Live A Live was the directorial debut of Takashi Tokita, an employee of Squaresoft who had done sprite graphics and sound effects on some of the Final Fantasy games. After wrapping this one up, he went on to direct Chrono Trigger, which some of you might recognize as one of the greatest games ever made. In fact, I think it’s safe to say I see more than one connecting thread between Live A Live and Chrono Trigger, some ideas that he had here that he expanded upon in his next game. Even with the HD-2D upgrade, I still sort of get Chrono Trigger vibes from this. Heck, maybe this will get me tarred and / or feathered, but I’m starting to think I wouldn’t mind a Chrono Trigger sequel in this style. I know, I know, we’re much more likely to just get an HD-2D remake of Chrono Trigger in this style, which, I mean… I guess I’d take that, too. But I digress. Live A Live. We’re talking about Live A Live.
To really understand what makes Live A Live special, you have to take a look at the way each chapter is presented. By and large, each one is VERY different from the others. One plays out with cave men who haven’t developed spoken language, so there’s no dialogue and the story is presented essentially through pantomime. Another takes place in what is essentially more or less a non-linear environment with unique rules and traversal abilities. Another is basically a fighting game. Like, Mortal Kombat. Except you can’t just stun your opponent in the corner with leg sweeps, which is kind of a bummer.
And as you might expect, given that even the chapter names seem to suggest that each takes place far apart from the others in time, the individual chapters don’t really have anything to do with each other. Well….. Okay, that’s not entirely true. There’s a connection, and honestly, you can probably start to pick up on it after playing just two chapters. But I’m a little bit on the dull side, so it took me four or five before I started to notice the “thing” that they all had in common. Finishing the first seven chapters unlocks an eighth chapter, and finishing THAT… I won’t say anymore. Each of these stories is short – not many go over even two hours – so I’m not going to go into any specifics about any of them. It’s better that you go in completely fresh. Except for the Present chapter, which I’ll just tell you doesn’t have any story at all except “I want to be the strongest fighter in the world.” Not even Street Fighter II caliber storytelling there.
As with the other HD-2D games that Square Enix has been putting out, the graphical style is really eye catching. Whether you like that or not depends on if you like things that are rad, or if you hate the world. JK, I actually do understand some of the pushback, like the risk that too many games will end up looking “same-y” in a soft-focused pixel-y way, but it’s still early days. I don’t think anyone needs to panic about Square Enix doing this to the exclusion of anything else in the future. They’ll have destroyed themselves with NFTs long before then.
Beyond just the graphical presentation, though, the game has some really cool aesthetics. It’s a combination of the cool effects, the sound design, and the music. Like, the way that enemies get blown away is just so satisfying. It never gets old. BOOOFF! There are tons of cool graphical flourishes, especially in battles, that make everything feel pretty special.
Speaking of battles, this is one of the most interesting battle systems I’ve seen in a JRPG. Correct me down in the comments if I’m wrong, but I don’t think Square Enix has really gone back to this style, and it’s a shame. The other shame is that for most of the game, this super cool battle system isn’t utilized to its fullest extent. Your characters level up fast – and I get it, each chapter is short, so making it super grindy would be the worst – and most of the time they’re learning new moves with each level. By the end of the chapter, you’ll have a ton of really awesome moves… and like five battles to use them in. There are a TON of special moves, ranging from normal punches and kicks and sword swipes all the way to the more esoteric, like fireballs and ice storms. You can kill guys with your farts. It’s wild.
In general, it’s not the length of the chapters that’s an issue; it’s the fact that this battle system is way too cool to be confined to limitations like that. With you swapping characters and settings every couple of hours, there’s no real customization opportunity or meaningful character growth. I’d love to see this battle system used in something new, maybe expanded to allow for that sort of growth and depth.
The music is great – Yoko Shimomura is god-tier, definitely in the top 5 of JRPG composers. She writes moving melodies and really infectious battle themes. I seriously can’t get the end-of-chapter boss music out of my head, I love it. Listen to that. If you have a butt, this song wants you to move it. I will keep my butt stationary, because I want this channel to grow and for you all to have a good time watching. But it’s a good song.
The voice acting is… I’m going to say it’s pretty clear this is the Square Enix B-Team. It’s not BAD – we’re thankfully long past the days of atrocious VO in games – but aside from a few individual standouts (and the Distant Future chapter overall, which is pretty solid), it’s a bit lackluster. Some characters have strange accents that just don’t sound quite… right. I know I’m Super White Guy over here criticizing accents, but like, I’ve seen movies and TV, with professional actors doing just about every accent under the sun, and a few of these here just sound… weird. It’s far from a big issue, and like I said, there are some standout performances in here, too.
So, I’ve criticized the voice acting – lightly! – but do I have anything else to complain about? Sorta. It’s time for the nitpick lightning round.
The loading screen hints spoiled a couple of minor plot points for me, like they were shown before an event flag was triggered. You might not have this problem at all, though, because the loading is so fast you have almost no chance to read what they’re putting on the screen anyway. There are also some glitches and oddities that suggest another QA pass was needed – or, just as likely, that QA pointed out these glitches and the overworked developers said “Whatever, just ship it.” These are really minor, like a couple of lines that get cut off early when using auto-advance for the dialogue, and an infinitely spawning item on a clothesline in the Near Future chapter.
And last, but far from least – and this goes out to EVERY developer working in the 2D-sprite-on-3D-background space – please create a sprite and animation for each direction your characters can move. I understand it will require more work. I’m sympathetic to that. But this has been bugging me since friggin Paper Mario on N64, and I want it to stop. If I’m moving up and left, I should NOT be cheating out towards the camera. Neither should I be fully facing away from the camera. I should be three-quarters turned. Overusing the cheat-out leads to some weird walking animations as it is, and I mean, look, I understand nobody actually looks good in full-on profile (with maybe the exception of Mr. Alfred Hitchcock). So you can keep the cheat-out pose for left and right, but PLEASE. PLEASE let me see the back-left and back-right of your characters’ stupid heads!
Okay, so I’ve just ranted at length about something that probably no one else in the world cares about. If you’re still here, hey, thank you for sticking around.
So, I guess the final question I have is: Is Live A Live a Gem?
Yes. My friends, yes it is. If you’re a JRPG player with a Switch, just pick this up. It gives me warm nostalgia fuzzies, despite the fact I never played the original, and its overwhelming charm outweighs any nitpicks I might have.
Your Review