Square Enix has put out a lot of JRPGs for the last thirty seven years. From long running series like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, classics such as Chrono Trigger, and newer releases like Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler. The last one being one of my favorite video game series. Point being that Square is a legend amongst the gaming industry. They are not the best company out there and they have made some poor business choices in recent memory, but they've made a name for themselves. The go-to company for if you want a great JRPG to play. Just because they make a lot of fantastic JRPGs does not mean all of them are going to be noticed. Some of them fly under the radar and are forgotten with time. Coincidence that I mentioned “time” because we are talking about a game that focuses heavily on it. No, we are discussing Chrono Trigger even though it’s considered one of the greats. Instead we are discussing a game that flopped at launch and Square Enix left it to die until they decided to dig up its corpse and plug it into a new body. Live A Live, a JRPG following eight different protagonists each with their own unique stories and is the creation of Takashi Tokita. Same man would soon be responsible for Chrono Trigger.
This wasn’t the first game Tokita worked on, but it would be the first game where he served as lead director. His project was extremely experimental and he would push the storage capacity of the Super Nintendo. Each chapter of course would focus on a different protagonist, but the way they worked and the mechanics they each utilized made them feel like entirely different games. Tokita wanted cowboys, ninjas, anime references, martial arts, robots, knights & caveman galore. A section where you have to manage time, train students, explore a complex dungeon, etc. This was an ambitious project, but ambition comes at a cost. Tokita and his team were struggling to figure out how to program the elements they wanted and how to get the game working. They had to cut some corners especially since they planned to release Live A Live within a few months. As time drained faster they worked harder, and eventually in 1994 they released it. The plan was to release the game in Japan first, see how well it did, and if it sold enough copies Square would release it worldwide. That did not happen. The game sold extremely poorly and this led Square to axing anything else related to Live A Live. That means no potential sequel, advertisement of it, and of course no attempt to release it across the globe. Tokita and his team were disappointed, but they’d make a comeback one year later with another time related JRPG, Chrono Trigger.
Live A Live was forgotten, but it held a special place in Tokita’s heart since it was the first game he ever made. Flashforward to 2018 and Tokita had recently joined the department who made a game similar to his. Eight protagonists, eight narratives, interwoven plot, and much more depth. He saw how beloved this game was and it quickly gave him inspiration to revive Live A Live. This game was my beloved Octopath Traveler. I wouldn’t be surprised if the team behind it took direct ideas from Live A Live. Tokita appreciated the style Octopath Traveler had and wanted to recreate Live A Live using that exact same style. He was able to get a remake approved by Square, got the team working, and surely Live A Live came back. Development was a bit rocky due to the Covid pandemic in 2020, but in 2022 they released the full game. Not only was the remake what Tokita originally envisioned Live A Live to be back in 1994, but he finally was able to release it worldwide so that more people could enjoy it.
While the Live A Live remake barely managed to sell one million copies it managed to sell much better than the original release and was considered a personal success to Tokita. The reception for Live A Live was brighter too as critics call it a fantastic take for JRPGs. Some even claimed it to be one of the best and most underrated RPGs of 2022. I’ve been wanting to play this game for quite awhile now. In some way it’s the main inspiration for Octopath Traveler, and I wanted to see how Octopath took and ran with the ideas Live A Live set up. I liked the premise, and personally I love the HD-2D style these games have been going for. Played through the full game this week and I got to say I am really impressed. Live A Live is fantastic and while it does have a fair share of problems I ultimately loved this game. I hope it gets more love, exposure, & more people check it out. Today we’re talking about Live A Live and why it absolutely deserves your attention. Let's give it all for what may be my final major review of 2023.
