LIVE A LIVE

per gli appassionati di giochi di stategia o rpg a turni

great game.

リメイク作品のお手本のような一本だった。 『ライブアライブ』の素晴らしいところは、原作の雰囲気や空気感をしっかり残しながら、現代のゲームとして遊びやすくするべき部分はきちんと改善しているところだと思う。 リメイクでありがちな「原作を別物にしてしまう」こともなく、かといって昔のまま再現するだけでもない。 当時プレイした人が懐かしさを感じられ、初めて触れる人にも遊びやすい。 このバランス感覚こそ、リメイクに求められるものだと思う。 各時代ごとに異なる物語と雰囲気を持つオムニバス形式も魅力的で、短いながらも強烈な印象を残す作品だった。 このクオリティ、この方向性で過去の名作もぜひ蘇らせてほしい。 特に『クロノ・トリガー』や『天地創造』。 このテンションでリメイクしてくれるなら、もう一度あの世界を歩ける日を本気で期待したい。

The 23 hours I spent playing LIVE A LIVE felt like some of the longest 23 hours of my life, and I mean that literally, because I feel like I should have 60 hours in this game by now. It took me two full months to get through this very short game, and it felt like a chore every time I sat down to play it. I don’t dislike the concept at all, and I actually think it’s quite cool getting to have the JRPG experience placed into a bunch of different settings and time periods. However, I found most chapters getting tedious after just 10-15 minutes of playing, and unfortunately the stories weren’t captivating enough to keep me engaged. Everything just takes so long, from animations to leveling to traversal, and it doesn’t help that the objectives are often confusing and unclear. The combat, while a little interesting, also ended up being quite annoying most of the time. Pretty much every enemy in the game, bosses included, either dies in 2 hits or can kill you in 2 hits, with very little in between, meaning almost every fight either feels too easy or too hard. There’s a pretty insane base range for the damage of your attacks, and trying to account for stat buffs and weaknesses/resistances felt totally useless—I’d often deal more damage from a “low” damage attack on an enemy’s resistance, than a “high” damage attack on their weakness, without any explanation provided for why. Further, the way the turn system works is convoluted, and it was never clear to me when my characters would get to go next, because enemies’ bars would sometimes completely refill when mine didn’t move at all. The one saving grace of LIVE A LIVE is its music, because Yoko Shimomura created a masterpiece of a soundtrack for this game (as she always does). That, and the visual style—this game does have some pretty great cinematic moments, especially in the true ending route. But honestly, it was just a chore to play, so I can’t really recommend it.

This RPG, underrated as they come, was a cult classic from the SNES that never made it overseas when it first came out in Japan thirty years ago. Now it's back, and they've given it a much-needed "HD 2D" facelift (think Octopath Traveller). It looks and plays beautifully. A remake this high-quality only comes once in a blue moon: they've added voice acting and a bunch of quality-of-life upgrades. Even if you're one of the lucky people who got to play the original, I'd recommend this remake just so you can re-live LIVE A LIVE. So, what's this game about? Well, it's a little hard to say. Unlike most RPGs, LIVE A LIVE goes for a weirdly open approach. You're given the chance to tackle seven completely different stories, set in completely different time periods. There's a level set in the caveman days, before written language, so all of the characters "speak" in little pictures; a story about the old master of an ancient Chinese martial art finding a successor; a Western starring the Clint Eastwood-esque "Sundown Kid"; a futuristic horror game that riffs on "2001: A Space Odyssey"; a Shakespearean tragedy complete with iambic pentameter in all the dialogue; the list goes on. Don't get confused. It'll all come together for the eighth and ninth chapters at the very end. The story is definitely the big draw here, as well as the characters themselves -- a different mangaka did the art direction for each chapter, which makes every new story feel fresh and novel. Gameplay-wise, it's a pretty simple tactical RPG where you move across a grid and try to kill all the bad guys on the screen. A few characters have their own little overworld gimmick, like telepathy, scent-tracking, or blending into the background to hide from enemies. Nothing too much to write home about here, but I will note that Toby Fox is a big fan -- there are certain sections where you're given the choice between sparing and killing certain enemies, which inspired Undertale and Deltarune. If you like JRPGs, anthology series, or retro games in general, you'll love LIVE A LIVE. I'm a 2000s kid, but this game gave me a nostalgia for the '90s I never knew I could have!

Lucio Corsi defeated the Lord of the Dark

Played this awhile back, and really enjoyed it. I also had to abandon it during the final chapter, because of some obscene grind, but I'm glad I powered through and finished the game. Really cool storylines. Epic soundtrack.

Love this game. So good!

.. ..

Every chapter of Live A Live is its own game. A short game, but a whole game nevertheless. They have unique gameplay ideas and progressions and storytelling devices and it's astounding to see; anyone who wants to make an RPG owes themselves to play this game to see how wide the genre space can be. The quality of the chapters, of course, can vary, and even chapters I like can sometimes carry the stench of 90s misogyny. Still, there's no chapter I'd call bad, and most of them I'd call very good. In particular, the Imperial China, Wild West, and Edo Japan chapters were my favorites. And then you hit the final chapter. And it's a tour de force. The game opens up in a way no other chapter has before, complete with many secrets to poke around for. The final boss fights are all-timers in the genre, and the true ending's emotional beats all land. By the time the credits rolled, I was certain that this game is a genuine masterpiece.