Welcome to the Underrated Gems, a brand-new review series for underrated games. Every other week,, I will be reviewing a game I consider to be Underrated between all the games that are released. These games would be considered not that well known in the mainstream media, hidden gems, and most importantly: just Underrated. All these games will be reviewed on my Steam account unless otherwise stated. This week, we have multiple journeys across time, all tying together for one epic conclusion.
The Super Famicom,or SNES, was one of the most famous consoles of all time, home to some great classics like Super Mario World and A Link to the Past. But a JRPG by the name of Live A Live was released in 1994, yet never made it to the western side of the hemisphere. Yet in 2022, a remake of this legendary game would be released for Switch, PS4/5 and Steam. Directed by Square Enix and Historia, Live A Live would release on July 22, 2022 on Switch and April 27, 2023 everywhere else.
Plot
Live A Live functions as several stories across time, each with their own unique protagonist and their allies. From the Prehistory era, all the way to the Distant Future era, a total of seven eras are unlocked from the start of the game, each containing their own story. Yet after completing all seven, an eighth scenario gets unlocked, taking place in the Middle Ages. And after that, an insane epilogue that ties all eight scenarios together for one amazing finale. How do all these stories end up tying together, let’s just say, each Antagonist in every era happens to have a similar name to one another…
Gameplay
The two main types of gameplay in Live A Live function as any other JRPG: Exploration and Battle modes. The remake version is a beautiful pixel rendition of the original game, every single inanimate object seems to have life. The character renditions are slightly enhanced, but way better than the original game. Throughout the exploration is in a slight open world space, but enough for each chapter to be its own bite size adventure. Throughout all chapters, you’ll see overarching cities, traditional Japanese Strongholds, and even a spaceship lightyears from Earth.
As for the battle system, Live A Live functions on a grid-based, turn-based battle system. The player and the enemy party take turns on the grid, each using an array of attacks or items for their advantage. It acts as your typical JRPG game, but what makes it so unique is that everything looks and functions better than your typical JRPG game. The pixel artwork for each stage is special, the enemy designs are heavily upgraded, and more stats are shown to give a newer look. Each of the systems for the remake are heavily advanced and remade to both look and feel better for this amazing remake of a game.
Overall
Live A Live functions as an amazing twist to the JRPG genre, even in its original debut. The remake is especially breathtaking, with all the models, the gameplay, the battle system, all having numerous upgrades. And the story is next to none, multiple story scenarios throughout history, all having one of the best boss fights in not just the game, but possibly JRPG history. The game is a true advancement in JRPG’s history, and yet a shame it took this long for a remake to come out simply because it was ahead of it’s time. Just be prepared to know what is going on in the Prehistory chapter, as all the characters are Cavemen..and they don’t necessarily speak any current language.
