Live A Live is a curious little object, the different chapters of this remade SNES JRPG taking place across different periods of time. As such, there’s not an individual story to follow here, but several individual tales. This would be interesting enough, but the surprise is the variety of narrative genres on display here, with the chapters I’ve been able to dive into including a tense thriller and classic western. It’s only made more remarkable by how effectively each story is told with the first of the genres above being genuinely tense at points.
Much like following the stories themselves, Live A Live does play differently from story to story and character to character. Usually, this means that a new mechanic will be introduced that changes your approach to playing that chapter. For instance, the Edo Japan chapter has a stealth mechanic that allows you to hide from your foes, avoiding unnecessary battles, while Imperial China tasks you with training the disciples of the protagonist. These don’t sound like huge differences, but they honestly have a huge impact on how each chapter feels to play.
Despite how disparate they are in tone, writing, and overall experience, there are links between the stories I’ve played so far. The oh-so-familiar JRPG mainstay of talking to anyone and everyone to gain information and items remains obviously here, while the combat you will experience in each chapter follows the same template between each story, even if combat is the not focus of the chapter you’re playing. Thirdly, there’s the mini-map, your guide through the game and absolute godsend at points in the game.
The mini-map is one of the best features in Live A Live – no, I’m not kidding. This little circle on the screen (which can be turned off) will indicate the direction to your main objective at all times as an orange diamond. As you approach area changes, it will also indicate explored areas as blue diamonds and unexplored as grey. In the chapters that have decent maps, such as the Distant Future, it’s not 100% necessary. But in Edo Japan, for instance, the map is so unhelpful that I honestly wouldn’t have got anywhere without that wonderful little circle on the screen.
But your focus shouldn’t really be on the mini-map, given how wonderful the visuals of this game are. Square Enix’s HD-2D style (or whatever way around that is – I don’t remember) is used to absolutely excellent effect throughout. All of the main characters are portrayed in visually distinctive and expressive pixel art, retaining the style and feel of the original game and its SNES JRPG sibling, Chrono Trigger. However, they now live in 3D environments, transforming the original 2D environments into shimmering, gorgeous dioramas with plenty of depth to get lost in.
Combat takes place on a grid with an almost Active Time Battle process in place. I say almost, because the abilities you can choose have different speeds at which they will be executed, so you must be wary of being interrupted by enemies that can build their gauge quicker than you and interrupt. It plays out on a grid with our different attacks landing in different squares of the battlefield, forcing you to think strategically about your placement on the field of battle and the direction and range of your abilities, or you might miss with your crucial next attack.
It wouldn’t be me previewing a game without taking a little moment to appreciate the music, and Live A Live is now slouch in this regard thanks to the different soundtracks for each time period. It adds to the individuality of each chapter created by the differences in gameplay and writing by matching the tone of each experience. The Distant Future, for instance, takes a darker and more industrial tone matching the darker subject matter perfectly. This is aside from the battle theme in this chapter, which is jarringly different, but still works a charm when in context.
Even at this early stage in my time with the game, I can see that I’m playing something special here. You would think that with so many concepts and ideas running through this game’s varied chapters, you would have a few duds out of the lot, but I haven’t found one yet. Each new chapter stars its own little threads of narrative to work through and a new mechanic to learn, before you’re done and move onto the new one. It’s refreshing to play a game that isn’t afraid to experiment so much with its very set up, even if it is a remake of an older title.
