live a live truly makes every one of its contemporary peers in the jrpg space look completely pedestrian and unambitious, with the exception of like, earthbound and some weirder fringe stuff that's more about mechanical experimentation
I first heard of it through the Abnormal Mapping podcast
I really should check it out
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
I remember Live-a-Live mostly from the heady days of early fan translations where any RPG that wasn't released here had an almost mythical quality associated with it
You had your Seiken Densetsu 3s and your Bahamut Lagoons and so on and so forth
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turtleantGunpla Dadis the best.Registered Userregular
Live a Live is very very good but it is pretty lite when it comes to JRPG systems.
It's more like an adventure game with turn based combat than a traditional JRPG.
Live a Live is a super neat concept for a game, but the actual execution is often not particularly fun and can be extremely frustrating. Well worth playing because it's quite short, but there were shitloads of unexplained mechanics and ways to accidentally make the game extremely difficult for yourself just by experimenting or doing what anybody would think would be the most logical.
Live a Live has its problems, but I definitely still like it for how strong some of the story beats get.
(legit full game spoilers for Live A Live)
Particularly in the Fantasy chapter that appears after you clear all the other ones. The way that the standard fantasy story of "rally a crew, recruit your rival, bring the old jaded hero out of retirement, find the demon lord, save the princess" starts crumbling halfway through. You reach the demon castle, and your friend and the old hero die in a heroic tragic sacrifice. But the princess isn't there. So you just have to... walk back to the castle. And then the protag gets manipulated into an accidental murder, and the whole world turns against him. But there's this theme of being able to continue on, if even one person still believes in you. And that gets crushed when you finally find the true mastermind behind the demon lord's attack. Your rival/friend, who has been trying to tear you down behind the scenes since the start of the chapter. And when you win against him, the princess reveals she was truly on his side, and was convinced that you didn't even try to save her. And then she commits suicide to be with the man who betrayed you. There's absolutely nobody left who believes in the hero.
The bit where Oersted starts talking after a whole chapter of taking all that tragedy in standard protagonist silence is real strong.
I think the Fantasy chapter works real well, because you start out expecting it to be the standard hero's journey it looks like.
I've never heard of Live a Live until just now, but I see a screenshot with an attack called "Pissed Fist" and I'm suddenly interested.
It's as mentioned an anthology series, each chapter takes place in a different era of history with a different protagonist. What's interesting about it is that while the core systems are largely shared, each character's story largely plays in different ways - like one's a stealth chapter, one's a survival horror, etc. And the way everything ties together is nothing short of brilliant for its time.
However on that same vein it's definitely an "of its time" game in terms of experimental jank - it's like you can just tell the devs took the opportunity with each chapter to try whatever new idea popped in their heads to fill out that chapter, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of it was actually cutting room floor stuff for other Square games that they just kind of shoved in there because they now had the opportunity.
I'd still put it on any (J)RPG fan's "must play" list, but it certainly demands a measure of tolerance.
Nearing the end of SMT V. Been a good run and nice that I feel fairly confident I’m going to finish an SMT game for once. I just need to decide if I want to farm for a bit to do the big optional harder than everything else boss. I might. I like how a lot of the side quest plots come together in the late phases.
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turtleantGunpla Dadis the best.Registered Userregular
In general, and SMT5 in particular, how hard is it to choose an ending path in those games? Is it like Persona where you just have a single choice to make or is it something you can accidentally lock yourself into?
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
In general, and SMT5 in particular, how hard is it to choose an ending path in those games? Is it like Persona where you just have a single choice to make or is it something you can accidentally lock yourself into?
In general, it usually takes choices you have made up to the end and assigns you an alignment, and that determines which way you go
In SMTV, you choose which route you want pretty explicitly
Mild not-plot spoilers for ending paths
The game still tracks your alignment in SMTV, and simply gives you some minor bonuses for choosing the path that aligns with the things you have done throughout the game
Maddoc on
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turtleantGunpla Dadis the best.Registered Userregular
In general, and SMT5 in particular, how hard is it to choose an ending path in those games? Is it like Persona where you just have a single choice to make or is it something you can accidentally lock yourself into?
In general, it usually takes choices you have made up to the end and assigns you an alignment, and that determines which way you go
In SMTV, you choose which route you want pretty explicitly
Mild not-plot spoilers for ending paths
The game still tracks your alignment in SMTV, and simply gives you some minor bonuses for choosing the path that aligns with the things you have done throughout the game
Ah that's good, thank ya.
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Also you can check your current alignment any time on the map screen.
Spinning counter-clockwise = Chaos
Spinning clockwise = Law
No spin = Neutral
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
Also you can check your current alignment any time on the map screen.
