LIVE A LIVE

Love this game and it’s battle mechanics, I feel that people’s gripe with the game is that it isn’t one centralized story and when you just so happen to pick the weaker characters (in terms of story) you could easily have a more frustrating and disappointing time. I think it’s worth your time with a little bit of patience, not perfect by all means and I would love more games that look and play like this

Stuck it out through the imperial china route but cant be bothered with continuing. This game is probably best enjoyed for a nostalgia trip but as someone who never played the original the hook isnt there and it definitely feels like a product of its time/showing its age. Granted I can easily see it being influential and that it was likely huge for its time. In short when going in to a jrpg you really need either the story to hit and gameplay to avoid being clunky or you need the story to hit all the typical beats while the gameplay hooks you in, usually with an ip specific gimmick. The story isnt groundbreaking vs modern jrpgs. Going in blind I had a hunch the stories would intersect after seeing that you select different chapters and after losing interest googled it to see that they indeed do. Im not that compelled to see how or why firsthand though and will likely just watch a video on it. My main gripe is the gameplay. Its insanely basic. You move on a grid and sometimes the enemies move or they have an attack in range and use it immediately. The grid the enemy is actually able to be attacked from is not that clear and often it seemed like they inhabited more space than they should have. You sometimes counter and sometimes the enemies do but it doesnt seem clear what sets it off at all. In the few hours it took to get through the chapter I picked up a random batch of items the majority of which werent touched at all and couldve been completely omitted from the experience. The literal only time I needed a single healing item was on the very last boss. You arent keeping these items chapter to chapter so why bother, esp when your hp is restored after a fight. Theres no real strategy either. Sure some enemies have 'resistance' or 'weaknesses' but again only the final boss did any damage so for the rest of the game you were pressing a until a sprite dissolved and your character struck a pose. rinse repeat. I half expected the chapter I played to keep continuing and really open up after the boss fight like it had only been laying the foundation out and hadnt really shown off the actual depth or anything yet. After realizing that WAS the end of the chapter I was only met with the feeling of "thats it?" Sure other chapters might be better but after such a whopping 2.5 hour nothingburger Id rather not gamble away time on the [i]possibility[/i] of a pay off.

So inventive and gorgeous! The artstyle alone in this game would have me coming back even if the gameplay was garbage, but luckily it's absolutely not! I started playing on Switch when it first came out and had to pick it up here on Steam when it finally hit a good sale. This game is incredible and one I'll continue coming back to for years. All the different characters play so differently so if you get a bit stale on one gameplay style you can just switch to a different character without even leaving the game! Such a cool concept! It's like a multi game pack!

Live a Live is a touches my emotions in a way i don't get much of in media. From Imperial China being my most favorite because of legacy, Present for pushing the limits, Twilight Edo for ..... this one didnt hit for me, Distant Future for its takes on AI and life, Near Future for its love letter to mecha fans, Far West for its stoic and determined protag, Prehistory for its amazing narrative using no talking, and the final chapter for its ending messages for everything. the game is fantastic, the remaster is smooth and delivers the old game amazingly. I cant recommend this game enough. god bless.

Recommended Live A Live is one of those games that's much easier to appreciate once you stop expecting every chapter to be equally strong. Its greatest strength is variety. Every scenario experiments with a different setting, tone, and gameplay style. Some feel like traditional RPGs, others barely resemble one at all. That willingness to constantly reinvent itself kept me interested even when a particular chapter wasn't my favorite. Like most anthology stories, the quality isn't completely even. I found myself enjoying some chapters far more than others, but none of them overstayed their welcome. Even if one didn't quite click, I knew something entirely different was waiting next. The remake does an excellent job modernizing the original without losing what made it special. The HD-2D presentation is beautiful, the music is fantastic, and the different eras all have their own distinct identity. The final chapter is where my feelings became a little more mixed. I enjoyed seeing everything come together, but it also became the most traditional part of the game. After spending hours jumping between wildly different ideas, the ending settles into a more familiar RPG structure. It works, but I found myself more eager to finish the journey than to linger in it. I remembered enough from playing the fan translation years ago that some of the surprise was gone, and by then I felt like the game had already shown me its best ideas. Even so, I'm glad I finally experienced the remake. Live A Live feels like an important piece of RPG history—not because every chapter is perfect, but because it's willing to experiment in ways that few games still do today. Some stories will resonate more than others, but taken as a whole, it's a memorable experience that's unlike just about anything else in the genre.

LIVE A LIVE is a textbook definition of pure, unadulterated boredom—this game should honestly be medically certified as a cure for chronic insomnia. While the concept of jumping between short stories across different eras sounds promising on paper, the execution is an absolute disaster of stagnation and monotony. The pacing is dead on arrival, the dialogue is sterile and drags on forever, and the combat loop is so completely devoid of life, excitement, or impact that it can't even generate enough engagement to keep you awake. Instead of delivering a unique RPG experience, it feels like a bleak, tedious chore designed to force your eyes shut within the first hour. If you respect your time and want a game that actually stimulates your brain and keeps you hooked, stay as far away from this glorified sleeping pill as possible.

A truly unique JRPG with a really good story (safe to say that it's better than most JRPG games at least) and an acceptable length (about 15 to 20 hours, that's how long it took me on my Switch playthrough). Some chapters are a bit tedious (prehistory, near future and finale especially so), others are less so. Remix songs are plain amazing. I think the textures are worse than those in Octopath Traveler, but overall it's still pleasant to look at. Also I'm so glad thay beating the Mammoth King isn't an achievement because the battle was so unfair and the game isn't that hard to make the cola bottle worth that much trouble. But wait, how did a cola bottle end up here? The base price is way too high. Wait for a big sale or buy a second hand cartridge which is also usually cheap.

Yeah, this is incredibly good. Have to leave this here after finishing it. Best to play it without knowing anything about it. Can't believe that it was made 30 years ago and it's a shame that it was not commercially successful as the main director's other game (Final Fantasy IV) at that time. Would have really made the whole RPG scene a lot more different over the last 30 years. For the better of course, much as I like FFIV, But.... play it to see what crazy goodness we could have had.

6/10 - A very unique JRPG, to say the least. But not really for me - I'm a fan of large overarching stories, and this felt more like different mini games. A lot of cool ideas, but I don't think it excels in anything.

Never heard of this game but its fun! Very different to what i expected from a JRPG.