Live A Live again. The JRPG world was rocked with the praised launch of JRPG Live A Live. The game was released to critical and commercial acclaim for JRPG diehard and casual players unfamiliar to the genre. Now, Live A Live lives again as Square Enix has announced the game is arrived for PlayStation and PC in April 2023.
A New Journey
Square Enix delivers the news with an announcement trailer. the original Live A Life was released for the Super Famicom in 1994. It was a Japanese exclusive release and was never localized for decades. Live A Live tells it’s grand tale through a series of 7 small stories, all interconnected in some way. Gameplay takes place in a turn-based combat structure, but each story takes that structure and adds something different both combat and exploration. Players fight in the past, present, and future, across different timelines and settings. One scenario is in The Middle Ages. Another is in the present while another is in the future. One scenario may rely on telepathy while another may rely on stealth. These additions and refinements keep the gameplay surprising and unpredictable. The remake presented the game in the 2.D presentation of Triangle Strategy and Octopath Traveler, breathing life into the game.
Honoring the Past
The director of Live A Live is Takashi Tokita, one of the many creative minds behind the likes of Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy IV. Live of Life would be a milestone for Takashi’s works and set the stage for the future of his works. This includes working a director on 2009’s Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light as a director, as well as a creative producer for 2019’s Oninaki. The release on Nintendo Switch last year made Live A Live a solid financial success, something that wasn’t achieved in the original 1994 release. This also broadened appreciation and respect for the various gameplay philosophies that Takashi would introduce in JRPGs. With this new release, Steam Achievement and PlayStation Trophies will be available, but the grand focus should be on the fact that Live A Live is an important piece of video game and JRPG history, one that can now be relived and appreciated.
Live A Live is slated for release on Thursday April 27th, 2023 for PlayStation and Steam. A demo is available now that will transfer progress to the final game. There is no word of a physical launch or an Xbox port at this time. Players who pre-order on Steam or PlayStation can save 20%.
