Live A Live (2022)

Played it on PC.

I've been playing it and half the battle was literally finding enemy weaknesses. Movement weaknesses or otherwise. The biggest challenge was their health pool and at their very worst, their ultimate attack. It's basically just a matter of "spam most powerful attack and win". Some bosses have somewhat of a strategy but even then, once their weaknesses have been figured out, just roll with it.

The music is nice enough but the loops are so short I couldn't bear hearing it anymore. Live-a-Live has nice parodies of genre specific tropes at the time, gotta give it that.

I decided the first game I'd finish in 2024 would be Live a Live, and after playing through the final chapter twice, I have to say that this has quickly become one of my favorite RPGs of all time. It's an incredible experience full of unique and interesting ideas that knows exactly when to stop, and I loved it all the way through.

Live a Live is a tactical RPG about seven different heroes, each from a different time period. As soon as you start the game, you get to choose one of these characters and play through their story, with all of them being quick and simple, taking less than 3 hours to complete (with a couple of them taking less than one). The game is quick to introduce its characters and get to the point of each story, and knows the right amount of stuff to tell in each chapter just to keep things fresh and fun.

In case you didn't know, Live a Live is actually turning 30 this year. It came out in 1994 in Japan for the Super Famicom and never made its way to the western market (mostly due to some issues with the people holding the rights to the characters). It blows my mind that the game is so old, because other than having some classic 90s RPG jank, everything in the game feels extremely modern and really ahead of its time.

The best part is that the 2022 release of it almost feels like a 1-to-1 remake of the 1994 version. Sure, it rewrites the dialogue and adds voice acting, rebalances the stat system, makes a few quality of life adjustments and (obviously) remakes the entire thing in the HD-2D engine. However the way the story is told, the characters and their personalities, the music, and even the combat system, all stay exactly the same.

The gameplay is an interesting take on the regular Tactical RPG genre. The combat is just like any other grid-based RPG, but focuses a lot on winding up your abilities and disrupting the enemy's position. Enemy patterns are always predictable, and it's your job to pay attention to the enemy movements and do whatever you can to avoid getting hit by their attacks, either by positioning yourself outside their range, interrupting them, or beating them before they can damage you.

The best part about this all is that you're also affected by these rules, so spending many turns charging your hardest-hitting skills could mean you're vulnerable to the enemis interrupting your attacks and wasting your time, so using your entire party to protect each other is encouraged. This makes battles feel strategic and impactful, as it makes you consider your movements ahead of time; and creates a great distinction between your own characters, since you now have to choose between dealing damage, supporting the rest of your party or interrupting the enemy. Other than the fact that most battles are really easy and items are overpowered, I can't think of any downsides to the incredible combat system of this game.

The presentation of the game is excellent. It features the same HD-2D artystyle Square Enix has been using since 2018, however it's clear that they're so much confident using this engine now, as this not only looks way better than Octopath Traveler, with better animation, camera angles, character designs and even coloring, but the game runs way better than any previous game using this engine.

The soundtrack in this game compliments the action perfectly as well, and the reocurring music tracks are an incredible way of making sure the themes and ideas of the game are always present. The voice acting can be pretty hit or miss, depending on the character, however every single main actor gives a great performance, and those are the ones that matter most.

The story is amazing as well. It's divided in 7 little chapters, each focused on a different time period and a different protagonist, and they all have their own mechanics that make them unique and distinct from the rest. A couple of them are minor variations on the basic RPG system, like the Near Future chapter having a focus on commander enemies, or the Prehistoric chapter forgoing dialogue and nothing more. However, some other chapters completely push the limits of the genre, with the Present Day chapter being a boss rush more akin to a fighting game, or the Far Future turning the game into a story-driven horror game without any battles. Square Enix has managed to make every single part of the game distinct from each other, making every chapter feel special, refreshing and satisfying.