Story
The game has eight different narratives and they all take place within a different time period. For the sake of this review I’ll just list them in the order I played. In the Wild West we follow an old outlaw by the name of the Sundown Kid. He’s been on the run for quite awhile now. What crime did he commit? No one particularly knows. He has a bounty on his head and there are people out to find him. He’s being chased by Mad Dog, one of many hunters, and eventually he makes way to a town. Here he chats with the locals only to discover they are being harassed by a group called the Crazy Bunch. Maybe this is his chance to do a good thing, and it’ll take a lil help too. During the Twilight of Edo Japan we follow a shinobi named Oboromaru. His mentor has taught him how to stealthily sneak his way through the shadows, slice down any of his opponents, and be the best. Now he has been assigned an important task. Rescue a politically important man and stop the kidnapper. This kidnapper has gained demonic powers and aid, and plans to conquer all of Japan. He’s hidden within a complex castle, and Oboromaru must navigate the multi-layered maze to stop the upcoming evil. There’s the caveman named Pogo and basically he hunts for his tribe. All was well until one day a female outsider entered his home. This woman is going to be sacrificed by a rival tribe to their god, and Pogo doesn’t want that happening since he has fallen in love with her upon sight. So him and his monkey must do all they can to protect.
In the present day we follow Masaru Takahara. A young man who's spent all his life training to be the strongest person alive. He’s traveling around the globe to meet the strongest men currently alive. He’ll quickly learn their moves during combat, and through experience he’ll bring them down and become the best of the best. In Imperial China there lives a shifu. Master of a special martial art known as Earthen Heart and is the last one to know it. His body is dying and he now must find an apprentice to pass Earthen Heart down to. He finds three individuals who want to learn his teachings, and day by day he trains them. In the near future is Akira Tadokoro. His dad was killed at a young age, and his younger sister and him grew up in an orphanage. He has the ability to read people’s minds and use psychic powers. A doctor he is friends with wants Akira to use his power to control a mech he built, but Akira can’t do it. Meanwhile a biker gang is going around kidnapping children and Akira must figure out why. All the while uncovering the truth.In the far future a cute robot named Cube is built. Newest members aboard a ship, and they are tasked with delivering precious cargo. Things go wrong, cargo which turns out to be a deadly creature is killed, and Cube must figure out what is causing all the madness, protect he remaining crew, and survive.
Finally there is the eighth story. In the middle ages we follow a knight named Oersted. I’m not gonna spoil too much, but I’ll just say his story ties all the narratives together. He won a contest to become the husband of a grand princess. The princess is kidnapped and now he and a group of heroes must venture to save her. Stuff happens and that’s all I’m going to say. Each chapter can be played in any order and they range from being one hour long to three hours. Each of these characters face a different form of evil, but pay attention and you’ll realize all of these evils have something in common. You’ll find out and when you do it all comes down to one final moment.
Gameplay
It’s a classic JRPG and if you’ve played both Octopath Traveler games like me then you should feel right at home here. In most cases you’ll explore, find equipment, get thrown into turn-based combat, and level up with experience points. Each character has their own unique abilities and playstyles, and you’ll want to know their quirks so you know what to do during combat. You’ll have characters like the martial artist and fighter who are good at dealing damage up close, but this means they’ll be exposed to taking heavy hits up close and often. The gunslinger is really good at nailing foes from a distance, but has low defense and can die easily. Psychic can deal all sorts of elemental damage and affinities, but is not very good at dealing physical damage. Each attack has different damage types, power, and direction for which they can hit. Sometimes you’ll want to move your characters around and line them up in specific spots so you can land attacks properly. There are even some attacks and abilities that take time to perform. Characters can be canceled out of these prepared attacks, so you want to be careful. That’s why you want to distract enemies with allies, or place characters preparing attacks in a spot where they are safe.
Enemies too will be preparing attacks. Turns are determined by a yellow bar below your health bar of course. When the bars are full you or the enemies can act. It’s not time based like what Final Fantasy VI has, but they give good indication of who will possibly go next. Sometimes you want to get out of the way of lethal blows, or hit them with damage types that cancel what they are about to do. Everytime you level up a character gains a new ability. These can be very useful especially during the bosses lying at the end of each chapter and final stretch of the game. Now what makes Live A Live truly unique is not its combat and combat mechanics. It’s actually how it switches up the gameplay each chapter. For example, in the gunslinger’s story you have to collect supplies to set up traps around a town. There’s a timer and when the timer is up the final battle commences. The more traps there are the less men there will be to help the boss when he rides into town, so you have to work against the clock. Pretty cool and avoids the problem of grinding which seems to be prevalent in many RPGs. I don’t wanna explain too many chapters as I have a final section where I convey all my thoughts, but just know I love how much Live A Live switches up its gameplay. Hopefully you can stop every form of evil across time and space.
