Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
What Scenario will you start with?
Prehistory (Caveman)
Imperial China (Martial Arts Master)
Edo Japan (Ninja)
Wild West (Cowboy)
Present Day (Wrasslin)
Near Future (Mecha)
Future (Sci Fi)
View Results
 
  • Post
  • Reply
ImpAtom
May 24, 2007

EclecticTastes posted:

It didn't stop Nintendo from releasing Earthbound up against Donkey Kong Country, to the former game's detriment. The "people want pretty graphics" thing was more of a retrospective analysis, not something anyone realized at the time.

Earthbound looked a hell of a lot better than Live A Live did. (Also Nintendo and Square had different priorities. Even at the time Square was starting to bank on visual prowess being one of their centerpieces and FF7's success just skyrocketed that.)

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

Last Celebration posted:

Finally beat King Mammoth! Question for stuff I kind of know from looking too much at YouTube comments of the original SFC OST:

i know there’s a final act where you recruit your protagonists from the other era or something along those lines. Since the Prehistory section has

Completed: Pogo Level 5
Current: Pogo level 13

Does that mean the game’s gonna go with the clear file data stats and not the current one, and that I’ll need to beat the campaign again (not that I’d especially mind, I might just do it again for the hell of it tbh) for my fully leveled character with all his combat skills to be the one that gets used for the vague spoiler thing?


Yes you gotta beat the chapter again. It'll make new complete save data.

ImpAtom
May 24, 2007

Actually I do have a question about the Far Future chapter.

I don't quite get the point of the hidden reveal at the very end of the game if you go back and use the JUDGE password. I feel like I was supposed to take something more from it than I did considering how hidden it is and instead it was just kinda ... okay?

EclecticTastes
Sep 17, 2012

"Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

ImpAtom posted:

Earthbound looked a hell of a lot better than Live A Live did. (Also Nintendo and Square had different priorities. Even at the time Square was starting to bank on visual prowess being one of their centerpieces and FF7's success just skyrocketed that.)

Final Fantasy 7 wasn't for another three years, and Earthbound's graphics are often cited as one of the reasons it failed compared to other SNES games released that year (other factors included a bad marketing campaign and the higher price point it had due to coming with an included guidebook).



ImpAtom posted:

Actually I do have a question about the Far Future chapter.

I don't quite get the point of the hidden reveal at the very end of the game if you go back and use the JUDGE password. I feel like I was supposed to take something more from it than I did considering how hidden it is and instead it was just kinda ... okay?

The point is that the whole tragic chain of events was set in motion because the captain lost faith in his team long before the computer went crazy. It was because he'd given up on them that OD-10 decided it was necessary to take matters into their own hands. It's a tragic postscript that underlines that the true enemy was never the rogue AI, but rather the crew's inability to overcome their differences.

Unlucky7
Jul 11, 2006

Fallen Rib

EclecticTastes posted:

Final Fantasy 7 wasn't for another three years, and Earthbound's graphics are often cited as one of the reasons it failed compared to other SNES games released that year (other factors included a bad marketing campaign and the higher price point it had due to coming with an included guidebook).

The point is that the whole tragic chain of events was set in motion because the captain lost faith in his team long before the computer went crazy. It was because he'd given up on them that OD-10 decided it was necessary to take matters into their own hands. It's a tragic postscript that underlines that the true enemy was never the rogue AI, but rather the crew's inability to overcome their differences.

What is the password for the dynamics in the computer room? I want to check it out while I have the auto save at the end of the chapter

EclecticTastes
Sep 17, 2012

"Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Unlucky7 posted:

What is the password for the dynamics in the computer room? I want to check it out while I have the auto save at the end of the chapter

If you go to the duty module room on the second floor, the computer will give you the password for the main computer room, JUDGE. Once you're inside, you enter the main override password, "OAKFDE", and you can access the files.

Looper
Mar 1, 2012

Unlucky7 posted:

Just finished the Far Future chapter, and it is in the running for my favorite chapter in the game. That said there was one black mark I have on it (big spoilers): where Rachel picks up the “stupid and goddamned crazy” ball again out of nowhere to run out of the rec room against the behemoth. I know by that point it has gone full horror movie, and someone is bound to do something dumb but it still felt kind of out of nowhere and it came too soon after her first freak out. I can only justify it as her realizing that the thing could be eating Kirks corpse, maybe

Also, I think I may have did an unintentional skip, where after the first Rec room scene I went to Rachel and then met her on the bridge, which kicked off everything, instead of going to Kato in the computer room. Probably missed a couple of scenes there. Not that it felt that stuff was missing; just interesting and weird

i like to think that decimus had been messing with her and maybe even the others beyond what you see, because otherwise yeah she acts like a complete dumbass lol. but yeah at that point specifically she believes the behemoth is gonna get at kirk's corpse

Last Celebration
Mar 30, 2010

Alxprit posted:

Yes you gotta beat the chapter again. It'll make new complete save data.

Yeah I kinda figured, thanks.

Austin S
Jul 2, 2005

ImpAtom posted:

Yeah, Live A Live Switch adheres extremely close to the original but that is entirely in its favor. It's the sort of high-quality redo that any SNES-era game could hope for, updating everything with great care while not actually losing anything that made it unique.
On that note, I'd love to see Secret of Evermore get this sort of treatment. Just an incredible amount of depth hiding under a corny premise.

Hibbloes
Jun 9, 2007
Yo

as much as everyone loves the graphical update, ive gotta say the thing im most impressed by is the voice acting. outside of the bizarre british dude in feudal japan, everything has been spot on- the terse western protagonist and his slighty flowery rival, the grunts and exultations of pogo and his crew, and the intensity of the kung fu chapter were all amazing, but i was most impressed by the modern chapter. the end fight against odie has masaru yelling out the names of those he learned the moves from when using them occasionally, which added a lot of gravity to the fact they had just died. in the og i never felt a real connection or anything, but having him do that really ramped up the emotion of the fight. i only heard him mention nam, moribe, and jackie, but i was using every move i had to hear him tribute them, which i think means the game certainly succeeded what it was trying to do there. and having the enemies yell out as their health goes down really worked out to, i enjoyed the little dab of personality it added to the fights.