And the story? Well, given how short every chapter is, the game doesn't have much time to develop a story. It just throws you into the middle of a new world without much explanation and tries to teach you the story through context clues and a little bit of exposition. In the end, due to this time limit, all conflicts are resolved too quickly and in a simple and predictable manner. However, this didn't bother me that much. I feel like the protagonists in this game having simple endings is part of the charm, as their characters usually don't go further than "being the good guy". Buuuut there's one more reason I didn't care much, and it's simple:

The eighth chapter of Live a Live

This review features spoilers from here on out, so go play the game if you haven't because it's definitely one of the best.

Once you're done with the 7 main stories, and 15 hours into the game, you'll unlock one more chapter and will finally be introduced to the game's main character: Oersted. He's a knight and the new husband of the Alethea, the princess of Lucrece, and he's suddenly thrown into a grand adventure after the Demon Lord kidnaps said princess.

Does this sound generic? Well, yeah. That's the point. The main game-changing mechanic for the last stretch of the game is that there's no game-changing mechanic. There's no time for silly gimmicks, this is serious! And as such, the game now puts the plot above everything.The premise might sound like any other regular Square Enix RPG initially, but it quickly becomes a gripping tragedy on how giving up hope can corrupt any human being, and the lengths the villains of our story will go to just to break our protagonist.

In the end, you'll get to control all 7 of the previous characters at once, going through one last adventure in the kingdom of Lucrece in order to stop the new Demon Lord. It's 8 different stories, all coming together right at the end, and while the first characters don't get to develop much further in this last chapter, Oersted's story finally gets to a satisfying conclusion, even if it's bittersweet.

And that's where it hit me

This game is just Octopath Traveler

In case you didn't know, I really hated playing through Octopath Traveler. I thought it was a bloated mess without direction where having multiple characters served no purpose. But this? This just feels better to play through.

The inclusion of one definitive main character really helps to tie the story together, and his story is way more interesting and captivating than whatever modern Square Enix was trying to do with Kit. Plus, making every character unique and separate from each other helps the flow of the game, and makes the cast feel complete, even if the characters don't get to interact together much.

Live a Live is a joy to play through, especially after going through Octopath and knowing how these games can turn out.

In conclusion: This is amazing. Live a Live is an incredible, original game full of so many neat little ideas that all get their time to shine, culminating in one final story tying the entire game together. While it's held back at many points due to its age and many systems that were considered commonplace before, it's still incredibly ahead of its time in almost every other aspect. It's fun, it's unique, it's original and it's one of the best RPGs I have played. And for that, I have to rate it a 10/10

...

Also, call me a conspiracy theorist, but I genuinely believe the HD-2D engine was made with the end goal of serving as a way for Square Enix to release Live a Live in the west and eventually remake their old games. Octopath Traveler (Multiple characters) and Triangle Strategy (Tactical RPG) were just tests so the developers would feel confident making this game and now they're using the engine to remake even more games WAKE UP SHEEPLE!!!!!!

I am amazed by the people behind this game getting something so experimental and unique out to market in freaking 1994. This game tries more new stuff than 90% of modern day RPGs do, and it's immediately worth it for it to anyone interested in RPG game design. It's like someone put 7 totally different RPG maker indie darlings from the 2010s in a time capsule and it popped out for SNES when I was a toddler, but with the budget and knowhow of some top notch devs behind it.

At times, I was hating this game. There are a few of the entries that will test your patience, not all of them really work as individual entry games, but it's still interesting and worth it to get through the anthology and also the additional scenarios at the end, so it left a good taste after all.

It's a very tricky thing to decide in which order to play them, because some of them are great but really weird and awkward to learn the systems, and others will tutorialize you gently into the whole thing but will be kinda dull and repetitive.

I won't go into any more detail, but the fact that one of these entries straight up does the "RPG Maker horror game that ignores the RPG mechanics" is just... chef's kiss

Truly visionary level stuff, even if some of it could do with a trim.

PS: The remake is fine, I'm a bit tired of 2DHD but it's a good look and there is a lot of voice acting, and the minimap orientation is fucking invaluable to get through some of the tiring parts, so great way to experience it as far as I'm concerned.

My ranking for my favorite time periods is: Far Future, Wild West, Ancient China, The dominion of Hate, Near Future, Present day, Medieval, Edo Japan, Prehistory

If you play this, try to start with Prehistory, Edo Japan or Near Future, to get the basics better.

