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Live-A-Live
Feb. 10th, 2012 07:45 pmSeven eras. Seven heroes. Seven stories. From the time before spoken language to the sci-fi space travel future, they struggle against a mysterious evil. Will you live their lives and unravel how their stories fit together?
( A lost SquareSoft classic that never made it to the US...but we were probably better off with the game we did get that year. )
Overall: It's a very ambitious game, all told, but I'm not sure the technology (or perhaps the development time) was quite where it needed to be to live up to its goals. The area graphics are vivid, but the characters are squashed and their emotive abilities are limited, which limits the game's storytelling abilities. The battle system is okay, it’s acceptable, but it gets really tiresome when you need to grind or when there's a high encounter rate. There isn't enough variety to it to fill out the entire game. (I actually would have preferred another more story/less combat chapter, or maybe one with real puzzles, in place of one of the combat-heavy ones.) The individual stories are fun but ultimately forgettable, because you don’t spend enough time with any character or set of NPCs to really get attached. I’m glad I played this for what it was attempting; but I doubt I’ll replay it.
( A lost SquareSoft classic that never made it to the US...but we were probably better off with the game we did get that year. )
Overall: It's a very ambitious game, all told, but I'm not sure the technology (or perhaps the development time) was quite where it needed to be to live up to its goals. The area graphics are vivid, but the characters are squashed and their emotive abilities are limited, which limits the game's storytelling abilities. The battle system is okay, it’s acceptable, but it gets really tiresome when you need to grind or when there's a high encounter rate. There isn't enough variety to it to fill out the entire game. (I actually would have preferred another more story/less combat chapter, or maybe one with real puzzles, in place of one of the combat-heavy ones.) The individual stories are fun but ultimately forgettable, because you don’t spend enough time with any character or set of NPCs to really get attached. I’m glad I played this for what it was attempting; but I doubt I’ll replay it.