SettingSun
Aug 10, 2013

Hibbloes posted:

as much as everyone loves the graphical update, ive gotta say the thing im most impressed by is the voice acting. outside of the bizarre british dude in feudal japan, everything has been spot on- the terse western protagonist and his slighty flowery rival, the grunts and exultations of pogo and his crew, and the intensity of the kung fu chapter were all amazing, but i was most impressed by the modern chapter. the end fight against odie has masaru yelling out the names of those he learned the moves from when using them occasionally, which added a lot of gravity to the fact they had just died. in the og i never felt a real connection or anything, but having him do that really ramped up the emotion of the fight. i only heard him mention nam, moribe, and jackie, but i was using every move i had to hear him tribute them, which i think means the game certainly succeeded what it was trying to do there. and having the enemies yell out as their health goes down really worked out to, i enjoyed the little dab of personality it added to the fights.

The voice acting is incredible and another sign that great care was taken to the details of the game. The weird English accented dude in Edo is a real person; a Japanese historical hero pivotal to bringing about the Meiji Restoration. If I were to guess, the accent is leaning on his strong affinity for western culture he was known for.

Alxprit
Feb 7, 2015

<click> <click> What is it with this dancing?! Bouncing around like fools... I would have thought my own kind at least would understand the seriousness of our Adventurer's Guild!

Now that I'm in the final chapter proper I really don't think the Cola Bottle is meant to be in this game. like it is, but it isn't, you get me? It's just *way* too absurdly good, it invalidates almost anything else anyone can do in terms of doing damage and can be used for free with no charge time an infinite amount of times.

EclecticTastes
Sep 17, 2012

"Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Alxprit posted:

Now that I'm in the final chapter proper I really don't think the Cola Bottle is meant to be in this game. like it is, but it isn't, you get me? It's just *way* too absurdly good, it invalidates almost anything else anyone can do in terms of doing damage and can be used for free with no charge time an infinite amount of times.

The reason a cola bottle is so busted is yet another movie reference, in this case, to the 1980 South African-Botswanan screwball comedy, The Gods Must Be Crazy, in which an old glass Coca-Cola bottle falls from a passing airplane into the hands of a tribe of San farmers, who at first find it to be an amazingly useful item, but when it sparks conflict over who gets to use it, one of the tribesmen ventures out to dispose of it, thinking the "gods" made a mistake in giving it to them, and encounters various absurdities of modern living in the process. It actually manages to not be shockingly racist (by 1980 standards, anyway), though it does completely avoid the topic of Apartheid, the Immorality Act, etc., which is a little convenient for a film made by a white South African.

Novasol
Jul 27, 2006


Alxprit posted:

Now that I'm in the final chapter proper I really don't think the Cola Bottle is meant to be in this game. like it is, but it isn't, you get me? It's just *way* too absurdly good, it invalidates almost anything else anyone can do in terms of doing damage and can be used for free with no charge time an infinite amount of times.

It's a rare drop from an optional superboss, of course it's busted.

Last Celebration
Mar 30, 2010
Ancient China: man that’s a bummer with the other two disciples, I went with Lei because come on but the other two were nice kids. So how does it work, I’d guess whoever survives is whoever you favor the most, but what happens when you do something like 2-1-1, 1-2-1, and 1-1-2 with the training sessions like I did and not 2-1-1 all the way?

Zulily Zoetrope
Jun 1, 2011

Muldoon
I looked it up and supposedly if you do that, it picks whoever had the highest starting level; Hong if he ties with someone else, and Lei if you gave her and Yun equal time and Hong less.

Harrow
Jun 30, 2012

Four chapters down, did the Wild West one last night.

What a cool premise that was. I really love how the short story structure lets them just experiment with the form and do creative things, knowing that hey, if it doesn't land for any given player, it's over in like an hour anyway. Ultimately it seemed pretty easy to set up all the traps and chump the bandits (were the little sparkles indicating where items are there in the original?), and watching them fall prey to the traps was a really funny scene. Also lmao that O. Dio was a horse the whole time. Evil horse with a gatling gun ftw

Going to do Edo Japan next. I found it kind of weird in the demo but I'm hoping that going in and just not really caring about the kill count will make it a smoother experience this time. I can always do a pacifist run later.

Harrow fucked around with this message at 13:18 on Jul 26, 2022

Glagha
Oct 13, 2008

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAaaAAAaaAAaAA
AAAAAAAaAAAAAaaAAA
AAAA
AaAAaaA
AAaaAAAAaaaAAAAAAA
AaaAaaAAAaaaaaAA

Harrow posted:

Four chapters down, did the Wild West one last night.

What a cool premise that was. I really love how the short story structure lets them just experiment with the form and do creative things, knowing that hey, if it doesn't land for any given player, it's over in like an hour anyway. Ultimately it seemed pretty easy to set up all the traps and chump the bandits (were the little sparkles indicating where items are there in the original?), and watching them fall prey to the traps was a really funny scene. Also lmao that O. Dio was a horse the whole time. Evil horse with a gatling gun ftw

Going to do Edo Japan next. I found it kind of weird in the demo but I'm hoping that going in and just not really caring about the kill count will make it a smoother experience this time. I can always do a pacifist run later.

To answer your question, the item sparkles were not in the original game, no, so the western chapter required a bit more rubbing your face on every object. Edo Japan is also one of the more complicated chapters and the demo doesn't really sell it I don't think since the chapter is very nonlinear. The pacifist and 100 kills runs are both very difficult to do without a guide or prior knowledge so I definitely recommend you ignore the kill count.

