The HD-2D revival heads to more platforms

Classic RPG Live A Live is heading to more plat?forms. The HD-2D remake of the Super Famicom classic is getting ported to PlayStation 4 and PS5, as well as PC via Steam, on April 27.

Square Enix released the HD-2D remake of Live A Live last year, and it was certainly a bit of a surprise. This RPG with multiple "paths" and protagonists had long eluded the west. The Switch release not only brought it over, but revitalize??d it with some quality-of-life updates and revamped graphics.

Now, PlayStation and Steam users can experience the journey themselves. Live A Live will go for $49.99, though there's a $10 off pre-order bonus running right now. Also, all platforms are getting a demo, which is currently live right now for PS4, PS5, and Steam. It sounds like it's a similar demo to the Switch versi?on, letting you try ??out the Wild West, Edo Japan, and Distant Future sections.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjQPmA-QmeU

The remake includes remastered music from Yoko Shimomura too, and let me tell you: the version of "Megalomania" in the Live A Live update is absolutely phenomenal.

More lives to lead

If you're completely unfamiliar, Live A Live follows several different heroes throughout the eras and their individual journeys, as they eventually come together to fight a greater evil. If that sounds familiar, that's because yes, Octopath Traveler owes a fair bit to the original Live A Live.

What makes Live A Live such an interesting game is that each era has its own mechanics and systems, making their playthroughs remarkably distinct. The Edo Japan period is a Metal Gear-style castle infiltration, while Present Day is basically RPG Street Fighter. It's a really interesting game for RPG fans to dig into, and something that we found still largely succeeds almost three decades later.

Live A Live arrives on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC?? via Steam on ?April 27.

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Why is everyone so loud?

Every December, I, like many others, take a look back at the biggest games of the year. Usually, I limit myself to the games that I actually liked, but this year, I dipped my toes into Horizon Forbidden West, a sequel that I don't care for to a game that I don't care for. I also watched a few YouTube videos of God of War Ragnarök. I was going to play it in full, but Horizon Forbidden West put me off of paying full price for sequels to games I dislike (and 2018's God of War left me pretty cold). I just wanted to get a feel for the year's big trends. What I disco??vered was one major through-line: distressingly t?alkative characters.

I am not the first to make this observation. Most people, Destructoid's Chris Carter included, liked Horizon Forbidden West more than I did, but it was critiqued for protagonist Aloy's constant internal monologue. Ragnarök's cast of overly-helpful companions got a shoutout in nearly every discussion of the game. Once I was aware of the Year of the Loud Game, though, I started noticing it ever??ywhere.

It's all around us

[caption id="attachment_356215" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Nintendo[/caption]

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 carries the Xenoblade torch by having characters constantly yell their favorite quips at you; Gotham Knights, a game about being a quiet, brooding vigilante, brought back the Totally Natural Citizen Banter that has plagued superhero games for years. Both of these examples are games that would have been dramatic??ally improved by just a little more peace and quiet, time to luxuriate in their evocative and interesting settings without hearing "You're on fire, Lanz!" But the trend didn't stop at new releases. No, even games that have been blessing our ears for decades saw the addition of full voice acting in 2022.

Both Live A Live and Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII- Reunion brought great games to modern platforms in pleasant packages, but they also came with new voice acting. Both games are paced around their text-only dialogue, but neither remaster provides significant updates to their scripts to accommodate the newly talkative characters. They both feel awkward, as though voice acting was only included because the games needed more noise, and I spent much of my play time wishing the largely likable characters in both games would just shut up.

[caption id="attachment_356216" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Square Enix[/caption]

Then, I got aro?und to revisiting one of my favorite games of the year. An??d I was very relieved.

Rise, Tarnished... but keep it down

Elden Ring has a lot going for it. It's got one of the best open worlds in the history of video games, its combat is the natural culmination of the last decade of FromSoftware games, and the ghost horse is very cool. The thing I appreciated most about revisiting Elden Ring, though, was its blessedly silent protagonist. The silent hero is a dying art, and Elden Ring resuscitated it at just the right time.

