Each individual chapter is relatively short, and this, too, is a strength, in that Live A Live never allows itself to get trapped into a grind, and people can step into it knowing that they’ll get a fair chunk of the way through a complete narrative arc in their session. There is an eventual chapter that ties things together (and it’s a good one), but by then you’ve been well and truly drawn into the eclectic energy of this thing. So, for the longest time, Live A Live doesn’t feel like a single cohesive narrative, or even game, but rather a collection of individual vignettes, novellas, or short stories (whatever you want to call them) that might be linked in a general sense, but play as differently as the stories within them are different. The combat – when it occurs – plays out in the same way in each scenario (turn-based on a gird), but the special abilities that your character has access to, and the way that those battles are fought therefore have a very different texture. Some scenarios feature random encounters, some are scripted, and some basically forego combat entirely. Meanwhile, the boxer’s chapter, set in the modern era, tells the story of a guy that’s determined to be the world’s best fighter, and that scenario allows you to choose your opponents from a Street Fighter-like character select screen. So for example, in the scenario set in Sengoku Japan, you play as a ninja that has the unique ability to hide from enemies, and are encouraged to do so as your hero is keeping an ominous countdown of the lives that he’s taken. It operates to an entirely different set of rules.
Here, though, it’s not just that each scenario looks different. Usually when games to multiple time periods, or different settings, they maintain the same basic gameplay. That in itself is not that unique, but each of Live A Live’s scenarios has been carefully built so that the way they play is entirely unique – and appropriate – to that time period and scenario and that is less common. Live A Live’s most interesting quality is that it tracks the stories of multiple characters – eight in all, and they take place in vastly different time periods, from ancient pre-history through to the distant future.
Live A Live is a very beast different that I found fascinating to play for very different reasons and, supported by a gorgeous modern aesthetic, still feels like one of the most creative and experimental games that Square Enix has ever produced, nearly 30 years after it was first launched on the SNES. I like when it’s supported by quality gameplay mechanics, of course, but the frameworks and structures that support that narrative are less of a focus for me than that narrative. I want to be lost in the characters, setting, plot and world.
In most cases, I play JRPGs for the narrative.
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