Thoughts
Live A Live is fantastic and an absolute must play for JRPG fans. It achieves everything it set out to do and I would consider it a masterpiece. It does have a fair share of problems and some may chase players away from giving it a try, but trust me this game is worth sticking around for. My most favorite part about Live A Live are the eight protagonists, their stories, and how they are all connected by the end. Each of these stories have meaningful messages to tell and the plot twist near the end helps tie them all together to a core theme. Without spoiling too much, Live A Live is a tale about history. No matter how much time has passed people find ways to hate each other. To kill, steal, and do whatever it takes to achieve their goals. How selfishness makes us forget and lose track of what we should be valuing. Heroes eventually come to save us from burdens or set us back on the right track, but selfishness and hate finds a way back into us. Hate will never disappear, but what we can do is limit how much hate we express. Be kind to one another, pursue goals that are good for us and others, and do the right thing even if we have to make sacrifices. The ending is beautiful and one the best I’ve seen in a long time. A satisfying conclusion to what feels like a long journey, even though the game doesn’t take all too long to finish.
I’ve played a lot of RPGs and the one thing both RPG lovers and haters can agree on is that these games are long. A majority of these games are thirty to fifty plus hour experiences, and require a ton of time and evotion if you plan to finish them in under a month. Not just because a game is long doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. In the case of RPGs it does make sense. Whether that be the amount of time it takes to tell its narrative and build its world, or the amount of content on offer for which the player can mess around with, These are games built to offer adventurous feelings, fun progression, and endless hours of play. Live A Live is probably one of the shorter RPGs I’ve played in awhile. It took me around eighteen hours to beat, and for some it’ll take twenty two. It’s lengthy, but not much compared to most RPGs today. Live A Live doesn’t have many reasons to continue playing or replaying outside of two additional endings. I can see a lot of RPG fans complaining about this, but I for one see why they went for this approach. Live A Live is much more narrative focused and if Live A Live were to lag on too long or have excessive amounts of grinding players probably would lose motivation to finish it. Especially when the last sections of the game are probably the longest and most drawn out. We’ll get to that part shortly. I appreciate how short this game is compared to most and again it wraps up when it needs to.
Each chapter swap up the gameplay and mechanics, and this offers a ton of variation during the twenty or so hours Live A Live goes on for. The gunslinger chapter has you prepare traps within a set amount of time to make the final fight easier. The martial artist trains three disciples and the strongest one gets to be used during the final fight and last chapter. The fighter can tackle one of six challengers in any order and it transforms into a game of rock paper scissors. The robot has to avoid a fast moving monster for they have to defend themselves, and this creates tension. You have chapters with unique mechanics, but then you have the lame ones. The psychic kid can read minds, but really it’s just initiating a second dialogue option needed to progress. Caveman can sniff out supplies and monster encounters, but then you ignore encounters because they get way too repetitive. Ninja just navigates a complex interconnect level and even though you can hide to avoid combat there seems to be no consequences for how many people are killed or if you get spotted. The final chapter is when Live A Live transforms into a traditional JRPG. Explore a big world, find gear, and encounters are random. You lead a team of four heroes consisting of the first seven you played, and you have to prep them up enough so you can tackle the final boss. I think it’s the best chapter in the game as it reminded me closely of the feeling of Octopath. How a group of unlikely friends with different standards team together to fight a great evil, but again some may dislike how the game loses it’s unique gimmicks.
