill on everyone living there, or do a mixture of the two and only harm those that happen to cross you. Either way, it's at the end where the power-driven authoritative leader Ode Iou reveals his plan to conquer Japan and drive the world unto its knees; Cube, a robot built within the engineer's room in a spaceship far into the future, is caught within a brewing conflict of disobedience and foul play, as each person grows to distrust one another and tensions flying high, until it's revealed the ship's computer OD-10 has taken its programmed goal to its fullest, believing that simply maiming the crew and their means of travel and transportation is the only way after believing the probability of success and togetherness is fruitless.
Within these short narratives, you can eek out the common themes, some brought about more than others: The carrying of love, forgiveness, and similar manners of empathetic teachings from our hero, dealing with a villain's regret and grief, hatred born out of jealousy and selfish desire. It's with this that LAL pulls its best hat trick, set within the Middle Ages. Even upon the start, it feels incredibly off, and I don't mean the sudden use of Shakespearean prose and wit. You as Oersted are already at the final stretch of Lucrece's tournament unlike Masaru, you're suddenly courted into an arranged marriage due to Alethea being the reward for winning unlike Pogo, your friend Streibough has better capabilities of toughening out battles due to black magic, almost unlike Akira where he and his friend Lawless are opposites to bring out the best of each other's strengths and completely unlike Sundown who's skills with Mad Dog are near parallel, you haphazardly recruit old heroes Hasshe - who beforehand was a hermit that sought solace to not have to deal with human company - and Uranus into the fight, unlike Cube where he at least manages to prosper the trust and camaraderie of the discordant crew, and unlike Oboro, they're dealing with a threat that hasn't really shown itself in full force, just glimpses and following an olde legend. It's also where the SNES RPG-ness is straight and most to-the-point, a far outcry and contrast to the other chapters willing to experiment and stand apart under the structure of an RPG, all of this culminating into an experience that bathes in eeriness and, dare I say, paranoia. Of course, that could've just been me reflecting on when I first learned and played it.
Upon reaching the end of Archon's Roost, Hasshe dies following a ruse. Streibough "follows" suit. You're then tricked from an illusion spell into killing the King of Lucrece, demonized and outcasted from the same people that once crowned you a champion. Once thrown into the dungeon, Uranus frees you from captivity then passes on as well. Once trekking back to the Roost, Streibough appears and goes into a spiral fury and rage, revealing his jealousy and anger towards Oersted, for taking Alethea away from him. Once he passes, Alethea, succumbed with grief, commits suicide as well. Hate begets hate. Forlorn doubt grows into spiteful rage. What good is love and compassion if these same people casted me aside the moment an opportunity and misunderstanding has risen? What can be done now that the ones we care and cherish have either revealed their true colors and died because of it, or revealed their actual feeling of apathy once all's been done? Instead of driving someone into persevering, they've now been demoralized into eschewing their mortal shell and give in to the distilled negativity wrought about - Odio.
Upon the start of the final chapter (won't exactly cover Oersted's unique scenario since I've yet to redo it again), the World Of Ruin format FF6 is known for is used again, so you know the drill: Make way through the areas, find and recruit the other protagonists and do their personal dungeon for the best items and gear they could possibly equip, level up, then take on Odio for one final time. Truthfully, I do feel the claims of grinding and doing the things necessary to progress are a bit overblown. Don't get me wrong, doing some of these optional content suck just enough to warrant a use of a guide, in my case RPGSite's, and starting out or picking up Masaru immediately basically means you're gonna be in a rougher spot due to their pitiful starting place of LV2, but considering XP output can be fairly adequate and result in an increase of level within 3-5 battles, as well as characters like Akira, Pogo, and Oboro being able to grind it out beforehand in their chapters (though still not in a pleasant manner in the latter's case), and the Disciple, Sundown, and even Cube having the necessary capabilities to carry on no problem, it's doable. I've seen worse around this era and now, but again, personal bias is speaking here. That said, the battle system isn't exactly suited for this long endeavor due to each animation spectacle and charges tallying up over time, the constant menuing of going over to the Flee button just to run away, and even I got sick of hearing the epic, invigorating main theme as the new battle theme ad nauseum, would've been better served as the mini-boss dungeon themes with Megalovania being served for The Cosmic Boys.
Upon reaching Odio, he envelops darkness around you, and then displays his purest form, matching up with one of the most impressive final fight themes if playing the SNES verison, with an equally impressive remix in the remake here that I can't link because goddamn it no one has yet to do on Youtube, and I suspect Square's doing takedowns on those trying to do such a thing, ironic given they've spoiled some of this shit during the trailers. Pushing the mini-rant aside, upon following the true ending path you get when you obtained everyone and then chose to run away as a form of peace, Odio throws you into a short boss rush that shows how far each character has come from their initial spars and beginnings, and then, new to this version, showcases a new form as it fully develops from Oersted's hateful feelings. This leans more on the "story-driven" side of a final battle given how easy it is compared to the first one, but hey, it works superbly and got me feelin hype, so it's all good. Whoever you choose as the final lead for this venture, they offer words of wisdom to the young knight, now redeemed after combating and successfully plunging the influences of the Dark Lord away from inside him. Since I chose Sundown due to already knowing the distinction of the loner gabbing wisdom towards the outcast, the talk of companionship is brought about and how despite everything, despite all they've done... Oersted can't help but long for this as well. There's also some hints that he still harbors something for Alethea, with having a move almost reminiscent of her, her spirit praying to give him some help needed in Akira's dungeon, as well as the general plea and final reflection he said almost being about her.
Comes the finale, and in comes the mantra:
With regret comes sorrow,
With sorrow comes grief,
With grief comes solace,
With solace comes empathy,
With empathy comes forgiveness,
With forgiveness, comes life anew.
Live a life, live again, and continue to live forevermore. That's what it means to be human.
Live a live feels so absurdly ahead of its time it’s not even funny. Like, I know this is a remake and slightly modernized and stuff, but from what I can tell most of what was changed was the visual style (duh) and the translation (which is one of the best translations for an rpg I’ve ever SEEN) (also duh) and everything else was like, slightly rebalanced? But the vast vast majority of what’s fantastic and creative and bursting with life here was just as breathtaking in the original version, and that’s genuinely insane to me.
If you don’t know, Live a Live is made up of a bunch of mini-rpgs, usually running anywhere from 1-3 hours apiece. Each of these picks the genre conventions apart in a slightly different way, with almost none having a traditional dungeon crawl/town experience (and when they do, you can tell there’s an understanding of the genre built upon the deconstructions they’ve perpetrated elsewhere).
One scenario has you exploring one huge dungeon that reveals itself in more of a metroidvania-type way. One has you spending most of your playtime preparing for a bossfight at the end. A few have extremely novel and fun forms of progression, beyond the standard “kill and level up” loop. A few of them diverge so far from how rpgs typically work that they completely cross genres.
But it’s not just interesting in this way. This experimentation goes beyond the structural and mechanical and bleeds into everything about the game. Each chapter takes place in a different time period and location, exploring a certain kind of pulpy fiction story and how you can mold rpg mechanics around the feelings those stories deliver. The wild mechanics are used to build story, character, and really connect you to the material in a unique way.
That kind of brings me to this game’s legacy. These short, experimental rpgs, that play with the genre and conventions in such a loving way, yet not very sentimentally, are the kind of thing I associate most with little indie rpgs on Itch.io. Sure there’s a lot of “earthbound-inspired indie rpgs”, but these days if you look in the right places you can find stuff that feels more varied and unconventional, stuff that until now, I didn’t think had ever been released by a larger studio. Games like An Outcry, Facets, Cataphract.io, even Dujanah to an extent, feel like the kind of bold interesting games that would not feel out of place next to any of Live A Live’s chapters.
Beyond even that though, the way this game ends (which I don’t want to get too into for spoiler reasons) is almost as perfect as I could’ve even wanted. It ties the themes of all these disparate stories together so well and so meaningfully, and gives you a right challenge too (which the rest of the game doesn’t really focus on). It nearly left me speechless, and gave me all the warm feelings finishing a more traditionally laid out rpg would.
If you like rpgs at all, you’ve gotta play this. Like, as soon as you can. This is one of the most interesting and cool and fun expressions of the genre to ever come out, especially from a studio as large as Square. Go in with open eyes.
If you don’t know, Live a Live is made up of a bunch of mini-rpgs, usually running anywhere from 1-3 hours apiece. Each of these picks the genre conventions apart in a slightly different way, with almost none having a traditional dungeon crawl/town experience (and when they do, you can tell there’s an understanding of the genre built upon the deconstructions they’ve perpetrated elsewhere).
One scenario has you exploring one huge dungeon that reveals itself in more of a metroidvania-type way. One has you spending most of your playtime preparing for a bossfight at the end. A few have extremely novel and fun forms of progression, beyond the standard “kill and level up” loop. A few of them diverge so far from how rpgs typically work that they completely cross genres.
But it’s not just interesting in this way. This experimentation goes beyond the structural and mechanical and bleeds into everything about the game. Each chapter takes place in a different time period and location, exploring a certain kind of pulpy fiction story and how you can mold rpg mechanics around the feelings those stories deliver. The wild mechanics are used to build story, character, and really connect you to the material in a unique way.
That kind of brings me to this game’s legacy. These short, experimental rpgs, that play with the genre and conventions in such a loving way, yet not very sentimentally, are the kind of thing I associate most with little indie rpgs on Itch.io. Sure there’s a lot of “earthbound-inspired indie rpgs”, but these days if you look in the right places you can find stuff that feels more varied and unconventional, stuff that until now, I didn’t think had ever been released by a larger studio. Games like An Outcry, Facets, Cataphract.io, even Dujanah to an extent, feel like the kind of bold interesting games that would not feel out of place next to any of Live A Live’s chapters.
Beyond even that though, the way this game ends (which I don’t want to get too into for spoiler reasons) is almost as perfect as I could’ve even wanted. It ties the themes of all these disparate stories together so well and so meaningfully, and gives you a right challenge too (which the rest of the game doesn’t really focus on). It nearly left me speechless, and gave me all the warm feelings finishing a more traditionally laid out rpg would.
If you like rpgs at all, you’ve gotta play this. Like, as soon as you can. This is one of the most interesting and cool and fun expressions of the genre to ever come out, especially from a studio as large as Square. Go in with open eyes.
Didn’t add Hasshe/Uranus old man yaoi, failure of a remake
ENG/ESP
I have no problem with the game as such, but with the localization.
It FRUSTRATES me how such stupid mistakes were made with the love that the remake had. It feels like disrespect.
I'm not going to do spoilers, but from the huge shit they did with Pogo's word "love" replacing it with a generic scream, the extremely pretentious dialogue at times, to other nonsensical changes like the name of some oersted's phobias (who never was portrayed as someone with unpleasant overtones, but as a little tragic protagonist.) and the disconcerting change to the iconic original final speech.
Sometimes it seems that the localizer is a frustrated writer or seems to want to emulate the dialogue of other games to one that DOESN'T HAVE IT. You probably won't mind so much if this is your first time playing it, but as a passionate fan of the first game, I'M FRUSTRATED that I can't say for sure that this is the ultimate live a live experience. Hopefully one day a fan is willing to make a patch that fixes these problems (which the Japanese version does not have) and thus be able to have a more faithful and polished version.
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No tengo ninguna problema con el juego como tal, sino con la localización.
Me FRUSTRA como se cometieron errores tan estudipos con el cariño que tuvo el remake. Se siente como una falta de respeto.
No voy a hacer spoilers, pero desde la enorme cagada que hicieron con la palabra "amor" de Pogo sustituyendola por un grito genérico, el dialogo extremadamente pretencioso a veces, hasta otros cambios sin sentido como el nombre de algunas fobias de oersted (quien nunca fue palntesdo como alguien con tintes desagradables, sino como un protagonsita tragico.) y el desconcertante cambio al iconico discurso final original.
Aveces parece que el localizador es un escritor frustrado o pareciera querer emular el dialogo mas grandilocuente de otros juegos a uno QUE NO LO TIENE.
Probablemente no te importe tanto si es la primera vez que lo juegas, pero como apasionado fan del primer juego, ME FRUSTRA no poder decir con total seguridad que esta es la experiencia definitiva de live a live.
Ojala algun dia algun fan este dispuesto a realizar un parche que arregles estos problemas (que la verison japonesa no presenta) y poder asi tener una verison mas fiel y pulida.
I have no problem with the game as such, but with the localization.
It FRUSTRATES me how such stupid mistakes were made with the love that the remake had. It feels like disrespect.
I'm not going to do spoilers, but from the huge shit they did with Pogo's word "love" replacing it with a generic scream, the extremely pretentious dialogue at times, to other nonsensical changes like the name of some oersted's phobias (who never was portrayed as someone with unpleasant overtones, but as a little tragic protagonist.) and the disconcerting change to the iconic original final speech.
Sometimes it seems that the localizer is a frustrated writer or seems to want to emulate the dialogue of other games to one that DOESN'T HAVE IT. You probably won't mind so much if this is your first time playing it, but as a passionate fan of the first game, I'M FRUSTRATED that I can't say for sure that this is the ultimate live a live experience. Hopefully one day a fan is willing to make a patch that fixes these problems (which the Japanese version does not have) and thus be able to have a more faithful and polished version.
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No tengo ninguna problema con el juego como tal, sino con la localización.
Me FRUSTRA como se cometieron errores tan estudipos con el cariño que tuvo el remake. Se siente como una falta de respeto.
No voy a hacer spoilers, pero desde la enorme cagada que hicieron con la palabra "amor" de Pogo sustituyendola por un grito genérico, el dialogo extremadamente pretencioso a veces, hasta otros cambios sin sentido como el nombre de algunas fobias de oersted (quien nunca fue palntesdo como alguien con tintes desagradables, sino como un protagonsita tragico.) y el desconcertante cambio al iconico discurso final original.
Aveces parece que el localizador es un escritor frustrado o pareciera querer emular el dialogo mas grandilocuente de otros juegos a uno QUE NO LO TIENE.
Probablemente no te importe tanto si es la primera vez que lo juegas, pero como apasionado fan del primer juego, ME FRUSTRA no poder decir con total seguridad que esta es la experiencia definitiva de live a live.
Ojala algun dia algun fan este dispuesto a realizar un parche que arregles estos problemas (que la verison japonesa no presenta) y poder asi tener una verison mas fiel y pulida.
PEAK FICTION
"How strange. A construct without heart or soul. Whence comes compassion? Whence arises love?"
- Introduction
it's been a few months since i've played live a live which is currently (and i'd imagine for quite a while) my favorite game of all time. despite this, my initial review, despite an edit i did to it last month, is not one i'm too happy with so i thought i'd remedy that. this review might just end up be me talking about what live a live means to me, but i think maybe thats okay. this is going to probably be the longest review i have written, and most likely the longest i will write unless we somehow get a sequel to live a live in the future. i also plan on trying to format this a bit differently, starting with my history with the game before transitioning into my experiences with each part of the game in the order i played them and what each part meant to me. i understand that this one is going to be pretty long and won't be for everyone, so don't worry too much if it's too much to read.
mild spoiler warning for the middle ages and dominion of hate chapters, but otherwise i will be keeping this review as spoiler free as possible, with only a few minor spoilers sprinkled in.
as with most of my writing, this is going to be very self indulgent and written for myself. regardless, i hope you enjoy! it's almost 6000 words so please feel free to read by section instead of all at once! i also don't claim to be much of a writer, so apologies if this is hard to read
- My History with Live A Live
my history with live a live is probably like a lot of other peoples' experiences: it was this weird japanese only game that we had only heard of because of toby fox, and perhaps we figured out more about it because of octopath traveler, a game which takes a lot from live a live but ultimately fails to live up to it. but there was something utterly tantalizing inside of octopath, a lingering echo from roots that were clearly there, even if most of the western audience didn't realize it at the time. it was an odd feeling having played octopath traveler around the time it released. most of my play time went towards a replay i attempted after finishing live a live, but when even when i initially played it i felt like there was something more, something just like this that it had to have been taking from, something that it seemed most people around me and mainstream gaming media didn't notice. so many people were in love with this game that felt like it was a hollow shell of something i had never even played before, a shell of something i didn't realize it was a shell of. this prompted me to look a bit more into octopath traveler, and by extension, learn a bit more about live a live. it was all very minimal, i mostly just learned that the scenarios were all different time periods rather than different characters in the same world and that was about the size of it. i think i maybe watched a bit of gameplay from sundown and masaru's chapters but that was about it, but more on that later. it was incredibly interesting from the outset, but the only option to play it was a fan translation that to this day i'm still not the biggest fan of the work done by the group who made it. oh well i thought. i could just play it eventually just to say i had played this game my friends had never heard of, and it seemed neat regardless of that. for the most part, that was the space live a live had occupied in my brain.
- February 9th, 2022. A Classic Comes Alive
on the 9th of february, my girlfriend and i had woken up to watch the nintendo direct, which had come to be something of a tradition for the two of us at this point. upon hearing "a classic comes alive" i joked to her that we were finally getting a remake of genealogy of the holy war, which had been buzzing around in leaks for some time. however, for some reason i can hardly explain, upon seeing masaru's training room in this beautiful hd-2d art style, i jumped up and yelled. i had only possibly seen this room a single time, a time that i struggle to even recall, and it evoked a reaction out of me that would make anyone assume this was a game that was deeply special to me, but at the time it wasn't. live a live was this niche rpg that people only ever mentioned in relation to toby fox's megalovania, or occassionally in the same conversation as one discusses octopath traveler.
honestly this wasn't even that good of a nintendo direct to me. there were some neat things announced, some interesting ports and remakes, and two sequels with "3" in the title that i had absolutely 0 reason to be excited over at the time, even though one of them i had enjoyed the series quite a bit at that point. but for some reason i felt deeply excited, even if the way that excitement manifested was weird and didn't make any sense to me. in terms of rpgs, my mind was mostly occupied with the dragon quest III hd-2d remake, a beautiful remake of one of my favorite games of all time. we still haven't gotten that game, but part of my mind assumed we were getting that first. after all, it had been announced first, right? months passed, and uncharacteristically of me, i did absolutely 0 research into any of the prerelease talk or news of a game i was excited for. i think part of me was bitter when i had realized that this game was impeding the "imminent" release of the dq3 remake, but i have a hard time remembering. regardless, the game's hype cycle chugged along for the next 5 months, and i had honestly forgotten about it until my girlfriend asked if it had released yet.
thank god she reminded me.
