Back in a Nintendo Direct earlier this year, Square Enix revealed that they were remaking the little-known 1994 SNES RPG Live A Live, in their trademark HD-2D style. Not a lot of people watching the Nintendo Direct knew what it was, and although many of us were curious about the game, it seemed a little out of the blue.
And so, we brought together three people to discuss the game, after having played the demo (available now): Zion Grassl, our video star and fan of obscure JRPGs; Kevin Kenson, of Kevin Kenson Gaming, who also loves obscure JRPGs; and Kate Gray (hello!), who doesn't know much about obscure JRPGs, but has played Chrono Trigger. And the Live A Live demo, of course.
We sat down to discuss the intrigue of a seven-character RPG, the incredible innovation that Live A Live introduced in the early '90s, and the disappointing sales that led to the game flying under the radar. Our verdict on the game? You'll just have to watch the video to find out, won't you?
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Let us know if you enjoy these longer-form video game chats in the comments below!
Comments 21
I don’t mind the longer format being done, but generally it’s not for me. Would appreciate it if these posts can be updated after a week (or some other timeframe) with a tldr added. But keep up the good work! There’s nothing wrong with more content being added on this site.
I just downloaded the demo, my afternoon is planned.
I really want this game, but I'm terrified it'll become another Octopath where I play it for a bit, love it and then completely drop it after the first hour. I've withheld playing the demo for that very reason but I suppose I'll have to rip off the bandage at some point because, despite my fears, the game itself looks utterly beautiful (and not just in the graphics department).
As long as the storylines intertwine … not like Octopath Traveller where everything felt disconnected
I'll buy and I'll play it and I'll probably enjoy it, but goddamn does the new soundtrack lack the oomph of the original. By far the biggest disappointment about this rerelease, please oh please add the option for the OG soundtrack. Trials of Mana remake had the option, why can't this one?
Thanks for reminding me to download the demo, I forgot all about it because Sunbreak kept me occupied.
I played the China chapter (since it's the most "regular" of the three offered) and I am now even more restless for the full thing!
@YoshiF2 THIS. I bounced hard off of Octopath b/c it just felt so much of the same lather, rinse, repeat with all the characters and there was this lack of continuity and/or convergence that felt hollow. Also why I have stayed away from Project Triangle Strategy (ugh, this name!). But I am looking forward to this demo and I've heard the stories do actually come together in a unique way. So fingers crossed.
@YoshiF2
I mean, the literal draw of the game is that you play different storylines happening in different eras… unless time travel is involved, it seems logical that the stories wouldn’t intertwine, but they don’t really have to since they’re all separate campaigns, unlike octopath. Probably they converge at the very end, if at all.
I played the fan translation pretty recently. In fact, I played it in reaction to the remake's announcement.
I really enjoyed it, though the endgame grew bothersome, having way way more random encounters than it should have. I really hope the remake tones it down a bit in that regard.
@Pirate1 We talked about so many things that a TL;DR would be extremely hard, buuuut... basically, we think the game is interesting, the demo didn't quite show off WHY it's interesting (because the demo cuts off too early on some of the chapters) and the current trend of cult remakes is a really cool direction for games to be going in.
It's a travesty this is releasing 1 week before XC3. Someone should've planned this out a little better since you're marketing to the same demographic of players.
@KateGray thank you!
It does look decent but I just can't with 20 year old RPG mechanics anymore, waaayyy too simplistic.
I played the game and gave up on it. The battle system isn't for me and I really didn't like you being able to customize the character's name and no one ever speaking it: was this approach really necessary?
@Takoda it’s ironic, because Octopath’s campaigns were in the same era and they never merged. They missed that chance to make its storytelling unique.
The reason I am asking is that this obviously inspired the format of Octopath Traveler. Choose your own independent storyline and go through them all. However I’ve seen some screens in the trailer in which many characters are running in the same party in Live A Live, so, it’s a valid question to know if they deliver on a promise that Octopath could not.
I feel that the main reason I liked Octopath's story was because I was able to compromise my expectations with what the developers intended.
Anyway, this game seems promising.
I still need to try it out! I downloaded it already. I hope I will enjoy it, I think it will suit my tastes.
However, I'm afraid I'll buy it after Xenoblade. Sorry for SE, but they didn't choose the best time to release it... (June would've been awesome)
Here's a article and then a long video. Ya no thanks not watching that.
I just reinstalled my account to give this article a heart. Kate´s the best!
How do you pronounce the game title?
I assumed: Liv a Lie-v or Liv A Lie-v as in you are living a live adventure/story/scenario.
This video was: Lie-v a Lie-v which sounds wrong to me?
Have we heard an official pronunciation?
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