Let's Play Live A Live

[Brennan]

Hey guys! I have to admit, it's been an awful long time since I've been on this forum (what, with school, work, significant others...), but I'm back, and I'm bringing you a let's play on a game that (hopefully) no one is doing yet!


This game is...


To those of you who don't know what Live A Live is, it was a game released by Square on the Super Famicom back in 1994 as a Japan-exclusive game. A lovely group of translator's found this game, and decided to modify it's data so that it reads in English sometime in the 2000's. Here's a link to a wikipedia article because it explains more than I could: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_A_Live

Truthfully speaking, I've never taken much time out of my day to try playing the game, but maybe if I do it as a Let's Play I'll be able to give it a shot.




Anywho, Live A Live is not just one story but seven in one! The game starts out by letting you choose the first scenario you want to play through.

You can be either...


A pink-haired Ryu Hayabusa!


Master Roshi!


A sci-fi (possibly steampunk?) Kirby!


Teenaged Rocky Balboa!


John Wayne Marston!


Barney Rubble's green-haired cousin?


And Robo's humanoid cousin?


Okay, maybe I ran out of ideas for the last two, but who cares?

So, tomorrow, we start our seven scenario'd story. There is no set time that the series will be updated, so there may be a span of a few days before I am able to post a good, sizable update to our story.


If anyone has commentary, like what order I should start playing the stories in, any questions about how I'm playing this game, or anything at all, please ask! If no one has any objections to what story they would like to see first, then I'll just choose one for continuity's sake.

See you guys when the next update's ready!

[Psychotic]

Cowboy! COWBOY! COWBOY!

[DK]

been ages since i played this game but I seem to remember the wrestler and scifi story being difficult as trout. possibly the cowboy one as well.

that being said, i agree, cowboy

[Brennan]

Thus, we start our story with the cowboy!






A bandit clan named "the Crazy Bunch?" Very unique. Much classic.

Anywho, our cowboy gives us a proper sendoff by shooting and blowing the smoke off of his gun, and away we go!



And so, the game drops us in an unknown, stereotypical town from the old western days. With a sheriff's office and a bar! Neat.

A lone sheriff leaves the office, and waltz right on over to the bar.


Barman: "Howdy, sheriff."
Sheriff: "Put up this here poster."
Barman: "Whose this here feller?"


And, thus, we get to name our character! Sundown doesn't seem to be too badass of a name, so let's change it to...



smurf. Only six character limit? But Sundown's seven characters! What the fuuuuu--game logic--uuuuuck?

Note to all of those who care: I had to restart the intro sequence to get "Sundown" back. You all should be happy we're not playing as Sundow.

JUMPCUT!


Thus, we meet our hero on horseback. Our John Wayne of the Japanese Super Nintendo era. Probably not, but he's all I know on this emulator system.


A CHALLENGER APPROACHES.


TRAINER WILD WEST USES PURPLE-CLAD STRANGER.


Apparently, the purple-clad stranger isn't just any stranger. His name is Mad Dog. And he wants to kill the Sundown Kid for whatever unknown reason he may have...


...Which leads us to our first battle!
To summarize the battle mechanics; each characters move in free-time across a grid-like battlefield. When the A button is pressed, a menu comes up asking what actions you would like to perform. Different actions can travel up to so many grid-spaces, and some can only be done from a cardinal direction, etc. It's not all that complicated when you know how to work it.

After shooting him in the face once or twice, Mr Mad Dog drops like a hot potato.

RIGHT OOOOOON!


...But he's still alive, so Sundown shoots Mad Dog's horse to scare it away, and rides off, leaving Mad Dog in his dust...


...Until he travels 50 feet away from Mad Dog and spots a town.
Literally, Mad Dog can probably see the town from where he's at. He probably won't follow you or anything.


Wandering 50 feet to the nearest town, most like.


To conclude this installment of the let's play, we end at the town. Sundown dismounts his horse, and sets off to find the source of the horrible music that's totally coming from the bar.

See you next time!

[Psychotic]

Mad Dog! Success Town! Crazy Bunch! Sundown! This is the best game ever!

[Brennan]

This is the best game ever!

Indeed, good sir!

Last time, we have just entered this quaint little town! Time to steal all of their precious goodies----


...trout.

