Silly name aside, Live A Live is a bit of a forgotten classic from the SNES era. Though a member of Square's old stable of classic RPGs, this 1994 game has never seen any official release or localisation outside of Japan until now. Announced in the February 2022 Nintendo Direct, this forgotten game is being dusted down and given a fresh coat of HD-2D paint as a visually upgraded remake for the Switch. It is set to release on 22 July of this year.
So what is Live A Live? To simply put, it's an RPG with a number of separate scenarios - each spanning a different period of time and space. They include:
- The prehistoric Stone Age, where cavemen settle their differences presumably with violence, as language has yet to be robustly invented;
- The Wild West, where your naughty boy lad has a bounty on his head;
- Imperial China, where a kung-fu master desperately wants to retire;
- Edo Japan, where a young shinobi has to do covert ninja stuff;
- Present day, where a martial artist aspires to be the best there ever is;
- The near future, where a youth with psychic powers decides to be a superhero; and
- The distant future, where HAL 9000 is most definitely not up to anything.