[caption id="attachment_356217" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Bandai Namco[/caption]

The Tarnished in Elden Ring is not really a character. That's fine. 2022 had a lot of video game characters who were desperate to prove that they were characters, with a lot of personal??ity and pizzazz, and a lot to say. The Tarnished doesn't need the player to know who they are. You can project any story you like onto them, or you can choose not to project anything onto them at all. Crucially, you can choose to simply ignore them.

Most of the games I've talked about here have had really beautiful worlds with lovely music and sound design, all of which is totally drowned out by party members helpfully reminding you to attack the enemy. Elden Ring has no such party. There are speaking characters, but they're not too talkative, and you have to actively seek them out. Elden Ring is full of design decisions that encourage the player to appreciat??e the artistry of the world, the mechanics, the music. The game wants you to experience everything, and its quiet star is central to that ethos.

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Live A Live

When I first covered the rumor that Square Enix was reaching well into its own past to dig up long-lost Super Famicom release Live A Live, I will admit that, despite being pleased with the preservation element, I didn't really think that the endeavor would amount to much. After all, various '90s classics have been resurrected time and again, only to fall short of their former glories or, in the worst cases, miss the point entirely.

But Live A Live was something different. Live A Live, launched in 1994 at the tail-end of the 16-?bit rei??gn, was both ambitious and way ahead of its time. The unknown release featured a slew of characters and worlds, multiple backstories, and a fascinating chrono-conundrum set against the backdrop of eight different time periods �from prehistory and Imperial China, to the American Midwest and the far-flung future.

To build this complex story �complete with wildly different stylistic settings �for the humble Super Famicom was an incredible feat, and conceptually beyond anything available on the console at the time. A feat readily achieved by director Takashi Tokito (Parasite Eve, Chrono Trigger), designer Nobuyuki Inoue (Sword of Mana, Mother 3), composer Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts), and the rest of Square's talented RPG sector known as Development Divis?ion 5.

//www.youtube.com/watc?h?v=mbzZl49kklU&ab_channel=Destructoid

And yet, despite the high praise received for the title at launch, Live A Live would never officially see the light of day outside of its native Japan. Launched just too late for the suits, already eyeing up the fledgling 32-bit market, Live A Live would not be localized for western audiences, spoken of only via word of mouth, gaming magazines, and newsletters... And now, it is readily ?available for ??Nintendo Switch.

Developed by Square's Team Asano, and overseen by Tokita himself, the Live a Live remake wisely avoids tampering with the original title too much, merely cleaning up the visuals, accurately translating the dialogue, and offering small tweaks to elements of its gameplay, control, and U.I to better present the title on modern technology to modern audiences. The delightful characters and worlds were redrawn by Naoki Ikushima, while Shimomura, having lost the master tapes, recomposed the entire soundtrack by ear �a task she admitted held momentous weight, given fans' love of the game's score.

Finally released in the summer of this year, the Live A Live remake retains all of its power to capture and charm an audience's imagination. Importantly, it finally cements over a large pothole in the history of developer Square Enix, and sees one of the most pioneering and ambitious RPG releases ever developed to players young and old, many of whom now have the oppo??rtunity to experience this fine adventure for?? the very first time.

It may have taken almost three decades, but Live A Live can finally bask in its long-deserved spotlight.

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If you haven't played it, it's new to you

One might assume that the dawning of a new gaming generation would essentially bring an end to the flurry of remasters and remakes that we saw flood the market in the most recent decade. But of course not. Much like the film industry, the concept of taking a second pass at some beloved (and even not-so-beloved classics) is clearly here to stay �with no sign from the cash registers that it isn't still a hugely lu??crative endeavor.

2022 contained two very extreme examples of the remaster/remake concept, namely in the form of Square Enix sliding-door RPG Live a Live and Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part I. On one hand, we had a long-lost RPG dating back to 1994 and Nintendo's Super Famicom, while on the other we had a remake of a game less than 10 years old �one that had already been remastered at that.

It will be interesting to see how blurry the lines become in regards to how long is "long enough"? And while I have zero problem with the concept of remakes and remasters per se, it's worth raising an eyebrow at the i??dea that each new generation of hardware immediately requires the re-establishment of the previous generation's best-selling games. Not franchises. Games. Time �and the creativity of the next wave of studios, developers, and players �will tell.