- The Wild West, The Wanderer
"I've come to miss the warmth of good company. And a home to hang your hat…"
i managed to start playing live a live only a few days after it released and it was immediately a great time. i started with sundown's "wild west" chapter, and as someone who is a complete and total sucker for the wild west and jrpgs, i was having a great time. the focus on time management was a very interesting direction, even if the time limit was pretty lenient like most other games that present a hard time limit. i will however attribute this to the fact that in the remake, objects that can be interacted with in the overworld will sparkle, which leaves a lot less trial and error to the hands of the player. in terms of the narrative that the wanderer presents, it's a pretty simple "man with no name" style cowboy movie translated into a jrpg on that front. there's a few minor twists near the that retrospectively make sundown a character that's so much more than how he's portrayed. in the end, after facing the specter of revenge and leader of the crazy bunch, o'dio, the sundown kid rides off into the sunset of the american frontier.
despite its simplicity, the wanderer is a story about revenge and it's opposite and equally human emotion, forgiveness. a phantasm of the past who won't forgive and wants revenge on the world that wronged him, and a broken man who won't forgive and wants revenge on himself who wronged the people who should've been there to protect. you'll find that live a live's chapters tend to focus on two mirrored aspects of humanity for its main conflicts, even when it isn't the most immediately obvious, and it's something i very deeply enjoy.
honestly, i would recommend wild west as the starting chapter for most people. there isn't really much better of a way to get someone acclimated to your battle system than 1 on 1 combat, even better if you're shooting revolvers at each other. the main gimmick of the chapter is also one that's really easy to come to terms with for just about anyone and it won't leave too many people frustrated.
- Present Day, The Strongest
"When the dust settles—when you're old and weak—that strength of spirit's all you'll have!"
the strongest is probably one of the most fun parts of any game i've ever played, and i'm half convinced they did this part just because of yoko shimomura's work on street fighter 2. with this being said, it's very deliberately based on fighting games as well as boxing movies in general. you play as masaru takahara, a man who aspires to be the strongest in the world. along the way, you fight martial artists from around the world, ala street fighter, acquire their abilities in combat like a blue mage (or mega man), and select them through a megaman esque character select screen. it's all really good fun and each fight is a puzzle to figure out how to lure out their best moves to make yourself the best you can be.
after you best the champions of each respective style, odie o'bright makes his entrance. odie o'bright is a twisted man who kills those who could oppose him in his path to power. after a confrontation where masaru calls upon the strength of the masters he owes his current strength to, odie o'bright is defeated, yet warns masaru of his life that will be filled with endless battles of those who pursue the peak of strength just as he had. the chapter comes to a close with an unknown challenger declaring his intentions to masaru, and the chapter closes.
the themes of the strongest deal with strength, and those who use it to better themselves and those who misuse it for the sake of power. odie o'bright is the antithesis to everything masaru is, a man who takes as he pleases and kills those who could pose a threat to him, while masaru would learn what he could and appreciates the challenges that come from sitting at the top. i think you could also read it as the difference between excitement from a challenge and the fear that opposes it and what that drives other people to, if only because of how open ended the strongest is. it's incredibly simple, but it's so good and it's probably the one i go back to and play the most.
- Imperial China, The Successor
" ... I...I think I understand... I've been judged. Mocked by men. I thought about doing the same. Hurting them. Hurting others. But I couldn't. I know that pain. Others shouldn't."
the successor is incredibly interesing and i think there's good reason why it's the one people talk about the most when it comes to discussion of this game. it starts as a pretty typical kung fu movie, where the old martial arts master wants to pass on his knowledge to a disciple. you can choose to train the three potential disciples anyway you please, and whoever you invest in the most is the one who succeeds the earthen heart shifu.
any futher praises for this chapter i don't think i can express without a spoiler warning, so…
mild spoiler warning, but the two you didn't invest into, who could seem entirely random to someone who invested in them as equally as possible, are killed by ou di wan lee's indomitable fist dojo. it's a shocking moment where player agency is completely taken away from you and these two characters are just gone forever.
the earthen heart shifu and the remaining disciple respond to this transgression by attacking the indomitable fist dojo in what is quite frankly one of the most boring segments of gameplay in the game. i love the combat in live a live but the enemies here felt way too spongey, especially when i was using a disciple i invested into exclusively. even when you get to the room with the boss, you have to go through more of a gauntlet of enemies and it just stops being fun to me. regardless the narrative is strong enough to carry the mid stretch of gameplay, with your remaining disciple defeating ou di wan lee with the earthen heart style's strongest technique, heavenly peaks descent, and succesfully succeeding your master. the story ends with the remaining disciple praying at the graves of her comrades, hoping that they're someone they can all be proud of.
the successor handles themes of legacy, how we will be remembered, how we want to be remembered, and the perspective of those with someone's legacy thrusted upon them. this is also the only chapter where you can have a female protagonist, which makes some people really mad for some reason. seems like more of a fundamental misunderstanding of live a live's roots in film/anime etc. but it really isn't a big deal. the successor's story is ultimately a very by the numbers one, but the twist in the middle and the confrontation at the end honestly make it all worth it. it's also really nice that the fat character who likes to eat is still treated seriously, i feel like a lot of media even now struggles with letting fat characters be treated like humans.
- Near Future, The Outsider
"Yeah, people can suck. We can be selfish - look out only for ourselves. But if you focus only on the bad - judge them at their worst, well... You've already made up your mind, haven't you?"
the outsider is without a doubt my favorite part of the game which seems to be a controversial statement in the fandom from what i can tell. it's based very heavily on mecha anime, with a sing along intro in the super famicom version, and a full on intro sang by hironobu kageyama in the remake. it's fucking great. akira and lawless/matsu are incredibly compelling characters with a great dynamic ("isn't it obvious? i'm a local business man!" is the best introduction to a character ever) and the way the story progresses around them is nice. the supporting cast is also really great, with the antagonists and dr. tobei being some of the most interesting characters in the game. there's also the mind reading/telekenesis mechanic that makes akira unique, letting him peep into people's thoughts which is used to progress at points.
the main antagonist of the outsider, odeo, is an ancient god who is resurrected and fueled by the hatred of liquified humans and, of course, you have to use the steel titan (of Go! Go! Steel Titan! fame) to battle him. it's all really good silly fun with just enough emotion in it to be incredibly enjoyable.
the way the story progresses is also fun. it's almost like a yakuza/like a dragon conspiracy plot, where you unravel the story as you go on before a climactic, melodramatic confrontation at the end as a culmination of the themes of the story and against an antithesis to the main protagonist. as a fan of those games it's a really compelling bite sized narrative of that style and i love it to death, and as an overall narrative it's one of the most compelling out of the initial selection.
the outsider deals with anger and how that can manifest as a force for good or a force for evil. a lot of akira's fighting is based on his anger as a hot tempered teenager, whereas odeo is fueled by the hatred of humans. it has some of the best scenes in the game too, with the intro to megalomania in this chapter being my absolute favorite. i think people tend to not like akira's weaker moveset without understanding the puzzle-like natures that battles outside of the steel titan are supposed to embody, but i'm not too sure.
- Prehistory, The First
"A-A-AIEEEEE!"
i think the first thing to address with prehistory is its localization. in pogo's chapter, all dialog is conveyed with cartoonish speech bubbles and grunts. at the end of his chapter, he yells which is implied to be the first words uttered by a human. anyone with context clues or any knowledge of japanese can probably figure out that "ai" is supposed to be "love" but this is changed in the localization. i personally don't think it's a big deal? he says this after what is implied to be having sex so it isn't too far of a stretch. in the final chapter, if you picked pogo, the final antagonist directly comments on pogo's yell by basically affirming that he is saying "love" which is a bit of a slow burn, but honestly anyone complaining about this already has the context to understand what he's saying in the first place without it being so blatantly on the nose for everyone else.
anyway!
the first presents itself with a very simple narrative with one of the more interesting gameplay gimmicks. to get into random encounters, you need to "hunt" for the animals/creatures by sniffing them out and moving yourself towards the direction of the clouds created by your sniffing. it's used pretty interestingly and there is a super boss you can track down in this way but i haven't personally gone out of my way to find him.
the main theme of this chapter is pretty blatantly love between other humans and that love being misguided, there isn't really any other way to spin it honestly. pogo and his friend gori mainly go through this chapter for the sake of love, with gori getting a weird harem of bonzi buddies for some reason, and pogo trying to save beru, a girl he fell in love with. the antagonists, on the other hand, are a different native tribe who are planning to sacrifice beru to ODO (or odo if you're the remake i guess), the last living dinosaur who they worship as a god as a means of appeasing it, and at the end the tribes make peace with each otehr and that love between humans is able to spread in a way that isn't misguided.
the first is probably the chapter i have the least to say about substance wise. it takes place in prehistory and is mostly inspired by stories like that, along with slapstick comedy. it works fine enough, it just doesn't leave much of an impact. regardless i do think it is necessary for the game and i obviously wouldn't cut it (nor would i any other part).
- Distant Future, The Mechanical Heart
"Have we grown so tired of ourselves…?"
in the mechanical heart you play as cube, a robot constructed on the cogito ergo sum, a freight ship carrying the behemoth, a fucked up space monster, to be used as a weapon by humans. the chapter is very heavily inspired by claustrophobic and tense sci-fi films, namely 2001: a space odyssey and aliens, and it presents itself as an rpg with no (mandatory) combat until the very end. effectively pioneering "walking-sim" type exploration rpgs like yume nikki, most of the gameplay of the mechanical heart is exploring the ship and interacting with the people on it. it's a really nice change of pace, especially from the more combat heavy chapters and i'd definitely recommend playing it after one of those, or before one of them if you're near the end of the game.
while onboard the cogito ergo sum, you experience first hand the turbulent and vitriolic relationshiops the crew have with each other, which leads to shit eventually hitting the fan due to the rogue AI, OD-10, deciding that this crew needs to be exterminated to preserve order on the ship due to their instability. the behemoth is let loose, and now live a live is suddenly a horror game and a bit of a murder mystery/mystery in general. there's a lot of very well utilized tension and drama and the way the crew reacts to the stress of the situation is great.
the themes of the mechanical heart are plain and simply humanity, and where it stems from. cube shines through as the most human and loving of the entire crew, who are constantly at each others' throats. cube even shows colonel darthe, a man who hates him initially, nothing but love and kindness in spite of his disdain. the equally mechanical AI, OD-10, however, was created by humans for the sake of efficiency and not much else, leaving it to inevitably disregard humanity when it seemed to get in the way of its objective.
beating the chapter technically resolves in a mission failure, with the behemoth being killed and most of the crew dead, but do orders and missions really matter when humanity is at stake?
- Twilight of Edo Era Japan, The Infiltrator
"We who wield the power of life and death... Wield not the power to shape the world and its people as we see fit. And though there is great risk, there is great reward to be found in trust and mercy."
the infiltrator is a very interestng chapter based on bakumatsu films. it involves oboromaru, a ninja of the enma clan, who is tasked with rescuing a political prisoner. the gameplay involves sneaking through a labyrinthian castle, and presents a gimmick that might be familiar if you know anything about video games from 2015 onward. you are presented with the choice to either kill indiscriminately, or to spare as many as you can while carrying out your mission and stopping ode iou from through japan into chaos. the gimmick itself is interesting and is very obviously proto-undertale-esque but its execution isn't the best. on your first playthrough you should really just be going through neutrally, avoiding what you can and killing what you can't, because killing or sparing everything is an exercise in patience if you don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of this castle and how to navigate it. it's a very fun chapter regardless but i think there is something to be said about how much more enjoyable it is by ignoring the gimmick it plays with.
the infiltrator's themes are very clear cut as well, presenting the choice between mercy and cruelty. it's obvious that thematically oboromaru wouldn't slaughter the entire castle and ode iou's cruelty is supposed to juxtapose oboromaru's mercy, but it is a choice you have. you even get rewarded for not killing anyone as opposed to killing everyone which nets you nothing outside of loot you got throughout the chapter. another theme of this chapter is the nature of loyalty to a "nation" and what that even entails, if it even means anything. this one is one of the more vague themes of live a live but i feel like it ties in a lot more to the chapter thematically that the others and is even directly commented on in the ending. either way the chapter is pretty solid in presenting its theme and narrative, even if the player choice involved can get in the way of the inetntions of the writers.
at this point, i'm really hoping you've noticed a connection between the names of the antagonists in these parts and were able to let your brain tie everything together, because embarrassingly enough, i didn't until near the end of the game.
spoilers ahead for some of the best parts of the game, PLEASE do not read further and skip to "Dominion of Love, My Relationship with Live A Live" if you haven't played the game.
- Middle Ages, The Lord of Dark
"You will repay my loyalty in death!"
gameplay wise, the lord of dark is a take on final fantasy and dragon quest plots, with the kingdom's new champion and his allies launching a siege on the lord of dark to rescue the princess of the kingdom. this, however, is merely a curtain for the true story that lay underneath.
oersted's chapter, the lord of dark, is a culmination of the themes presented in the previous chapters. initially, oersted is a man who is loyal to his country, who forgives the world and those who wrong him, who grapples with the legacy thrust upon him, who aspires towards strength, who revels in love, who is kind at heart, and most of all, a man who is deeply human at his core. all of the themes presented in the game via the protagonists or their resolutions are integral parts of oersted's character. however, these character traits are tested. his country casts him aside. the world abandonned him in spite of his forgivenesss. the legacy he had been thrusted into had culminated in nothing. the strength he aspired towards couldn't save anyone. the love he had was betrayed. his kindness had been wittled away at. after all of that, what use is there for humanity? what would it mean to just… cast that aside?
this chapter absolutely floored me. the introduction was fun as someone who loves dragon quest and has dabbled in a bit of final fantasy. live a live is obviously no stranger to subversion, but this instance of it was so incredibly well executed. one of the most crushing moments of the game is when oersted's best friend assassinates the king of lucrece to frame oersted, and you have to watch oersted's entire life crumble before him. the people who had once adored him as their champion fear him as a kingslayer, his allies have all died for his sake aside from his former best friend, who had thrown this fate onto him. all he has left is his humanity and love, and after confronting streibough, a man who he saw as his best friend, he loses that too. streibough had convinced princess alethea, the one who oersted loved, that he was the true hero, and told her of oersted's "lies," and after oersted cuts down his closest friend, the woman he loves takes her own life right in front of him.
at this point, oersted can't take it. the world he fought for and loved couldn't be forgiven anymore. if they wanted him to be their dark lord, then that's who he would be. after losing everything, oersted becomes consumed with hatred and fully becomes odio, the lord of dark. he slaughters the kingdom of lucrece, and lays waste to the land. the people who once loved him, who had betrayed him, were given their comeuppance, and in his wake, this world had become…
- Dominion of Hate, The Final Chapter
"O foolish child.
For love's facade he fights… To elder's will life bound… In shadow guides his kin… From hero's fame he flees… On power's throne he sits… In anger finds his strength… Whose heart bleeds more than flesh…
Whose faith in men endures despite their sins.
O child, now come and see… Their true design."
dominion of hate picks up where oersted, and by extension your initial party member of choice, left off. whoever you choose is spirited away to the dominion of hate, to come face to face with the lord of dark who has tormented each characters' time period. if you choose oersted, however, you play as the lord of dark himself, and take control of his incarnations in a boss rush where you battle against the protagonists of their respective time periods. if they start to overcome you, you can unleash armageddon and get to hear one of the best songs in the game. defeating the heroes as oersted, you walk alone through the empty world whose inhabitants had been fell by your blade, before solemnly realizing that it had all been for nothing.
i wouldn't recommend this as your first ending of the game, it's very much in line with the white ending of shin megami tensei iv, where instead of doing anything to combat the cycle you simply end everything in a moment of weakness.
if you continue with your protagonist of choice, you'll find yourself in the kingdom of lucrece, decimated and wiped of its original population to be turned into the dominion of hate, a form of revenge oersted had enacted upon the world that wronged him. the gameplay in this chapter is very similar to the middle ages, with random encounters and a focus on combat and dungeon crawling. you'll come across the other protagonists and build up your party, doing dungeons and fighting your way through the dominion of hate so you can stand toe to toe with odio.
after reaching odio, it is not just a battle of strength. it isn't even just a square enix-style battle with a twisted man who became god, it is a battle of ideals. oersted, the man who lost everything because of a cold, and uncaring world, who wants to spread his hatred as far as possible, is matched against this group of people who have no reason to even know each other. and this ragtag group responds to oersted's embrace of the cold, uncaring hatred and cruelty of the universe, this same nature that can be found inside humans, with the equally human love and compassion they have experienced and learned to embody throughout their individual journeys.
after defeating odio, the protagonists give their reasons for love and humanity to oersted. they try their hardest to convince him. they spare his life (or you can kill him for the bad ending), when he hadn't given that mercy for others. but he's too far gone, and if you gathered all of the party members in the dominion of hate, you come face to face with the purest incarnation of odio and his hatred. a new track composed for the remake for this true ending, gigalomania, accents this fight. near the end, it seems like your party of 4 can't handle this alone, and when restrained your other friends you've made in this empty, loveless world come to your aid, and when the final blows are dealt… oersted frees himself from odio's grasp. he delivers a final strike to the hatred and evil he had become, that same hatred that invaded the lives of all of these people who chose to forgive him and help him despite that. it's incredibly dorky when it plays out, but despite that it's one of my favorite moments in any game ever. more dialog commences, and before the game ends, you're presented with arguably the most famous line from this game.
