LIVE A LIVE Review

On the 22nd of July 2022, the Switch received an awesome RPG that was previously released in Japan back in 1994. Originally, Live A Live was released by Square Enix in between RPG heavy hitters Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger. Being a huge fan of the games put out by Square Enix, I had heard of LIVE A LIVE and hoped that someday it would be translated and released for the rest of the world to experience. It is now almost a year after the game came out for the Switch, and it is finally releasing on Steam, the PlayStation 4, and the PlayStation 5. It’s almost 30 years after the original release date on the Super Famicom, but better late than never, especially if you didn’t get a chance to check it out on the Switch.

The first thing that I have to say is that LIVE A LIVE looks amazing, it has the same HD-2D visual style as games like TRIANGLE STRATEGY and OCTOPATH TRAVELLER. Not that the original game looked bad, but the vibrant colours and use of depth of field really take it over the top. I loved how things in the foreground were crisp and clear, but in the background, they would be fuzzy and out of focus. Just seeing the opening cinematic took my breath away — it was still pixel graphics but updated to make it look modern while retaining the classic pixel look at the same time.

Once the cinematic is over and the main game begins, you realise that LIVE A LIVE is different from a lot of other RPGs that you may have played in the past. The game is divided up into seven chapters, all taking place at a different moment in time and each with its own unique story and characters. Once they are all completed, a final chapter is unlocked that will bring all these stories together.

The chapters you get to select from are:

• Prehistoric
• Imperial China
• Twilight of Ido Japan
• The Old West
• Present Day
• The Near Future
• Distant Future

Some of the chapters are quite short like The Old West or Present Day options, while others are more complicated and take more time to get through; the order in which you play them is totally up to you. You could play them chronologically, or just pick the ones that interest you. The first chapter that I selected was the one set in the Near Future, the protagonist for this one reminded me of Chrono from Chrono Trigger — so, of course, I had to play that one first. Before starting, I had looked online to find out the average chapter length and tried to stagger it so I would have a break between the longer stories. If you don’t want to look up anything online and spoil it for yourself, there is the option to quit the level you are on and jump to another by going to the menu and selecting settings and the “return to chapter select” choice. Your current progress for this story will be saved and you can come back to it and continue whenever you want.

I won’t go too in-depth about what each of the chapters entails, as it is more fun to find out for yourself, but each is its own unique genre. The Present feels like a fighting game along the lines of Street Fighter, Distant Future is a horror survival, and The Near Future has a cool mech fight that reminded me of the Megazord from Power Rangers. I definitely enjoyed some chapters more than others. The battle system that you use is the same throughout all the chapters and uses a grid-based system where you can move your characters closer or farther away from the enemy before attacking. There are also multiple battle commands that you can select from:

• Abilities — perform attacks, heal, or use other abilities.
• Items — use any of the items that you currently have in your inventory.
• Pass — switch to another ally in your party.
• Wait — allows your charge gauges to fill, but the enemies gauge fills too.
• Flee — attempt to run away from the fight.

If you take too long to decide, the enemy won’t wait for you and will take the opportunity to engage. Each of the characters has a variety of attack options to use and will learn more as the fight progresses or they level up. The battlefield is laid out on a square grid, where your attacks will land and will be glowing, allowing you to line it up to hit your enemy. Some moves allow you to attack from a distance, while others will require you to get right up beside them to get a hit in, making you vulnerable to their counter-attack. At the beginning of that character's turn, you can retreat to get far enough away to give yourself the chance to heal before another attack comes in. Some of your secondary teammates have the ability to replenish health for other members of the team, whereas some can only heal themselves.

When attacking, if there are multiple enemies, look out for the one who seems to be the leader. If they are defeated, all the other minions will instantly be taken out as soon as they are. This will save you a lot of time and potential deaths. If one of your ally’s HP goes down to zero, they won’t be able to fight until any of their HP is recovered. But if everyone on the team is unable to fight — incapacitated — it’s game over. If an ally has zero health and is attacked again taking damage, they will be kicked off the field, and can’t be brought back, no matter if they are healed.

One of the things that I appreciated most in LIVE A LIVE is the ability to save your game at any point. No more searching for save points or having to replay through areas that you have already completed to get back where you were. That is unless you are forgetful or lazy and don’t bother to save your game multiple times. At that point, it’s kind of your fault. I also suggest having multiple save files, just in case you are at a section that involves you having to make a choice or progressing to a point where there is no return. Along with this, each chapter has a radar on the bottom right of the screen that shows an orange icon, this denotes where to go next and grey boxes for areas that you have not explored, and blue shows where you have visited. Because of this I never felt lost while playing, I would just follow the radar to figure out where the game wanted me to go.

The music, like all the other Square Enix games released at that time, is great and incredibly catchy. Though, I did find that in each chapter a song would get replayed a lot and may feel repetitive, the songs were still great. You do have to consider that this game originally came out 30 years ago, so having tons of music for eight different chapters, probably would not fit on a Super Famicom cartridge.

There are so many great things going on in LIVE A LIVE that make it one of the best RPGs I have ever played. The way the game is divided up into individual chapters was incredibly unique, allowing for a different story to be told in each. The variety of genres within each made the game feel very fresh and exciting to see what would be waiting in the next area because no two were the same. I am so excited to have had the chance to finally play this game, even though I needed to wait 30 years for it to arrive! If you have ever been a fan of RPGs from the ‘90s like Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy IV or VI, you absolutely need to check LIVE A LIVE out, and now with the game releasing to more platforms, you have no excuse!