"How often do you think about Ancient Rome?"

There was a trend a month or so ago, where girls would ask their boyfriends/dads this question, and it was either a source of light teasing for being silly, or genuinely eye opening for how weirdly often it's thought about. It was a cute, innocent trend honestly, and I don't really get why some people I know got overly defensive about it. Because at its core, it is silly. Men are silly. While Live A Live does not have a chapter set in Ancient Rome, I feel like it delves into the core of this phenomenon. (I'm not going to mark this as [[SPOILERS]], though there may be a few. This is because I feel like the spoiler tag chases people away, even if they don't really care for the game.)
To preface this, I feel like there's a little bit of context needed. Live A Live is basically my personal Earthbound. Weird obscure SNES JRPG that didn't sell well and was only really discoverable via YouTube. I played this game a LOT during middle school, and a few times during my underclassman years of high school as well. I have always loved this game, and for a while it was by far my favorite RPG, maybe even game, ever. So there is a bit of nostalgia bias in my rating. I'll get into how that affects my thoughts while playing this game later.
This game is thematically heavy, deceptively so too, given its structure of 7+ extremely short stories on the SNES. This is a game about love, masculinity, and romanticism. I think any schmuck with an IQ over 3 could tell you about how this game talks about love, especially if they chose Pogo as their MC. So for that reason, I'll be focusing on the last two that I mentioned, and how the awkward and censored translation of this game ruins a few moments. (This is not a review just to bitch about the bad localization, we all know it sucks.)
Every chapter takes place throughout historical periods. You can be a cowboy, a mecha pilot, a robot, a ninja, etc.. These periods already have a strong sense of romanticism towards them, I find it difficult to believe that you guys have never imagined being big Grug beating up sabertooth tigers or being a master at Kung-Fu. This alone makes the game a young boy's dream game. You can be all these cool guys! But in each chapter you always play as a guy. This initially seems like it's for self insert purposes, but as you play through them you realize that it's thematic too. All of these stories are about a different kind of love, a man's love. Love for his community, for his art, for his romance, for his comrades, for his country, for his fellow man, and for competition. Of course, I'm not saying "bleeh only MEN can understand these kinds of love! femoids be damned they cant feel bleeeh". I'm just saying that all of these are viewed from the perspective of men. They can be explicitly stated, like the only word in the entire prehistory chapter (that in this version is comically left untranslated), or can be more subtle like in the wild west chapter. In almost all of these chapters, you are a damned man. A boy yet to come of age, a framed vagrant, an orphan left to rot, etc., etc.. Yet in every single chapter, the main character never stops loving what he loves. If you abandon your mission, you start to regret it, and watch as the country you love falls due to your cowardice.
Before you get on my case about Cube being a genderless robot, I think that this emphasizes the point of what a man is. Look at Cube, and look at Kato. Cube is literally just Kato's face. A testament to his own vanity. Men are vain romanticists. This is just a part of our core. Everybody wants to be a hero, something great, something worth remembering, or at least, an essential part of something greater. Something like Ancient Rome.
The translation is bad. I know it, you know it. It's especially bad if you have JP voice acting on, because its so wordy that lines don't even pan out fully before skipping to the next one if you have auto-advance turned on. The wording is awkward, especially in the endgame, and lines have been detrimentally changed (or as previously stated, left untranslated). There's also a lot more swearing than there should be, it honestly kind of bothers me, though I'm not the type to clutch pearls at swearing (I was unanimously elected the #1 potty mouth at the gas station I worked at, if that tells you anything.) But this is a game for middle schoolers and the surrounding years. I feel like they were just trying to justify that T rating.
One line that builds a lot on the themes and the character Lawless, is near the end of the Near Future chapter. After telling Akira the truth of their interwoven backstories, Taeko tries to interrupt, to try to save him. But he refuses, saying "It’s not a woman’s place to but in… When a man is setting things… Strai…ght…" with his dying breath. He chose to go out as a man, with his honor as intact as he could have left it. However, in the official translation, he just says "Sometimes you’ve gotta own up to your mistakes… Consequences be damned. Am I… Am I right…?" While conveying the same thing with the main story, it makes him seem less brash. It honestly doesn't even make sense when you think about it, he doesn't care about Taeko trying to help him, this just sounds like a decent line to go out on under any circumstance. OK I'm done bitching sorry

But how about the game itself, the remaster?
I will say this: I miss playing this on an emulator because I could speed that up HOLY SHIT were the battle animations always this long? I love the gameplay, as barebones as it honestly is. A bit more streamlining, and I would LOVE to play a full length RPG with this combat system. I felt like there was one part that traversing kind of sucked at the end of the game, but other than that I think the worlds and "dungeons" were fun and fine, I never felt like they took too long.
This run I went for no kills in Edo Japan, Yun as my shifu, and Akira as my MC as I hadn't done him before. I think this is my 6th time playing the game?
Anyways, the true final boss always gets me going like mecha fans at Char's counterattack. Every time I feel so happy. The additional final phase adds so much and is honestly one of my favorite moments in video games.
The remaster is beautiful. I love the arranged soundtrack, and for an HD2D game, I feel like this one actually does really well with not being too full of bloom. The JP voice acting is amazing, and the new animations kick ass. This is how I always imagined the game looked as a kid.
I love Live A Live with all my heart, and I'm glad that this remake brings it over to modern systems, and lets people experience this absolute masterpiece, despite my issues with the translation. The only thing holding this game back at its core is the SNES it was originally on.
Please, give this game a shot, even if you don't end up liking it, it makes me so happy to see people playing this