Loved the stories and had a ton of fun in multiple of the ages; even doing most of the end game content. I loved the Imperial china, Twilight of Edo and the Distant Future. All three of those were so interesting and had fun mechanics. On the other hand, I hated the Prehistory age and the game looses a star just for this section. The end was cool, even though it was difficult to find some of the final weapons. I also wish the end game tied in more and the way all the stories came together in the end felt forced. Below is my ranked list of the ages available in the beginning of the game.

1. Imperial China
2. Twilight of Edo Japan
3. The Distant Future
4. The Wild West
5. The Near Future
6. Present Day
7. Prehistory

Just when I think Square-Enix has given up on making good games, they always seem to come out with something out of left field that impresses my socks off. Trials of Mana (2020), Nier Automata, Final Fantasy XIII-2... Games I would have never expected to be fantastic given the recent pedigree of the publisher, all on my Top 100.

And Live-A-Live joins them.

I had no idea that Squaresoft's golden age still had hidden gems. I was expecting a pretty simplistic JRPG with a novel multiple campaign gimmick. But as I kept playing, I kept having these moments where I was like, "Wait a minute, there's something more to this." I played the Prehistory chapter first, and while the story itself was very simple, the whole campaign was like a big flex to the tune of, "We can write without a single written word." I wasn't terribly impressed... Then the boss fight happened.

And as I kept playing, I noticed something. None of these chapters had ANYTHING in common... Time period, location, game mechanics, protagonists, everything is different. Except that boss music. And for DAYS, I'd be driving for work thinking, "There's a link here, but what IS it?" And going in blind like that, having no idea what connected these campaigns, or what the point of the story was... That kept me in a state of suspense as I kept hammering through the chapters on my weekends.

I'm not going to say what that connection is. If you've played it, you know. If you haven't, I think going in blind and playing with a mental magnifying glass, trying to find any themes or hints that connect it all together... It's a great time, and while the game is absolutely not saying anything revolutionary or profound, there's enough there to get a sense that this game really had a great deal of care and inspiration behind it.

I went back and played the original a little bit, just a few minutes of a few intro chapters... I think if I had played that with a fan translation years ago, I may not have liked the remake. It's quite ugly visually, and the script, whether due to middling translation or hardware limitations, felt really flat. The music doesn't hit nearly as hard, either. That's not to say it's a bad game; after all, it's the same game. But the HD-2D makeover enhances a good experience into something truly great, and I hope to see some other 90s titles get this makeover.

In terms of the individual chapters, I love - love, love, LOVE - the Near Future segment. While it clearly has some cultural touchstones in Japanese media (Toho, super sentai, Akira - 80s "cool" stuff), the complete package is so wildly creative and downright interesting that I would play a full game of just THAT. Again, no spoilers. But it's like a really great shounen anime that's not afraid to break genre clichés. And I love the turtle so much. ;~;

It does lose a bit of steam in the final chapter though, as without a guide, it's very unclear how to complete it "correctly". You can easily wind up with an abrupt and disappointing ending, and it's not a great way to cap off the experience. If you do it right though, it's the largest and most mechanically complex chapter... But it's easy to skip most of it without knowing.

But yeah, I could sing this game's praises for days. I have an hypothesis that this game actually takes place in the same universe as Chrono Trigger for a number of reasons, but I have not seen anyone else come to that conclusion. :P It's rare that I find a game that keeps me thinking about it after the credits roll, but this absolutely is one.

What works

Star of the show is the sheer variety here. Final chapter notwithstanding, this is not your typical early 90s JRPG. What other game offers caveman slapstick comedy, ninja stealth, a parody of Street Fighter, mecha battles, and a sci-fi murder mystery interactive graphic novel!? Not every chapter lands, but good lord you’ve gotta appreciate the ambition.

The battle system is also excellent. So much so that it’s actually quite puzzling for the first two thirds of the game: it feels like someone misread a memo and produced a battle system for an 80-hour epic instead of bite-sized adventures, many of which aren’t even combat focussed. While the final chapter does end up justifying the depth, many chapters left me wondering why they went to so much effort only to not use most of it. I would have loved if Chrono Trigger used this system instead of ATB, which I’m not the biggest fan of.

