Live A Live Review: Classic RPG saves the best moments for last
The original Live A Live launched on the SNES in 1994 but never left Japan … until now. A new 2D-HD remake, released exclusively on Nintendo Switch, brings the influential RPG to the West for the first time ever. With a cast of different characters, the game tells eight separate stories before bringing all of them together. When it first released, this storytelling structure was ahead of its time.
Each of the characters in Live A Live occupies a certain setting and point in time, such as Pogo in the prehistoric times when speech was still primitive, and Cube in the distant future where space commerce is the norm. Each chapter featuring a character has a unique gimmick, such as the Edo period Shinobi’s being a full-fledged dungeon crawler, and the near future Akira’s having an overworld to roam around in similar to classic JRPGs like Final Fantasy.
Live A Live’s greatest asset though, is its fun turn-based battle system. But like its slow-building story, that system takes too long to reach its full potential.
Live A Live lets players select any character’s story from a menu screen to dive into. Once a character’s story has concluded, players come back to the menu screen to pick another. Thankfully, you can switch between different chapters any time you wish as well.
Some of its chapters especially stand out.
The game does a great job of presenting different mechanics in each chapter to mix up the gameplay. Some of its chapters especially stand out. Masaru Takaharu’s tale is an incredibly fun one, as he competes in a global tournament to become the world’s strongest fighter. His gameplay is set up like a classic fighting game, similar to Virtua Fighter. Here, Masaru can select his opponents from a fighter select screen and
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