Which brings me up onto what are probably the biggest pros and cons of Live A Live. The game is really easy for the most part up until the final chapter. Live A Live manages to avoid the core problem many RPGs have. That is grinding. It seems like you never have to grind seeing how many chapters have a limited amount of encounters. Most chapters end with you reaching a max of level nine or ten, and some will just lock you with specific levels. The final confrontations of every chapter seem to be pushovers and even if you are struggling you quickly figure out what to do and the rest of it becomes trivial. That is not to say the combat is bad. The combat is in fact good, well designed, and has good ideas. Attack ranges and directions make you consider where to move your characters during combat. The charge up for abilities makes you consider what to do. Should you prepare a powerful attack and hope you charge it in time, or deal a lighter blow so you can stay on the move and support your team? Enemy weakness creates this system of how to get advantage, and this further pushes you to change positions. It’s great, but enemies are easy, especially when you find one move that works really well. Specifically attacks that have a long range and hit diagonally. I used one during a fight with the fighter and I took no hits whatsoever.
I thought the final chapter would be easy as well, but then the difficulty curves. Foes come in bigger groups, are much stronger, and hit harder. Charging into the final dungeon will most likely get you killed immediately and you have to grind for new abilities. You have to explore to find characters to help you, consider your party’s capabilities, find better gear to help you, maybe explore optional dungeons to obtain the strongest gear in the game, and play a bit more wisely during fights. I had to spend a whole hour leveling up my team and it was then when I ran into the final boss room, fought through three stages, and finally beat the game. A lot of people are not going to like this final chapter and I’ve seen some players give up entirely. This is the hardest chapter in Live A Live, but at the same time I found it the most fulfilling. I actually felt challenged and had to pay attention to things. I had to explore, get better, and know what I could handle. I had to know who to bring into the fight and who’d be best for that final boss. It was during this moment where I had feelings of Octopath love and saw how Live A Live inspired so many things I like about Octopath Traveler. Again, the final section is not going to be a favorite for a lot of players, but I liked it there. Now I’ve mentioned Octopath Traveler a lot for this review and I guess this raises an interesting but really biased question. The most biased thing I've said all year long.
How does Live A Live face off against Octopath Traveler? Is this a fair question? No, not really especially since Live A Live is a much smaller game that came out during the SNES era. Yet, it’s an interesting question for me since I see so much of both the Octopath Traveler games taking inspiration from this game. The more I think about how Octopath Traveler managed to improve and expand upon what Live A Live does, the more Live A Live starts to feel inferior to me. Which is not a good feeling especially since I really liked this game. Live A Live gives you no control over the ability unlocks and eventually runs out of new stuff to give you. Octopath not only gives you the choice of what abilities you unlock and when, but has a ton of build diversity especially when characters can wield two different classes at once. Live A Live has a weakness system that seems to not always work due to enemies not always being stunned easily. Octopath makes full use of its weakness system by allowing you to break defenses and deal critical damage with certain attacks. It further pushes this by having bosses deal lethal damage if you don’t break their defenses quick enough. The HD-2D style if great and Live A Live has good art direction. However, it does feel like Octopath made better use of it. I always saw Octopath Traveler as a pop-up book. Like this game was a stylized retelling of old fairytales. Live A Live does not have this feeling. In fact, some of the environments felt too colorful to me and lacked the lighting and finer details the world of Octopath Traveler had. The visual identity that made it absorbing.
While Live A Live tells a quick heartfelt story it does have a lot of room for depth amongst its characters. There were points in the game where some of them I failed to connect with. While Octopath Traveler is a really long game it does use its runtime and lengthy storytelling to build upon its world, connect you to characters of all flavors, and feel for them by the end. I think Octopath Traveler is a better RPG and video game in a lot of fronts. However, if you want a more narrative focused experience and one that avoids most of the problems standard JRPGs have then look no further than this game. With all that rambling or if you skipped to the last few sentences of this review you may think I dislike this game. To reiterate, I love Live A Live. It is the most unique & special JRPG I’ve played alongside Octopath Traveler and 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. It has a great story, interesting ideas, doesn't overstay it's welcome, and great visual style. The soundtrack is amazing and is composed by the same man who did it all those years ago. Same man also conducted the soundtrack for Super Mario RPG, and ain't it surprising that game got remade recently too. I strongly recommend it and for fifty bucks you get a rock solid title that’ll leave you fulfilled when you roll the final credits. In the end I am going to have to give Live A Live a 9.5/10 for excellence at best.
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