"In every heart the seed of dark abides. The makings of a lord when watered well... With hate. Sweet hate. She springs eternal. Sings... All-tempting draught. We'll drink of her again."
and with that, live a live is over. watching the credits for live a live is one of the first times the credits for anything brought me to tears, and i still feele motional whenever i listen to that stellar credits theme, "live for live."
- Dominion of Love, My Relationship with Live A Live
"Farewell. May you find the peace that eluded you in this world in the next."
after finishing live a live, i couldn't sop thinking about it. i've never loved every single aspect of a game before in my life, but here was this quirky snes jrpg that had only recently been sent to the west. for the past few months, live a live and my enjoyment of it have shaped how i interact with media in general, and it'd be an understatement to say i was a bit obsessed. not a day goes by where i don't think of at least one moment in this game, followed by tears, or a warm smile, or chills. i've never been this way with anything before in my life, and i think that means live a live is truly going to be one of the most special pieces of media to me in my entire life. there's also so many little things i didn't mention in this review, like the running gag of watanabe and his father, the little character arcs the side characters all go through, the incredible voice acting in terms of the japanese dub (i am not a fan at all of the english work for live a live, im sad to say) or the beautifully stunning music done once again by the ever talented yoko shimomura, that contribute so much to making this game what it is.
with that being said, how would someone go across recapturing that magic?
as it stands now, there aren't any games that capture what makes live a live special. there are plenty of games that were worked on by the team, namely chrono trigger, and it went on to directly inspire octopath traveler, but it just isn't the same, you know? there's something so inherently special about what live a live is to the point where it's so hard to capture what exactly made it special.
at its core, live a live is a game about humanity, love, and companionship and what happens when those concepts are distorted or you divorce yourself from them, and it's presented through 8 vignettes encapsulating different styles of rpgs as well as different styles of movies, anime, and games. but when you put all of that together in the way that live a live was given to us as, it ends up being so much more than all of that. a simple game about the indomitable human spirit prevailing in the face of the cruel, uncaring nature of the universe and those forsaken by it presented through short form storytelling seems like such an easy idea to replicate, but there never has been and likely never will be a game like live a live. i urge anyone who managed to sit through this, and honestly anyone who didn't, to play live a live. the remake is the ideal way to play the game having streamlined most of the confusing elements of the original as well as having a much nicer presentation. the remake of live a live thankfully doesn't stray far from the original style, sticking with the art style of the in-battle sprites to make the overworld designs higher resolution than the single tile sprites used in the original. it's a great, one of a kind experience that i promise you won't regret.
and remember: no matter what you did, no matter who you are, there will always be a chance for you to Live over Again.
"Whatever happens... We'll survive. That's what we do."
- Introduction
it's been a few months since i've played live a live which is currently (and i'd imagine for quite a while) my favorite game of all time. despite this, my initial review, despite an edit i did to it last month, is not one i'm too happy with so i thought i'd remedy that. this review might just end up be me talking about what live a live means to me, but i think maybe thats okay. this is going to probably be the longest review i have written, and most likely the longest i will write unless we somehow get a sequel to live a live in the future. i also plan on trying to format this a bit differently, starting with my history with the game before transitioning into my experiences with each part of the game in the order i played them and what each part meant to me. i understand that this one is going to be pretty long and won't be for everyone, so don't worry too much if it's too much to read.
mild spoiler warning for the middle ages and dominion of hate chapters, but otherwise i will be keeping this review as spoiler free as possible, with only a few minor spoilers sprinkled in.
as with most of my writing, this is going to be very self indulgent and written for myself. regardless, i hope you enjoy! it's almost 6000 words so please feel free to read by section instead of all at once! i also don't claim to be much of a writer, so apologies if this is hard to read
- My History with Live A Live
my history with live a live is probably like a lot of other peoples' experiences: it was this weird japanese only game that we had only heard of because of toby fox, and perhaps we figured out more about it because of octopath traveler, a game which takes a lot from live a live but ultimately fails to live up to it. but there was something utterly tantalizing inside of octopath, a lingering echo from roots that were clearly there, even if most of the western audience didn't realize it at the time. it was an odd feeling having played octopath traveler around the time it released. most of my play time went towards a replay i attempted after finishing live a live, but when even when i initially played it i felt like there was something more, something just like this that it had to have been taking from, something that it seemed most people around me and mainstream gaming media didn't notice. so many people were in love with this game that felt like it was a hollow shell of something i had never even played before, a shell of something i didn't realize it was a shell of. this prompted me to look a bit more into octopath traveler, and by extension, learn a bit more about live a live. it was all very minimal, i mostly just learned that the scenarios were all different time periods rather than different characters in the same world and that was about the size of it. i think i maybe watched a bit of gameplay from sundown and masaru's chapters but that was about it, but more on that later. it was incredibly interesting from the outset, but the only option to play it was a fan translation that to this day i'm still not the biggest fan of the work done by the group who made it. oh well i thought. i could just play it eventually just to say i had played this game my friends had never heard of, and it seemed neat regardless of that. for the most part, that was the space live a live had occupied in my brain.
- February 9th, 2022. A Classic Comes Alive
on the 9th of february, my girlfriend and i had woken up to watch the nintendo direct, which had come to be something of a tradition for the two of us at this point. upon hearing "a classic comes alive" i joked to her that we were finally getting a remake of genealogy of the holy war, which had been buzzing around in leaks for some time. however, for some reason i can hardly explain, upon seeing masaru's training room in this beautiful hd-2d art style, i jumped up and yelled. i had only possibly seen this room a single time, a time that i struggle to even recall, and it evoked a reaction out of me that would make anyone assume this was a game that was deeply special to me, but at the time it wasn't. live a live was this niche rpg that people only ever mentioned in relation to toby fox's megalovania, or occassionally in the same conversation as one discusses octopath traveler.
honestly this wasn't even that good of a nintendo direct to me. there were some neat things announced, some interesting ports and remakes, and two sequels with "3" in the title that i had absolutely 0 reason to be excited over at the time, even though one of them i had enjoyed the series quite a bit at that point. but for some reason i felt deeply excited, even if the way that excitement manifested was weird and didn't make any sense to me. in terms of rpgs, my mind was mostly occupied with the dragon quest III hd-2d remake, a beautiful remake of one of my favorite games of all time. we still haven't gotten that game, but part of my mind assumed we were getting that first. after all, it had been announced first, right? months passed, and uncharacteristically of me, i did absolutely 0 research into any of the prerelease talk or news of a game i was excited for. i think part of me was bitter when i had realized that this game was impeding the "imminent" release of the dq3 remake, but i have a hard time remembering. regardless, the game's hype cycle chugged along for the next 5 months, and i had honestly forgotten about it until my girlfriend asked if it had released yet.
thank god she reminded me.
- The Wild West, The Wanderer
"I've come to miss the warmth of good company. And a home to hang your hat…"
i managed to start playing live a live only a few days after it released and it was immediately a great time. i started with sundown's "wild west" chapter, and as someone who is a complete and total sucker for the wild west and jrpgs, i was having a great time. the focus on time management was a very interesting direction, even if the time limit was pretty lenient like most other games that present a hard time limit. i will however attribute this to the fact that in the remake, objects that can be interacted with in the overworld will sparkle, which leaves a lot less trial and error to the hands of the player. in terms of the narrative that the wanderer presents, it's a pretty simple "man with no name" style cowboy movie translated into a jrpg on that front. there's a few minor twists near the that retrospectively make sundown a character that's so much more than how he's portrayed. in the end, after facing the specter of revenge and leader of the crazy bunch, o'dio, the sundown kid rides off into the sunset of the american frontier.
despite its simplicity, the wanderer is a story about revenge and it's opposite and equally human emotion, forgiveness. a phantasm of the past who won't forgive and wants revenge on the world that wronged him, and a broken man who won't forgive and wants revenge on himself who wronged the people who should've been there to protect. you'll find that live a live's chapters tend to focus on two mirrored aspects of humanity for its main conflicts, even when it isn't the most immediately obvious, and it's something i very deeply enjoy.
honestly, i would recommend wild west as the starting chapter for most people. there isn't really much better of a way to get someone acclimated to your battle system than 1 on 1 combat, even better if you're shooting revolvers at each other. the main gimmick of the chapter is also one that's really easy to come to terms with for just about anyone and it won't leave too many people frustrated.
- Present Day, The Strongest
"When the dust settles—when you're old and weak—that strength of spirit's all you'll have!"
the strongest is probably one of the most fun parts of any game i've ever played, and i'm half convinced they did this part just because of yoko shimomura's work on street fighter 2. with this being said, it's very deliberately based on fighting games as well as boxing movies in general. you play as masaru takahara, a man who aspires to be the strongest in the world. along the way, you fight martial artists from around the world, ala street fighter, acquire their abilities in combat like a blue mage (or mega man), and select them through a megaman esque character select screen. it's all really good fun and each fight is a puzzle to figure out how to lure out their best moves to make yourself the best you can be.
after you best the champions of each respective style, odie o'bright makes his entrance. odie o'bright is a twisted man who kills those who could oppose him in his path to power. after a confrontation where masaru calls upon the strength of the masters he owes his current strength to, odie o'bright is defeated, yet warns masaru of his life that will be filled with endless battles of those who pursue the peak of strength just as he had. the chapter comes to a close with an unknown challenger declaring his intentions to masaru, and the chapter closes.
the themes of the strongest deal with strength, and those who use it to better themselves and those who misuse it for the sake of power. odie o'bright is the antithesis to everything masaru is, a man who takes as he pleases and kills those who could pose a threat to him, while masaru would learn what he could and appreciates the challenges that come from sitting at the top. i think you could also read it as the difference between excitement from a challenge and the fear that opposes it and what that drives other people to, if only because of how open ended the strongest is. it's incredibly simple, but it's so good and it's probably the one i go back to and play the most.
- Imperial China, The Successor
" ... I...I think I understand... I've been judged. Mocked by men. I thought about doing the same. Hurting them. Hurting others. But I couldn't. I know that pain. Others shouldn't."
the successor is incredibly interesing and i think there's good reason why it's the one people talk about the most when it comes to discussion of this game. it starts as a pretty typical kung fu movie, where the old martial arts master wants to pass on his knowledge to a disciple. you can choose to train the three potential disciples anyway you please, and whoever you invest in the most is the one who succeeds the earthen heart shifu.
any futher praises for this chapter i don't think i can express without a spoiler warning, so…
mild spoiler warning, but the two you didn't invest into, who could seem entirely random to someone who invested in them as equally as possible, are killed by ou di wan lee's indomitable fist dojo. it's a shocking moment where player agency is completely taken away from you and these two characters are just gone forever.
the earthen heart shifu and the remaining disciple respond to this transgression by attacking the indomitable fist dojo in what is quite frankly one of the most boring segments of gameplay in the game. i love the combat in live a live but the enemies here felt way too spongey, especially when i was using a disciple i invested into exclusively. even when you get to the room with the boss, you have to go through more of a gauntlet of enemies and it just stops being fun to me. regardless the narrative is strong enough to carry the mid stretch of gameplay, with your remaining disciple defeating ou di wan lee with the earthen heart style's strongest technique, heavenly peaks descent, and succesfully succeeding your master. the story ends with the remaining disciple praying at the graves of her comrades, hoping that they're someone they can all be proud of.
the successor handles themes of legacy, how we will be remembered, how we want to be remembered, and the perspective of those with someone's legacy thrusted upon them. this is also the only chapter where you can have a female protagonist, which makes some people really mad for some reason. seems like more of a fundamental misunderstanding of live a live's roots in film/anime etc. but it really isn't a big deal. the successor's story is ultimately a very by the numbers one, but the twist in the middle and the confrontation at the end honestly make it all worth it. it's also really nice that the fat character who likes to eat is still treated seriously, i feel like a lot of media even now struggles with letting fat characters be treated like humans.
- Near Future, The Outsider
"Yeah, people can suck. We can be selfish - look out only for ourselves. But if you focus only on the bad - judge them at their worst, well... You've already made up your mind, haven't you?"
the outsider is without a doubt my favorite part of the game which seems to be a controversial statement in the fandom from what i can tell. it's based very heavily on mecha anime, with a sing along intro in the super famicom version, and a full on intro sang by hironobu kageyama in the remake. it's fucking great. akira and lawless/matsu are incredibly compelling characters with a great dynamic ("isn't it obvious? i'm a local business man!" is the best introduction to a character ever) and the way the story progresses around them is nice. the supporting cast is also really great, with the antagonists and dr. tobei being some of the most interesting characters in the game. there's also the mind reading/telekenesis mechanic that makes akira unique, letting him peep into people's thoughts which is used to progress at points.
the main antagonist of the outsider, odeo, is an ancient god who is resurrected and fueled by the hatred of liquified humans and, of course, you have to use the steel titan (of Go! Go! Steel Titan! fame) to battle him. it's all really good silly fun with just enough emotion in it to be incredibly enjoyable.
the way the story progresses is also fun. it's almost like a yakuza/like a dragon conspiracy plot, where you unravel the story as you go on before a climactic, melodramatic confrontation at the end as a culmination of the themes of the story and against an antithesis to the main protagonist. as a fan of those games it's a really compelling bite sized narrative of that style and i love it to death, and as an overall narrative it's one of the most compelling out of the initial selection.
the outsider deals with anger and how that can manifest as a force for good or a force for evil. a lot of akira's fighting is based on his anger as a hot tempered teenager, whereas odeo is fueled by the hatred of humans. it has some of the best scenes in the game too, with the intro to megalomania in this chapter being my absolute favorite. i think people tend to not like akira's weaker moveset without understanding the puzzle-like natures that battles outside of the steel titan are supposed to embody, but i'm not too sure.
- Prehistory, The First
"A-A-AIEEEEE!"
i think the first thing to address with prehistory is its localization. in pogo's chapter, all dialog is conveyed with cartoonish speech bubbles and grunts. at the end of his chapter, he yells which is implied to be the first words uttered by a human. anyone with context clues or any knowledge of japanese can probably figure out that "ai" is supposed to be "love" but this is changed in the localization. i personally don't think it's a big deal? he says this after what is implied to be having sex so it isn't too far of a stretch. in the final chapter, if you picked pogo, the final antagonist directly comments on pogo's yell by basically affirming that he is saying "love" which is a bit of a slow burn, but honestly anyone complaining about this already has the context to understand what he's saying in the first place without it being so blatantly on the nose for everyone else.
anyway!
the first presents itself with a very simple narrative with one of the more interesting gameplay gimmicks. to get into random encounters, you need to "hunt" for the animals/creatures by sniffing them out and moving yourself towards the direction of the clouds created by your sniffing. it's used pretty interestingly and there is a super boss you can track down in this way but i haven't personally gone out of my way to find him.
the main theme of this chapter is pretty blatantly love between other humans and that love being misguided, there isn't really any other way to spin it honestly. pogo and his friend gori mainly go through this chapter for the sake of love, with gori getting a weird harem of bonzi buddies for some reason, and pogo trying to save beru, a girl he fell in love with. the antagonists, on the other hand, are a different native tribe who are planning to sacrifice beru to ODO (or odo if you're the remake i guess), the last living dinosaur who they worship as a god as a means of appeasing it, and at the end the tribes make peace with each otehr and that love between humans is able to spread in a way that isn't misguided.
the first is probably the chapter i have the least to say about substance wise. it takes place in prehistory and is mostly inspired by stories like that, along with slapstick comedy. it works fine enough, it just doesn't leave much of an impact. regardless i do think it is necessary for the game and i obviously wouldn't cut it (nor would i any other part).
- Distant Future, The Mechanical Heart
"Have we grown so tired of ourselves…?"
in the mechanical heart you play as cube, a robot constructed on the cogito ergo sum, a freight ship carrying the behemoth, a fucked up space monster, to be used as a weapon by humans. the chapter is very heavily inspired by claustrophobic and tense sci-fi films, namely 2001: a space odyssey and aliens, and it presents itself as an rpg with no (mandatory) combat until the very end. effectively pioneering "walking-sim" type exploration rpgs like yume nikki, most of the gameplay of the mechanical heart is exploring the ship and interacting with the people on it. it's a really nice change of pace, especially from the more combat heavy chapters and i'd definitely recommend playing it after one of those, or before one of them if you're near the end of the game.
while onboard the cogito ergo sum, you experience first hand the turbulent and vitriolic relationshiops the crew have with each other, which leads to shit eventually hitting the fan due to the rogue AI, OD-10, deciding that this crew needs to be exterminated to preserve order on the ship due to their instability. the behemoth is let loose, and now live a live is suddenly a horror game and a bit of a murder mystery/mystery in general. there's a lot of very well utilized tension and drama and the way the crew reacts to the stress of the situation is great.
the themes of the mechanical heart are plain and simply humanity, and where it stems from. cube shines through as the most human and loving of the entire crew, who are constantly at each others' throats. cube even shows colonel darthe, a man who hates him initially, nothing but love and kindness in spite of his disdain. the equally mechanical AI, OD-10, however, was created by humans for the sake of efficiency and not much else, leaving it to inevitably disregard humanity when it seemed to get in the way of its objective.
beating the chapter technically resolves in a mission failure, with the behemoth being killed and most of the crew dead, but do orders and missions really matter when humanity is at stake?