Here are the nominees for Destructoid’s Best Remaster/Remake of 2022

• Live a Live
• Metal Max Xeno Reborn
• Pac-Man World Re-Pac
• Tactics Ogre: Reborn
• The Last of Us Part I
• The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe
• World of Warcraft Classic: Wrath of the Lich King

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Announced on a producer livestream

Everyone involved with Live A Live Switch has a lot to celebrate, as a recent livestream just confirmed that the game has shipped + digital sold over 500,000 units. The news was confirmed by series steward Takashi Tokita on air at roughly 16:30 in the below video. Takashi Tokita served as direct??or for the original game (among other duties), and was also a producer on the 2022 Switch edition.

It's hard to believe that Live A Live clawed its way up from a 1994 SNES exclusive only released in Japan, to where it is today. It was only a glimmer in the eye of many JRPG fans, back in an era when importing was even tougher to do; but now it's easily accessible on a worldwide marketplace, on the widely successful Switch no less. It just goes to show you how far game preservation can come whe?n it's done with care.

As of late, Tokita has been sha??ring a ton of fan art for the g??ame, as well as stories from fans all over the world. Many of those fans are located in Japan, but there's a wide spread of folks from multiple regions: showcasing the staying power (and wide appeal to this day) of Live A Live. How many ??other forgotten classics could get the same treatment? It'll be fun to find o?ut.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_nWg76IatI

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Some stories will have gameplay mechanics that inform other eras

Want a Live A Live tip? While the game is fairly straightforward (you do a series of individual stories that connect) there's one big thing you can do to make everything easier: take some breaks, and don't be afraid to drop in and out of stories.

As we talked about in the review, Live A Live is actually com?prised of several eras with unique protagonists (with their own sets of skills and equipment):

• Prehistory
• Imperial China
• Edo Japan
• Wild West
• Present Day
• Near Future
• Distant Future

Starting with Imperial China is a good way to get acclimated with Live A Live

Another Live A Live tip: you can pick any of them to start with, and really, there's no wrong choice. However! Imperial China is one of the most "ramp"-prone stories: meaning, it eases you in more than say, Edo Japan or Present Day, which kick of?f with higher-stakes combat.

Speaking of: combat! If you dive into a story (like the aforementioned two) and are immediately pressed with figuring out Live A Live's combat system, it's totally okay to head to the main menu, then quit to the "character/story select" screen. From there you can head into an era th?at might have a better "intro" so to speak, with more time to breathe and learn how to approach the combat grid and the movement mechanic.

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Time after time

Before the internet was widely adopted (how to date yourself, 101), a lot of games lived in secrecy, particularly JRPGs. For me, Seiken Densetsu 3 was the granddaddy of them all. The phrase "Secret of Mana sequel" was enough to activate thousands of JRPG fan sleeper agents everywhere, which led to the proliferation of fan translations, and thus, the legacy of the game itself. But I couldn't play everything back then, and Live A Live was another big JRPG that eluded me �until now.

Live A Live (Nintendo Switch)
Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: July 22, 2022
MSRP: $49.99

We're living in a golden age of gaming nostalgia, as far as many classic publishers are concerned. For other industries, it's commonplace to see old media reborn and resold again. But given that gaming really took off in the '90s, we're truly starting to unprecedented growth in nostalgia mining. For Square Enix, the demand went into high gear with Octopath Traveler opening up a go-to retro-modern aesthetic blueprint. The 2022 Live A Live ??remake is one of the results o??f the retro RPG revival floodgates opening up.

Originally released in 1994 on the SNES, Live A Live was a highly experimental RPG that juggled m?ultiple eras and storylines in a very ambitious fashion. Not all of it worked in the '90s, and not all of it works now. But it's still just as mesmeriz??ing, and just as inviting for people who want to try something wild and weird.

For reference, here are the "core" Live A Live time periods you'll be playing (I'll refrain from mentioning specifics for the two that are unlocked):

• Prehistory
• Imperial China
• Edo Japan
• Wild West
• Present Day
• Near Future
• Distant Future

All of these feature their own protagonists, narratives, and mechanics �and link up over time. While the vast majority of the game is held together by a grid-based JRPG battle system (more on that later), Live A Live is largely sto?ry-dr??iven, and each age generally has its own gimmick.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbzZl49kklU

It's probably best to describe each time period as its own little micr??o game. Some of them, like Imperial China, are more straightforward than others. With the China-based story, you basically acquire your party like you would with many other JRPGs, and explore a small collective of maps that would amount to a town and a few surrounding areas in a bigger game. You're free to trek about with the addition of a radar (which shows you vaguely where to go next, as well as points of interest), or you can toggle that off and wander aimlessly.