Spinning counter-clockwise = Chaos
Spinning clockwise = Law
No spin = Neutral
I wasn't sure if that was still in or not, so I'm definitely Neutral. I've been toeing the line, but as usual, I'm more sympathetic to Law(except in 2, where they were absolute morons).
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Also you can check your current alignment any time on the map screen.
Spinning counter-clockwise = Chaos
Spinning clockwise = Law
No spin = Neutral
I wasn't sure if that was still in or not, so I'm definitely Neutral. I've been toeing the line, but as usual, I'm more sympathetic to Law(except in 2, where they were absolute morons).
Yea I was spinning left earlier and then after a quest decision am now no longer spinning... in the last area so I gotta get that back to spinning left before the lock lol.
I didn't get very far into Live A Live. I think at one point I walked into a desert and got utterly obliterated, and I wasn't engaged enough to keep playing.
Edit: wait, that wasn't Live A Live, that was Rudra no Hiho, I think.
I didn't get very far into Live A Live. I think at one point I walked into a desert and got utterly obliterated, and I wasn't engaged enough to keep playing.
Edit: wait, that wasn't Live A Live, that was Rudra no Hiho, I think.
It could have been Live a Live. One of its chapters is a Western bit where you have a limited amount of time to run around a town and then hand off whatever bullshit you find to NPCs. How well you do with that determines how hard the boss fight it then forces you into is. Weren't following a guide or didn't trial and error your way to good execution on that? Then you can get fucked.
I didn't get very far into Live A Live. I think at one point I walked into a desert and got utterly obliterated, and I wasn't engaged enough to keep playing.
Edit: wait, that wasn't Live A Live, that was Rudra no Hiho, I think.
It could have been Live a Live. One of its chapters is a Western bit where you have a limited amount of time to run around a town and then hand off whatever bullshit you find to NPCs. How well you do with that determines how hard the boss fight it then forces you into is. Weren't following a guide or didn't trial and error your way to good execution on that? Then you can get fucked.
You're stuck in the town for that chapter though, so I think it was Rudra.
And yeah Live-A-Live definitely has a "correct" way it wants you to do many of the chapters and will mercilessly punish you for not doing so.
I just spent at least an hour in SMT5 trekking to the top of a mountain, killing a whole bunch of those small flying fire lizards and all other kinds of stuff and collecting things and doing fine. Get to the top of the mountain - oooh, here's a goddess lady who can help me with my side quest! Oh, but she wants me to fight her first. Hmm. I'm a bit low on MP. Hmmm. There's not a save point anywhere near. Hmmmm. Naturally, I've no idea what her weaknesses are. Hmmmmmm.
No points awarded for guessing what happened next.
Now playing: Led Zeppelin - Nobody's Fault But Mine
Finished Tales of Vesperia. Even with all the tools to do ridiculous infinite combos I didn't enjoy the combat. But everything else about the game was top notch, except for needing a guide to see everything because of how much side content is unhinted at and missable.
I'd say I enjoyed it overall more than Arise. Not quite as good as Tales of Abyss, better than Symphonia, though I haven't played Abyss since its release so maybe it'd disappoint if I replayed it. Legendia is a trash fire. I remember Phantasia and Eternia being decent and Destiny being amazing. I once tried to play through Rebirth in JP with a text file translation, would not recommend doing things that way (also the only way I've ever experienced FF12, which probably doesn't help my apathy towards it).
Scarlet Nexus remains the best JRPG I've played recently. Code Vein if we go back a few years, but making a JRPG a Soulslike is cheating.
Next JRPG will probably be Nier Replicant (I'm told I should play it first because its combat may be improved, but still isn't Platinum combat), though I'll probably go through Mortal Shell or continue my 'replay every Soulslike before Elden Ring' marathon before that.
BaidolI will hold him offEscape while you canRegistered Userregular
I don't know if I could mentally dissociate Chrono Cross from Chrono Trigger. Multiple decades after I last played Chrono Trigger, I am still very invested in the characters.
Of all the games in the world for Chrono Cross to show up in, Another Eden is probably the most appropriate choice. Officially titled Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space, the free-to-play adventure is a collaboration between Masato Kato and Yasunori Mitsuda, both of whom worked on Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. If you’ve played Another Eden at all, you’ve likely noticed a number of parallels with the Chrono games, ranging from the thematic (it’s a game about time traveling, fine) to the specific (there’s a talking frog named Cyrus, and a character that looks suspiciously like Lucca named Dr. Ashtear).
