A few months ago an oomf wanted me to play this game and I thought to myself why not because I’ve always wanted to try the game and also eventually play the remake. Live a Live is the kind of game where you can choose between seven different stories in any order so I guess I’ll just go over all of them for the review.

First stop is the Science Fiction chapter. Chose this one first because the robot looked cute, his name is Cube though anyone can be renamed to what you like. Not sure if this one was the best to start off with due to there only being one mandatory fight but that’s ok because the story and atmosphere here is unlike anything I’ve played on the system. With the minimal sound and the 2nd half being intense, it can feel very tense. I’m not sure if the plot of this is referencing something I’m unaware of but this was a great impression of the game and I was really excited to see more. There’s even an optional arcade game to play to do battles but you basically do it for fun. I do like how it’s incorporated for the very end however.

Kung Fu chapter was next and this is where I got introduced to an old man named…wait did he have a name? I know you name like his technique or something that I would never be able to spell but I forgot his name, shoot. Well you’re off to get some younger folks in hopes to pass his technique to them as he’s getting too old. You’ll meet three characters named Li, Sammo, and Yuan. I notice you can have them not join you so I’m not sure if they are mandatory but it’s still nice to get all three. You can even train them though I wasn’t expecting two of the characters to die, only Yuan survived which I thought was intentional but I’ll go over that in a bit. I then kicked the bad guys out and can I say the very end where you kick the main bad guy into the gong is AWESOME! I love that so much. Though I’m sad the old man dies. The chapter was over but then I was told any of the three characters can survive so I redid the chapter and this time had Li live and gave her all of the training making her much better than my weaker Yuan. I do like how there’s some replayability and even a way to possibly improve things if needed. I also like that whoever you beat the mode with now shows up on the chapter select, nice touch!

I should go over how I feel about battles real quick now that I talked about a chapter with actual battles all over. Battles are this weird grid system that kind of remind me of Rhapsody if it was an actual good battle system. You can move around as long as another sprite or part of said sprite overlaps it. Moves are dependent on what tiles they can hit so there’s strategy in where you place yourself and learning what moves and distance the enemy can do. You also won’t have to worry about health after battles either as it all gets restored, even death won’t matter as long as someone is alive though I don’t think they get EXP. While the game isn’t too hard, I’d still say it’s good to try most of the time cause it can be easy to game over if careless or thoughtless. You also can run without fail every time which is oddly generous. My only gripes with the battle system is I feel like stat drops aren’t as noticeable as I feel they should though this is probably just a me thing. I also don’t like how the game doesn’t tell you when a move has charge time or even how long it takes. If it does tell you somewhere, I never saw it. Otherwise it’s a fun system and works for a game like this.

Onto the third chapter which was the Old West chapter. Here you come to a town filled with issues and despite the wanted pictures of your character Sundown, it’s up to you to set up traps and stop the bad guys from causing more damage to the town. There’s only three battles in the entire chapter so you’ll mostly be going into the buildings finding items to set as traps with the townspeople helping by setting them up for you. Once the bell rings 8 times, time is up so plan fast and thoughtfully. I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to give npcs specific items to make a trap successful because I only got about half of them down when the bad guys came in. Thankfully the boss is pretty easy once you learn getting up close makes him not do his ridiculously strong gun attack. Once it’s over you have one more gun fight with Mad Dog and he actually dies which makes me kind of sad but at least he kind of got what he wanted? I think. Actually I found out after I beat the whole game you could have kept him alive which I won’t lie, would have done if I knew. At least the chapter ends on a nice note for Sundown as he learns his lesson and says a line which is very rare for him. I Thought the time limit stuff would have caused more stress for me, was pretty enjoyable despite the simple premise.

Going from a simple chapter to another with the Present chapter where you play as Masaru as he wants to be the strongest. Fight six strong opponents and be at the top! Wow there’s actually like a character select here which reminded me of the Rockman games. You’ll be fighting these opponents to acquire their movesets, have them hit you with it and you’ll learn it ASAP! That’s basically all there is to it as you then go to a final opponent and then the chapter is done. Simple and it works but it’s probably in the lower ends of the rankings. Also are the opponents all based off of something? Because clearly Max Morgan is a parody of Hulk Hogan, so I wonder if any of the others are too.