Harrow
Jun 30, 2012

Glagha posted:

To answer your question, the item sparkles were not in the original game, no, so the western chapter required a bit more rubbing your face on every object. Edo Japan is also one of the more complicated chapters and the demo doesn't really sell it I don't think since the chapter is very nonlinear. The pacifist and 100 kills runs are both very difficult to do without a guide or prior knowledge so I definitely recommend you ignore the kill count.

Yeah, trying it in the demo gave me the impression that there were going to be degrees of "success" for how few kills you got and that I needed to minimize kills even if I wasn't going for 0. Now that I know that there really isn't anything other than "pacifist" and "killed at least one person" I'm just going to ignore it and try a pacifist run later.

Allarion
May 16, 2009

がんばルビ!
Yeah going for 100 kills was deliberately obtuse to do cause you’d have hidden women and guards you’d have to go outta your way to find and kill. I think in one case, you’d have to trigger things in a specific way so you can kill them yourself rather than through traps.

Looper
Mar 1, 2012
ninja chapter is so good, just metal gear solid in jrpg form

Bongo Bill
Jan 17, 2012

I got through Edo with pacifist conduct yesterday, with some help from friends. There are a few gotchas:

  • If you do something that counts as a kill, the game will make it obvious afterward
  • If you can run away from a battle, there's no penalty for doing so, or for initiating it in the first place
  • Some battles can't be run away from and are against humans, and can appear without warning. Save often
  • If an NPC kills someone for you in a cutscene, it doesn't count as a kill
  • If they're not a human, it doesn't count as a kill
  • If it's a boss, it doesn't count as a kill
  • Don't release the Prisoner from his cell, or else you'll have to kill someone
  • Find the Mimic Mammet and let it take out the guards immediately outside the room where you find it, or else you'll have to kill someone

There are tons of secrets and amusing scenes in this. I probably would have enjoyed it more had I gone into it unconcerned about the kill count in order to enjoy those scenes and dialog more. Anyway, I heard (but have yet to see for myself) that the reward for pacifist conduct is basically as good as the reward for beating the harder of the two superbosses, and I did beat both.

SettingSun
Aug 10, 2013

Both of the rewards are swords of equal strength. To be clear they are not the same sword though.

Pladdicus
Aug 13, 2010

Nothing missable matters, only do it if you find it fun. It's very easy to just clear each chapter and beat the game.

Some unique items, the medicine box, or the rock of rocks is very useful! But, you can find equivalent or close to in the final chapter and it's very easy to cap stats with some levels and items with characters secret weapons

Game owns. Perfect remake. Faithful, but improved.

The final chapter sequence is incredible.

Strong recommend for RPG fans that missed it first time around and anyone who played it. AGTP did a great job bringing it over, though, I want to say. A lot lines up. Akira's chapter was a lot more enjoyable this time around, as was Prehistoric, though gotta say did not love mammoth hunting. Beating it at like, level 12 was a pain.

HGH
Dec 20, 2011

Allarion posted:

Yeah going for 100 kills was deliberately obtuse to do cause you’d have hidden women and guards you’d have to go outta your way to find and kill. I think in one case, you’d have to trigger things in a specific way so you can kill them yourself rather than through traps.

It's not even the hidden ones that are rough, there's the insanely convoluted thing of not killing a single woman until right before the last boss' room which causes a woman to spawn to thank you for not killing any women and reward you with gear except instead of accepting it you just attack her instead.

EclecticTastes
Sep 17, 2012

"Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Pladdicus posted:

Strong recommend for RPG fans that missed it first time around and anyone who played it. AGTP did a great job bringing it over, though, I want to say. A lot lines up. Akira's chapter was a lot more enjoyable this time around, as was Prehistoric, though gotta say did not love mammoth hunting. Beating it at like, level 12 was a pain.

I think the Aeon Genesis translation is still very much worth playing for anyone who enjoys the remake, as a sort of companion piece. Seeing the original design, as well as a different take on the script, makes it an excellent companion piece for anyone who enjoys the game enough to want to see it from multiple angles.

Dr Pepper
Feb 4, 2012

Don't like it? well...

It really is fun how not only is each chapter starring its own character but each one is a different genre.

This sort of game anthology set up is pretty interesting and it's sad I can't really recall it being done much anywhere else. Only other example I can think of is Kirby Super Star.

Looper
Mar 1, 2012

EclecticTastes posted:

I think the Aeon Genesis translation is still very much worth playing for anyone who enjoys the remake, as a sort of companion piece. Seeing the original design, as well as a different take on the script, makes it an excellent companion piece for anyone who enjoys the game enough to want to see it from multiple angles.

i really like how it uses different typefaces to fit each chapter, and even though (edo chapter) mimic mammet is a better name considering oboromaru's name could be anything, i'm still quite fond of o-robo

Allarion
May 16, 2009

がんばルビ!
It’s why I like it a lot, because it deliberately does that for each chapter with non-traditional heroes, and then you get the Medieval chapter. It’s just a thematically neat game.

EclecticTastes
Sep 17, 2012

"Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Allarion posted:

It’s why I like it a lot, because it deliberately does that for each chapter with non-traditional heroes, and then you get the Medieval chapter. It’s just a thematically neat game.

A lot of this is because, when you get right down to it, Live A Live isn't really aiming to be a collection of JRPGs, so much as it's aiming to be cinematic. Each chapter is an homage to a genre of film (or anime/fighting games for Akira and Masaru), so the protagonist is written accordingly, which rarely fits cleanly into JRPG conventions. Cube stands out, though, as their story's structure, as well as their role within it, manages to be fairly novel, even within the sci-fi/horror genre, in a way that's only possible in the context of a video game. Like, they're ultimately more of a supporting character for the rest of their chapter's cast, and it's their arcs that really drive the story, yet they're still the one who saves the day and ends up being the most important, but much of that is because the player is controlling them.

