LIVE A LIVE

It's kinda like "Chrono Trigger lite." It's not great, it's just kinda ok. Just go play Chrono Trigger instead. F#!# this game.

Live A Live was originally released in 1994, for the Super Famicom, and was never released outside of Japan. Due to the popularity of the fan translation of this game, among other likely factors, Square Enix decided to release this remake globally. I personally love this game, and I'll do my best to sell it to you too. This game is divided up into different periods of history: Prehistory, Ancient China, Twilight of Edo Japan, Wild West, Present Day, Near Future, Distant Future, and one final era that I won't spoil. Not all of these periods are JRPG-like, with Ancient China acting more like a kung-fu movie, Wild West being a timed puzzle, Present Day being more like a fighting game, and Distant Future being survival-horror coded. You can name each of your period's protagonists, but they also have default names, if you don't want to. Combat is on a grid, with each teammate having a timer before it's their turn, and when it is their turn, they can move around as much as they want before doing their move. However, enemies also work this way, so if you move around too much with one character, you'll be inviting attacks from your opponents. Abilities don't cost resources to perform, bu…

I love the concepts behind the stories in this game. A kung fu master looking for disciples to pass on his art, a ninja infiltrating a castle, an MMA fighter striving to be the best, a near-future tough guy who can read minds... These are all scenarios I’d love to play, and that’s why I bought the game. But... it just isn’t that good. The writing in each story is pretty average, but what really lets it down is the weak combat. Every fight is just so... easy. You can randomly throw out moves and the enemy will go down. And since each story has a different main character, there’s not much motivation to level up or get stronger. Also, I know this is a convention from older JRPGs, but it also really annoys me that the protagonist is always a tiny pixel man, while the bosses, even the human ones, are these giant sprites that take up half the screen...

First of all, if I had to sum up why I recommend this game in a single word, it would be: masterpiece. When I write reviews for games I finish, I usually try to explain who I think would enjoy the game and who probably wouldn't. For the first time, I can honestly say that I recommend this one to everyone. You absolutely don't have to be a JRPG fan to enjoy Live A Live. That said, I do have one warning. The first time I tried the game, I didn't really know what I was getting into. I picked a chapter based purely on what looked cool to me, and I went with The Wild West. That turned out to be a mistake. I ended up getting frustrated with the game and eventually dropped it for several years. This time, I decided to approach the game properly and looked up the recommended order for a first playthrough. I highly recommend following that order, because the game gradually introduces you to its mechanics, and the learning curve feels much more natural that way. Without going into too much detail because I really don't want to spoil anything, one of the game's biggest strengths is its structure. Each chapter takes place in a completely different time period and location, with a differen…

This is a 99.9% perfect remake (there are some minor localization misses, specifically two in the Prehistory chapter), as someone who's played and loves the hell out of the SFC version. If you like old console RPGs at all, or even modern quirky RPGs, you owe it to yourself to play LIVE A LIVE.

I've loved this game since the SNES game got an English fan translation and this is a really, really good remake. Definitely worth the purchase. I played it on the Switch.