The first Live A Live game debuted on SNES in 1994, but it didn’t go international until recently. The influential RPG makes its first-ever appearance in the West thanks to a new 2D-HD remaster made particularly for the Nintendo Switch. The game gives eight distinct storylines with a cast of unique characters before weaving them together. This narrative format was innovative when it was initially published.
In Live A Live, each character inhabits a specific time and place, like Pogo in the Paleolithic Era when communication was yet in its infancy and Cube in the Far Future where interstellar trade is the standard.
What will you see here?
Price and Availability
Live a live was released on the 22nd of July, 2022. The game is currently exclusively intended for the Nintendo Switch because Nintendo is the publisher. But it’s feasible that it might eventually reach at least PC. Although Nintendo created both games, Octopath Traveler and Bravely Default, two were finally made available on PC through Steam.
GamePlay
Live A Live is a relatively simple, traditional RPG in terms of gameplay. Turn-based battles take place on a grid-like layout. Since each character controls seems to have unique attacks and skills. As players might anticipate, players regularly switch up their strategy. This keeps things from getting dull and the Combat relatively fresh, much like the rest of the game.
Features
Several very welcome modern improvements may be found. There are helpful features, including voice acting, a handy mini-map, and the flexibility to save whenever you like, in addition to the enhanced aesthetics. Live A Live doesn’t feel like you are playing this game in modern times, but a few plot moments haven’t aged well, and occasionally repetitive bouts can make it feel like an older game. You can use the Nintendo Switch to play quickly, which is an almost ideal fit for its relatively short chapters, which only last a few hours.
Characters
Pogo (Prehistoric periods)
Pogo, who is a caveman and the main character of the chapter on prehistory, is a likable individual. The young guy reaches the age of majority in his tribe at the beginning of one‟s voyage with him. As a result, he must educate himself on their practices and obligations, which develops his sense of smell. He can detect anything in the outdoors.
Shifu Earthen Heart (Imperial China)
An elderly Xin Shan Quan Kung Fu master and his best student, whom he hopes will follow, must exact revenge on their fellow students’ killers. Since Xin is a Shifu, he serves as the book’s protagonist in the chapter on Imperial China. As his time on earth draws close, Xin is looking for a successor in Live, A Live. Although there are no exceptional skills, Xin Shan Quan is a master of kung fu and starts the chapter at his highest possible level.
Sundown Kid (Wild West)
Sundown is under your power in The Wild West. Although he lacks exceptional capabilities, his superior skills enable him to compete effectively in Combat. He has a ferocious image as being one of the best sharpshooters in the American West and is a mysterious wanderer. And there’s a $1 million bounty on his head.
Oboromaru
A ninja is working to free a prisoner in feudal Japan. A shinobi on a crucial journey which you must infiltrate to reach the Japanese compound because the warlord in command intends to plunge Japan into a dark era. In this chapter, you decide between killing everyone you encounter and using Oboro’s unique ability to turn invisible so he can escape capture.
Cube (Distant future, space)
In the chapter titled “Distant Future,” in live a live users get to play as Cube, a cute robot. It’s not just any robot; Cube is a conscious entity that excels at understanding emotions and learning.
Masaru Takahara (Present day Japan)
The character of the Present Day chapters is Masaru, a warrior. Masaru Takahara is a fighter from modern-day Japan who aspires to be the world’s most vital. His ultimate objective is to surpass all other professional soldiers in the world. Because of his exceptional talent, which allows Masaru to pick up any technique against him, you may assist him in doing this.
Akira Tadokoro (Near future, Japan)
A psychic orphan named Akira Tadokoro (near future, Japan) finds out about a biker-run kidnapping ring. Akira has an exceptional talent for reading people’s minds. He and his younger sister Kaori are orphans, which might explain some of his rebellious tendencies.
Get Combat ready
The grid-based turn-based battle system is employed. Each unit, whether an ally or an enemy, has a Charge gauge that fills up when the team is ready to attack. Any action moving across the battlefield raises the Charge Gauge. Each character also gains new abilities as they level up, especially end-game abilities being incredibly flashy and potent.
The end-game skills look stunning, where Live A Live’s HD-2D remake element shines. While the Shinobi may hurl swords of darkness, slashing all his adversaries to pieces, Akira can conjure a large Angel to harm opponents and strengthen his allies. All of those strikes feel and appear potent thanks to the visual direction.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack of Live A Live is excellent. Megalomania, the theme for the bosses, perfectly captures the passion for defeating them and their enormous stature. The aggressive guitar riffs of Akira’s and Masaru’s usual interaction themes stand out in particular.
Visuals
The new Live A Live aesthetics, a remake, closely resemble Octopath Traveler and Triangle Strategy from Square Enix. The graphical upgrade is even more remarkable when you contrast this remake with the original game. Square Enix has already stated that it plans to remake more of its previous games in this style.
Chapters
Chrono Trigger heavily influences the chapters of Live A Live, probably because Takashi Tokita, who directed the first game, led Chrono Trigger a year afterward. However, the branches of the character-driven tale are also evocative of subsequent Saga Frontier games.
Despite having a fresh visual style that combines emotive sprites with pixelated 3D displays, it nonetheless feels like a throwback to the SNES era of role-playing games and invokes the same nostalgia.
Downside
Along the journey to the last chapter, there are sporadic spikes in difficulty. Due to more accessible access to healing supplies as moves than other characters, some characters find it much simpler to battle their respective bosses. For instance, the shifu’s boss was challenging because it was a lone battle, the character’s damage output was poor, and he was dying in 3–4 strikes.
What type of game is Live a Live?
It is a role-playing game featuring turn-based combat, similar to earlier JRPGs like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy. The gameplay mechanics vary depending on the eras and situations; sometimes, you’ll be concentrating on dungeon crawling, while other times, you’ll need to use stealth to survive.
What is the plot of Live a Live?
Live A Live is a narrative with nine scenarios, eight protagonists, and seven chapters, each set in a different era. The chapters, which can be played in any sequence, span from the ancient age to the far future, and each features a character from that period. To finish the chapter, you must eliminate an evil power known as Odio within every generation.
Conclusion
With a kaleidoscope of many gameplay elements, musical compositions, and visually stunning images that work harmoniously, this remake successfully reintroduces an influential, distinctive JRPG to the general public. Players should remember that this is still a Super Famicom RPG with many of the hassles that come with ’90s RPGs, even though it looks like Octopath Traveler and nails the HD-2D visual style.
Live A Live is intriguing because of the experiments it conducts, especially with a plot that shifts between periods and locations and a cast of several characters. It’s uncommon to find a game that excels as both an RPG and a history lesson. Discovering the classics can occasionally feel like a chore, even if they are noteworthy because games don’t always age well. But with Live A Live, that’s not the case.