Unlucky7
Jul 11, 2006

Fallen Rib
I am in the middle of the Final Chapter and with all the improvements letting it shine it feels simultaneously ahead of its time and of its time.

EclecticTastes
Sep 17, 2012

"Most plans are critically flawed by their own logic. A failure at any step will ruin everything after it. That's just basic cause and effect. It's easy for a good plan to fall apart. Therefore, a plan that has no attachment to logic cannot be stopped."

Unlucky7 posted:

it feels simultaneously ahead of its time and of its time.

This, I think, encapsulates Live A Live perfectly. It's a game that could only ever have been made in 1994, but at the same time, so much of the design and writing is reaching for things we wouldn't see again for years (and a couple we still haven't seen elsewhere). Unlike other, similarly ambitious games (Phantasy Star III comes to mind), it wasn't hamstrung by that ambition, and worked around the limitations of the time to still reach greatness, but in a way that, translated into the modern era of games, still feels fresh and new. Live A Live is an early example of a game really pushing the limits of what games can be, and what kinds of stories they can tell.

Zulily Zoetrope
Jun 1, 2011

Muldoon
Well I think I've played through the whole game now and am just gonna post my opinions on all the chapters as a big ol' scattershot, in the order I played them:

Present Day: Probably the least interesting chapter, and that's saying a lot given that it's a Mega Man/Street Fighter RPG storyline. Pretty barebones, and I'm glad I did it first because it was all combat and the learning mechanism made me pay attention to how enemy attacks worked. I don't think I worked out the all-important knight placement from this chapter alone, but I did figure out that I could basically cheese the boss by spamming Fleetfoot at him, interrupting his charge attack and making him waste turns turning to face me.

Imperial China: Easily my favorite of the bunch. If I were to fault the other routes, most of them have a protagonist who barely if ever speaks, but Roshi was a chatty dude who was just good and wholesome. It's also nice to start out as the kung fu master and have it represented by the gameplay, you just beat the dog piss out of everyone until your students are barely able to fight back towards the end, and then the dojo is just a gauntlet of pushover grunts. This is a great example of what Live-A-Live can do and worked due to the game structure, while a feature length RPG would have to abandon the concept relatively early on. Then you get to the end and the enemies start to actually pose a threat, represented by their stats in the gameplay and the Shifu tiring in the plot because he's literally dying from exhaustion and old age, but fortunately it also coincides with the student approaching his level and coming into their own and being able to kick asses without him.

Also I read the blurb about only one student succeeding him, but I figured the others would still be around for the chapter, so I went 2-1-1 for all the training sessions. I missed out on optimizing Lei's stats but it didn't matter because she was still a total shitwrecker. Roshi apologizing to his dead students and Lei's eulogy at the end as she wrecks the rock were also really touching. Definitely sold on the game at this point. Also Unto the Birds the Heavens, unto the Fish the Seas is a fuckin banger of a theme.


Prehistory: Picked this one early-ish, because I figured I wouldn't really care for it, caveman stories are not my cup of tea. Turns out I was wrong, because it had the simple and, in retrospect, obvious idea of having no spoken language and communicating everything in gestures and grunts. I'm sure it was difficult to actually implement, but they pulled it off and I loved it. It had slapstick and poo poo and fart combat and Flintstone cars and caveman Dalton and was somehow the most straightforward RPG of the bunch, down to a rudimentary shopping/crafting mechanic, and you know what, it earned it. I wound up looking up a guide for this one, curious to see if I'd missed anything, and learned about the King Mammoth and Rock of Rocks. King Mammoth taught me a lot about positioning and I managed to beat it at level 12, but I was not going to bother grinding for the coke bottle. Kinda sad Beru is barely in your party, she ruled.

Distant Future: I think this one is probably the one that suffered the most from the game's age. I've seen plenty of survival horror, even in the specific genre of on board a spaceship with a rogue AI, which were in a more suited medium than the sprite-based RPG. I'm sure it was a lot more novel for its time, but dang it is frustrating to watch the characters get repeatedly bamboozled by ship systems spontaneously failing and doctored communication logs and not suspect the one obvious culprit. It was pretty novel to play through it as the adorable little robot who wouldn't fight, especially once we finally get to the boss and they obviously can throw down. Also I saw someone mention that all the protagonists were male, including the robot, but the chapter exclusively gives Cubert they or it pronouns, depending on how much the speaker respects robots. I'm assuming it's the work of either the remake team or the localizers, but I do appreciate it.

The Wild West: A nice little romp that served as a break between the longer stories. I forget the Wanderer's default name; the Sundown Kid maybe? I named them the Tequila Sunset Kid, and it fit. Music was cool, Mad Dog was cool, but I feel like the gimmick was almost too simple? I just looted the entire town, and gave traps to everyone in the bar, and then gave more traps to the ones that came back while the clock was tickin, which was enough to take out the entire Crazy Bunch even though I don't think the mariachis ever managed to complete planting a trap.

This is also where I noticed the pattern of Watanabe's dad and the villains all being named variations of Odio; O. Dio was kind of on the nose. Didn't really care for the running orphan gag with comedic exaggerated crying sprites, nor what to make of the latter, but O. Dio was the coolest villain. Gatling gun ghost horse with impeccable manners, heck yeah. I killed Mad Dog, but apparently there's an alternate ending where you flee instead of shoot his face off? I don't regret it, he clearly wanted a fight to the death and it was the obliging thing to do, but I think I prefer the idea of them eventually burying the hatchet, he was a good egg.


