#I think about Oersted's story the normal amount

[alynnl]

Live A Live Remake: Thoughts

It’s been roughly three weeks since I played through all of the Live A Live remake for the Switch.  It was a fun little game, just way shorter than what I’m used to.  I’m going to give my thoughts on all the different eras, as well as the final area.  Spoilers ahead, as I will be talking about all chapters and endgame!  I will be talking about every era in terms of gameplay and story.

Prehistory: Out of all of them, this one plays the most like a standard fantasy RPG.  You fight monsters to get healing items and materials to forge better weapons.  You have a party with their strengths and weaknesses, and of course a final boss showdown at the end of the chapter.

Story-wise it’s also pretty typical of RPGs.  Boy meets girl, girl has problems, boy tries helping girl and also gets into problems, girl gets captured, boy saves her, boy and his friends fight big monster, and they live happily ever after.  The twist to prehistory is that all of this is told without words and dialogue, so the story is instead told by emotes and gestures.  I thought that was a great creative decision, and it makes me believe that this is a time before words as we know them.  Pogo as a character is kind of endearing, but not gonna lie, he’s also thirsty if ya know what I mean.

Imperial China:  Gameplay wise, this one also has more of a JRPG flavor.  You have your main character, you have three others who can join your party at first, and then you have encounters that you can avoid, and items to gather.  It also plays on the “duel” mechanic some RPGs have, where there are one-on-one fights against opponents.

This one plays on a lot of kung fu movie tropes from what I can see.  You have the wise mentor and then the promising disciples, and the whole idea of what it means to be a martial artist.  There are people who use their kung fu for good reasons and bad, it all depends on the heart of the person.  The plot twist of only one disciple surviving an attack from a rival dojo (really, a gang if you think about it) was handled really well, and it’s interesting that the player has a choice and the survivor is not scripted for later replays.  The Earthen Heart Shifu himself is not portrayed as perfect and he makes mistakes, but overall he is a man who just wants his style of martial arts to live on.

The Twilight of Edo Japan: The gameplay mechanics in this one are very interesting.  It’s a mix between RPG combat and stealth, and you really have the option to pick your battles, so to say.  Then there’s a counter showing how many lives you’ve taken in battle, and even when you’re forced into a fight, there’s the option to run away.  One can do a “kill ‘em all” run, a pacifist run, or a neutral run.

Story-wise we’re given all the trappings of any Japanese fantasy.  There’s clans fighting one another, ninjas, and samurai.  (Although it’s pretty cool that the playable samurai in this one also has a gun, which is accurate for the time period!)  It’s a story about shaping Japan’s future.  Whether it’s a new dawn or storm clouds are on the horizon is up to you.  Either way, Oboromaru takes his role as a shinobi seriously and he’s determined to see his mission through.

The Wild West: I wanted to like this chapter.  I wanted to love this chapter.  But gameplay wise it was very difficult for a first-time player.  Because right after you see the cutscenes and you're introduced to the characters and the town, you have a timed mission.  That’s right, a timed mission to set traps before the boss and his cronies come, and if you don’t set enough traps correctly, you will have a monster of a boss fight on your hands.  I will be up front and say I used a guide because sometimes, that’s how you have to get things done.

Story-wise I did like this chapter though.  That’s what it’s got going for it, despite the difficulty curve.  Sundown doesn’t know any of the people in the town of Success, but he’s still willing to stop there and lend a hand and help them deal with a band of outlaws that have been terrorizing them.  There’s some back and forth between him and his rival, Mad Dog that I really enjoy, and there’s a choice you can make in the ending (to flee the last duel and spare Mad Dog) that makes it just worth it to replay at least one more time.

Present Day:  Gameplay wise, Present day is  like a fighting game.  Think Street Fighter, or Tekken but with the twist that you get to learn your opponents’ techniques if they use them on you.  I like how you get unlimited tries to do this, so that you can learn every skill your rivals have to offer (I know I wanted to get them all.)  The boss at the end is challenging enough to make it interesting, but if you picked up all the skills, he’s not unbeatable.