A few stories are deeply traditional, but many of them branch off and offer up distinctly unique experiences. In Edo Japan, you play the role of a lone shinobi infiltrating a compound in a bid to save Japan f?rom an unknown cataclysmic force. You'll sneak around attempting to avoid combat (as many enemies are straight up way stronger than y?ou) with a cute little stealth ability, and map out the palace as you go.

The present-day storyline in Live A Live has you "training to become the best" (with a classic training montage straight out of an '80s a??ction film), then selecting characters from a fighting game menu to battle, one by one, with no outward open map to speak of at the start. The near future era has a boy who can read minds, and is largely a story-driven experience, asking players to optionally trigger the ability to see what each NPC is thinking. You get the picture.

As you can imagine, not all of the periods hit as hard individually. Several can feel repetitive (especiall?y ones that ??are combat-heavy without much in the way of progression or varied tactical nuances), and not every story is going to land for everyone. The micro-story strategy also has the unintended outcome of seeing strong narratives cut short, as there isn't enough time to sink your teeth into them. Conversely, a few overstay their welcome. It's the cost of the format.

Within each era, there's also some light leveling mechanics �a few will start you at what could essentially be considered "max level" to speed you along, or prop up the theme of being strong already �and equipment conceits. Most are glued together by combat. Combat in Live A Live is governed by a grid system, where nearly every action, including movement, costs time. Moving is considered an action of sorts, and a ??full bar will allow you to act, usually with an ability (that can typically buff, debuff, heal, or deal damage). Each game has its own set of abilities you need to pick up on, some of which start out at the g??round level and gradually grow in size, while others will just dump six or more powers on you at once.

The core strategy lies in positioning and range �and even counters have specific range requirements. At first, I expect some folks to rush in (movement-wise), and get completely wrecked. But very quickly you'll start to learn the power of positioning, which is everything in Live A Live. When done correctly, you can use movement to your advantage, and almost lock out some enemies (especially if you have healing abilities). It's fun to figure out, and once you've "solved it," the game is mostly over. Again, it's a common theme with Live A Live.

Aesthetically, the "HD-2D" conce??pt, as Square Enix calls ?it, is beautifully implemented. The Wild West might be my personal favorite, but Edo Japan looks absolutely beautiful as a standout way to show off the game. The use of color really helps all these worlds pop, but the team had a wonderful source to work with, as the character and environmental concepts in the original were already fantastic. As for what to expect, they're a few hours long each (or less), and, cementing the micro-game thesis, have their own opening and ending credits (and designers/artists).

If you do the math, accounting for a little extra time to finish everything up, that adds up to around 15-20 hours. At one time (read: the '90s especially), not being a 50-to-80-hour JRPG was a cardinal sin, so it was dinged by a lot of people for that. But now that a lot of those folks are grown up and have to budget their time, they'll relish a more compact experience. Live A Live i??s best experienced in spurts anyway. I had a lot of fun playing it on Nintendo Swi?tch in portable mode for a bit, popping out of stories, then popping back in somewhere else. A few of them (Japan particularly) I preferred in TV mode.

As an experiment, even almost three decades later, Live A Live mostly succeeds. Because it's unconventional at heart, ??it's going to be a bit polarizing (especially at 50 bucks), just as it was back when it was released. Still, the juice is worth the squeeze if you're a particular type of person who likes oddities, and stories that go for ??broke.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Live many lives

A short demo for the upcoming HD-2D remake of Live A Live is out on the Nintendo Switch eShop right now. And after spending a ??little bit of ??time with it, I'm pretty keen on playing the full game.

The demo was announced during yesterday's Nintendo Direct Mini Partner Showcase, allowing fans to get an early hands-on with the July 22nd release. The Live A Live demo also carries save progress over to the full game, so don't worry too much i??n that regard.