Twilight of Edo Japan: Jesus gently caress was this a complex one, and the gameplay is apparently entirely unaltered from the 1994 release? That messes with my head. I went for the pacifist route and appreciated how insanely free form the chapter was, after bungling and savescumming my way into the main castle; I fell into a pit, went to jail, and saw the prisoner right beside me. Naturally I did what any reasonable person would do, and reloaded my save and went in the exact opposite direction, working my way up the floors. I didn't do any combat until the contraptions attic, and it was neat to figure out the fights and see that I could get levels without incrementing the kill counter. I got to the robot boss horribly underleveled and managed to muddle through by abusing the knockback and tile damage from Waterspout, while avoiding attacks with the knight position, and it made me feel real cool. Then I saw a plot flag on the fifth floor, plus a fight that looked like they might be humans, but I couldn't figure out if they were because I couldn't beat them. I figured the prison was where I needed to go, but I wasn't gonna fall into the cage like a goon, so I scoured the map looking for the employee entrance. I found a prison, but it didn't have the Prisoner in it, which took me a long time to figure out was because I'd triggered a plot flag. By the time I realized I had also stumbled upon the storehouse and found the lost souls you were supposed to grind out as a pacifist player, and, hey, I didn't need that to get this far, obviously I'm just a badass.

Eventually I made my way back to the coin slot and had enough cash to operate it this time around, which netted me a robot buddy who immediately died to unlock the boss door once I found a way to take it outside without dropping it down a death pit. Then I finally hit some plot and found the Prisoner, who I of course took all the way back downstairs to try to kill that fuckin fish, which didn't succeed. At this point I looked up a guide to see if I missed something, and learned that there's a way to get the prison key early on without violence, but at that point the prison didn't have anything I needed. Also there's an even harder superboss than the carp that I didn't even bother finding. It did get me the Geta-load-of-these Geta, which is a nice pun, but I think I'd have been happier not knowing about any of this, ah well.

I see a lot of people mention that this chapter is really obtuse to try to pacifist, but I didn't think any part of it seemed that inscrutable and it certainly felt like you had a lot of leeway. I get the impression I might just have lucked out and stumbled into the optimal routing. I did savescum a lot, but I also talked to every NPC who didn't chase me and a lot of those were human fights, so that felt fair. Some of them gave me food and goods, and some were demons I was allowed to kill.


The Near Future: Saved this for last because it seemed like an FF7-style dieselpunk romp, and Akira obviously looked like someone with a personality. Delivered on both of these fronts, and I didn't even know about the Golden Sun mind reading mechanic until I started. Definitely the darkest of the storylines, with the body horror tubes and all the dead parents, but it managed to hit those emotional beats. The pantysavings snatching was real unnecessary, but I'll write that off as a product of its time. My second favorite after Imperial China, just a nice little self-contained story of its own. I do not particularly dig giant robots, but the steel titan was cool, and the villains were by far the worst people of the game.

I wish it had spent a little longer on explaining some of the themes. Liquefaction is obviously an insanely evil thing to do, what with the horror tubes and the robot screaming in pain as it's ordered to fight you and can't resist, but also it's okay to do to a dying turtle and it's happy about it and becomes your robot buddy, and you kid sister volunteers to be juiced because she's terminally ill? Dogg you gotta explain exactly what makes it okay sometimes and body horror at others. Also matango; there's a lite version that's a healing item, there's a bar where people get hosed up on it and it overrides their thoughts, and at one point a character eats a whole pile of them which overclocks his brain and makes him a powerful psychic, but eventually kills him. At no point, unless I missed it, does anyone mention what it is. I had to google it, and apparently it's a reference to a village of mushroom in Secret of Mana, which in itself is a reference to an old Japanese horror movie where people get addicted to mutagenic mushrooms that turn them into cannibal mushroom people? A throwaway line about them being psychadelic mushrooms would have been nice!


Broader spoilery remarks: Obviously a cover for the remaining chapters, but I didn't want to give that away in case someone hasn't gotten there yet! I gave Middle Ages a hard time for being an extremely standard medieval RPG with a silent, and I was also really unsettled by the princess' voice actress who managed to read all her lines as though she really didn't want to be married to Ørsted, and the complete lack of communication between him and Streighbough about the latter obviously being infatuated with the princess. I expected the chapter to make up for this, but I honestly did not expect all of that to serve a purpose. Uranus in particular was such a stand-up dude and his Divine Voice is clearly the best attack in the game and it sucked that he got such a raw deal. It kind of bothered me that we couldn't hear Ørsted speak up in his defense at any point, but it's eventually clear that he did and what he said is left to the player's imagination because it ultimately doesn't matter. Alethea Julietting herself inspiring Ørsted to finally speak and condemn the world was insanely powerful and I am so glad I had none of this spoiled for me, probably the single coolest moment in the game.

Also everyone speaks in some kind of Shakespearan or Middle English or whatever the actual term is for this particular kind of prose, and I'm really glad they added that touch.

I'm also psyched they had an Odio version of the final chapter. The fights were easy and the ending wasn't anything much, but it was pretty cool to get to play as the final bosses, and I absolutely loved his tender little monologue to each of them. It made the obvious final confrontation with him on the heroic route all the more impactful.

The Actual Final Chapter was one of the weaker ones, but I came in with tempered expectations because I know how these stories tend to get when they open up and let you use anyone, and it greatly exceeded those. The gameplay was everything I could have wanted, just gathering up your favorites and throwing them at meaty optional dungeons and watching them reach their full potential and getting them geared up to absolutely clown on things. The random encounters got a bit long in the tooth towards the end, but not overwhelmingly so, and of course I didn't have to get everyone to level 16 and plow through their optional dungeon.

I made Lei my main character and am glad of it; game could certainly have used more than one eventual optional female protagonist, but at least she is awesome. Excellent stats, even without optimized gear, and she gets two obscenely powerful attacks that could basically wipe every random encounter. Plus you get to see her unique line for finding loot and it's "Would you look at that! A <item>! :3:

The weak part is that it had basically no plot to speak of. You meet a party member, they introduce themselves, maybe they'll pick a fight, and bam done. Only unique interaction I got is that since Lei is a girl, Pogo will swoon and make his sex noises at her, and she'll comment that he's obviously taken a shine to her, which would have sat a lot better with me if it wasn't literally her only voiced line to another protagonist. Only other dialogue you get is that exposition carp that requires you to clear two dungeons (which I did last because those were for the party members I didn't feel like using), and the ghosts in Akira's dungeon, which were cool but would have been a lot cooler if the characters had reacted to them in any way.