- Twilight of Edo Era Japan, The Infiltrator
"We who wield the power of life and death... Wield not the power to shape the world and its people as we see fit. And though there is great risk, there is great reward to be found in trust and mercy."
the infiltrator is a very interestng chapter based on bakumatsu films. it involves oboromaru, a ninja of the enma clan, who is tasked with rescuing a political prisoner. the gameplay involves sneaking through a labyrinthian castle, and presents a gimmick that might be familiar if you know anything about video games from 2015 onward. you are presented with the choice to either kill indiscriminately, or to spare as many as you can while carrying out your mission and stopping ode iou from through japan into chaos. the gimmick itself is interesting and is very obviously proto-undertale-esque but its execution isn't the best. on your first playthrough you should really just be going through neutrally, avoiding what you can and killing what you can't, because killing or sparing everything is an exercise in patience if you don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of this castle and how to navigate it. it's a very fun chapter regardless but i think there is something to be said about how much more enjoyable it is by ignoring the gimmick it plays with.
the infiltrator's themes are very clear cut as well, presenting the choice between mercy and cruelty. it's obvious that thematically oboromaru wouldn't slaughter the entire castle and ode iou's cruelty is supposed to juxtapose oboromaru's mercy, but it is a choice you have. you even get rewarded for not killing anyone as opposed to killing everyone which nets you nothing outside of loot you got throughout the chapter. another theme of this chapter is the nature of loyalty to a "nation" and what that even entails, if it even means anything. this one is one of the more vague themes of live a live but i feel like it ties in a lot more to the chapter thematically that the others and is even directly commented on in the ending. either way the chapter is pretty solid in presenting its theme and narrative, even if the player choice involved can get in the way of the inetntions of the writers.
at this point, i'm really hoping you've noticed a connection between the names of the antagonists in these parts and were able to let your brain tie everything together, because embarrassingly enough, i didn't until near the end of the game.
spoilers ahead for some of the best parts of the game, PLEASE do not read further and skip to "Dominion of Love, My Relationship with Live A Live" if you haven't played the game.
- Middle Ages, The Lord of Dark
"You will repay my loyalty in death!"
gameplay wise, the lord of dark is a take on final fantasy and dragon quest plots, with the kingdom's new champion and his allies launching a siege on the lord of dark to rescue the princess of the kingdom. this, however, is merely a curtain for the true story that lay underneath.
oersted's chapter, the lord of dark, is a culmination of the themes presented in the previous chapters. initially, oersted is a man who is loyal to his country, who forgives the world and those who wrong him, who grapples with the legacy thrust upon him, who aspires towards strength, who revels in love, who is kind at heart, and most of all, a man who is deeply human at his core. all of the themes presented in the game via the protagonists or their resolutions are integral parts of oersted's character. however, these character traits are tested. his country casts him aside. the world abandonned him in spite of his forgivenesss. the legacy he had been thrusted into had culminated in nothing. the strength he aspired towards couldn't save anyone. the love he had was betrayed. his kindness had been wittled away at. after all of that, what use is there for humanity? what would it mean to just… cast that aside?
this chapter absolutely floored me. the introduction was fun as someone who loves dragon quest and has dabbled in a bit of final fantasy. live a live is obviously no stranger to subversion, but this instance of it was so incredibly well executed. one of the most crushing moments of the game is when oersted's best friend assassinates the king of lucrece to frame oersted, and you have to watch oersted's entire life crumble before him. the people who had once adored him as their champion fear him as a kingslayer, his allies have all died for his sake aside from his former best friend, who had thrown this fate onto him. all he has left is his humanity and love, and after confronting streibough, a man who he saw as his best friend, he loses that too. streibough had convinced princess alethea, the one who oersted loved, that he was the true hero, and told her of oersted's "lies," and after oersted cuts down his closest friend, the woman he loves takes her own life right in front of him.
at this point, oersted can't take it. the world he fought for and loved couldn't be forgiven anymore. if they wanted him to be their dark lord, then that's who he would be. after losing everything, oersted becomes consumed with hatred and fully becomes odio, the lord of dark. he slaughters the kingdom of lucrece, and lays waste to the land. the people who once loved him, who had betrayed him, were given their comeuppance, and in his wake, this world had become…
- Dominion of Hate, The Final Chapter
"O foolish child.
For love's facade he fights… To elder's will life bound… In shadow guides his kin… From hero's fame he flees… On power's throne he sits… In anger finds his strength… Whose heart bleeds more than flesh…
Whose faith in men endures despite their sins.
O child, now come and see… Their true design."
dominion of hate picks up where oersted, and by extension your initial party member of choice, left off. whoever you choose is spirited away to the dominion of hate, to come face to face with the lord of dark who has tormented each characters' time period. if you choose oersted, however, you play as the lord of dark himself, and take control of his incarnations in a boss rush where you battle against the protagonists of their respective time periods. if they start to overcome you, you can unleash armageddon and get to hear one of the best songs in the game. defeating the heroes as oersted, you walk alone through the empty world whose inhabitants had been fell by your blade, before solemnly realizing that it had all been for nothing.
i wouldn't recommend this as your first ending of the game, it's very much in line with the white ending of shin megami tensei iv, where instead of doing anything to combat the cycle you simply end everything in a moment of weakness.
if you continue with your protagonist of choice, you'll find yourself in the kingdom of lucrece, decimated and wiped of its original population to be turned into the dominion of hate, a form of revenge oersted had enacted upon the world that wronged him. the gameplay in this chapter is very similar to the middle ages, with random encounters and a focus on combat and dungeon crawling. you'll come across the other protagonists and build up your party, doing dungeons and fighting your way through the dominion of hate so you can stand toe to toe with odio.
after reaching odio, it is not just a battle of strength. it isn't even just a square enix-style battle with a twisted man who became god, it is a battle of ideals. oersted, the man who lost everything because of a cold, and uncaring world, who wants to spread his hatred as far as possible, is matched against this group of people who have no reason to even know each other. and this ragtag group responds to oersted's embrace of the cold, uncaring hatred and cruelty of the universe, this same nature that can be found inside humans, with the equally human love and compassion they have experienced and learned to embody throughout their individual journeys.
after defeating odio, the protagonists give their reasons for love and humanity to oersted. they try their hardest to convince him. they spare his life (or you can kill him for the bad ending), when he hadn't given that mercy for others. but he's too far gone, and if you gathered all of the party members in the dominion of hate, you come face to face with the purest incarnation of odio and his hatred. a new track composed for the remake for this true ending, gigalomania, accents this fight. near the end, it seems like your party of 4 can't handle this alone, and when restrained your other friends you've made in this empty, loveless world come to your aid, and when the final blows are dealt… oersted frees himself from odio's grasp. he delivers a final strike to the hatred and evil he had become, that same hatred that invaded the lives of all of these people who chose to forgive him and help him despite that. it's incredibly dorky when it plays out, but despite that it's one of my favorite moments in any game ever. more dialog commences, and before the game ends, you're presented with arguably the most famous line from this game.
"In every heart the seed of dark abides. The makings of a lord when watered well... With hate. Sweet hate. She springs eternal. Sings... All-tempting draught. We'll drink of her again."
and with that, live a live is over. watching the credits for live a live is one of the first times the credits for anything brought me to tears, and i still feele motional whenever i listen to that stellar credits theme, "live for live."
- Dominion of Love, My Relationship with Live A Live
"Farewell. May you find the peace that eluded you in this world in the next."
after finishing live a live, i couldn't sop thinking about it. i've never loved every single aspect of a game before in my life, but here was this quirky snes jrpg that had only recently been sent to the west. for the past few months, live a live and my enjoyment of it have shaped how i interact with media in general, and it'd be an understatement to say i was a bit obsessed. not a day goes by where i don't think of at least one moment in this game, followed by tears, or a warm smile, or chills. i've never been this way with anything before in my life, and i think that means live a live is truly going to be one of the most special pieces of media to me in my entire life. there's also so many little things i didn't mention in this review, like the running gag of watanabe and his father, the little character arcs the side characters all go through, the incredible voice acting in terms of the japanese dub (i am not a fan at all of the english work for live a live, im sad to say) or the beautifully stunning music done once again by the ever talented yoko shimomura, that contribute so much to making this game what it is.
with that being said, how would someone go across recapturing that magic?
as it stands now, there aren't any games that capture what makes live a live special. there are plenty of games that were worked on by the team, namely chrono trigger, and it went on to directly inspire octopath traveler, but it just isn't the same, you know? there's something so inherently special about what live a live is to the point where it's so hard to capture what exactly made it special.
at its core, live a live is a game about humanity, love, and companionship and what happens when those concepts are distorted or you divorce yourself from them, and it's presented through 8 vignettes encapsulating different styles of rpgs as well as different styles of movies, anime, and games. but when you put all of that together in the way that live a live was given to us as, it ends up being so much more than all of that. a simple game about the indomitable human spirit prevailing in the face of the cruel, uncaring nature of the universe and those forsaken by it presented through short form storytelling seems like such an easy idea to replicate, but there never has been and likely never will be a game like live a live. i urge anyone who managed to sit through this, and honestly anyone who didn't, to play live a live. the remake is the ideal way to play the game having streamlined most of the confusing elements of the original as well as having a much nicer presentation. the remake of live a live thankfully doesn't stray far from the original style, sticking with the art style of the in-battle sprites to make the overworld designs higher resolution than the single tile sprites used in the original. it's a great, one of a kind experience that i promise you won't regret.
and remember: no matter what you did, no matter who you are, there will always be a chance for you to Live over Again.
"Whatever happens... We'll survive. That's what we do."
This is coming from a very western perspective, but the SNES era of RPGs is firmly cemented in my brain as this near mythical explosion of classic game after classic game, almost all of which coming from Square. That myth has stayed relatively the same even as an adult now who absolutely did not grow up with them, with many of the highlights of the generation staying relatively the same. I had certainly heard of Live a Live before the remake's annoucement, but my knowledge essentially went to name alone, and the general praise I had heard for it. And to be frank, this game is earth-shattering. This is like finding out another Chrono-Trigger tier game existed with the big boys all along, and everyone who has played this finding that out, myself included, finding that out as they go along this excellent adventure, its so heartwarming. Who knows what other great gems are ready for a revival this good again.
live a live remake answers the question: can you make peak peaker? with a resounding yes, yes we can and we will
Live A Live is a brilliant pseudo-anthology JRPG I had never heard of until like 6 months ago when I saw the trailer for this remaster in a Nintendo Direct.
I’ve never really been a ‘JRPG guy’ but since I’ve been trying to expand my horizons, and since the graphics looked sick and the content looked interesting (sci-fi, western, tokusatsu, etc.) I thought I’d give this a go. The combat is grid-based and turn-based, and is about status weaknesses and tactical positioning. It’s solid, but not what makes Live A Live truly special.
Each chapter’s plot is a pastiche of various genre tropes or even specific films (like the heavily Alien and 2001: A Space Odyssey inspired Far Future chapter) but it all comes together to create an uneven yet holistically vibrant adventure through time. One of the chapters has no dialogue. Another has no combat. One is just like Final Fantasy. One is structured like Street Fighter 2.
Without spoiling anything, this game’s final hours are so satisfying that even if you didn’t prefer one or two of the chapters, it makes it all feel worth it. But if variety is the spice of life, then this game should make you sign a waiver before putting it on your wings.
All of the chapters are so different that any one of them is going to be someone’s favorite, but here’s my loose ranking:
1. The Middle Ages
2. ???
3. Ancient China
4. The Far Future
5. The Near Future
6. Twilight of Edo Japan
7. The Wild West
8. Prehistory
9. Modern Day
P.S. Lei Kugo is the actual best Earthen Heart Master
I’ve never really been a ‘JRPG guy’ but since I’ve been trying to expand my horizons, and since the graphics looked sick and the content looked interesting (sci-fi, western, tokusatsu, etc.) I thought I’d give this a go. The combat is grid-based and turn-based, and is about status weaknesses and tactical positioning. It’s solid, but not what makes Live A Live truly special.
Each chapter’s plot is a pastiche of various genre tropes or even specific films (like the heavily Alien and 2001: A Space Odyssey inspired Far Future chapter) but it all comes together to create an uneven yet holistically vibrant adventure through time. One of the chapters has no dialogue. Another has no combat. One is just like Final Fantasy. One is structured like Street Fighter 2.
Without spoiling anything, this game’s final hours are so satisfying that even if you didn’t prefer one or two of the chapters, it makes it all feel worth it. But if variety is the spice of life, then this game should make you sign a waiver before putting it on your wings.
All of the chapters are so different that any one of them is going to be someone’s favorite, but here’s my loose ranking:
1. The Middle Ages
2. ???
3. Ancient China
4. The Far Future
5. The Near Future
6. Twilight of Edo Japan
7. The Wild West
8. Prehistory
9. Modern Day
P.S. Lei Kugo is the actual best Earthen Heart Master
This game goes from "Oh hey that's a pretty neat way to use the mechanics of classic JRPGs" to "Holy shit" real fast.
This game has one of my favorite stories in all of media. The vast, sprawling narrative coupled with strong thematic writing that encompasses the entire game makes it a joy to play through, picking up bits and pieces of Live A Live's message until the penultimate chapter flips it on its head, making for one hell of a surprise and perfectly paving the way for the final chapter. Live A Live's central feature, that being playing through multiple time periods, also lend themselves to Live A Live's storytelling, as in retrospect, seeing all these disorganized, jumbled facets of the game come together by weaving their arcs and storylines into the game's central theme all make for superb writing. And no matter how many times the game beats you down, tries to make you suffer, or puts our protagonists through unspeakable, manmade horrors, there's always that one faint glimmer of hope that shines through, urging us to continue forward, the world's ideas for us be damned. Just beautiful, overall.
The perfect videogame. Great story, really easy to play in short bursts instead of long sessions, optimized, tons of QoL stuff, GREAT characters, great cliffhangers, INCREDIBLE music...
I honestly recommend this game to anyone looking for a videogame to play, it is THAT good.
I honestly recommend this game to anyone looking for a videogame to play, it is THAT good.
This review contains spoilers
A SLIME draws near!
Command?
> FIGHT
OERSTED attacks!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
there's nothing new under the sun.
it's a pithy statement to the point of reductiveness, as such things usually are, but there is a truth to it, not one that condemns, but one that liberates. forgive me for drinking deep of the well of ideology here, but even though all of us may indeed be the products of the words and systems that surround us, no one is quite the same combination of influences as any other, which gives us a wholly unique perspective. but this is also why ensuring our horizons are broad is important, because although we can never widen our scope enough to take in everything, narrowing it in turn only presses the walls in around us, and leaves us with only one path forward.
dragon quest, then, is not a wholly unique game that sprung fully-formed out onto the famicom, but was once that represented a conscious effort to translate a specific mode of game - the popular pc rpgs of the time like wizardry and ultima - and many of the decisions it made clearly have immense thought and care put into them as a result of this, and the result was a game that changed the landscape of the entire industry. but in doing so, it provided a template, a set story for how these things go. defeat monsters. gather experience. explore dungeons. destroy T̵̲̼͆̅͘ͅȟ̸̲̇e̷̡̬̪͛ ̶͙̰͇̍̓̏L̵̪̽̒͌o̷͍͛r̴͖̙͋̾̕d̸̘̜͔̅̋̽ ̷̳͌́̑o̸̪͌̚f̶̗̹͓̆͂ ̶̗̗͊Ḍ̴̪̽͠a̸̙͌̍r̸̜͎̾k̶̻̽.
games that came in dragon quest's wake drew from this story, telling it over and over again. i do not wish to claim here that dragon quest is the only truly original work in the entire jrpg form because that's clearly a completely unhinged and wrong thing to say, but i do wish to argue that the things dragon quest put thought and care into creating were adopted wholesale, without the same level of purposefulness, by many other games, creating an intrinsic language of expectation and reference that in turn provides a bedrock of norms through which audiences and creators can process the form. this is useful, both artistically and financially for both the audience and the artist, but by it's nature it narrows the scope of the form arround it, and allows ideas that were never challenged or interrogated, even ones as simple as defeating enemies to gain experience points, to crystalise around the work, creating something that may indeed be beautiful, but is unmoving, unchanging.
while there are heavier consequences to this - the widespread homogenisation of monetization and progression systems in games undoubtedly is self-served by their uncritical ubiquity, and many stories continue to carry forth regressive ideas built into their hearts because the creators are unaware of them or unwilling to divest themselves from them - one that should also be considered is that the more and more complex the language of norms around a form becomes, the more insular and closed-off it is at risk of becoming.
one need only look at the third most-important JRPG to release in july 2022 to see what this results in: a complete mess of a game, only barely held together by self-justifying tropes and glue that the prospective player - intimately familiar with the construction of and tropes of these games - will simply accept and enjoy singularly. ask a single question about it's world or it's characters or it's plot and it's illusion of cohesiveness will shatter instantly. why does the party react with such horror to someone killing for sport in this cutscene, but will happily recruit the sexy warrior woman who also kills for sport in the very next cutscene? because each one is a trope that carries a set of norms that is implicitly understood and accepted by it's core audience, and proves to be completely baffling to anyone who does not speak this language - or, indeed, Thinks for One Minute.
