Live-A-Live: Why Your One Retro Gaming Friend Was So Excited By the Nintendo Direct
The Nintendo Direct may have been disappointing for some, but retro gamers lost their friggin’ minds over some game you’ve never heard of.
Nintendo Direct is Nintendo’s way of letting us know what’s coming up soon in the video game world and building hype. They are often very effective. Yesterday’s presentation had a lot to talk about.
I’ll be honest, I was a little disappointed by some notable omissions from the Nintendo Direct, but I can’t fault Nintendo for not living up to expectations that I put on them. But, as an avid retro gamer, there one thing specifically (and an honorable mention) that has me so excited and that I don’t think anyone was expecting.
Live-A-Live
Live-A-Live (pronounced like the adjective live and alive, which I learned yesterday) is probably the best RPG you’ve never played. It was released for the Super Famicom in 1994. And I say Super Famicom specifically, because it was never released officially outside of Japan.
Live-A-Live is very different from other games in the genre. The game has multiple stories to play through, over the course of human history. There’s a cowboy story, a caveman story, a martial arts story, and others, with 8 characters in total. Each storyline uses drastically different mechanics.
Granted, all the typical RPG elements are here, random battles, equipment, abilities, etc. But each story’s tone, theme, and overlayed mechanics make Live-A-Live very hard to summarize. So I’ll let someone else do it for me.
Considering this game is mostly unknown outside retro gaming circles, I’m elated that it’s getting a global modern day port. Thanks to this Live-A-Live announcement from the Nintendo Direct, and the Front Mission port coming soon as well, maybe my hopes and dreams of Bahamut Lagoon getting a modern day port isn’t so crazy after all.
