Live A Live

"The other Square RPG."

I have been a huge fan of Final Fantasy, and therefore Squaresoft, since Final Fantasy VII hit the PC. Since then I have bought or borrowed every Final Fantasy, and quite a few of Square's other offerings, and I noticed something.

They are all great. Every one of them. I enjoyed them exactly the same amount, and in exactly the same way. It got to be that It got so I stopped playing Final Fantasy X and Chrono Trigger, I was just playing Square.

Then I heard about Live a Live, an underdog of Square's that never got really popular in Japan and never even made it here. So I decided to give it a try, and was refreshed anew at Square's genius.

Live a Live, as you no doubt don't know, has a clever little premise. It's essentially EIGHT games in one. That's right, eight games. Eight main characters, eight parties, eight realms, eight themes, and nine stories (more on that later.) The eight chapters of Live a Live are mostly non linear, you pick any of the first seven, beat them all, then play the eighth, and after that comes a finale to end all finales. The chapters include-

1) The Ninja Chapter: It's stealth elements have you leading Obo through a hostile fortress, playing more like Metal Gear then Final Fantasy.

2) The Kung Fu Chapter: Take every Hong Kong karate movie you've ever seen and make them an RPG, as Ro passes on his Sengazanken legacy.

3) The Western Chapter: My favorite, the Sunset Kid must set up traps to stop a gang's reign of terror on a tiny mining town.

4) The Near-Future Chapter: A tribute to, or perhaps satire of, anime teen mecha pilots cartoons, as Akira must uncover the secrets behind his father's murder and recent abductions.

5) The Present Day Chapter: Masaru, a martial artist, must seek out the skills of the worlds greatest fighters and win the title of World's Strongest, in a chapter which plays like a Mortal Kombat RPG.

6) The Caveman Chapter: Pogo rescues his girlfriend in a story light, but crude humor heavy chapter. The gimmick? No speech at all, just body language.

7) The Future Chapter: Cube the robot discovers something is awry on his spaceship on course for Earth. In this chapter there is no combat until the boss, just story and puzzle solving.

Then, when you beat those you are brought to a Medieval style chapter, and then the main characters are all brought together to defeat the final boss. That's right, a cowboy, a robot, a monk, and a ninja can fight side by side. This seems impossible, but the story, which picks up in the Medieval chapter, makes it happen.

Gameplay: Of course, the best gimmick and story doesn't do any good if the game is unfun to play. Luckily, LaL dishes it out here, too. The battle system is more like Chess then the Active Time of Live a Live's older brother, Final Fantasy. It challenges you to learn how to master your characters, instead of just leveling up till it gets easier.

The game itself is nice too, in that it's less linear than FF, forcing you to *gasp* think about where to go. The chapters give variety, too, from the fairly rigid caveman chapter to the almost too expansive Ninja chapter. The bits of dark humor fill the game add some morbid levity, but not enough to offend.

The final tie in chapter is a work of art, lasting less then an hour to weeks of intensive play, depending on whether or not you find each character's ultimate weapon and the five pieces of ultimate ''Ariel'' armor.

Music: Incredible. Simply incredible. Eight theme songs, eight battle themes, eight sets of miscellaneous tunes, and every last one of them sounds unique and fresh, while staying within the chapter's theme, as well as a general one for the game.

Graphics: A bit of a falling point, the field graphics... well... barely beat FFV. The battle gfx, however, are very colorful, and the characters show how weak they are in their stance, making for easy at a glance status checks.

Replay: Heh, multiple endings within each chapter, even the final chapter warrants a replay or three, not to mention its timeless feel makes this one a game to stow away for later replay.

Conclusion: Think Square is washed up? You may be right. But here's proof they weren't always this way. Defenitely recomended, the most unique console RPG I have ever played.

Pros:

- Variety galore
- Beautiful music
- Ingenious concept
- Excellent gameplay
- Morbid humor and running gags

Cons:

- May be too odd an idea for some
- Some chapters are just too frustrating, or simply uninteresting
- Story in the first seven chapters are a little thin, not relating to each other at all
- Fairly short for an RPG

Score: 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/26/02, Updated 05/26/02