(i kinda like it though. i am a student of this language, after all.)
the games that result from this aren't necessarily bad, but i think truly exceptional works will strive to be more than the perpetuations of their genre, want to create an experience that aspires to more than simply playing the hits and playing them adequately. because when your path is narrow, there's really only one way forward.
which brings us, at last, to live a live, and to what makes it truly special. while I think this game is clever and inventive constantly, i don't want to let that be mistaken for a game that is unlike anything you've seen or played before. indeed, in many ways, live a live revels in cliche, with each of its scenarios merrily indulging in the rote tropes of its genre. the difference is not merely in the choice to tackle stories that are - still! - rarely glimpsed within the JRPG form, but in how these stories are told. these are not 7 different miniature jrpgs in one - these are 7 stories that, like the original dragon quest before it, think so carefully about each aspect of themselves, and use jrpg mechanics in unique and surprising ways to tell those stories. and because it earnestly and completely invests in these stories, they are brought to new and wonderful life.
i have seen the story of a master training a prospective student to succeed them, but until live a live, i have never so completely been that master, thinking carefully about what techniques most benefit each of the students under my care, and trying to teach what I can in the time I have left. when i see my student finally surpass me, i feel genuine pride, because them reaching Level 9 means so much when I have been stuck in my Level 8 ways for all this time. i've seen heroes scramble to put together traps and tricks in a time limit to defeat an overwhelming enemy, but by utilizing a creative conception of the RPG loop of rifling through chests and cabinets for loot, it becomes realized kinaesthetically in a way i've scarcely seen before. not every chapter is wholly successful - for me, akira's near future anime ova riff does the least work to make the beats it's playing sing with new life by relying on a conception of the cliches themselves as self-evidently worthwhile, in a way that is shockingly prescient of the direction increasingly anime-influenced jrpgs like tales and xeno end up taking - but in almost all cases, live a live's creative use of its mechanics, presentation, and design makes what could potentially be rote stories play in beautiful harmony, a harmony that resounds through the commonalities that exist through the stories. there's nothing new under the sun, after all, and so each of these stories, these ideas, feed into one another across history, ultimately fighting the same enemy - hatred - across all time, as a straight club banger plays over the same fight being fought across the millennia.
live a live's unwillingness to accept for granted the norms of the RPG extends to all facets of it's construction, and the battle system is the clearest case for this. random encounters do exist, but they are confined behind the bars of the kingdom of lucrece, rpg conventions being a malady that haunts that land as a sickness more virulent than any the lord of dark could spread. but even here, you are subtly encouraged to flee from battle much more often than you would in other games of its type, due to both the game's EXP system making rewards for fighting weaker enemies to be so utterly negligible as to be practically nonexistent, and the way it offers rewards for escaping from battles with a certain character. In comparison to earthbound simply skipping encounters when you hit them, whilst still giving you all the rewards for combat, such as they are, live a live instead invites you to exercise your own restraint, to consciously choose to sheathe your sword, which is an interesting wrinkle that adds a layer of intentionality to it's violence once you realize that this isn't one of the long list of other jrpgs where you should never really use the flee button.
the chapters that come closest to being purely normative in their play are prehistoric and near future, but even here, the former invites you to become a hunter by having your nose track encounters in the world, and the latter has enemies patrolling the city streets of neo-japan in such a way that you can avoid confrontation but can also get cornered and blocked off. both are thematic and evocative, as are wild west's maneuver of a long buildup to a single gunfight and edo japan's invocation of the idea that a sword drawn is a conscious decision that invites violence (slightly hampered by certain traps putting you in a position where you have no choice but to draw it), but it's the far future that has the most thoughtful approach to combat in the game: because it mostly doesn't have it.
well, that's not true. you can actually play an arcade game using the game's combat system at almost any time, but it is consciously a distraction, separate from the ongoing concerns of the ship. your role in this chapter is that of a witness: a silent observer to the sci-fi horror film playing out around you. here, live a live demonstrates a remarkable awareness of the limits of it's own form - combat is how you interact with this world and combat won't help you here: all you can do is watch, and make coffee, as personal tragedies play out in front of you time and time again. fittingly for a chapter that takes place at the farthest reaches of time and humanity, far future explores the furthest edge of it's systems by depicting a story somewhat beyond the reach of the framework it finds itself in. like a beacon of hope shot in the night, pleading for a more nuanced world than this one. it's not surprising that the final moments of the chapter have you explicitly use the medium of a video game to kill a nascent life form, nor is it shocking that there is a twinge of regret that this is the only way this could have gone. isn't it a little sad that this is the way games currently are?
each element of the game is so well-considered, so carefully constructed to resonate and cohere with the wider piece and with itself. never is something there simply because it is expected to be there, never is a trope invoked without care or consideration into how it can be made to work with the greater whole. and when assumptions are found to be lacking, where the gaps of implication they leave behind are too big to ignore, they are challenged.
the oersted chapter is something of a flashpoint both for the game's critical legacy - such as it is - and the narrative around it. after a series of adventures that use rpg mechanics in creative and exciting ways to bring these pulp adventures to life, ending with a rote dragon quest riff could only be a bizarre self-defeating maneuver. is it any wonder then, that oersted was doomed? it's easy to look at the final moments of the hero declaring himself odio, lord of the dark, near-exclusively, but it's the moments beforehand - elevated by the remake's tastefully extended script, producing that exceedingly rare remake that i prefer to the original, whilst still having things the original does better - that make it work. the princess' agonised cries over the man she actually loved being murdered by the uncaring mute she was betrothed to because he happened to defeat the man she loved in combat at a tourney followed by her suicide is the real shock of this chapter, one where the care and attention live a live shows to all the cliches it invokes is turned on the dominant form of it's genre, exposing the sexist ideology that persists through dragon quest's vision of the heroic narrative. oersted's blind adherence to the script of his genre might lead to him falling to the darkness, but i will point out that the game doesn't use this to say that dragon quest is evil - this isn't spec ops: the line for jrpgs. the story of a band of heroes setting out to defeat the evil is not the issue: it is doing so unthinkingly, accepting rewards and events blindly, of assuming a love belongs to you simply because you are the hero that is entitled to it. oersted is not evil because jrpgs are evil: he's evil because he didn't think for a single second about the narrative handed to him.
it's why the final chapter itself still plays out like a traditional JRPG: assembling a party and travelling to the final dungeon to defeat the final boss with the power of friendship. but because it earns it, because it does the work to make every single step on that journey, because it refuses to simply take for granted the baked-in assumptions of it's genre and it's form...it works. it feels natural, it feels right. there's a strong argument to be made that live a live is something of a naive idealist in how it argues that the broad arcs of these stories are never irredeemable but are corruptible through thoughtlessness, but when it makes it's arguments with this much care and confidence it's very difficult to quibble with it. i never have to feel like I have to stop thinking, or just embrace that this is the way this story has to go in order to enjoy it, like I might have to do for so many other modern jrpgs, that are so wrapped up in their own convulution that they forget to do the work to actually make you care. as jackson tyler touches on in their own piece on the game, live a live is arguably even better in 2022 than it was in 1994, because of the way the genre has changed and, maybe more importantly, the ways that it hasn't, becoming more and more wrapped up in the snake eating its own tail without bothering to ask why we have the snake eat the tail in the first place, what might be gained by doing something new.
there is nothing completely new under the sun. live a live knows this, and accepts it, but remains inventive, remains questioning, remains determined to push up against the boundaries of what rpgs - what video games - can do, to find new ways to tell old stories, and old ways to tell new stories, playing the old hits with a purpose and style that makes them sing like they never quite have before, and hitting out with some new singles that won't ever leave you. Inspired, and inspiring in turn: live a live is a game to make you love games, a creation to make you want to create, and a memory I don't think I'll ever forget.
Command?
> FIGHT
OERSTED attacks!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
there's nothing new under the sun.
it's a pithy statement to the point of reductiveness, as such things usually are, but there is a truth to it, not one that condemns, but one that liberates. forgive me for drinking deep of the well of ideology here, but even though all of us may indeed be the products of the words and systems that surround us, no one is quite the same combination of influences as any other, which gives us a wholly unique perspective. but this is also why ensuring our horizons are broad is important, because although we can never widen our scope enough to take in everything, narrowing it in turn only presses the walls in around us, and leaves us with only one path forward.
dragon quest, then, is not a wholly unique game that sprung fully-formed out onto the famicom, but was once that represented a conscious effort to translate a specific mode of game - the popular pc rpgs of the time like wizardry and ultima - and many of the decisions it made clearly have immense thought and care put into them as a result of this, and the result was a game that changed the landscape of the entire industry. but in doing so, it provided a template, a set story for how these things go. defeat monsters. gather experience. explore dungeons. destroy T̵̲̼͆̅͘ͅȟ̸̲̇e̷̡̬̪͛ ̶͙̰͇̍̓̏L̵̪̽̒͌o̷͍͛r̴͖̙͋̾̕d̸̘̜͔̅̋̽ ̷̳͌́̑o̸̪͌̚f̶̗̹͓̆͂ ̶̗̗͊Ḍ̴̪̽͠a̸̙͌̍r̸̜͎̾k̶̻̽.
games that came in dragon quest's wake drew from this story, telling it over and over again. i do not wish to claim here that dragon quest is the only truly original work in the entire jrpg form because that's clearly a completely unhinged and wrong thing to say, but i do wish to argue that the things dragon quest put thought and care into creating were adopted wholesale, without the same level of purposefulness, by many other games, creating an intrinsic language of expectation and reference that in turn provides a bedrock of norms through which audiences and creators can process the form. this is useful, both artistically and financially for both the audience and the artist, but by it's nature it narrows the scope of the form arround it, and allows ideas that were never challenged or interrogated, even ones as simple as defeating enemies to gain experience points, to crystalise around the work, creating something that may indeed be beautiful, but is unmoving, unchanging.
while there are heavier consequences to this - the widespread homogenisation of monetization and progression systems in games undoubtedly is self-served by their uncritical ubiquity, and many stories continue to carry forth regressive ideas built into their hearts because the creators are unaware of them or unwilling to divest themselves from them - one that should also be considered is that the more and more complex the language of norms around a form becomes, the more insular and closed-off it is at risk of becoming.
one need only look at the third most-important JRPG to release in july 2022 to see what this results in: a complete mess of a game, only barely held together by self-justifying tropes and glue that the prospective player - intimately familiar with the construction of and tropes of these games - will simply accept and enjoy singularly. ask a single question about it's world or it's characters or it's plot and it's illusion of cohesiveness will shatter instantly. why does the party react with such horror to someone killing for sport in this cutscene, but will happily recruit the sexy warrior woman who also kills for sport in the very next cutscene? because each one is a trope that carries a set of norms that is implicitly understood and accepted by it's core audience, and proves to be completely baffling to anyone who does not speak this language - or, indeed, Thinks for One Minute.
(i kinda like it though. i am a student of this language, after all.)
the games that result from this aren't necessarily bad, but i think truly exceptional works will strive to be more than the perpetuations of their genre, want to create an experience that aspires to more than simply playing the hits and playing them adequately. because when your path is narrow, there's really only one way forward.
which brings us, at last, to live a live, and to what makes it truly special. while I think this game is clever and inventive constantly, i don't want to let that be mistaken for a game that is unlike anything you've seen or played before. indeed, in many ways, live a live revels in cliche, with each of its scenarios merrily indulging in the rote tropes of its genre. the difference is not merely in the choice to tackle stories that are - still! - rarely glimpsed within the JRPG form, but in how these stories are told. these are not 7 different miniature jrpgs in one - these are 7 stories that, like the original dragon quest before it, think so carefully about each aspect of themselves, and use jrpg mechanics in unique and surprising ways to tell those stories. and because it earnestly and completely invests in these stories, they are brought to new and wonderful life.
i have seen the story of a master training a prospective student to succeed them, but until live a live, i have never so completely been that master, thinking carefully about what techniques most benefit each of the students under my care, and trying to teach what I can in the time I have left. when i see my student finally surpass me, i feel genuine pride, because them reaching Level 9 means so much when I have been stuck in my Level 8 ways for all this time. i've seen heroes scramble to put together traps and tricks in a time limit to defeat an overwhelming enemy, but by utilizing a creative conception of the RPG loop of rifling through chests and cabinets for loot, it becomes realized kinaesthetically in a way i've scarcely seen before. not every chapter is wholly successful - for me, akira's near future anime ova riff does the least work to make the beats it's playing sing with new life by relying on a conception of the cliches themselves as self-evidently worthwhile, in a way that is shockingly prescient of the direction increasingly anime-influenced jrpgs like tales and xeno end up taking - but in almost all cases, live a live's creative use of its mechanics, presentation, and design makes what could potentially be rote stories play in beautiful harmony, a harmony that resounds through the commonalities that exist through the stories. there's nothing new under the sun, after all, and so each of these stories, these ideas, feed into one another across history, ultimately fighting the same enemy - hatred - across all time, as a straight club banger plays over the same fight being fought across the millennia.
live a live's unwillingness to accept for granted the norms of the RPG extends to all facets of it's construction, and the battle system is the clearest case for this. random encounters do exist, but they are confined behind the bars of the kingdom of lucrece, rpg conventions being a malady that haunts that land as a sickness more virulent than any the lord of dark could spread. but even here, you are subtly encouraged to flee from battle much more often than you would in other games of its type, due to both the game's EXP system making rewards for fighting weaker enemies to be so utterly negligible as to be practically nonexistent, and the way it offers rewards for escaping from battles with a certain character. In comparison to earthbound simply skipping encounters when you hit them, whilst still giving you all the rewards for combat, such as they are, live a live instead invites you to exercise your own restraint, to consciously choose to sheathe your sword, which is an interesting wrinkle that adds a layer of intentionality to it's violence once you realize that this isn't one of the long list of other jrpgs where you should never really use the flee button.
the chapters that come closest to being purely normative in their play are prehistoric and near future, but even here, the former invites you to become a hunter by having your nose track encounters in the world, and the latter has enemies patrolling the city streets of neo-japan in such a way that you can avoid confrontation but can also get cornered and blocked off. both are thematic and evocative, as are wild west's maneuver of a long buildup to a single gunfight and edo japan's invocation of the idea that a sword drawn is a conscious decision that invites violence (slightly hampered by certain traps putting you in a position where you have no choice but to draw it), but it's the far future that has the most thoughtful approach to combat in the game: because it mostly doesn't have it.
well, that's not true. you can actually play an arcade game using the game's combat system at almost any time, but it is consciously a distraction, separate from the ongoing concerns of the ship. your role in this chapter is that of a witness: a silent observer to the sci-fi horror film playing out around you. here, live a live demonstrates a remarkable awareness of the limits of it's own form - combat is how you interact with this world and combat won't help you here: all you can do is watch, and make coffee, as personal tragedies play out in front of you time and time again. fittingly for a chapter that takes place at the farthest reaches of time and humanity, far future explores the furthest edge of it's systems by depicting a story somewhat beyond the reach of the framework it finds itself in. like a beacon of hope shot in the night, pleading for a more nuanced world than this one. it's not surprising that the final moments of the chapter have you explicitly use the medium of a video game to kill a nascent life form, nor is it shocking that there is a twinge of regret that this is the only way this could have gone. isn't it a little sad that this is the way games currently are?
each element of the game is so well-considered, so carefully constructed to resonate and cohere with the wider piece and with itself. never is something there simply because it is expected to be there, never is a trope invoked without care or consideration into how it can be made to work with the greater whole. and when assumptions are found to be lacking, where the gaps of implication they leave behind are too big to ignore, they are challenged.
the oersted chapter is something of a flashpoint both for the game's critical legacy - such as it is - and the narrative around it. after a series of adventures that use rpg mechanics in creative and exciting ways to bring these pulp adventures to life, ending with a rote dragon quest riff could only be a bizarre self-defeating maneuver. is it any wonder then, that oersted was doomed? it's easy to look at the final moments of the hero declaring himself odio, lord of the dark, near-exclusively, but it's the moments beforehand - elevated by the remake's tastefully extended script, producing that exceedingly rare remake that i prefer to the original, whilst still having things the original does better - that make it work. the princess' agonised cries over the man she actually loved being murdered by the uncaring mute she was betrothed to because he happened to defeat the man she loved in combat at a tourney followed by her suicide is the real shock of this chapter, one where the care and attention live a live shows to all the cliches it invokes is turned on the dominant form of it's genre, exposing the sexist ideology that persists through dragon quest's vision of the heroic narrative. oersted's blind adherence to the script of his genre might lead to him falling to the darkness, but i will point out that the game doesn't use this to say that dragon quest is evil - this isn't spec ops: the line for jrpgs. the story of a band of heroes setting out to defeat the evil is not the issue: it is doing so unthinkingly, accepting rewards and events blindly, of assuming a love belongs to you simply because you are the hero that is entitled to it. oersted is not evil because jrpgs are evil: he's evil because he didn't think for a single second about the narrative handed to him.
it's why the final chapter itself still plays out like a traditional JRPG: assembling a party and travelling to the final dungeon to defeat the final boss with the power of friendship. but because it earns it, because it does the work to make every single step on that journey, because it refuses to simply take for granted the baked-in assumptions of it's genre and it's form...it works. it feels natural, it feels right. there's a strong argument to be made that live a live is something of a naive idealist in how it argues that the broad arcs of these stories are never irredeemable but are corruptible through thoughtlessness, but when it makes it's arguments with this much care and confidence it's very difficult to quibble with it. i never have to feel like I have to stop thinking, or just embrace that this is the way this story has to go in order to enjoy it, like I might have to do for so many other modern jrpgs, that are so wrapped up in their own convulution that they forget to do the work to actually make you care. as jackson tyler touches on in their own piece on the game, live a live is arguably even better in 2022 than it was in 1994, because of the way the genre has changed and, maybe more importantly, the ways that it hasn't, becoming more and more wrapped up in the snake eating its own tail without bothering to ask why we have the snake eat the tail in the first place, what might be gained by doing something new.
there is nothing completely new under the sun. live a live knows this, and accepts it, but remains inventive, remains questioning, remains determined to push up against the boundaries of what rpgs - what video games - can do, to find new ways to tell old stories, and old ways to tell new stories, playing the old hits with a purpose and style that makes them sing like they never quite have before, and hitting out with some new singles that won't ever leave you. Inspired, and inspiring in turn: live a live is a game to make you love games, a creation to make you want to create, and a memory I don't think I'll ever forget.
This review contains spoilers
Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces is many things. It's a piece of literature about stories, one that seeks to analyze texts from the past and take notice of patterns in their archetypes and monomyths. It's where our idea of the "hero's journey" comes from. It's also something that is often taken as gospel by storytellers and artists, not as analysis but as rigid structure, which is simply not its intent. Campbell only intended it to be an observation of storytelling structures that existed, not a particular endorsement of them (though its mere existence, as we see, endorses them.)