But this crossover event goes beyond cheeky references. Taking place in a parallel timeline where Another Eden hero Aldo fails to defeat his adversary, the Beast King, “Complex Dream” introduces Chrono Cross characters including Serge, Kid, and Harle into Aldo’s world. A piece of promo art shared with the announcement implies we may also see the likes of Lynx, Glenn, and Starky. Kato is penning the story, with Mitsuda overseeing new songs and remixed old favorites. And the crossover event will include multiple endings, voice actors for Serge (Ashton Frank), Kid (Sheena May), and Harle (Shazia Nicholls), and introduce new battle mechanics from Chrono Cross such as Star Levels, Elements, Combo Techs, and a New Game+ mode.
I don't know if I could mentally dissociate Chrono Cross from Chrono Trigger. Multiple decades after I last played Chrono Trigger, I am still very invested in the characters.
My take has always been that Radical Dreamers is the actual sequel and Chrono Cross just takes place in a different timeline.
MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
I'm just over here continuing to beat on my "Remaster Brave Fencer Musashi" drum
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Raijin QuickfootI'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPAregular
I’m finally playing FFXV and I like it for the most part but even though I’m 20 hours into it I still feel like I’m not unable to connect with the combat.
Obviously I can win fights but it just feels disjointed.
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
Yep, that's FFXV
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Raijin QuickfootI'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPAregular
I’m “not unable”
Some fine English there, Steve
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silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
edited December 2021
I think I'm on the final boss of Tales of Arise? Team is level 58, with decent crafted 5* accessories.
First evil dragon looking guy. It was fine until he summoned a bunch of different colored orbs, then Alphen spent most of the time dead. Got through it somehow.
Then two of the bipedal dragonoids with hammers that stun you and are giant sacks of HP. I hate these guys, but made it through.
Then the boss again, with weak points! When I break them, I get QTE. This seemed like a gimme boss.
Then I thought I was done, but this dude who really fucking hates me shows up to ruin everything! And I have to fight him solo!
So I just spam dodge, Counter Edge and shoot ranged sword beams at him. Things going fine. Then he covers the entire field in ice, freezes me, and casually murders me while I can't do anything.
I am SO FUCKING ANGRY. I have to do all that bullshit again, just to get to the part 4 of the fight guy I still don't know how to kill and practice.
I almost broke my controller and/or TV and/or smashed my head into a wall in rage.
Maybe this is just a terrible game I should just never finish. Maybe I'm just a terrible, incapable person who can't do anything. Fucking hell.
Follow-up question:
Seriously, WTF with that ice move? Do you HAVE to have a null freeze accessory on for the 30 minute boss fights?
The boss was in Over Limit and couldn't be stunned or interrupted.
silence1186 on
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Andy JoeWe claim the land for the highlord!The AdirondacksRegistered Userregular
I used the eShop sale to buy Xenoblade Chronicles Torna, not having played XC2, and boy they just throw stuff at you. I'll eventually pick up on the bunch of kingdoms palling around in each other's spaces, but I'm having trouble with the combat, specifically Blade combos.
I sometimes get prompted to push A for the blade combo of my own team, which I think is getting me a level of the 1-2-3 blade combo, but I don't know what triggers that prompt. If I don't have the prompt and I press A to do a special, does that also add to the blade combo level, or would I have to wait to hit a level 2 special from my team to add to a currently level 1 blade combo? And for the ZR/ZL combo prompts, will they always add to my combo level, and I only need to be picky about them with regards to the special elemental order?
PSN: Kurahoshi1
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
XC2 is a mess even when you do know how to play it, honestly
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Raijin QuickfootI'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPAregular
Posts
Looks cool from screenshots
I first heard of it through the Abnormal Mapping podcast
I really should check it out
You had your Seiken Densetsu 3s and your Bahamut Lagoons and so on and so forth
It's more like an adventure game with turn based combat than a traditional JRPG.
a documentary where the events happen in real time
(legit full game spoilers for Live A Live)
The bit where Oersted starts talking after a whole chapter of taking all that tragedy in standard protagonist silence is real strong.
I think the Fantasy chapter works real well, because you start out expecting it to be the standard hero's journey it looks like.
It's as mentioned an anthology series, each chapter takes place in a different era of history with a different protagonist. What's interesting about it is that while the core systems are largely shared, each character's story largely plays in different ways - like one's a stealth chapter, one's a survival horror, etc. And the way everything ties together is nothing short of brilliant for its time.
However on that same vein it's definitely an "of its time" game in terms of experimental jank - it's like you can just tell the devs took the opportunity with each chapter to try whatever new idea popped in their heads to fill out that chapter, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of it was actually cutting room floor stuff for other Square games that they just kind of shoved in there because they now had the opportunity.