Now we have arrived at the Bakumatsu chapter. You must sneak into a giant building with confusing twists and turns with many bad guys roaming. You’ll either end up a killer, a stealthy ninja, or somewhere inbetween. You’re at least given a cloak to disappear and be undetected and you also run crazy fast. There’s even a super boss in this chapter which is unique for this chapter I believe. Alright we got that out of the way, so let me begin with saying SCREW THIS CHAPTER! SERIOUSLY! This place is not only big and confusing to navigate but it’s filled with so many traps and trial and error it’ll drive you mad at times especially on your first playthrough. I tried to do the stealth route and just don’t do this unless you know how to do it because you can run into so many ways to make it harder or just impossible. You also need to grind for later parts. I had to restart this chapter like 5 times and it got to the point I was gonna give up on the game but I gave it one more try and finally finished it and this time got it right only to get a sword for my troubles. At least future playthroughs will make it less miserable and worse of all, the killer route is even worse and I will 100% never touch that in my life. This chapter sucked.

Out with the anger and back to enjoying the game with the Prehistoric chapter! This one has a pretty simple plot as there isn’t even dialogue and it’s done pretty well with show don’t tell. The main gimmick is that Pogo can sniff out clouds to find random encounters to get items from. Items can be used for crafting to get better items. Try to experiment as best as you can. This chapter can be pretty humorous though a bit juvenile but look I was just happy to not be doing that damn ninja stuff. It feels kind of weird how I don’t have much to say yet I do really enjoy it. My only real gripe is I wasn’t too big on the party for battles but maybe I was doing stuff wrong. I do appreciate how the game gives you multiple locations to craft and that part where you’re in the dark is rather creative. Overall it’s a fun chapter and it’s probably one of the better ones to do early so I might do that in the future. Though maybe the crafting may be a bit overwhelming, hmm…

Finally here at last, the final chapter left. The Near Future chapter! Now for some backstory, I went into this game pretty blind for the most part but I did know of this chapter. I remember someone did a youtube video about this chapter specifically being terrible. I went in with low expectations and this might be a hot take but this was my favorite! You play as Akira who can read minds and it’s really cool to read npc minds as for the most part they have unique things to say and it really adds a lot to random characters or even important ones. It’s even used to progress the plot at times. You know this chapter is gonna be peak when it has a cool Anime OP song!! It even has lyrics! Sadly no vocals though. The setting is cool, the plot is pretty enjoyable, the world map is neat and unique compared to the other chapters and it’s got a good length. There’s even crafting here too but it’s simpler. With all of the heart pressing scenes near the end, it’s all given an amazing finale where you play in a mecha fighting enemies. OMG it’s sooooo cool! Granted you probably won’t ever lose but I still adore this so much and makes for an excellent finale to the game and chapter. Well actually, this isn’t the end!

Surprisingly you’re given a new chapter out of nowhere called the Medieval chapter. I was a little bit confused especially with my oomf hinting at something might be off with this chapter. It feels very generic like we’re playing the first DQ. You play as a guy named Oersted having to save the Princess from the demon. Okay, not sure if this is how I’d want the game to end but maybe it’s meant to reflect how the very end is the most normal of them all. There are some sad moments like seeing what becomes of the previous hero Hash and even the guy you fought in the beginning dies later on. Once you finally get prepared and beat the hard demon, it’s not actually over. It wasn’t actually him? Guess a good rest at the castle will help. You wake up and see a demon! Die!! Oh, he was actually quite easy wonder why? This is where the whole chapter flips and makes you realize it was never meant to be simple. That demon was actually the King and you killed him, everyone hates you now. You now only have one purpose to live, to save that girl. So, after some depressing and grueling moments fighting phobia enemies. It’s time to fight the final boss and huh it’s that guy that I thought was dead! Even worse, he saved the princess and now I’m seen as the bad guy once more. Killing him does no good as I get shocked to the extreme seeing the princess not only be sad he died but she kills herself! I was actually jaw dropped and wondering what even is Oersted’s purpose now? He asks the same thing and breaks apart, becoming what everyone calls him now, a demon. The demon king is here to cause chaos, the game is still not over.