Live A Live eschews this structure inherently by introducing its own format, a rejection of it. Seven disparate stories of varying lengths that all add up to become both a subversion and a passionate love letter to the history of artistic expression itself. Each chapter, each story is a microcosm of a genre, one that speaks to their themes in loving homage instead of cynical parody. A western is an atmospheric and tense piece, one where finding traps and laying them under the gun of a timer is crucial to getting the one-on-one gunfight at the end to be a bit easier on you. A distant future featuring no combat is defined by its walks through cramped corridors and the dread of being perceived by both mechanical and organic beings much more powerful than you. Even our present day manages to speak to the fighting game genre perfectly as an RPG, one where you grow and learn the strategies of your opponents as you fight them and adapt to them. It's utterly masterful.
However, the thematic connection between the seven chapters does not become clear until the eighth. The tale of Oersted the knight, one indicated by lavish prose and haunting imagery, is one of the most potent in Square's oeuvre. The rejection of the hero's journey is at its most potent here. A stark image of a knight standing against darkness, one of humanity's oldest and classical heroes, but there's a simple twist which reveals that the knight himself was the true villain - a man who felt so entitled to everything that he got that it led to his own downfall, killing his own king after seeing a spectre of his own paranoia. The demon king was nothing that wasn't already present in the hearts of men. Our oldest stories are not safe from our own darkness.
While Live A Live could easily dwell on this misery, a condemnation of human art, it chooses not to. The final chapter is a stretch that argues that in spite of everything, of all the failures of old stories and all the demons that we possess within us, humanity has one very strong tool in its arsenal: we continue to reinvent our stories. The artistic works of the 80s and 90s from kung fu flicks to cavemen manga to mecha anime all come together to form a reinvention of the same ideas that formed Arthurian legend and to destroy the traditionalism that prevents art from moving forward, the great demon king that forever antagonizes it. Live A Live is not only a love letter to artistic expression, or a condemnation of traditionalism and a refusal to reinvent and explore new ideas, but also a beautiful reinforcement that art continues to grow and change and evolve with time, no matter what.
Campbell's observation is often taken too closely to heart, a repetition of monomyths of old into the modern day by authors who are unfortunately afraid it's the only way to write. Live A Live dissects this mentality thoroughly, not only through its structural dismissal of it but its own twisted hero's journey.
It's simply beautiful.
Live A Live eschews this structure inherently by introducing its own format, a rejection of it. Seven disparate stories of varying lengths that all add up to become both a subversion and a passionate love letter to the history of artistic expression itself. Each chapter, each story is a microcosm of a genre, one that speaks to their themes in loving homage instead of cynical parody. A western is an atmospheric and tense piece, one where finding traps and laying them under the gun of a timer is crucial to getting the one-on-one gunfight at the end to be a bit easier on you. A distant future featuring no combat is defined by its walks through cramped corridors and the dread of being perceived by both mechanical and organic beings much more powerful than you. Even our present day manages to speak to the fighting game genre perfectly as an RPG, one where you grow and learn the strategies of your opponents as you fight them and adapt to them. It's utterly masterful.
However, the thematic connection between the seven chapters does not become clear until the eighth. The tale of Oersted the knight, one indicated by lavish prose and haunting imagery, is one of the most potent in Square's oeuvre. The rejection of the hero's journey is at its most potent here. A stark image of a knight standing against darkness, one of humanity's oldest and classical heroes, but there's a simple twist which reveals that the knight himself was the true villain - a man who felt so entitled to everything that he got that it led to his own downfall, killing his own king after seeing a spectre of his own paranoia. The demon king was nothing that wasn't already present in the hearts of men. Our oldest stories are not safe from our own darkness.
While Live A Live could easily dwell on this misery, a condemnation of human art, it chooses not to. The final chapter is a stretch that argues that in spite of everything, of all the failures of old stories and all the demons that we possess within us, humanity has one very strong tool in its arsenal: we continue to reinvent our stories. The artistic works of the 80s and 90s from kung fu flicks to cavemen manga to mecha anime all come together to form a reinvention of the same ideas that formed Arthurian legend and to destroy the traditionalism that prevents art from moving forward, the great demon king that forever antagonizes it. Live A Live is not only a love letter to artistic expression, or a condemnation of traditionalism and a refusal to reinvent and explore new ideas, but also a beautiful reinforcement that art continues to grow and change and evolve with time, no matter what.
Campbell's observation is often taken too closely to heart, a repetition of monomyths of old into the modern day by authors who are unfortunately afraid it's the only way to write. Live A Live dissects this mentality thoroughly, not only through its structural dismissal of it but its own twisted hero's journey.
It's simply beautiful.
Live A Live is one of the most unique JRPGS I've ever played. Its got a lot of love put into it, and you can feel it. The remastered 2.5 HD art style helps bring each story to life. While the actual gameplay is definitely a product of its time, as a whole the game is something everyone should experience
This review contains spoilers
Hate My Stupid Bitch Wife. I will go back in time to the prehistoric era as a tyrannosaurus rex and kill some cavemen because i hate her so so much
Live A Live is a lost gem from the past, more specifically from the Super Nintendo era. In its time it didn't sell well, so Square Soft chose to consider it as a failure and leave this game in oblivion, a totally undeserved fate... or so it was until it was unexpectedly and miraculously brought back with this magnificent remake.
I don't like to use the term "ahead of its time" but in this case, Live A Live was.
I think we all know Kirby Super Star for SNES, a game that distinguished itself from the rest by having the caption "8 Games in one!". I always thought it had a very good design, because in an era where games were getting longer and longer to finish (something that happens even today with games that last longer than they should to finish), having a game that is divided into small games with different gimmicks and themes each one sounds like a pretty fresh and striking idea, because you never get tired of one in specific for the short duration they have. Well, what if I tell you that Square Soft did exactly the same thing 2 years before Kirby Super Star, but for JRPGs with Live A Live.
This game is exactly about that, in base, you have 7 short stories, each one with different elements in its gameplay and theme, each one with its own protagonist, and each one set in a different time era, so you have the typical ones, as can be the prehistory, the present and the future, but you also have unique scenarios like the ninjas, the Chinese imperial era or the old west. Something to highlight of this game, is that in 1994 RPGs did not really vary much from the same medieval setting, but Live A Live presented with a lot of different scenarios that make parody, reference and tribute to all kinds of works such as movies, anime, maga and even other video games.
Something that all chapters of the game share is the combat system, which moves away from the traditional turn-based system to develop the battles in a grid in which both our opponents and ourselves can move to execute all kinds of attacks. This game simplifies things a bit, because as such there are no MPs, you are free to use the character's skills at no cost, you can use them whenever you want and however you want, from the weakest and most ineffective kick, to the most destructive attack. I have to say that it's quite easy to understand and has a simplistic approach so that even the most novice can enjoy it, and overall I think it's a brilliant combat system, because each battle feels like a different puzzle, which although simple, is satisfying to complete.
You'll be thinking that the premise is quite similar to Octopath Traveler, but even though they have the same concept, the way they approach it differs a lot. While in Octopath Traveler the stories had to have more or less the same quality, length and structure, in this game it is quite the opposite, as all the stories are made to be different from each other, both in quality and length, as each one wants to achieve something different, and that is exactly what makes it special. Each of the stories is well written, but what in my opinion really makes them shine, is that they use mechanics from the game itself to really make you feel involved in the stories. Live A Live is one of those games that really takes advantage of the unique medium that video games are to give you a narrative and experience that would only be possible in a video game itself. And that's something to point out, because you can't say the same about other games that came out around the same time, or even many that come out today.
This remake is fantastic, because although the original experience is still great, all the improvements that are included in this version are too good. For starters, similar to what happened with Final Fantasy VI, the characters now look like their sprites in the battles when they are walking around the map, and not only that, but all the pixel art was redone based on the originals, but giving them more colors and detail, and more importantly, a lot of new and detailed animations were added both pixel art and CG that give a little more life to this game. The graphic style of Octopath Travler was used for this remake, but even so, both games look very different, because while in Octopath Traveler the scenarios have a lot of details and realistic effects, and the textures had a pixel art look to give it that retro effect, in Live A Live its use is more measured and the pixel art of the characters is much more expressive, pixel art textures are still used for the environments, but in a more subtle way, which gives a cleaner and more concise look. I still don't know if I prefer how Octopath Traveler or Live A Live looks, but I like that even though both games are made with "HD-2D" graphics, the art style feels distinct enough to give Live A Live a unique feel and identity.
In the original Live A Live sometimes knowing where to go could be very ambiguous, that's why one addition I appreciated was the radar, which tells you which areas you have already explored and where to go to continue in the story, and it's a great addition because in case you prefer a more original experience you can always disable it (the game itself mentions it when you start the game). The radar is something original from Octopath Traveler, however, something I didn't like about its implementation in this game is that to disable it you need to go to the settings menu instead of being able to do it by simply pressing the R1 button, as you could in Octopath Traveler. I say this because the radar is sometimes redundant and I prefer to disable it to immerse myself more in the game. I only recommend it in the near future and far future stories, as sometimes it's ambiguous to know what to do next (although they also added a couple of dialogs that mitigate this), in all other stories it's not so necessary (unless you're really lost).
Speaking of the soundtrack, I think Yoko Shimomura's work for this game has become my favorite from her, both for the quality of the pieces and the variety of them. Normally in Kingdom Hearts all the songs have a similar style, but here all the songs vary in style to better stick to the era they try to represent, I give as an example these two songs, which precisely contrast how different they can be despite having been composed by the same person (Clash in China) (The Wilds). Frankly, I loved the whole soundtrack of this game, has become one of my favorites. The team that was in charge of making the arrangements did a magnificent job.
I've already talked about how Live A Live pays tribute to other media, and to top it all off, after finishing the 7 main stories, you unlock a secret chapter that pays tribute to the JRPG genre itself and the game that started it all: the first Dragon Quest. The story and the setting are more or less the same, a silent hero (which I recommend to put your name hehe ...), which must rescue his beloved princess of the fearsome dragon lord, I mean, lord of the dark, so to achieve such a feat you must go through the same steps of the hero before you to defeat the villain of this story. And I say no more, for this is a game that is best when you play it without spoilers, and especially in this chapter, for knowing absolutely nothing about the latter other than the initial plot is what makes it even better. (I wasn't sure about even mentioning this part of the game, but given that the average review on this site makes even bigger spoilers, and even the trailers themselves do, I figured it would be appropriate to do so).
Conclusion
It was all the idea of Takashi Tokita, the original director of Live A Live, who prior to this game had already worked on Final Fantasy IV and later was one of the directors of Chrono Trigger (which now playing this game, I can notice a lot of the influence his direction had). You can tell that at the time it was a game made by a development team with a lot of passion and dedication, and fortunately the same can be said of this remake.
And I have nothing to say other than that I highly recommend playing this game. I played it without many expectations really, but after finishing it, I can only say that I'm very sorry I didn't give it a chance earlier. Live A Live is a masterpiece not only of the genre, but of video games.
Frankly, it has become one of my favorite games of all time, maybe in this review I didn't explain many of the reasons why, but that was to avoid spoilers, because it really is a game that should be played by everyone.
I don't like to use the term "ahead of its time" but in this case, Live A Live was.
I think we all know Kirby Super Star for SNES, a game that distinguished itself from the rest by having the caption "8 Games in one!". I always thought it had a very good design, because in an era where games were getting longer and longer to finish (something that happens even today with games that last longer than they should to finish), having a game that is divided into small games with different gimmicks and themes each one sounds like a pretty fresh and striking idea, because you never get tired of one in specific for the short duration they have. Well, what if I tell you that Square Soft did exactly the same thing 2 years before Kirby Super Star, but for JRPGs with Live A Live.
This game is exactly about that, in base, you have 7 short stories, each one with different elements in its gameplay and theme, each one with its own protagonist, and each one set in a different time era, so you have the typical ones, as can be the prehistory, the present and the future, but you also have unique scenarios like the ninjas, the Chinese imperial era or the old west. Something to highlight of this game, is that in 1994 RPGs did not really vary much from the same medieval setting, but Live A Live presented with a lot of different scenarios that make parody, reference and tribute to all kinds of works such as movies, anime, maga and even other video games.
Something that all chapters of the game share is the combat system, which moves away from the traditional turn-based system to develop the battles in a grid in which both our opponents and ourselves can move to execute all kinds of attacks. This game simplifies things a bit, because as such there are no MPs, you are free to use the character's skills at no cost, you can use them whenever you want and however you want, from the weakest and most ineffective kick, to the most destructive attack. I have to say that it's quite easy to understand and has a simplistic approach so that even the most novice can enjoy it, and overall I think it's a brilliant combat system, because each battle feels like a different puzzle, which although simple, is satisfying to complete.
You'll be thinking that the premise is quite similar to Octopath Traveler, but even though they have the same concept, the way they approach it differs a lot. While in Octopath Traveler the stories had to have more or less the same quality, length and structure, in this game it is quite the opposite, as all the stories are made to be different from each other, both in quality and length, as each one wants to achieve something different, and that is exactly what makes it special. Each of the stories is well written, but what in my opinion really makes them shine, is that they use mechanics from the game itself to really make you feel involved in the stories. Live A Live is one of those games that really takes advantage of the unique medium that video games are to give you a narrative and experience that would only be possible in a video game itself. And that's something to point out, because you can't say the same about other games that came out around the same time, or even many that come out today.
This remake is fantastic, because although the original experience is still great, all the improvements that are included in this version are too good. For starters, similar to what happened with Final Fantasy VI, the characters now look like their sprites in the battles when they are walking around the map, and not only that, but all the pixel art was redone based on the originals, but giving them more colors and detail, and more importantly, a lot of new and detailed animations were added both pixel art and CG that give a little more life to this game. The graphic style of Octopath Travler was used for this remake, but even so, both games look very different, because while in Octopath Traveler the scenarios have a lot of details and realistic effects, and the textures had a pixel art look to give it that retro effect, in Live A Live its use is more measured and the pixel art of the characters is much more expressive, pixel art textures are still used for the environments, but in a more subtle way, which gives a cleaner and more concise look. I still don't know if I prefer how Octopath Traveler or Live A Live looks, but I like that even though both games are made with "HD-2D" graphics, the art style feels distinct enough to give Live A Live a unique feel and identity.
In the original Live A Live sometimes knowing where to go could be very ambiguous, that's why one addition I appreciated was the radar, which tells you which areas you have already explored and where to go to continue in the story, and it's a great addition because in case you prefer a more original experience you can always disable it (the game itself mentions it when you start the game). The radar is something original from Octopath Traveler, however, something I didn't like about its implementation in this game is that to disable it you need to go to the settings menu instead of being able to do it by simply pressing the R1 button, as you could in Octopath Traveler. I say this because the radar is sometimes redundant and I prefer to disable it to immerse myself more in the game. I only recommend it in the near future and far future stories, as sometimes it's ambiguous to know what to do next (although they also added a couple of dialogs that mitigate this), in all other stories it's not so necessary (unless you're really lost).
Speaking of the soundtrack, I think Yoko Shimomura's work for this game has become my favorite from her, both for the quality of the pieces and the variety of them. Normally in Kingdom Hearts all the songs have a similar style, but here all the songs vary in style to better stick to the era they try to represent, I give as an example these two songs, which precisely contrast how different they can be despite having been composed by the same person (Clash in China) (The Wilds). Frankly, I loved the whole soundtrack of this game, has become one of my favorites. The team that was in charge of making the arrangements did a magnificent job.
I've already talked about how Live A Live pays tribute to other media, and to top it all off, after finishing the 7 main stories, you unlock a secret chapter that pays tribute to the JRPG genre itself and the game that started it all: the first Dragon Quest. The story and the setting are more or less the same, a silent hero (which I recommend to put your name hehe ...), which must rescue his beloved princess of the fearsome dragon lord, I mean, lord of the dark, so to achieve such a feat you must go through the same steps of the hero before you to defeat the villain of this story. And I say no more, for this is a game that is best when you play it without spoilers, and especially in this chapter, for knowing absolutely nothing about the latter other than the initial plot is what makes it even better. (I wasn't sure about even mentioning this part of the game, but given that the average review on this site makes even bigger spoilers, and even the trailers themselves do, I figured it would be appropriate to do so).
Conclusion
It was all the idea of Takashi Tokita, the original director of Live A Live, who prior to this game had already worked on Final Fantasy IV and later was one of the directors of Chrono Trigger (which now playing this game, I can notice a lot of the influence his direction had). You can tell that at the time it was a game made by a development team with a lot of passion and dedication, and fortunately the same can be said of this remake.
And I have nothing to say other than that I highly recommend playing this game. I played it without many expectations really, but after finishing it, I can only say that I'm very sorry I didn't give it a chance earlier. Live A Live is a masterpiece not only of the genre, but of video games.
Frankly, it has become one of my favorite games of all time, maybe in this review I didn't explain many of the reasons why, but that was to avoid spoilers, because it really is a game that should be played by everyone.
The 13 Sentinels of JRPGs.
Critically acclaimed forgotten darling good.
Don't think I have a lot to add to the conversation that others haven't sad better. A masterpiece of rpg storytelling, delighting itself in cliches while experimenting and tinkering and expanding the genre to new heights. Stunning from beginning to end. There were some chapters where I got kind of burned out and ready to move on, but the whole game is so packed with charm and care, and the game leaps from story to story so fast that you can't help but adore it nearly every step of the way. The impact its add on the industry is immeasurable.
Imperial China's is perhaps the game's most ambitious in its mechanics and scope with its characters, but Wild West and Far Future also stood out to me in just how much it was experimenting with and how it instantly seems to nail these aspects without any trouble. Just stunning.