Then there's the final confrontation, which was fuckin hype. Odio actually gets some unique lines for every character and they respond in kind (I made Lei and Akira my core party members because they were cool and had good attacks, then shuffled around Cubert, the Tequila Sunset Kid and Oboromaru before settling on the first two for my party. The ninja was easily a far more well-rounded party member, but the cowboy was cooler and could do pretty wild damage with his last few moves). The final final fight of all characters clowning on their respective Odio, then coming together to wipe the floor with his final form, only to wrest Ørsted free so he could kill his own Odio was insanely cinematic and cool.

Then it ends on your chosen character giving a speech to Ørsted that at least manages to soothe him a little as he tries to come to grips with his deeds. Lei opens up with a pained realization that he reminds him of herself; she used to be jealous and resentful, but had a kindly mentor and eventually realized that everyone struggles and has aspirations and you can't know the hardship of strangers. She's doing her best to be a better person, and sometimes she stumbles, but she keeps soldiering on. Ørsted respects and admires that, and sends you all on your way. Everyone gets a parting line, and I particularly liked Tequila Sunset Kid's "We'll survive. It's what humans do," and Lei's "Wish you were here, Old Man," wondering if they'd truly saved the world and if they could have done a better job somehow, and settling on "We did our best. It'll have to do." obviously the coolest protagonist and correct choice


this game is pretty cool, will recommend it to friends

Zulily Zoetrope
Jun 1, 2011

Muldoon
also a lot of the music is really good, but that's obvious, it's Yoko Shimomura. I do dig the copious amount of saxophone that I assume are the remaster's work.

Allarion
May 16, 2009

がんばルビ!
Learning that the remake added to the true ending if you pick Pogo as your main character that he’ll give Oersted a hug is a cute touch.

Yapping Eevee
Nov 12, 2011

STAND TOGETHER.
FIGHT WITH HONOR.
RESTORE BALANCE.

Eevees play for free.

Unlucky7 posted:

I am in the middle of the Final Chapter and with all the improvements letting it shine it feels simultaneously ahead of its time and of its time.
I'm partway through this myself, and I have to say that it was an extremely welcome change to have everyone bring their whole inventory with them, not just what they had equipped.

ImpAtom
May 24, 2007

Zulily Zoetrope posted:

Well I think I've played through the whole game now and am just gonna post my opinions on all the chapters as a big ol' scattershot, in the order I played them:

Present Day: Probably the least interesting chapter, and that's saying a lot given that it's a Mega Man/Street Fighter RPG storyline. Pretty barebones, and I'm glad I did it first because it was all combat and the learning mechanism made me pay attention to how enemy attacks worked. I don't think I worked out the all-important knight placement from this chapter alone, but I did figure out that I could basically cheese the boss by spamming Fleetfoot at him, interrupting his charge attack and making him waste turns turning to face me.

Imperial China: Easily my favorite of the bunch. If I were to fault the other routes, most of them have a protagonist who barely if ever speaks, but Roshi was a chatty dude who was just good and wholesome. It's also nice to start out as the kung fu master and have it represented by the gameplay, you just beat the dog piss out of everyone until your students are barely able to fight back towards the end, and then the dojo is just a gauntlet of pushover grunts. This is a great example of what Live-A-Live can do and worked due to the game structure, while a feature length RPG would have to abandon the concept relatively early on. Then you get to the end and the enemies start to actually pose a threat, represented by their stats in the gameplay and the Shifu tiring in the plot because he's literally dying from exhaustion and old age, but fortunately it also coincides with the student approaching his level and coming into their own and being able to kick asses without him.

Also I read the blurb about only one student succeeding him, but I figured the others would still be around for the chapter, so I went 2-1-1 for all the training sessions. I missed out on optimizing Lei's stats but it didn't matter because she was still a total shitwrecker. Roshi apologizing to his dead students and Lei's eulogy at the end as she wrecks the rock were also really touching. Definitely sold on the game at this point. Also Unto the Birds the Heavens, unto the Fish the Seas is a fuckin banger of a theme.


Prehistory: Picked this one early-ish, because I figured I wouldn't really care for it, caveman stories are not my cup of tea. Turns out I was wrong, because it had the simple and, in retrospect, obvious idea of having no spoken language and communicating everything in gestures and grunts. I'm sure it was difficult to actually implement, but they pulled it off and I loved it. It had slapstick and poo poo and fart combat and Flintstone cars and caveman Dalton and was somehow the most straightforward RPG of the bunch, down to a rudimentary shopping/crafting mechanic, and you know what, it earned it. I wound up looking up a guide for this one, curious to see if I'd missed anything, and learned about the King Mammoth and Rock of Rocks. King Mammoth taught me a lot about positioning and I managed to beat it at level 12, but I was not going to bother grinding for the coke bottle. Kinda sad Beru is barely in your party, she ruled.

Distant Future: I think this one is probably the one that suffered the most from the game's age. I've seen plenty of survival horror, even in the specific genre of on board a spaceship with a rogue AI, which were in a more suited medium than the sprite-based RPG. I'm sure it was a lot more novel for its time, but dang it is frustrating to watch the characters get repeatedly bamboozled by ship systems spontaneously failing and doctored communication logs and not suspect the one obvious culprit. It was pretty novel to play through it as the adorable little robot who wouldn't fight, especially once we finally get to the boss and they obviously can throw down. Also I saw someone mention that all the protagonists were male, including the robot, but the chapter exclusively gives Cubert they or it pronouns, depending on how much the speaker respects robots. I'm assuming it's the work of either the remake team or the localizers, but I do appreciate it.