Before we go on to the final chapter, I should bring up that I was told to try Oersted again for the character selection for the final. I was confused why he was even an option considering he’s evil but I was not ready at all for what I witnessed. There were statues near the demon boss that I was wondering why they looked like the bosses from the 7 chapters. This right here has you as Oersted make every boss kill every character you played as and you do it one by one and it’s really sad to do, doing it earns you a sad end. Though if you want to be an even worse person, have a boss go to low health. Flee will be selectable but it’ll be called Armageddon and you no joke destroy every character and their world one by one. You’re forced to watch this with this serious organ music playing and the entire time I was like “NO WHY!? THIS HURTS TO WATCH!!” except for Oboro, that’s what you get for having a bad chapter. All of that to end on a black screen with credits. Everything has disappeared and I caused it! Probably one of the most depressing bad endings I’ve ever seen and it’s something you have to do. Though I did read this can happen if you lose to the final boss but I wouldn’t know.

Alright time for realsies to do the final chapter and you can choose any of the seven to start it with. I chose Sundown for reasons I’ll explain later. You’re put back into the Medieval chapter to put a stop to Oersted but you won’t be alone as everyone is in the world and you need to find them. Each one has a specific place they’re in and sometimes they won’t just join you immediately. Most of the time you have to fight but there are exceptions depending who you chose. I read getting Sundown is really annoying so this is why I made him the leader. There’s also 7 dungeons to get each character’s ultimate weapon to get them ready for the final boss. There’s even special Ariel items to help you out even more. While you don’t need to recruit everyone if you don’t care for the true ending, they are required for it. You also can only have four in a party so make sure everyone participates at least once. My team was mostly Sundown, Li, and Cube. By the end I had Akira as my last one since I loved his chapter. This chapter can be tough at times and long if you try to get everything or most of it. It’s still an amazing way to end the game and that final boss and ending is amazing too. I especially love when you all go back to your worlds to destroy the bosses again as Oersted is finally beaten for good with dialogue given from the character you chose unless you’re Cube since you know, he doesn't talk. The true ending is a pretty beautiful end to an already amazing adventure and I was happy to see everyone living and continuing on.

To talk shortly about the graphics they’re good but not perfect. There’s a lot of good looking aspects of it but I find stuff like the overworld sprites to be a bit too small and basic. Though the battle sprites are pretty good even featuring a lot of animation and even different angles. The enemies and bosses also look really good. It’s still rather unfortunate it had to deal with the previous SFC RPG being Mother 2. The music on the other hand is amazing, composed by Yoko Shimomura. While it’s not my favorite OST by her, there’s a lot of really good tracks that fit the themes really well. The boss theme is also just a massive banger!! Really my only gripe with the OST is I swear they love using that one sad song for sad moments even when it doesn’t fit with the theme of the chapter. Like why does it play for the Prehistoric chapter? Otherwise, it’s some very good work!

Live a Live for the most part was an amazing experience and is so far as of writing this, a top 10 RPG for me. I think it could have even been a top 5 but that one chapter I hated did bring it down a bit for me. I think I would like it more now that I know how to do it but that doesn’t change the fact it made me actually angry. Otherwise, the game is fantastic and creative. It’s impressive they had such variety and ace it so well for the most part. It’s such a unique experience that I don’t know if I would even want a sequel or a spiritual successor as it just works as a unique piece of entertainment. Though it would receive a modern remake and I’ll be playing that next year and who knows maybe I’ll like it even more. I’m really glad I tried this and you should 100% play this if you haven’t though I’m sure most interested have by now. Nice job Squaresoft for the wonderful game you created!