Still, even in demo form, the unique charms and ideas that have made Live A Live a sought-after port for ages really come across. Its demo has short slices of just three of its paths. But just playing them, Live A Live really? feels like something?? Switch RPG fans need to keep an eye on.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pa_AlzOnTM

If you haven't heard of Live A Live before, a brief explainer is that it's an RPG spanning different characters and time periods. Each hero and era has its own quirks to master.?? And while doing so, you can learn what ties all these stories together.

The original game was released in 1994 for the Super Famicom, but never officially came over to North America. Still, it made an impact on those who played it. A Live A Live remake was even reportedly pushed for several times. Now, years later, the s??ought-after remake arrives in less than a month.

A sneaking mission

For my own demo playthrough, I started with the T??wilight of Edo Japan period. This section stars a shinobi, tasked with infiltrating a castle and eliminating the ruler within.

This is honestly a great place to start if you want to really see what makes Live A Live such a?? different experience. Almost right away, you're faced with choices. You can choose to hide from enemies, sneak past guards, and fle?e from battles. Or you can fight and kill, with your protagonist reflecting on how many have died by your blade with each victory.

For every win, you gain experience but also have a moment of reflection. You've effectively removed an NPC from the map. I'm very impressed with how this concept of exploring an open castle feels like a mix of RPG and Metal Gear Solid.

Way of the fist

?After spending some time sneaking around and assassinating guards, I went to check out the ??imperial China era. It's very easy to save a file for one timeline, and then hop back out and dive into another.

This era put me in the place of a mighty kung fu master, the Earthen Heart Shifu, in search of new disciple??s. He was already quite powerful, and any battle he ??undertook offered little reward.

The crux of the Imperial China arc, it seems, is gathering and training disciples. It's another conce?pt that just immediately hooked me in. During battles, which play out using a grid-based system with charging action bars, I had to consciously decide whether to go for swift victory or risky plays with my disciples.

Path to the stars

The last of the three sections in the Live A Live demo is the Distant Future. It was probably the slowe?st start of the three, and didn't offer a ton in the way of combat, outside an arcade ca?binet that's pretty fun to play.

Rather, the player takes on the role of Cube, a robot helper on a space voyage. Without divulging too much, tragedy strikes. The slowe??r pace and impending dread felt just right for a sci-fi story. While it's the one that left the least impression on me, it was also only a small slice of the pie.

All in all, Live A Live's demo really does make a good first impression. This anthology-style remake was already on my radar, just by word of mouth. But after playing some of it, an??d seeing how much work has gone into the HD-2D remake of it, it's becoming one to watch for July.

Granted, Live A Live has some stiff competition with Xenoblade Chronicles 3 launching in the same month. But if you're a fan of classic RPGs or just really interesting design and sto??rytelling, I think you'd be remiss to not give this demo a shot.

Live A Live launches on July 22, 2022. You can find the demo here on the Nintendo Switch eShop.

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Live every life on the Switch

A long-awaited RPG classic is finally coming to North America. Square's multi-path RPG Live A Live is coming to the Nintendo Switch on July 22.

Announced today during the Nintendo Direct, the Square RPG is coming to the Nintendo Switch for $49.99. You can find the eShop listing up for pre-order here.

Live A Live was originally released for Japan in 1994, on the Super Famicom. It is a fairly unique RPG, certainly for the time. It has seven differe??nt stories, following seven characters in different time periods and with different gameplay styles. You play them in any order, and eventually link them all together.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3Bhh5Gi6p8

This version of the game comes with HD-2D graphics, which is quickly becoming the go-to nomenclature for the Octopath-style of high-definition pixel art. It also marks the first time that Live A Live will be officially available outside of Japan.

Live A Live is another "can't believe it" Switch RPG re-release announcement in a Nintendo Direct with several of them. Earthbound is coming to the Nintendo Switch Online service, the first two Front Mission games are getting remakes, and Chrono Cross is coming to the Switch and other platforms. Seriou??sly, if you're a fan of older, arguably more obscure RPGs, this is your year. Enjoy this.

Though the $49.99 price tag is pretty steep, the HD-2D restoration of Live A Live looks pretty darn good. This is going to be a good summer for RPG fans. Live A Live will join that fray on the Switch on July 22.

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