Jeremy Gallen's Game Reviews

Septepath Traveler

The 1980s and ‘90s were something of a dark age for Japanese roleplaying games outside their country of origin, with Western gamers interested in the genre largely in the dark about the latest releases in the Land of the Rising Sun, and there were plenty instances where when they did see English releases, their narrative experiences diverged greatly, given Nintendo of America’s draconian censorship policies. Among the RPGs that missed out on an English release was Squaresoft’s Live A Live (with both instances of “Live” rhyming with “five”), although it would see an unofficial fan translation and eventual official English release initially on the Nintendo Switch generations later.

Live A Live follows seven protagonists from seven periods in real-life history: the Stone Age, Imperial China, Feudal Japan, the Wild West, the present, the near-future, and the distant future. Each character and whatever allies they may or may not obtain eventually battle with a villain in their respective periods whose name is in respects similar, with the narrative advancing after completion of each’s storyline and linking all. There are some tried tropes such as a damsel in distress and some discrepancies in the scenario following the seven main characters’, but the canon ending is satisfactory, and the narrative is ultimately told well.

Luckily, Square-Enix didn’t disappoint in the translation department. While the toilet humor in the prehistoric era won’t appeal to everyone, and there are many derivative names such as Pogo and Beru in said scenario, most of the mature content, particularly language-wise, escaped the wrath of American censors who would normally bowdlerize it, and the battle dialogue for once often sounds realistic, with an occasional swear or two. There are maybe a few punctuation errors and a lack of capitalization for “God” when referred to, but otherwise, the localization is mostly top tier.

Live A Live doesn’t disappoint in terms of gameplay, either, with all scenarios featuring their respective protagonist and up to three allies squaring off on a grid-based battlefield against several adversaries. Akin to the Final Fantasy games, each character has an active-time gauge that, when full, allows them to perform a command, such as moving around or use one of a few free abilities that they acquire through leveling, with each having an element that may be strong or weak against certain enemy types. Characters can also use consumable items or attempt escape if they so desire.

Cube tries to escape a giant trying to suck him out and eat him.

The means by which the characters encounter enemies vary among scenarios. Sometimes they’re visible on fields and in dungeons, sometimes they aren’t, sometimes they’re random, sometimes they’re unconventional, with Masaru Takahara’s present-day scenario having a fighting game-style structure where the player chooses various opponents, his stats are fixed, and he receives new skills when his opponents subject him to them. Another notable aspect of the gameplay is that Live A Live lacks a traditional RPG system of currency, although characters do have equipment and accessories.

Back to the battle system itself, a few unconventional twists exist such as the lack of magic points and that when a character loses all health, standard healing items can bring them back into the fray, although if enemies attack them again when unconscious, they disappear from the battlefield, unusable until the next battle. Players receive a Game Over if all their characters become unconscious, although if they defeat all enemies, they naturally win the battle, everyone receiving experience for occasional level-ups and increased stats. Furthermore, the player needs not worry about healing in between battles since all start with every character at full health.

Within battles, should the player move the current character around, the gauges of other characters and the enemy fill as well, foes naturally taking their turns when able. Some of the player’s skills require a time to charge before their execution, during which adversaries can interrupt them and stop characters from executing them. A few fights may have a “leader” enemy or two whose defeat makes all others retreat. The game mechanics generally work well, although ability animations in combat are unskippable and can drag out a few fights, characters can’t move past one another, and there may be some grinding necessary, mainly in the final scenario.

Live A Live does well in the control department as well, with expected bells and whistles such as adjustable text speed and the ability to skip through dialogue, a save-anywhere (except in combat) feature, an accurate in-game clock, skippable cutscenes that cut down on wasted time whenever things such as dying in a battle after a scene happen, descriptions of what items do, and so on. One primary feature is the radar that can guide players to the next plot point, with gray icons indicating unexplored areas, blue noting those the player has visited, and a flag denoting where to proceed in the storyline. While a few scenarios do feature maps of areas, having a minimap in addition to the radar would have been welcome, but otherwise, there isn’t too much room for improvement.

Fans of overworlds where you turn into a giant rejoice.

The original title was composer Yoko Shimomura’s first full-scale project, and I certainly can’t say “and it showed,” given the absolute care given to the music, beginning with the glorious opening title theme. The musical tracks are almost always never out of place and fit the settings of the various periods covered, and the voice acting largely shines as well, with the use of actual ethnics in the non-Anglophone settings giving the performances authentic feelings, although there are minor discrepancies in the quality. There’s also no victory jingle like in most other RPGs and sizable portions without music, but otherwise, Live A Live is a job to behold with one’s ears.

Akin to its spiritual successors the Octopath Traveler games, Live A Live’s remake utilizes an “HD-2D” visual style that features two-dimensional character and enemy sprites although the scenery and many battle effects are three-dimensional, most environs having good effect as the player moves around. They’re an improvement over the first Octopath Traveler’s graphics given brighter colors, although despite critical ballyhooing, they’re no different from the graphical styles of classic PlayStation 1 RPGs such as Arc the Lad III, Vandal Hearts, Wild Arms 2, and Xenogears, and have much of the same flaws such as pixilation aplenty, alongside others such as endless reskinned enemies and that said foes in combat don’t show any animation from those stationary when executing their attacks. The graphics are far from an eyesore, however, but could very much make the game pass for one released many console generations prior.

Finally, the remake will last players around twenty-four hours, with little in the way of side content aside from grinding every character in the final scenario (and players can see any ending without starting from scratch), given the dearth of sidequests and a New Game+.

Overall, the remake of Live A Live very well accomplishes what Square-Enix sought to do with it in the first place, breathing new life into a classic of which unsuspecting North Americans, at least until the era of fan translations, were left in the dark, given its well-executed game mechanics, tight control, engaging narrative and polished localization, the excellent soundtrack, and pleasant graphical style. Granted, most areas of the game do have some niggling issues such as a few dated combat elements like long animations that can make many battles drag on, a few matters with the story and translation, how it could easily pass for a PlayStation 1 RPG, and the absence of any significant lasting appeal, but the rerelease does warrant at least one look made legal by Square-Enix, if nothing more.

This review is based on a playthrough of a physical copy borrowed by the reviewer all the way through the official "good" ending.