Don't think I have a lot to add to the conversation that others haven't sad better. A masterpiece of rpg storytelling, delighting itself in cliches while experimenting and tinkering and expanding the genre to new heights. Stunning from beginning to end. There were some chapters where I got kind of burned out and ready to move on, but the whole game is so packed with charm and care, and the game leaps from story to story so fast that you can't help but adore it nearly every step of the way. The impact its add on the industry is immeasurable.
Imperial China's is perhaps the game's most ambitious in its mechanics and scope with its characters, but Wild West and Far Future also stood out to me in just how much it was experimenting with and how it instantly seems to nail these aspects without any trouble. Just stunning.
I’m glad that we finally got this cult classic JRPG in the West, but it has so many issues I have that stack up over time. Pathetically easy to weirdly difficult balancing, alright redone OST that should have included the SNES OST too, questionable localization at times, and some elements truly show its SNES era of design. Despite these problems, Live A Live is pretty cool, especially as someone who doesn’t enjoy Octopath Traveler that much. Middle Ages chapter is the best story in a JRPG I ever experience. Never kneeled so hard in my RPG journey…
the second coming of christ
some years ago i played the original live a live and while i still think its one of the greatest rpgs ever made in this world where sinners wreak havoc i do think it actually has some issues here and there that couldve been fixed and in complete honesty i hated whatever they were going for with the battle system (im impressed with what they accomplished though and i can say that for the first 30 minutes the battle system was something so completely different from what people were used to in that age of videogames but still i wish it didnt single handedly give me brain damage)
live a live has a sick premise you get to choose between 7 (?) different scenarios that play out in 7 (?) different time periods and its absolutely incredible if you ask me even more incredible when you think about the fact that the main skeleton of the entire game still is the 1994 SNES original concept and everything else is either graphic overall or some QOL changes to story beats and combat mechanics
as for the remake in itself i can say that the 2D HD aesthetic of octopath travelers echoes of time really do justice to the beautiful and unique environments you will have to travel in this super convoluted story on god
so as always first things first lets talk about everything except the major story beats for the little gangsters out there who read sull reviews without actually having played the game on god
i didnt think about a real tier list for the different stories until now and im pretty confident i wont be able to make a tier list thats gonna really put all my feelings for this game into words so im gonna do it anyway because im quirky and goofy like that
Tier S
Oboromaru (sexy ninja) and then Oersted (sexy warrior)
Tier A
Sundown (has some gay implications) and Cube (has some incredibly tight horror/mystery vibes) and Akira (not a huge fan of the pacing but akira is kinda hot i wish he read all of my thoughts)
Tier B
Pogo (i actually do like this one a lot but the random grinding mid game was kinda baffling also the power of sex and pussy) and Shifu (i also love this one but it has some weird pacing) and Masaru (i hate masaru)
that being said i actually do enjoy most of these by themselves and the fact that you can play them in every order you deem fit so that people like me can go on and choose oboromaru right away so basically everything else turns into a B tier movie because the middle ages is just that good
as i was saying they remade the graphics from scratch and i believe this would be absolutely wasted if it wasnt of the incredible art design this game has going on every single scenario plays out a different vibe and therefore the atmosphere of the entire world around it changes with it the ninja scenario is gloomy and atmospheric due to the fact that it plays out at night and you gotta be stealthy stealthy (or murderous your choice) or like the cowboy scenario that plays out in a desert and so everything is bright as fuck and shit like that OR the robot scenario where theres thriller vibes all around and UGHHHHHHHH
this is not only about the environments in itself but the characters also got some bomb spritework thats honestly jawdropping compared to the original works and its absolutely fucking insane and when you put these 2 together with the 2D HD engine some bomb lighting effects (that dont look like the piss hue of octopath traveler) and some dinamic camerawork you get such an immersive experience that really enhances the already incredible story this game got going on
i would love to have an entire segment talking about music and how the music in this game is top notch and every ost got my bussy popping but thats not possible because theres no osts on youtube or anywhere else because square is a fucking disgrace to society and they didnt even publish the ost like HOW HARD CAN IT BE you already got the ost files ready you released the games you know how can you not have this stuff in there ready for uploading but i digress so anyway the music in this game is absolutely insane i wouldve loved to listen to it after beating the game but as i said its not possible for the love of everything alive on earth in this moment and megalomania is the most hype song in a videogame ive ever listened to so
the combat system was actually shall i say rejuvenated as in it didnt make me want to fucking kill myself which is a welcome feeling and now that its actually shall i say playable its incredible how actually great it is you got some of the most interesting grid turn based combat in a while and even though it may not be the greatest idea in the longrun it always keeps you entertained with different moves and move patterns to use and actually great conversion from story to battle (cowboy scenario is centered on long range attacks while fighter scenario focuses on short range attacks) and people need to respect the fact that the shit throwing attack is sick
so
time for some 1 on 1 convo about the different scenarios because im a mad man and i got something to say
PROBABLY SOME SPOILERS AHEAD IM NOT A SAFE PERSON TO BE AROUND
prehistory
possibly one of the most interesting scenarios in the entirety of the game due to environments and how it conveys the story you play as a caveman and since these people are actually years and years before language all day do is make noises and talk in speech bubbles (love the fact that the speech bubbles actually have the original sprites in them its such a cute detail if you ask me) and has some interesting gameplay mechanics you got to craft some weapons smell the foul odors of beasts to KILL THEM and EAT THEM and thats basically it until you rescue a femme fatale whose pussy probably stink of fish and yet shes one of my fav characters forreal not a big fan of the sudden grinding in this one but at least its not octopath traveler im sorry it sounds like i hate octopath but in general i do really like it so anyway big dinosaur boss monkey throwing shit around and a guy with a lizard on his dick and crazy hot sex
imperial china
i fuck with the themes around this scenario quite a lot actually like the fact that time will always eat everything up and the importance of generational traditions and death and stuff like that like i fuck FUCK with that . but i also do think this couldve been pushed a bit to the extremes and lacks some heart to heart convo due to the fact that it plays around with training new disciples and choosing a successor (if you dont choose lei we cannot be friends) and in general the environments do look a bit aseptic i wanted some more stuff some more angst some more more anyway still great if you ask me im sorry
twilight of edo japan
this is the one guys this is the best one . now this is probably the longest chapter in the entirety of the game if you put aside the final final chapter and it has such a great premise youre a ninja on a mission to rescue a guy who turns out to be a famous guy from japanese history whatever we dont care and in the meantime you can do it with different methods you can either kill everything in your path or just going there and doing your thing and leaving now im pretty sure if youre mentally stable you will choose to just kill everyone also being underleveled with oboromaru in the final chapter ? you dont want that plus its way easier to just kill then level up then kill some more and get a lot of goodies from around the place and being tricked and FALLING FROM THE CEILING GOD THAT FUCKING CEILING and you know stuff like that plus the castle is a fucking labyrinth so im pretty sure this is gonna take you some 4 hours or whatever thats probably how much it took me to finish it so anyway yeah this is great and also my favorite scenario in this game thank you everybody for your time
wild west
if you ask me this is the most queer coded media ive ever seen in a while like you cannot tell me sundown and the other guy are not enemies to lovers you literally cannot do that to me you may come and show me a picture of sundown FUCKING a biological woman and id say ok well what about the ending where they run off together in the horizon this is a homosexual im looking at and I wont reason with anybody in the group chat . anyhow this is a supershort chapter and isn't even battle heavy because you just gotta go around and craft traps so theres that
present day
i famously hate this chapter . now its not about the chapter in itself I actually do dig this I gotta be the strongest kind of theme but I'm not that generous with the actual gameplay stuff . mind you this chapter was actually MUCH MORE DIFFICULT in the original one this time if you know what you're doing you can breeze through it in just 30 minutes but yknow idk why I dislike this chapter this much maybe im just bitchy because the main man isn't hot
near future
I want to slurp on akiras dick . sorry now that that is out of the way this is an interesting chapter but i believe it looses its charm because of some weird pacing choices you are a telepath hot yankee with a thing for his sister but honestly who in japanese media doesn't have a siscon so whatever you gotta battle with some other thugs who are somehow thugger than you and go around with either a very macho motorbike guy or a super giant robot with an anime opening . honestly this chapter is actually kinda weird to explain but the battles are interesting due to the fact that are based around killing the main enemy so that you can also kill the 10+ mini robots around the battlefield . you will understand
distant future
possibly the weirdest one for the fact that theres no fighting (I mean for most of it) and it's entirely story driven with a focus on horror/mystery and lemme tell you this remake did SUCH a great job to the horrorish contents its insane yall basically you're a robot in a spaceship and there's also like 4 humans that begin to slowly die weird deaths here and there and you gotta uncover the mystery AND make some coffee so basically my day to day life . so this is a great chapter thank you everybody for you time
middle ages
now …….. this is the one . oersted is my little baby I will defend him to hell and back he did nothing wrong and is pretty hot and can split me apart whenever he wants . this is basically the most jrpg chapter of every single one the setting is medieval fantasy like your classic final fantasy / dragon quest title there's a focus on battles and leveling with random encounters you create a party with different "classes" (there's no classes but the characters represent different classes) and you gotta save the princess . slowly you can see the steady decline of oersteds mental capabilities due to the treasons of every single character around him its insane me when the silent protagonist of my little jrpg begins to talk . also its insane how this manages to emulate the jrpg genre so well you're like oh ok im gonna save the princess the end AND YET that bitch let you down with a suicide in front of you like nothing happened and at that point oersted shifts and becomes the lord of shadow ? like theres no stories like these anymore the complete dread and hopelessness this chapter gave me are insane . deadass oersted loved aletheia so much and if you noticed most bosses charm abilities have no effect on oersted because hes just so in love with aletheia he can't be swayed from his righteous path . like also streibough is a dick
final chapter
apart from the fact that the final chapter can be tackles from the viewpoint of sir odio and just crush every single character of the different chapters . after you pick your main fighter this is gonna play out also as a jrpg experience you're gonna recruit the different characters from the different chapters make them level up and explore some dungeons to get that good good equipments to fight head on with odio . obviously l chose orobomaru and he's fucking insane you can wipe out most of the enemies out there and it's definitely a great option if you leveled him enough in the main game . main party for me was cube sundown and pogo kinda great party if you ask me I didn't have any problem whatsoever . so after you do your stuff you get to odio beat his ass in an incredible final battle have some heartbreaking moment and everyone goes home the end
also the final battle Is damn fucking epic and you get some more final scenes to see what the characters are up to after their stories end . this game yall
so this is still the masterpiece from the end of the 20th century but completely revamped with some QOL changes and I'm incredibly glad this is even real so thank you everybody who worked on this one because now i can satiate my thirst with some rule34 fanarts of the main cast . cheers
some years ago i played the original live a live and while i still think its one of the greatest rpgs ever made in this world where sinners wreak havoc i do think it actually has some issues here and there that couldve been fixed and in complete honesty i hated whatever they were going for with the battle system (im impressed with what they accomplished though and i can say that for the first 30 minutes the battle system was something so completely different from what people were used to in that age of videogames but still i wish it didnt single handedly give me brain damage)
live a live has a sick premise you get to choose between 7 (?) different scenarios that play out in 7 (?) different time periods and its absolutely incredible if you ask me even more incredible when you think about the fact that the main skeleton of the entire game still is the 1994 SNES original concept and everything else is either graphic overall or some QOL changes to story beats and combat mechanics
as for the remake in itself i can say that the 2D HD aesthetic of octopath travelers echoes of time really do justice to the beautiful and unique environments you will have to travel in this super convoluted story on god
so as always first things first lets talk about everything except the major story beats for the little gangsters out there who read sull reviews without actually having played the game on god
i didnt think about a real tier list for the different stories until now and im pretty confident i wont be able to make a tier list thats gonna really put all my feelings for this game into words so im gonna do it anyway because im quirky and goofy like that
Tier S
Oboromaru (sexy ninja) and then Oersted (sexy warrior)
Tier A
Sundown (has some gay implications) and Cube (has some incredibly tight horror/mystery vibes) and Akira (not a huge fan of the pacing but akira is kinda hot i wish he read all of my thoughts)
Tier B
Pogo (i actually do like this one a lot but the random grinding mid game was kinda baffling also the power of sex and pussy) and Shifu (i also love this one but it has some weird pacing) and Masaru (i hate masaru)
that being said i actually do enjoy most of these by themselves and the fact that you can play them in every order you deem fit so that people like me can go on and choose oboromaru right away so basically everything else turns into a B tier movie because the middle ages is just that good
as i was saying they remade the graphics from scratch and i believe this would be absolutely wasted if it wasnt of the incredible art design this game has going on every single scenario plays out a different vibe and therefore the atmosphere of the entire world around it changes with it the ninja scenario is gloomy and atmospheric due to the fact that it plays out at night and you gotta be stealthy stealthy (or murderous your choice) or like the cowboy scenario that plays out in a desert and so everything is bright as fuck and shit like that OR the robot scenario where theres thriller vibes all around and UGHHHHHHHH
this is not only about the environments in itself but the characters also got some bomb spritework thats honestly jawdropping compared to the original works and its absolutely fucking insane and when you put these 2 together with the 2D HD engine some bomb lighting effects (that dont look like the piss hue of octopath traveler) and some dinamic camerawork you get such an immersive experience that really enhances the already incredible story this game got going on
i would love to have an entire segment talking about music and how the music in this game is top notch and every ost got my bussy popping but thats not possible because theres no osts on youtube or anywhere else because square is a fucking disgrace to society and they didnt even publish the ost like HOW HARD CAN IT BE you already got the ost files ready you released the games you know how can you not have this stuff in there ready for uploading but i digress so anyway the music in this game is absolutely insane i wouldve loved to listen to it after beating the game but as i said its not possible for the love of everything alive on earth in this moment and megalomania is the most hype song in a videogame ive ever listened to so
the combat system was actually shall i say rejuvenated as in it didnt make me want to fucking kill myself which is a welcome feeling and now that its actually shall i say playable its incredible how actually great it is you got some of the most interesting grid turn based combat in a while and even though it may not be the greatest idea in the longrun it always keeps you entertained with different moves and move patterns to use and actually great conversion from story to battle (cowboy scenario is centered on long range attacks while fighter scenario focuses on short range attacks) and people need to respect the fact that the shit throwing attack is sick
so
time for some 1 on 1 convo about the different scenarios because im a mad man and i got something to say
PROBABLY SOME SPOILERS AHEAD IM NOT A SAFE PERSON TO BE AROUND
prehistory
possibly one of the most interesting scenarios in the entirety of the game due to environments and how it conveys the story you play as a caveman and since these people are actually years and years before language all day do is make noises and talk in speech bubbles (love the fact that the speech bubbles actually have the original sprites in them its such a cute detail if you ask me) and has some interesting gameplay mechanics you got to craft some weapons smell the foul odors of beasts to KILL THEM and EAT THEM and thats basically it until you rescue a femme fatale whose pussy probably stink of fish and yet shes one of my fav characters forreal not a big fan of the sudden grinding in this one but at least its not octopath traveler im sorry it sounds like i hate octopath but in general i do really like it so anyway big dinosaur boss monkey throwing shit around and a guy with a lizard on his dick and crazy hot sex
imperial china
i fuck with the themes around this scenario quite a lot actually like the fact that time will always eat everything up and the importance of generational traditions and death and stuff like that like i fuck FUCK with that . but i also do think this couldve been pushed a bit to the extremes and lacks some heart to heart convo due to the fact that it plays around with training new disciples and choosing a successor (if you dont choose lei we cannot be friends) and in general the environments do look a bit aseptic i wanted some more stuff some more angst some more more anyway still great if you ask me im sorry
twilight of edo japan
this is the one guys this is the best one . now this is probably the longest chapter in the entirety of the game if you put aside the final final chapter and it has such a great premise youre a ninja on a mission to rescue a guy who turns out to be a famous guy from japanese history whatever we dont care and in the meantime you can do it with different methods you can either kill everything in your path or just going there and doing your thing and leaving now im pretty sure if youre mentally stable you will choose to just kill everyone also being underleveled with oboromaru in the final chapter ? you dont want that plus its way easier to just kill then level up then kill some more and get a lot of goodies from around the place and being tricked and FALLING FROM THE CEILING GOD THAT FUCKING CEILING and you know stuff like that plus the castle is a fucking labyrinth so im pretty sure this is gonna take you some 4 hours or whatever thats probably how much it took me to finish it so anyway yeah this is great and also my favorite scenario in this game thank you everybody for your time
wild west
if you ask me this is the most queer coded media ive ever seen in a while like you cannot tell me sundown and the other guy are not enemies to lovers you literally cannot do that to me you may come and show me a picture of sundown FUCKING a biological woman and id say ok well what about the ending where they run off together in the horizon this is a homosexual im looking at and I wont reason with anybody in the group chat . anyhow this is a supershort chapter and isn't even battle heavy because you just gotta go around and craft traps so theres that
present day
i famously hate this chapter . now its not about the chapter in itself I actually do dig this I gotta be the strongest kind of theme but I'm not that generous with the actual gameplay stuff . mind you this chapter was actually MUCH MORE DIFFICULT in the original one this time if you know what you're doing you can breeze through it in just 30 minutes but yknow idk why I dislike this chapter this much maybe im just bitchy because the main man isn't hot
near future
I want to slurp on akiras dick . sorry now that that is out of the way this is an interesting chapter but i believe it looses its charm because of some weird pacing choices you are a telepath hot yankee with a thing for his sister but honestly who in japanese media doesn't have a siscon so whatever you gotta battle with some other thugs who are somehow thugger than you and go around with either a very macho motorbike guy or a super giant robot with an anime opening . honestly this chapter is actually kinda weird to explain but the battles are interesting due to the fact that are based around killing the main enemy so that you can also kill the 10+ mini robots around the battlefield . you will understand
distant future
possibly the weirdest one for the fact that theres no fighting (I mean for most of it) and it's entirely story driven with a focus on horror/mystery and lemme tell you this remake did SUCH a great job to the horrorish contents its insane yall basically you're a robot in a spaceship and there's also like 4 humans that begin to slowly die weird deaths here and there and you gotta uncover the mystery AND make some coffee so basically my day to day life . so this is a great chapter thank you everybody for you time
middle ages
now …….. this is the one . oersted is my little baby I will defend him to hell and back he did nothing wrong and is pretty hot and can split me apart whenever he wants . this is basically the most jrpg chapter of every single one the setting is medieval fantasy like your classic final fantasy / dragon quest title there's a focus on battles and leveling with random encounters you create a party with different "classes" (there's no classes but the characters represent different classes) and you gotta save the princess . slowly you can see the steady decline of oersteds mental capabilities due to the treasons of every single character around him its insane me when the silent protagonist of my little jrpg begins to talk . also its insane how this manages to emulate the jrpg genre so well you're like oh ok im gonna save the princess the end AND YET that bitch let you down with a suicide in front of you like nothing happened and at that point oersted shifts and becomes the lord of shadow ? like theres no stories like these anymore the complete dread and hopelessness this chapter gave me are insane . deadass oersted loved aletheia so much and if you noticed most bosses charm abilities have no effect on oersted because hes just so in love with aletheia he can't be swayed from his righteous path . like also streibough is a dick
final chapter
apart from the fact that the final chapter can be tackles from the viewpoint of sir odio and just crush every single character of the different chapters . after you pick your main fighter this is gonna play out also as a jrpg experience you're gonna recruit the different characters from the different chapters make them level up and explore some dungeons to get that good good equipments to fight head on with odio . obviously l chose orobomaru and he's fucking insane you can wipe out most of the enemies out there and it's definitely a great option if you leveled him enough in the main game . main party for me was cube sundown and pogo kinda great party if you ask me I didn't have any problem whatsoever . so after you do your stuff you get to odio beat his ass in an incredible final battle have some heartbreaking moment and everyone goes home the end
also the final battle Is damn fucking epic and you get some more final scenes to see what the characters are up to after their stories end . this game yall
so this is still the masterpiece from the end of the 20th century but completely revamped with some QOL changes and I'm incredibly glad this is even real so thank you everybody who worked on this one because now i can satiate my thirst with some rule34 fanarts of the main cast . cheers
Sometimes you hit the end of a game and you just start sobbing because Video Games, and holy shit, is Live a Live ever Video Games! I love weird experimental shit like this from the SNES that just spends a lot of time fucking around with what sorts of stories you can tell through gameplay and what sorts of gameplay gimmicks you can use within the confines of the JRPG structure.