What doesn't

As much as I love the battle system, they maybe went a tad too far with it. There’s a whole stack of borderline useless attacks, half a dozen buffs and debuffs that have no real impact, and stats are broken down far more than I think is necessary. I’m still not entirely sure why there’s three stats for “Physical Attack”, “Special Attack”, and just...“Attack”? But, you can stick to the more basic aspects and do just fine.

The only place the game really shows its age in my opinion is the final chapter. The payoff is well worth it, but the process of getting there is somewhat convoluted. It’s not awful, especially by JRPG standards, but it slows the pacing right down and you could very easily find yourself with an unsatisfying ending unless you put in the time to explore many of the map’s nooks and crannies. That no doubt sounds perfect to some folks, but having already invested 20 hours in the game and being eager to see how it wrapped up, I ended up just using a guide to plan out my preferred path.

Final thoughts

This is a great game that still feels fresh, even though at times I respected the idea of what it was doing more than I enjoyed the execution. While occasionally uneven, it never stops giving reasons to keep playing and see what else it has to offer.

I think I’m really gonna enjoy this overall, but didn’t get off to the best start with it. It’s funny, fairly unique in its style and structure, and the HD-2D style looks great, especially on the Switch screen.

However, the first chapter I picked ends in back-to-back battles—the boss battle proper and a second that’s clearly meant to be so easy you can’t possibly fail. Except I managed to (because I’m a moron and because I’m still learning the battle system), which unceremoniously dumped me back to my last save 30 minutes before. The game does have autosave, but who the heck knows why it didn’t kick in here. In any case, very annoying as it spoiled what was a great time.

This game has one of the most well written JRPG villain and Final Chapter. But compared to that everything else is "FINE"

I have the same problem with this game as Octopath Traveler which is too many characters but all of them are not polished enough to stand out. Sure some characters were my favorite but some needed more time to be polished.I wish there were less characters like 3 or 4 but those 4 chapters were longer so those characters can stand out the player actually started caring for that.

And then we have the final chapter or the 8th chapter and this makes up for all of the above complains Oersted's story was straight up sad and depressing. He started as the hero like a classic JRPG but end up being the main villain and everything in between was so well written that I can easily forget the other cons of this game. I wish he had a happy ending...

The gameplay is not always fun sometimes it feels repetitive. This game is not that hard you don't have to grind that much but still it feels repetitive and boring sometimes. Every chapter has some unique mechanics which is not always fin but still a good addition

overall great game just play it for the final chapter

Finished three chapters over the last couple days. This game is wild. I have Shinobi, Wild West, Present, and Near Future left to finish now.

Distant Future: Probably my favorite so far. Kinda wish there was a full separate game of just this chapter. The horror direction it goes wasn't expected and I love that they went that way. The stalking creature like in Alien was really interesting to avoid. Loved the themes on technology and humanity.

China Chapter: The twist of two of the disciples dying for the one you train the most to be the successor was pretty wild. Wasn't expecting that. They even replace the old master on the chapter select screen, with the new one which I thought was a really cool touch

Prehistory Chapter: DID THIS CHAPTER REALLY JUST END WITH MY DUDE BONING THE CAVEWOMAN PRINCESS I CAN'T EVEN HANDLE IT

I have this preordered, let's see if it arrives for the weekend. Reviews are also out now and they are pretty much what I was expecting: good remake of an interesting game that doesn't try to modernise the game design-wise, which is both a pro and a con.

I have a short bit of holiday also starting tomorrow too but I don't know how much time I'll have time to play games during that. Funny how things change. As a kid, holiday meant all the time in the world to play. As an adult, holidays always fill up with all kinds of other activities.

COVID Isolation continues with the demo for Live A Live.

This was not what I was expecting but it's a nice surprise. It looks great and is very charming in character. I'm a bit confused about what I'm supposed to be doing... I've only played the early period story so far. I'm hoping there's some overarching story? I literally went into this blind so not sure.