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.
5 Comments
I think Live A Live was the second translated game I emulated, right after Final Fantasy V. I never finished it but I remember having an enjoyable time with it. Hoping that maybe with some luck, I'll be able to get a hold of the Switch version later this year and give it a go.
I hopped on FFV with the ugly mobile/Steam version, but I replayed it in 2021 with the hack for the SNES version that uses the GBA script instead for a best of both worlds approach. Also used a CRT filter for it and it took an already great looking SNES RPG into a beautiful affair.
This one has been on my mind for a bit now. Gonna try to squeeze in the Super Famicom version before the end of the year.
Definitely do so when you have the chance to, it's one of those RPGs where you can beat it plus some extra content within a weekend's span.
BlazingWaters
1 year ago
It's a game that I wholeheartedly believe showcases the aspects of how a game can tell a story within its interactive medium, containing a melting pot of influences giving birth to newfound creation to create a cycle of such if Toby Fox is anything to go by, and in the utmost regard, it's one of the finest narratives I personally have ever experienced, as biased as that may sound.