The game being split up into individual character stories across different time periods naturally means that they’re going to vary in quality and general appeal, but I’ll admit to finding them all pretty charming and creative. There’s Street Fighter meets Mega Man! There’s sci fi survival horror! There’s super robots! There’s a stealth mission where you can do a pacifist run! And it’s all set to a banger soundtrack!
And man, just wait to see how they all come together! There are some running gags throughout but the actual ending is buckwild. There is a choice you can make at a certain point where I was like “wait, what happens if I go with this guy considering everything?” And I did it and was rewarded with an absolutely wild gameplay segment. It fucking rules man, the final boss is deeply hype. The characters aren’t super deep but I deeply love some of them anyway, particularly my darling child Cube. They are just a little guy and my heart could not take their little beepboops and spins.
I was probably going to get around to playing the fan translated rom at some point if this hadn’t come out, but the 2.5D presentation, the remixes, and the voice acting are an excellent treat. I could see a lot of big name VAs for the Japanese voice track, but I feel like the cast choices for the EN version added some cool genre flavor. I have head that some bits of UI flavor were lost in this version, but there’s plenty of flavor in other areas to keep things spicy.
I will admit that the battle system itself is…. okay. It’s pretty fun for most of the game, but I do feel like it gets a little tedious at the end. I think it’s worth trying to do as much as you can, but I can imagine some people finding it a little tedious. I do have to sat I’m interested in revisiting the game at some point, since the chapters seem packed with alternate choices and fun little Easter eggs to spice things up.
I’m really happy this weird little cult classic got a chance to be introduced to a new generation both in Japan and the west, and I’m happy it seems to be a pattern with Square-Enix’s back catalog. It’s cool and good.
The game being split up into individual character stories across different time periods naturally means that they’re going to vary in quality and general appeal, but I’ll admit to finding them all pretty charming and creative. There’s Street Fighter meets Mega Man! There’s sci fi survival horror! There’s super robots! There’s a stealth mission where you can do a pacifist run! And it’s all set to a banger soundtrack!
And man, just wait to see how they all come together! There are some running gags throughout but the actual ending is buckwild. There is a choice you can make at a certain point where I was like “wait, what happens if I go with this guy considering everything?” And I did it and was rewarded with an absolutely wild gameplay segment. It fucking rules man, the final boss is deeply hype. The characters aren’t super deep but I deeply love some of them anyway, particularly my darling child Cube. They are just a little guy and my heart could not take their little beepboops and spins.
I was probably going to get around to playing the fan translated rom at some point if this hadn’t come out, but the 2.5D presentation, the remixes, and the voice acting are an excellent treat. I could see a lot of big name VAs for the Japanese voice track, but I feel like the cast choices for the EN version added some cool genre flavor. I have head that some bits of UI flavor were lost in this version, but there’s plenty of flavor in other areas to keep things spicy.
I will admit that the battle system itself is…. okay. It’s pretty fun for most of the game, but I do feel like it gets a little tedious at the end. I think it’s worth trying to do as much as you can, but I can imagine some people finding it a little tedious. I do have to sat I’m interested in revisiting the game at some point, since the chapters seem packed with alternate choices and fun little Easter eggs to spice things up.
I’m really happy this weird little cult classic got a chance to be introduced to a new generation both in Japan and the west, and I’m happy it seems to be a pattern with Square-Enix’s back catalog. It’s cool and good.
This review contains spoilers
Oersted walked so that Jack Garland can run
Live A Live is one of those titles that I had heard about in passing, and understood the general cultural significance behind it, but never played it myself. Part of that was probably due to it never officially leaving Japan, and partly due to Square putting out a ton of JRPGs during the era of the Super Famicom. So when a remake using Square Enix's "HD-2D" engine was announced, I decided to pick it up on a whim.
If I had to describe what Live A Live is, I'd say it's a role-playing game in a purer sense than usual. Each of the game's stories vary in length and setting, and there's a strong attention to detail in immersing yourself in whatever role you find yourself in. There's a refreshing amount of agency given to the player during each chapter. Even if a certain chapter isn't really clicking with you, none of them overstay their welcome, each one clocking in at about 1-3 hours long. That never bothered me though, because each chapter had enough of an identity to keep the game's simplistic mechanics fresh.
One of Live A Live's biggest strengths is how all the chapters operate on the same grid-based battle system and mechanics, with the characters of each chapter bringing their own combat style to the table. That being said, I have three major complaints about the battle system:
1: The only time you can move your cursor around the battlefield and view enemy information is when you're readying an attack, before you confirm it. This makes it unnecessarily cumbersome to view enemy weaknesses.
2: There is no way to check turn order. All you have is the yellow meter above each character in battle. The whole battle system revolves around this system, particularly for attacks that have a charge time attached to them. You kinda have to guesstimate what order everything is going to execute in.
3: Many of the attack animations are flippin' amazing! But they are also quite long. An attack animation that takes 7-10 seconds each time you use it really begins to overstay its welcome. There really ought to be an option to skip/fast-forward these animations. It really only began to become a problem during the final chapters, but it irritated me nonetheless.
On a Youtube upload that has since been removed (fuck you, Square Enix), a commenter described "Megalomania" better than I ever could. The song isn't staging a battle; It IS the battle. Iconic boss fight theme aside, I'm completely certain that Yoko Shimomura exists on a higher plane of existence than us mere mortals. Superb compositions across the board, from catchy battle/overworld themes to sweeping orchestral performances.
In some ways, the HD-2D style looks really damn good! In others, it looks like an excuse to put distractingly low-res 2D textures on hi-poly 3D models. Having pixel-syled textures works better when they're further from the camera, and on blockier objects. Other than that though, visual effects like depth-of-field and bloom go a surprisingly long way. Glad to see that they reeled in their bloom overuse since Octopath Traveler. That game was so blindingly bright at times, it rivaled the god damn rapture. What really caught my eye was the spritework though. The high-quality traditional sprite art and animation are a sight to behold, and it's mixed tastefully with the more contemporary 3D effects.
Overall, Live A Live is a must-play for anyone who's even remotely interested in RPGs. While I can't speak for how it compares to the original on the SNES, I can't deny the sheer passion I can feel was put into this remake. Congrats, Square Enix. Legacy preserved.
Also, Lei Kugo is the best disciple.
If I had to describe what Live A Live is, I'd say it's a role-playing game in a purer sense than usual. Each of the game's stories vary in length and setting, and there's a strong attention to detail in immersing yourself in whatever role you find yourself in. There's a refreshing amount of agency given to the player during each chapter. Even if a certain chapter isn't really clicking with you, none of them overstay their welcome, each one clocking in at about 1-3 hours long. That never bothered me though, because each chapter had enough of an identity to keep the game's simplistic mechanics fresh.
One of Live A Live's biggest strengths is how all the chapters operate on the same grid-based battle system and mechanics, with the characters of each chapter bringing their own combat style to the table. That being said, I have three major complaints about the battle system:
1: The only time you can move your cursor around the battlefield and view enemy information is when you're readying an attack, before you confirm it. This makes it unnecessarily cumbersome to view enemy weaknesses.
2: There is no way to check turn order. All you have is the yellow meter above each character in battle. The whole battle system revolves around this system, particularly for attacks that have a charge time attached to them. You kinda have to guesstimate what order everything is going to execute in.
3: Many of the attack animations are flippin' amazing! But they are also quite long. An attack animation that takes 7-10 seconds each time you use it really begins to overstay its welcome. There really ought to be an option to skip/fast-forward these animations. It really only began to become a problem during the final chapters, but it irritated me nonetheless.
On a Youtube upload that has since been removed (fuck you, Square Enix), a commenter described "Megalomania" better than I ever could. The song isn't staging a battle; It IS the battle. Iconic boss fight theme aside, I'm completely certain that Yoko Shimomura exists on a higher plane of existence than us mere mortals. Superb compositions across the board, from catchy battle/overworld themes to sweeping orchestral performances.
In some ways, the HD-2D style looks really damn good! In others, it looks like an excuse to put distractingly low-res 2D textures on hi-poly 3D models. Having pixel-syled textures works better when they're further from the camera, and on blockier objects. Other than that though, visual effects like depth-of-field and bloom go a surprisingly long way. Glad to see that they reeled in their bloom overuse since Octopath Traveler. That game was so blindingly bright at times, it rivaled the god damn rapture. What really caught my eye was the spritework though. The high-quality traditional sprite art and animation are a sight to behold, and it's mixed tastefully with the more contemporary 3D effects.
Overall, Live A Live is a must-play for anyone who's even remotely interested in RPGs. While I can't speak for how it compares to the original on the SNES, I can't deny the sheer passion I can feel was put into this remake. Congrats, Square Enix. Legacy preserved.
Also, Lei Kugo is the best disciple.
Above all else, this is a celebration of the Japanese role-playing game. It's Dragon Quest IV with a little more sparkle to it, a short-form writing and structure exercise by the team that made it to try and stretch the genre's legs, to go further than the fantasy RPGs that had prevailed in the mid-90s. JRPGs have become more diverse in the years since, but it is telling that in 2022 this game and all of its toying with genres doesn't feel old or tired. Feels like we could definitely use more of this type of thing.
Videogames are a powerful medium for telling stories. They are unique in the way that players interact with them. Unlike more antiquated methods of storytelling, such as literature or films, videogames have this innate property where the player has some bearing on how they are told. User input can influence and explore branching decisions that impact how the narrative plays out, choose the level of intricacy in which they explore a game’s world and dictate the pace in which the journey progresses. Of course, in practice, how much influence players really have is still dictated by its authors. The freedom you are given is not absolute, not even close, it is merely slack to a leash. You are still guided and pulled along the path that is expected of you, a path designed for you to follow. LiveAevil (yes, I am calling it that) is a videogame ABOUT these paths. These unyielding templates of how stories will go.
The game presents itself as an anthology of seven stories from which you may play in any order of your fancy. To say that these individual stories are simple cliches of popular film genres, while true, does not accurately do them justice. They are a love letter to these templates and the unique traits that define them are carefully adapted and rendered into the gameplay. A story about a martial artist preserving their legacy by raising a successor is presented in game by having you frequently spar against them and watching their in-game statistics and move pool gradually improve until they eventually exceed yours. The build-up of tension leading to a climatic showdown, the defining trait of Westerns, is replicated by placing you on a time limit (announced through a series of bell chimes) as you explore the town and prepare for the duel. A futuristic horror story has you take the role of a helpless observer. Your ways of interacting with the world are intentionally limited and you are forced to watch the rest of the cast slowly dwindle away as you try your best to avoid confrontation. Effectively contrasting the other stories where combat is a main aspect of the gameplay.
These individual stories are all wonderful. Well-crafted and a joy to play through. Even when held to modern standards (at least for the remake). Filled with charm, a surprising amount of gameplay depth and respect for some of the decisions you make as a player (try running away from your duty in the Ninja chapter). Yet these aren’t the reasons why LiveAevil is truly special. LiveAevil is storytelling’s biggest fan and true appreciation of a craft must also inspire criticism.
These stories, seemingly completely unrelated, do share a common feature. It is an abstract feature, but the game makes a point that it is there. These heroes with their different motivations, objectives and desires, all follow standardized paths laid before them. Story templates full of cliches and tropes and expected outcomes. If the heroes do not stray from their path, their success is assured. Each and all guaranteed a satisfying and complete payoff to their narratives. Who cares if it is uninspired and predictable if it works?
LiveAevil itself cares. These seven unrelated stories culminate into one final one. The one that truly matters but cannot be told without intimate awareness of what it subverts. You need to know how the story is meant to go, to have seen how it DID go seven other times, to see how precarious it is to truly follow the path engineered before you. Then you can be made to understand how truly fickle the line between success and failure is in a life preplanned. To perceive how cruel it is to bear the burden of meeting expectations imposed on you that were never truly yours to begin with. It is through this final story that LiveAlive becomes more than just an anthology but a commentary and indictment on what the stories mean and represent. How these stories, these templates influence our expectations of life itself and how we can only truly grow if we can escape from our preordained path when we find our story is not one that is conventional.
I recommend this game to anyone with even a mild interest in JRPGs, it is a pleasant gameplay experience throughout. If you ever thought Octopath Traveler looked interesting play this game. Even if you didn’t enjoy Octopath.
(Ignore the star rating. I don't believe in numerical evaluation of games. Every game gets 5 stars unless it does something to warrant motivating me take them away)
The game presents itself as an anthology of seven stories from which you may play in any order of your fancy. To say that these individual stories are simple cliches of popular film genres, while true, does not accurately do them justice. They are a love letter to these templates and the unique traits that define them are carefully adapted and rendered into the gameplay. A story about a martial artist preserving their legacy by raising a successor is presented in game by having you frequently spar against them and watching their in-game statistics and move pool gradually improve until they eventually exceed yours. The build-up of tension leading to a climatic showdown, the defining trait of Westerns, is replicated by placing you on a time limit (announced through a series of bell chimes) as you explore the town and prepare for the duel. A futuristic horror story has you take the role of a helpless observer. Your ways of interacting with the world are intentionally limited and you are forced to watch the rest of the cast slowly dwindle away as you try your best to avoid confrontation. Effectively contrasting the other stories where combat is a main aspect of the gameplay.
These individual stories are all wonderful. Well-crafted and a joy to play through. Even when held to modern standards (at least for the remake). Filled with charm, a surprising amount of gameplay depth and respect for some of the decisions you make as a player (try running away from your duty in the Ninja chapter). Yet these aren’t the reasons why LiveAevil is truly special. LiveAevil is storytelling’s biggest fan and true appreciation of a craft must also inspire criticism.
These stories, seemingly completely unrelated, do share a common feature. It is an abstract feature, but the game makes a point that it is there. These heroes with their different motivations, objectives and desires, all follow standardized paths laid before them. Story templates full of cliches and tropes and expected outcomes. If the heroes do not stray from their path, their success is assured. Each and all guaranteed a satisfying and complete payoff to their narratives. Who cares if it is uninspired and predictable if it works?
LiveAevil itself cares. These seven unrelated stories culminate into one final one. The one that truly matters but cannot be told without intimate awareness of what it subverts. You need to know how the story is meant to go, to have seen how it DID go seven other times, to see how precarious it is to truly follow the path engineered before you. Then you can be made to understand how truly fickle the line between success and failure is in a life preplanned. To perceive how cruel it is to bear the burden of meeting expectations imposed on you that were never truly yours to begin with. It is through this final story that LiveAlive becomes more than just an anthology but a commentary and indictment on what the stories mean and represent. How these stories, these templates influence our expectations of life itself and how we can only truly grow if we can escape from our preordained path when we find our story is not one that is conventional.
I recommend this game to anyone with even a mild interest in JRPGs, it is a pleasant gameplay experience throughout. If you ever thought Octopath Traveler looked interesting play this game. Even if you didn’t enjoy Octopath.
(Ignore the star rating. I don't believe in numerical evaluation of games. Every game gets 5 stars unless it does something to warrant motivating me take them away)
This is absolutely stellar. A passion project that shows the true untapped potential of both RPGs and the games medium as a whole. The fact that this thing wasn't being talked about right up there in the same conversations as FFVI and Chrono Trigger is a crime. Also perhaps the only RPG that understands what good pacing is