
We've got a bounty of new Live A Live news! Square Enix's upcoming remake of the Super Famicom RPG received a livestream today, featuring the director of the original and producer of the remake, Takashi Tokita, and the now-legendary composer of the original, Yoko Shimomura. And in that stream, we got a handful of new trailers that each show off one of four different time periods.
We've already seen Prehistory and Imperial China, so these next four will be new to anyone not familiar with the game. One thing to say, though, is they all look amazing. Thanks to Square Enix Asia for posting the English trailers!
The Wild West
This scenario stars a character known only as Sundown, or The Sundown Kid, and it's likely that this is set around the 1880s. And my gosh, if Clint Eastwood were to ever star in an RPG, this is it. And it looks like there'll be a few chances for a good old fashioned showdown.
The Middle Ages
Set in Medieval-esque times, you'll control Oersted, a knight (and silent protagonist) who is on a mission to save the princes. He's joined by three others to save his betrothed but is eventually tricked by the being who kidnapped her — the Demon King. This one looks the most similar to a traditional RPG, but this is also the eighth chapter you can play. You have to beat all seven others before unlocking this one.
The Near Future
Motorbikes! Robots! Actual roads! SUNGLASSES! If this was the near future in 1994, then why don't we live like this now? Starring Akira (yes), a teenage orphan who lives with his sister, you'll need to find out why a gang is kidnapping people. There are shiny 3D robots and a lot of close-ups of eyes, so this feels like a really cool pixelated interactive anime or mech movie.
Twilight of Edo Japan
As a trainee ninja, Oboromaru can progress through his scenario in two different ways — the traditional RPG way of combat, or by sneaking around. He must rescue a person of political importance despite his inexperience, but desperate times, hey? Whether you choose stealth or combat, it won't stop you from gaining experience points, which makes both options sound pretty tantalising.
During the stream, the presenters also showed off the game's brand new soundtrack. Yoko Shimomura has supervised the rearrangements herself, and the CD launches on 27th July — just a few days after the game.
There was also a pretty chunky gameplay segment during the broadcast showing off the Present Day (which didn't get a trailer during the stream) a Edo Japan.
The Present Day starts at around 58:17 with a fighting game-style select screen. This chapter is all about combat, with no exploration in-between, as you fight as wrestler Masaru Takahara to become the strongest fighter in the world.
Twilight of Edo Japan begins at around 1:07:15, and in almost 30 minutes of footage, we can see the beautiful Edo period presented in HD-2D, and the various ways Oboromaru can sneak around and hide from his opponents.
You can watch the entire event below. The livestream is entirely in Japanese with no subtitles, but there's more than enough enthusiasm and visuals to get you pumped up for this upcoming release. The game releases on 22nd July on Switch, so find out where you can pre-order your copy here:
Share your thoughts on the Live A Live remake with us in the comments!
[source youtu.be, via youtube.com]
Comments 36
This game is looking really good! Have a copy preordered at Amazon.
Shame I have grown out of these types of games, a teenage me would be loving this, but now a days the thought of grinding and tactics, not my thing.
Looks gorgeous though
The sneaking around instead of fighting sounded cool until I saw it was just avoiding which way the NPC was facing..
Could we have a poll as to whether people read it as Live a Live, Liv a Liv, Live a Liv, Liv a Live, Live Alive, or Liv Alive please.
Oh my goodness. yes please.
July is going to be expensive with Live A Live and then XC3 and Digimon Survive a week later. Who needs to go outside and get sunburnt eh?
I wish Square would stop putting full-throated voice acting over pixel art characters. It's a complete anachronism and it never lands, especially after localization gets a hold of it.
Awesome trailers! I’m pumped up for this game! Tempted to pre-order.
@swoose You’re right, the voice acting kind of takes me out of the experience. But I really like the voice acting in recent Square games, just not a good fit for the HD2D games.
@swoose FACTS. Voice acting doesn't belong in old school games. If you're gonna throw it back, throw it back all the way! don't butcher it with some crappy voice overs we're just going to turn off.
I'm looking forward to this. I guess i didn't learn my lesson from triangle strategy, but this game was something I always wanted to play for years, so I can actually give a confident thumbs up to my nemesis SqueeniX for this.
This game might be my first attempt to play a traditional JRPG. (Also have intentions to play Earthbound and Mario RPG. BTW I’m in my 30s… so after all this time... scary new gaming territory lol.)
Absolutely haaaaaaaaaate the font choice in the dialogue boxes but yeah, this game looks incredible otherwise, especially that first video in the west.
@peterandom
just watch the nintendo direct reveal trailer and you'll have the correct pronunciation
or just read the katakana
Oh no, looks like the voice acting is on par with Triangle Strategy, which is to say, awful. Guess it’s voice-free for me then.
It’s shocking to me that they’re releasing games in 2022 that sound like anime from the early 90s.
I kind of kept wanting to play Live A Live even well before the remake was announced, though I'll probably end up waiting for either a sale or it to inevitably end up on Gamepass.
I was considering buying this. Then I saw the punching robot turtle. Now I'm definitely buying this.