The Wild West: A nice little romp that served as a break between the longer stories. I forget the Wanderer's default name; the Sundown Kid maybe? I named them the Tequila Sunset Kid, and it fit. Music was cool, Mad Dog was cool, but I feel like the gimmick was almost too simple? I just looted the entire town, and gave traps to everyone in the bar, and then gave more traps to the ones that came back while the clock was tickin, which was enough to take out the entire Crazy Bunch even though I don't think the mariachis ever managed to complete planting a trap.

This is also where I noticed the pattern of Watanabe's dad and the villains all being named variations of Odio; O. Dio was kind of on the nose. Didn't really care for the running orphan gag with comedic exaggerated crying sprites, nor what to make of the latter, but O. Dio was the coolest villain. Gatling gun ghost horse with impeccable manners, heck yeah. I killed Mad Dog, but apparently there's an alternate ending where you flee instead of shoot his face off? I don't regret it, he clearly wanted a fight to the death and it was the obliging thing to do, but I think I prefer the idea of them eventually burying the hatchet, he was a good egg.


Twilight of Edo Japan: Jesus gently caress was this a complex one, and the gameplay is apparently entirely unaltered from the 1994 release? That messes with my head. I went for the pacifist route and appreciated how insanely free form the chapter was, after bungling and savescumming my way into the main castle; I fell into a pit, went to jail, and saw the prisoner right beside me. Naturally I did what any reasonable person would do, and reloaded my save and went in the exact opposite direction, working my way up the floors. I didn't do any combat until the contraptions attic, and it was neat to figure out the fights and see that I could get levels without incrementing the kill counter. I got to the robot boss horribly underleveled and managed to muddle through by abusing the knockback and tile damage from Waterspout, while avoiding attacks with the knight position, and it made me feel real cool. Then I saw a plot flag on the fifth floor, plus a fight that looked like they might be humans, but I couldn't figure out if they were because I couldn't beat them. I figured the prison was where I needed to go, but I wasn't gonna fall into the cage like a goon, so I scoured the map looking for the employee entrance. I found a prison, but it didn't have the Prisoner in it, which took me a long time to figure out was because I'd triggered a plot flag. By the time I realized I had also stumbled upon the storehouse and found the lost souls you were supposed to grind out as a pacifist player, and, hey, I didn't need that to get this far, obviously I'm just a badass.

Eventually I made my way back to the coin slot and had enough cash to operate it this time around, which netted me a robot buddy who immediately died to unlock the boss door once I found a way to take it outside without dropping it down a death pit. Then I finally hit some plot and found the Prisoner, who I of course took all the way back downstairs to try to kill that fuckin fish, which didn't succeed. At this point I looked up a guide to see if I missed something, and learned that there's a way to get the prison key early on without violence, but at that point the prison didn't have anything I needed. Also there's an even harder superboss than the carp that I didn't even bother finding. It did get me the Geta-load-of-these Geta, which is a nice pun, but I think I'd have been happier not knowing about any of this, ah well.

I see a lot of people mention that this chapter is really obtuse to try to pacifist, but I didn't think any part of it seemed that inscrutable and it certainly felt like you had a lot of leeway. I get the impression I might just have lucked out and stumbled into the optimal routing. I did savescum a lot, but I also talked to every NPC who didn't chase me and a lot of those were human fights, so that felt fair. Some of them gave me food and goods, and some were demons I was allowed to kill.


The Near Future: Saved this for last because it seemed like an FF7-style dieselpunk romp, and Akira obviously looked like someone with a personality. Delivered on both of these fronts, and I didn't even know about the Golden Sun mind reading mechanic until I started. Definitely the darkest of the storylines, with the body horror tubes and all the dead parents, but it managed to hit those emotional beats. The pantysavings snatching was real unnecessary, but I'll write that off as a product of its time. My second favorite after Imperial China, just a nice little self-contained story of its own. I do not particularly dig giant robots, but the steel titan was cool, and the villains were by far the worst people of the game.

I wish it had spent a little longer on explaining some of the themes. Liquefaction is obviously an insanely evil thing to do, what with the horror tubes and the robot screaming in pain as it's ordered to fight you and can't resist, but also it's okay to do to a dying turtle and it's happy about it and becomes your robot buddy, and you kid sister volunteers to be juiced because she's terminally ill? Dogg you gotta explain exactly what makes it okay sometimes and body horror at others. Also matango; there's a lite version that's a healing item, there's a bar where people get hosed up on it and it overrides their thoughts, and at one point a character eats a whole pile of them which overclocks his brain and makes him a powerful psychic, but eventually kills him. At no point, unless I missed it, does anyone mention what it is. I had to google it, and apparently it's a reference to a village of mushroom in Secret of Mana, which in itself is a reference to an old Japanese horror movie where people get addicted to mutagenic mushrooms that turn them into cannibal mushroom people? A throwaway line about them being psychadelic mushrooms would have been nice!


Broader spoilery remarks: Obviously a cover for the remaining chapters, but I didn't want to give that away in case someone hasn't gotten there yet! I gave Middle Ages a hard time for being an extremely standard medieval RPG with a silent, and I was also really unsettled by the princess' voice actress who managed to read all her lines as though she really didn't want to be married to Ørsted, and the complete lack of communication between him and Streighbough about the latter obviously being infatuated with the princess. I expected the chapter to make up for this, but I honestly did not expect all of that to serve a purpose. Uranus in particular was such a stand-up dude and his Divine Voice is clearly the best attack in the game and it sucked that he got such a raw deal. It kind of bothered me that we couldn't hear Ørsted speak up in his defense at any point, but it's eventually clear that he did and what he said is left to the player's imagination because it ultimately doesn't matter. Alethea Julietting herself inspiring Ørsted to finally speak and condemn the world was insanely powerful and I am so glad I had none of this spoiled for me, probably the single coolest moment in the game.

