Snes - Live a Live Review

Live a live is a little known RPG by Squaresoft. It features a number of stereotypical 'hero' characters. Each of one of them with their own story.

Gameplay and interface: 8/10

The game has a standard interface in the menus and subsystems found in most other Squaresoft RPG's. No surprises here. As for the game itself, when you start you don't start from one character and move on to next. Rather, you can pick and choose which character's story you want to play and once you finish it you can replay it again if you like. This freedom is great because you can play people you think you'll like first and then tackle the others later.

The talking and running buttons are the same for all of the characters but the Y button serves a special function depending on the characters. For example, the for the Ninja it will make it raise his invisible cloak while for the psychic it will allow him to use his powers to read other people's minds.

The battle system is rather unique. The characters enter a battle grid and their attacks affect different portions of the grid. For example, the Shinobi's sword affects only squares right next to him while his water attack affects a large portion around the targeted diagonal square. This means that character location plays a big role in this game especially against the bosses. This sort of tactical decisions are rather lacking in your more common turn based RPG's.

Storyline: 5/5

The story revolves around the heroes initially presented to you and a final one which is 'unlocked' when you finish all the others' stories. Each one of them has their own unrelated story which is then tied into the last. Each story is short but different and unique so you will not find repetition in any of them. For example, the cowboy one is about saving a town from bandits while the robot one is about solving a deadly mystery. Perhaps the only trouble is that each one of them is in some ways typical of the characters. The cowboy story ends like all westerns do for example. Although that being said, this game is more of tribute to each genre. The last two chapters are particularly cool but I'll not spoil the story. The game may be a little too short in some ways because of the brevity of each Chapter.

Graphics: 3/5

The graphics are unfortunately not very good. They are a little too small and dotty. However, each chapter has it's own set of graphics which is a plus.

Level design: 4/5

As mentioned before each story is unique and following the trend, each chapter's levels are unique as well. For example, the Wild West chapter takes place in a town and you fight no enemies at all except in the last battle. Rather you have gather materials for booby traps to minimise the number of enemies in that battle. This is placed in contrast to the Modern day chapter where there are only boss battles and being hit by the boss allows you to learn their special attacks.

Music and Sound: 4.5/5
The music for each chapter is typical but quite memoriable. Of course each chapter's music is extremely stereotypical. The wild west chapter for example has wild west songs while the Kung Fu chapter has Chinese sounding melodies. There aren't any complaints although the sound effects sound real funny.

For: Unique chapters, unique battle systems, unique game designs for each chapter.

Against: Maybe a little too short, sound not up to par, graphics mediocre.