i love jrpgs and fucking hate rpgs with fantasy settings. this is my fatal character flaw and we all just need to live with it. so, when i saw a squaresoft rpg that takes place in pretty much every setting BESIDES fantasy you know i was all over this. live a live had been on my radar for a hot sec, ever since seeing whoisthisgit's video on the sci-fi chapter, which i then played and loved a ton, but never played the other chapters. i picked up the remake at a certain point and made sure to make myself play through the whole thing, which... i didn't do, but i played like 99% of the way through, so that counts i think. i really really loved cube's chapter, as i suspected, i had a really good time with sundown and oboromaru, quite enjoyed the earthen heart shifu's chapter, kinda hated pogo's chapter since i got stuck on some bosses, slogged through akira's chapter, and barely registered masaru's chapter. and then i played the 8th chapter and fucking hated it for the most part. (as previously mentioned, fantasy rpgs are extremely boring to me and this chapter in particular just felt like a total slogfest to me) that was, until the final reveal, where oersted is revealed to be the original incarnation of Odio, which BLEW MY MIND. made it all worth it. Odio is one of my favorite antagonists in any piece of media, he's a really cool concept and it's super cool to have each chapter deal with different versions of the same threat. it really makes the final chapter feel like youre bringing everyone together to finally banish this evil that been haunting all of you this whole time. unfortunately, i got stuck at the final encounter with odio in the final chapter, and shelved the game. i know, im a crime against humanity for shelving a game at literally the last possible moment, but he totally kicked my ass and i don't really know if im up to whatever amount of grinding i've gotta do to beat him. even so, i loved my time with live a live, and i know for sure i'll come back to it