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.