Story-wise, it’s fairly simple.  Masaru wants to be the strongest warrior, so  he challenges masters of various martial arts to learn from them and use their techniques.  It’s implied that he’s always going to be fighting for this title of The Strongest, as he faces another challenger immediately after the boss.  I think I get what the story was going for.  Being the best is a constant struggle, and sooner or later, someone else is going to rise to the top.

The Near Future: This one reminded me a bit of modern day Golden Sun!  You have different elemental powers that you use in battle, and you’re also able to read others’ minds and find out different flavor text from them.  There’s also a hint of Magitek gameplay when you get control of the Steel Titan later on.  All around solid, easy to pick up gameplay that sometimes makes you feel really powerful.

Plot-wise, I really enjoyed this story.  But that’s only because I love mecha in general and it fills me with a lot of nostalgia.  At first Akira isn’t sure what to do with his life and he’s sort of an outcast for the whole “reading minds” deal, but then he’s able to prove himself a hero when he finally takes control of the Steel Titan and goes to smack a corrupted God back into oblivion.  Imagine conspiring to bring back a mad god, only to have a mouthy mind-reading punk pound it with mecha.  Amazing.

The Distant Future:  Gameplay wise it’s a lot of dialogue, looking for clues, and later, running.  Essentially it plays like a futuristic survival horror.  There’s a conspiracy and it’s up to you to find clues to uncover it, all while being chased by a monster that will meet you with instant death if it touches you.  You have no weapons, just places to hide.

Story wise I swear it felt like Space Odyssey: 2001 the video game.  You have a crew who go in and out of cryo-sleep, you have inventors and you have an AI gone rogue.  There is discord among the crew and a sort of whodunit plot, and it all culminates in a confrontation with the computer OD-10, that decides it was going to murder people because they weren’t working in perfect harmony.  Cube has to fight for their life, and the lives of the two remaining survivors: their creator Kato and the soldier Darthe (who despised Cube at first but opens up to them later.)  Ultimately Cube’s story values the robot’s kindness over any physical strength or violence.

The Medieval Era: Gameplay wise you couldn’t get more standard of an RPG at first.  You’re in a fantasy medieval setting, with your main character Oersted being a knight who goes on a quest to rescue the princess Alethea from a demon lord that was defeated by a great hero in the past.  There is the “epic quest” aspect of the gameplay, traveling the world, finding party members and fighting random encounters.  Even after the plot happens and the party members dwindle, the swords and sorcery gameplay remains.

Story wise, I got spoiled.  But I was still in awe to actually see it on screen.  What I expected was a happy Dragon Quest like fantasy, where the hero saved the princess with the help of his friends and everyone lived happily ever after.  What I got instead was a Shakespearean tragedy.  In the course of the story, everyone important to Oersted either betrays him or dies, sometimes both at the same time.  All of the loss, hatred and pain leads Oersted, once champion of his realm into becoming the Lord of Dark himself, lashing out against everyone who wronged him with newfound dark power.  It is heartbreaking to see his attempts to do the right thing at every turn just backfire against him, making it almost understandable that he is driven to villainy (although hermit life could’ve also been an option and I’ll stand by that as an AU possibility.)

The Final Chapter: Plot-wise and gameplay wise, it feels very open world.  The protagonists from the different eras are brought together in the Dominion of Hate, which is just Oersted’s former kingdom brought to ruin.  Technically the only place you have to go is the dark mountain to face off against Odio (who’s completely taken over Oersted by now.)  But the different areas of the ruined kingdom and all the different trials your seven protagonists can take on really put me in mind of Ocarina of time and the Sages’ temples.  Every trial you take on gives you an ultimate weapon for that character, which is crucial to the ending.  And whoever you choose to lead the finale will personally confront Oersted after you do the true final boss battle.  There are so many different ways the final chapter could go, and each one is worth exploring.