Also everyone speaks in some kind of Shakespearan or Middle English or whatever the actual term is for this particular kind of prose, and I'm really glad they added that touch.

I'm also psyched they had an Odio version of the final chapter. The fights were easy and the ending wasn't anything much, but it was pretty cool to get to play as the final bosses, and I absolutely loved his tender little monologue to each of them. It made the obvious final confrontation with him on the heroic route all the more impactful.

The Actual Final Chapter was one of the weaker ones, but I came in with tempered expectations because I know how these stories tend to get when they open up and let you use anyone, and it greatly exceeded those. The gameplay was everything I could have wanted, just gathering up your favorites and throwing them at meaty optional dungeons and watching them reach their full potential and getting them geared up to absolutely clown on things. The random encounters got a bit long in the tooth towards the end, but not overwhelmingly so, and of course I didn't have to get everyone to level 16 and plow through their optional dungeon.

I made Lei my main character and am glad of it; game could certainly have used more than one eventual optional female protagonist, but at least she is awesome. Excellent stats, even without optimized gear, and she gets two obscenely powerful attacks that could basically wipe every random encounter. Plus you get to see her unique line for finding loot and it's "Would you look at that! A <item>! :3:

The weak part is that it had basically no plot to speak of. You meet a party member, they introduce themselves, maybe they'll pick a fight, and bam done. Only unique interaction I got is that since Lei is a girl, Pogo will swoon and make his sex noises at her, and she'll comment that he's obviously taken a shine to her, which would have sat a lot better with me if it wasn't literally her only voiced line to another protagonist. Only other dialogue you get is that exposition carp that requires you to clear two dungeons (which I did last because those were for the party members I didn't feel like using), and the ghosts in Akira's dungeon, which were cool but would have been a lot cooler if the characters had reacted to them in any way.

Then there's the final confrontation, which was fuckin hype. Odio actually gets some unique lines for every character and they respond in kind (I made Lei and Akira my core party members because they were cool and had good attacks, then shuffled around Cubert, the Tequila Sunset Kid and Oboromaru before settling on the first two for my party. The ninja was easily a far more well-rounded party member, but the cowboy was cooler and could do pretty wild damage with his last few moves). The final final fight of all characters clowning on their respective Odio, then coming together to wipe the floor with his final form, only to wrest Ørsted free so he could kill his own Odio was insanely cinematic and cool.

Then it ends on your chosen character giving a speech to Ørsted that at least manages to soothe him a little as he tries to come to grips with his deeds. Lei opens up with a pained realization that he reminds him of herself; she used to be jealous and resentful, but had a kindly mentor and eventually realized that everyone struggles and has aspirations and you can't know the hardship of strangers. She's doing her best to be a better person, and sometimes she stumbles, but she keeps soldiering on. Ørsted respects and admires that, and sends you all on your way. Everyone gets a parting line, and I particularly liked Tequila Sunset Kid's "We'll survive. It's what humans do," and Lei's "Wish you were here, Old Man," wondering if they'd truly saved the world and if they could have done a better job somehow, and settling on "We did our best. It'll have to do." obviously the coolest protagonist and correct choice


this game is pretty cool, will recommend it to friends

I particularly like the Sunset Kid's final line because it actually shows growth for his character, since prior to the events in the town he was explicitly just using himself as bait for lovely people until one of them killed him and by the end he's willing to genuinely try surviving.

Of all the characters I've tried though Lei really feels like the most fitting for the main character of the last chapter. She resonates really well and is a strong counterpoint to Odio because she was a selfish thief who learned to improve herself and act for reasons beyond personal gain or glory which is such a nice contrast to "I was the hero but I acted almost entirely with the expectation that my strength would reward me with everything I wanted and didn't care who I hurt doing it." Other characters are okay but Lei just hits home extremely hard. It also helps that she is so frigging cool and her updated design looks awesome.

SettingSun
Aug 10, 2013

The Watanabe gag spans every chapter and for anyone who wants to spot them here they are. These are based on the original but based on the rest of the game these are probably the same:

Prehistoric: Falls into the pit trap like Pogo does.

China: Only if Hong is successor. Shows up also trying to get revenge at the rival school.

Edo: Early on in an attic. This one can actually survive(!!!!!!) if you kill the samurai who kills him before you go up there.

Wild West: Gets shot by the Crazy Bunch as they ride into town.

Present Day: While fighting The Great Aja. If you get him into the right spot a spectator will throw something at him and Aja will jump into the stands and destroy him.

Near Future: You fight the dad as a liquefied human powering a robot in the lab while is kid lives in the orphanage with Akira.

Robot: The WATANABE communication system is a father and child antenna array, and the former is destroyed in an explosion.

Medieval: Streibough kills him in the opening tournament.

Final : In Pogo's dungeon as statues. Akira can mind read them for a clue about fighting an optional boss.

Unlucky7
Jul 11, 2006

Fallen Rib
Question on the Final Chapter: i found a full party (Started with Oboro, got Akira, Pogo and Masaru). Is it possible to find any more protagonists? I did find Cube but he needed a part I haven found yet.)

Also I could do it a way to make battles faster if they are going to force Random Encounters :(

Edit: At least running away is 100% effective. And I got Akiras ultimate weapon it looks like!

Unlucky7 fucked around with this message at 02:49 on Jul 27, 2022

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

ImpAtom
May 24, 2007

Unlucky7 posted:

Question on the Final Chapter: i found a full party (Started with Oboro, got Akira, Pogo and Masaru). Is it possible to find any more protagonists? I did find Cube but he needed a part I haven found yet.)

Also I could do it a way to make battles faster if they are going to force Random Encounters :(

Edit: At least running away is 100% effective. And I got Akiras ultimate weapon it looks like!


You can and should recruit every character.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply