Live A Live review – the past of the future of JRPGs

metro.co.uk:

A classic Square Enix JRPG, that’s never been released before in the West, is remade with stunning 2D-HD graphics and a killer soundtrack.

If you knew what Live A Live was before Square Enix announced this remake then congratulations, you’re a hardcore gamer – at least when it comes to Japanese role-playing games. First released for the SNES in 1994 (just three months before the launch of the PlayStation) the original version of Live A Live was never made available anywhere outside of Japan, and until this day has never had an official English translation.

Over the years, it has gained a cult following amongst genre fans but this is still a very strange game to get… not a re-release or a remaster but a full remake. Using the same 2D-HD graphics created for Octopath Traveler and Triangle Strategy, and produced by original director Takashi Tokita (who also co-directed Chrono Trigger), this is the very opposite of a cash grab, with real love and care put into recreating a game most in the West have never heard of.

The effort is worth it too, as Live A Live is, within the context of the genre, a very unique game. It’s an anthology of seven very separate stories, that are only tied together by an eighth unlockable adventure and its epilogue. You play a different character in each, with the settings ranging from prehistory to the far future. Monsters and magic still play a part, but for the most part it avoids the usual Tolkien-esque tropes, with everything from a Western to a mech battle in the near future.

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What’s especially impressive about Live A Live is that the different settings aren’t just a gimmick but greatly alter the gameplay, something even Chrono Trigger and its different time zones can’t really claim. You can