I'd still put it on any (J)RPG fan's "must play" list, but it certainly demands a measure of tolerance.
In general, it usually takes choices you have made up to the end and assigns you an alignment, and that determines which way you go
In SMTV, you choose which route you want pretty explicitly
Mild not-plot spoilers for ending paths
Ah that's good, thank ya.
Spinning counter-clockwise = Chaos
Spinning clockwise = Law
No spin = Neutral
I wasn't sure if that was still in or not, so I'm definitely Neutral. I've been toeing the line, but as usual, I'm more sympathetic to Law(except in 2, where they were absolute morons).
Yea I was spinning left earlier and then after a quest decision am now no longer spinning... in the last area so I gotta get that back to spinning left before the lock lol.
Edit: wait, that wasn't Live A Live, that was Rudra no Hiho, I think.
It could have been Live a Live. One of its chapters is a Western bit where you have a limited amount of time to run around a town and then hand off whatever bullshit you find to NPCs. How well you do with that determines how hard the boss fight it then forces you into is. Weren't following a guide or didn't trial and error your way to good execution on that? Then you can get fucked.
You're stuck in the town for that chapter though, so I think it was Rudra.
And yeah Live-A-Live definitely has a "correct" way it wants you to do many of the chapters and will mercilessly punish you for not doing so.
I just spent at least an hour in SMT5 trekking to the top of a mountain, killing a whole bunch of those small flying fire lizards and all other kinds of stuff and collecting things and doing fine. Get to the top of the mountain - oooh, here's a goddess lady who can help me with my side quest! Oh, but she wants me to fight her first. Hmm. I'm a bit low on MP. Hmmm. There's not a save point anywhere near. Hmmmm. Naturally, I've no idea what her weaknesses are. Hmmmmmm.
No points awarded for guessing what happened next.
Now playing: Led Zeppelin - Nobody's Fault But Mine
I'd say I enjoyed it overall more than Arise. Not quite as good as Tales of Abyss, better than Symphonia, though I haven't played Abyss since its release so maybe it'd disappoint if I replayed it. Legendia is a trash fire. I remember Phantasia and Eternia being decent and Destiny being amazing. I once tried to play through Rebirth in JP with a text file translation, would not recommend doing things that way (also the only way I've ever experienced FF12, which probably doesn't help my apathy towards it).
Scarlet Nexus remains the best JRPG I've played recently. Code Vein if we go back a few years, but making a JRPG a Soulslike is cheating.
Next JRPG will probably be Nier Replicant (I'm told I should play it first because its combat may be improved, but still isn't Platinum combat), though I'll probably go through Mortal Shell or continue my 'replay every Soulslike before Elden Ring' marathon before that.
but also
And the colab goes live on the 9th so fair chance it gets announced and shadow dropped at the game awards
at least the music still slaps
https://ign.com/articles/inside-surprise-chrono-cross-over-event-another-eden
Let's Play Final Fantasy 'II' (Ch10 - 5/17/10)
My take has always been that Radical Dreamers is the actual sequel and Chrono Cross just takes place in a different timeline.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
Obviously I can win fights but it just feels disjointed.
Some fine English there, Steve
Then two of the bipedal dragonoids with hammers that stun you and are giant sacks of HP. I hate these guys, but made it through.
Then the boss again, with weak points! When I break them, I get QTE. This seemed like a gimme boss.
Then I thought I was done, but this dude who really fucking hates me shows up to ruin everything! And I have to fight him solo!
So I just spam dodge, Counter Edge and shoot ranged sword beams at him. Things going fine. Then he covers the entire field in ice, freezes me, and casually murders me while I can't do anything.
I am SO FUCKING ANGRY. I have to do all that bullshit again, just to get to the part 4 of the fight guy I still don't know how to kill and practice.
I almost broke my controller and/or TV and/or smashed my head into a wall in rage.
Maybe this is just a terrible game I should just never finish. Maybe I'm just a terrible, incapable person who can't do anything. Fucking hell.
Follow-up question:
The boss was in Over Limit and couldn't be stunned or interrupted.
Speaking as a lawyer, regularly reading judicial opinions inures you to double negatives.
tis a fine english but is no barn
I sometimes get prompted to push A for the blade combo of my own team, which I think is getting me a level of the 1-2-3 blade combo, but I don't know what triggers that prompt. If I don't have the prompt and I press A to do a special, does that also add to the blade combo level, or would I have to wait to hit a level 2 special from my team to add to a currently level 1 blade combo? And for the ZR/ZL combo prompts, will they always add to my combo level, and I only need to be picky about them with regards to the special elemental order?
DO’ETH!