@Kiz3000 that’s the thing can still play the switch and get sun burnt 😂
Not watching the trailers cause I don’t need any more convincing anyway Game is preordered and I’m looking forward!
Edit: Oh, just read about the voice acting. Yeah not great, I hope they add a switch to disable it, but if no there’s at least going to be a Japanese option. Which to my ignorant ear sounds close enough to Hylian.
This, XC3, and Digimon Survive are in a three-way tug of war for my wallet. They'll all get it eventually, but who first is up for debate.
(Spoiler: Xenoblade will probably win)
@Link-Hero Because I can read faster than them and it's really distracting. Kudos for being assumptive and lame at the end. You have obviously never had any etiquette.
Live Alive was an important moment in JRPG culture. A game developed and released by Square at the top of their form. Beloved by Japanese gamers upon release. Beautiful pixel art, a creative story with elements that were novel for an RPG, a soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura. If you consider yourself even a passing fan of JRPG's you NEED to experience this game! Preordered and cannot wait!
@Link-Hero If the a English dub isn't up to someone's standards why should the only option then be to switch to Japanese, especially if the person playing doesn't speak Japanese? I think the voice acting is fine from what I've heard but it's not asking too much for the quality of the English dub to match the Japanese.
REALLY hyped for this game! Very likely I will go for these four stories, actually.
I thought I was gonna like it but the voice acting really puts me off. It's so incredibly artificial and annoying. I just can't stand it. But probably I will play it anyway with Japanese voices on.
@Link-Hero As a non-native speaker it would be difficult for me to tell when the voice acting is good versus when it's just ordinary. I'd have no idea what words or phrases are being emphasized just by reading along so I'm not sure that would be a solution for me. Might work for others but I wouldn't say it's quite so simple for all.
Really like all the different time periods and characters. The Wild West story in particular looks fun.
If the game is anything like the original then my advice is to NOT pick the Ninja campaign as your first one. That one is so much harder than any of the others in my opinion.
@Link-Hero The issue isn't solved by having full-throated Japanese voices coming out of the pixels instead. All voice acting is a bad fit for this presentation style. The characters' faces are barely on screen, so there's no recognizable features or emotions to match the performances.
I've played plenty of voiced games, I realize the localizations have lower budgets and direction quality. That said, I enjoyed the English cast of Fire Emblem: Three Houses recently. That's a game that has every speaking character's face on screen TWICE, both on their 3D model and in their 2D portrait, both of which with changing expressions. This recent run of Square-Enix retro games has bizarrely refused to even use character portraits in gameplay. That's a feature that comes standard in visual novels, because it just works.
They're not trying to make these games look like CD-i or early Playstation games, which had even lower voiceover budgets than today. They're specifically evoking a platform that had no room for voices on the sound chip, but still told great stories. They told SUCH good stories that Square-Enix was reluctant to include voiceover long after they left Nintendo consoles, up until FFX and Dragon Quest XI.
No other visual medium asks actors to give dramatic life to characters at a 16x24 resolution. I don't think that's ever worked. Give them portraits like a visual novel, or keep them silent like a SNES game.
@Expa0
Which campaign do you think is the best one to start with?
In order of length, the campaigns go something like...
Present Day
Cowboy
Sci-Fi
China
Near Future
Caveman
Ninja
However in terms of difficulty, the campaigns are more like...
Sci-Fi
Cowboy
Caveman
China
Near Future
Present Day
Ninja
Yeah Ninja is both of the longest and the hardest campaign it looks like.
Of course this is all opinion. and maybe I'm forgetting something
I actually think either China or Near Future are both good starting points.
In my playthrough on SNES I actually started with Sci-Fi just because the robot character looked fun. While it did not teach me how to play combat, it did intrigue me to want to keep playing....the tone of the story was definitely unexpected.
@Link-Hero Yeah bad voice acting is bad and you even acknowledge it by saying switch to another language but OK.
Nice mental gymnastics with me saying I don't like voice acting because I can read faster so therefore I'm insulting every developer in every voice actor in the world. That's a stretch.. At least you're getting your exercise.
Man I love the voice acting in this. Top notch.
@BlubberWhale Uh oh! Beware, there is always the chance they will turn you into a hopeless JRPG addict! 🙂
@BlubberWhale Oh, and Mario RPG is a VERY good place to start with JRPGS as the mechanics are very straightforward in the early game and it does a really good job of progressively teaching you to play tactically. Also, the game itself is very charming.
@Gitface NOOOOOOooooo!!! Haha. 😆
Yeah, it might be more satisfying than I ever thought possible, ha. And thank you, cool advice! I may have to make time for Mario RPG... somehow. (Backlogs... love 'em to death, but... they're so demanding, ha.)
I feel like it shouldn't be, but this is my most anticipated release of the year so far. Then the turtles games, then XC3.
@Link-Hero if u don't understand the language, it's just noise. I'd rather have no sound, than hear language that I don't understand, & still have to read the subtitles. The point of the voice acting is so we don't have to read the text...
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...