Live A Live
Super Nintendo
Nostalgia Factor:
I first heard of Live A Live after it was remade for the Nintendo Switch in 2022. Sure, the remake intrigued me, but I'm not a Switch owner - nor do I intend to get one anytime soon. But as soon as I saw screenshots for the original version of the game, I knew I had to play it.
Live A Live was never released in the United States, which is likely why I had never heard of it. On the surface, it looks like a fun title - very similar in visual style to Chrono Trigger or a Final Fantasy game. It probably would have been a success if it had been released over here. Not sure why they didn't bring it over!
Well, regardless, I own a RetroPie and a fully translated version of the game is on it. I started playing it a few months ago and just finished it this morning. Read on to see what I thought about it!
Story:
Live A Live gives you the choice of seven different character scenarios to play through in any order you would like. They all differ in variety. There's a cowboy, a ninja, a kung-fu master, a robot, a caveman, a wrestler, and a cyberpunk character to pick from. Each of these characters is the hero in their own story. For example, the cowboy has to save a small town from a band of raiders. The robot takes part in a 2001: A Space Odyssey type adventure. The ninja rescues a princess from a castle. So on and so forth. Each of these scenarios takes about two to three hours in length on average to complete. Some are shorter, some are longer.
All of these stories are seemingly unrelated. When you complete all seven of them, you unlock an eighth character scenario: the gallant medieval knight. This is where things start to tie together. This chapter starts out like all the other chapters, but ends in tragedy. The knight fails to save the day and turns into warped, evil, demon-like creature in the end.
That's where the seven heroes come in. After completing the eighth chapter, they are summoned to defeat the vile Odio and save the planet from destruction. The entire ninth chapter is an Avengers-like crossover event. I'm not quite sure who summons the heroes. Is it Odio, looking for a challenge? Some other higher cosmic power? I'm not sure it is explained. If it is, I missed it.
Gameplay:
One of the fun things about Live A Live is how its gameplay differs from chapter to chapter. The basics are the same. You control a character in an RPG environment. You walk around, you talk to people, you level up, you equip your character, you participate in battles, etc. That's where the comparisons end.
Look at the distant future scenario, for example. The whole chapter is based on exploration, atmosphere, talking to people, and solving a mystery. There's very little combat or fighting to speak of. Then look at the wrestler chapter. It is almost like a fighting game, where you take on a series of enemies as your character participates in a fighting tournament. There's little story to speak of, and literally no exploration at all. It is just straight up fighting.
The Old West scenario feels like something pulled out of a movie - and it was honestly my favorite chapter. The kung fu and caveman scenarios are a lot of fun as well. They all play out more like traditional RPGs - minus the random battles. You can see the enemies coming on the map. The ninja scenario is based around stealth (or all out combat if you go that route). The cyberpunk chapter is just weird.
It isn't until you hit the eighth chapter that the game begins to feel like a more traditional RPG. Part of it is the medieval setting, but it's the dialogue, the exploration, and the random battles that do it for me. The final chapter goes full blown traditional RPG. You start off as a solo character, but your main job is to gather your party, level them up, and get them equipped with all of the best things before you head off to fight the final boss.
Up until the end, Live A Live had mainly managed to avoid the grindy aspect that I hate about RPGs from this era. But that final chapter... I can only shake my head. There is so much repetitive fighting and so much grinding for experience. Hours and hours of it. It was like I was playing Grandia all over again (but without the annoying load times).
Most of the chapters are fun, but there are a few that overstay their welcome. The distant future and the cyberpunk scenarios come to mind. These chapters also make it very unclear what you are supposed to do next. I hated the distant future because all you do is wander around the ship, talking to the same characters over and over and over again until you unlock something new to do. I had to look up a guide because I SWORE I had searched that entire ship high and low and still kept getting stuck repeatedly.
This is also a game that you can't step away from for a few weeks and then come back to. Maybe if you are in-between scenarios, it is fine. But in the middle of one? It will take you forever to figure out what you were supposed to do next. The villagers and NPCs are absolutely no help whatsoever.
Combat takes place on a grid. It's almost like a tactical RPG, but not quite. It's turn based combat where you have free control of your characters' movement. It is fairly easy to get used to, but there are some difficulty spikes in the game that had me scratching my head. It is very up and down with its difficulty. The final chapter, though, is without a question very tough. It took me hours and hours of grinding to even be able to put up a good fight against the final boss.
Don't expect to steamroll your way through this game.
Graphics:
I mentioned earlier that this game's visual style is similar to Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy. That's not entirely true. This game does NOT look as good as Chrono Trigger. Some Final Fantasy games it may be comparable to, but it also has nothing on VI. That said, it looks decent for its time. The characters are simple, yet unique looking and very expressive. The enemies are diverse. Some of the monsters you face at the end of the game are particularly hideous.
What steals the show graphically are the game's environments. It seems like this game is full of "peaks" like mountain tops and rooftops. The majestic backdrops never fail to impress. The game's atmosphere really does a good job sucking you in as well. The Old West is amazing, as is the kung fu scenario. You really feel like you are a part of these world. And while I don't like the ninja or distant future scenarios - I have to say that they are very, very immersive.
Sound:
This game has a very good soundtrack. There are a handful of tracks that stand out to me and have been added to my video game music playlist. I won't lie and say that this game is comparable to Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy VI in the sound department, but it is still very good.
Overall:
This game has a lot of ups and downs, but overall it left a positive impression on me and I am very glad to say I played it. At its best, Live A Live is an engrossing and unique 16 bit RPG that tells a small handful of "short stories" in a very effective manner. That said, some of these stories are clunkers that are quite aimless and lack any sort of direction whatsoever. I have to look at this game as a complete package, however. Do the good stories outweigh the bad? I think they do.
The very first scenario I played was the Old West, and I freaking loved it. Unfortunately, I was left "chasing the dragon" for the rest of the game. The distant future, the cyberpunk scenario, and the ninja chapter were the next three I played, and I found them all to be lackluster (despite a few bright spots). I had low expectations for the wrestler chapter, but it was surprisingly fun. The last two chapters I played before the endgame began were the kung fu chapter and the caveman chapter. Just as I was about to lose hope, they restored my faith in the game. They were just as good as the Old West chapter, if not better. The endgame is a whirlwind too, that makes it all worth it in the end. I'm going to gripe and gripe about the grinding and the difficulty spike of the final chapter, but now that I am done with the game I can say that it was overall a very unique and satisfying experience.
Will I play Live A Live again? Probably not - unless I cave in and get a Nintendo Switch at some point in the future. Then I'll play the remake. But as much as I enjoyed the game, I have come to the realization that I am getting older and there is still SO much content out there to explore. Really, I've seen everything this game has to offer and I'm good on playing it again.
Should you play it? I think so. If you've read this review and it sounds like something you'd be interested in, you'll probably like it. If not, you probably won't. As long as you come into this game with tempered expectations and don't expect it to be "the greatest game of all time!!" or anything like that, you'll probably have a good time with it.
THE GRADE:
B
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