Every door's locked. Every. Single. One.
The thief inside of me is disappoint.


Guess there's no way they can lock these saloon doors, eh?

By the way, the game shows the doors swing for a good 5 seconds after Sundown goes through the doors. It's almost painful.

Inside, I'm met with all the inhabitants of the town. For some odd reason, they all get really quiet.


Rude bastards.


Nevermind! These people are actually kind of nice! Guess they're shy.


I take it back. This guy's comes up acting like a dick. Great. My seat now, bitch!


Then this hot chick shows up, giving every male in the room some excitement for the night. At least 'til dickface gives her the worst compliment that I've ever heard...


...That hot girl just smacked the trout out of that guy.
I'd let her smack me all night


Then this kid comes out of nowhere. Get out of here before that man throws you right into me.


That kid moved me two spaces to the left. I swear I'm going to beat him.


The kid threw himself.
Like I'm about to throw myself on Annie

So, the man offered to buy me a drink! Guess he's an alright guy after all...



Mothersmurfer got me milk. Return to sender.


That's right. I don't drink milk...


...This guy WANTS to get shot.

Alright, bring it!


I'm fighting a hillbilly?


DOUBLE TAP


Body count: 2

Everyone is teh shocked when they watched me paint the saloon's floor with the brain of some man that they all hated.
Until...


Mr Sheriff himself decided to finally come into the saloon after hearing a kid crash through a couple of chairs and a few gunshots.

Yet there is someone else who is coming...


A CHALLENGER APPROACHES!


Mad Dog? I thought you would have died out in the desert by your lonesome. Now I have to lower my body count to 1. Dammit!
And why are you trying to tell everyone my name? There's a poster. Right there. With my face AND name on it. Are you trying to tell me that everyone in here is can't tell that I look just like I do on that poster?

Well, I was wrong. Apparently no one could tell I was the Sundown Kid. Really? No wonder a hillbilly was terrorizing all of y'all.

But what does Mad Dog want with me now? Did he survive two gunshot wounds to the face to...?


...You gotta be kidding me. I already won last time! Damn it.


So, we're gonna do this? Okay.


I got until the count of five. Then I'll go in, guns blazing. Maybe I'll be able to get in the first shot... How long as it been?


Crapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrap!


Why did I shoot so early? trout! I can't work under stress like this...!
But, wait, Mad Dog shot too early, too! It's funny, why did he shoot in the same direction that I did?


What is the name of almighty John Wayne is that noise? What makes a "grafghth" noise?


Whoa. Totally meant to do that! Totez mcgoatz.

So, it seems the Crazy Bunch are out to get this town. Guess I should gather my things and...
Join Mad Dog and kill them all? Seems legit!

So, in the next episode, we gather things so that we can kill all of the crazy people in the Crazy Bunch! How exciting!

[Brennan]

So, when we left our hero, he was left with the knowledge that the notorious clan named the "Crazy Bunch" were going to attack Success Town.

Armed with that knowledge, our hero prepares to do battle!


"...we'll give you the town's supply of gold!"
I suppose it doesn't hurt to make a troutton of money while shooting a few baddies, eh?


Basic pillaging at the bar leads to finding...

Bourbon that heals all of your wounds. Guess my uncle wasn't lying when he said whiskey heals all wounds.


When we speak to Mad Dog, he has a revelation.

"...How about me and you, arch enemies, come together to fight off a band of thugs to save this town out of the goodness of our souls?"
Ballin.




And for some reason, the sheriff's son feels the need to pilfer his badge and give it to the Sundown Kid. For some reason, I have a feeling this kid's gonna grow to have major trust issues later in life.


"Listen--everyone. In order for us to help, we have to have unrestricted access to all of your homes. And just in case that this flaw in logic doesn't raise suspicion..."


"...Let's heap on a hefty dose of breaking the fourth-wall."

Now, let's describe the gameplay for this bit. You play, still, as the Sundown Kid. This time, however, you have the company of Mad Dog; the guy who tried to kill you just 10 minutes ago is currently your most reliable ally.

Party dysfunction aside, you and Mad Dog travel building to building seeking out supplies on a limited time schedule. Every so many minutes, a bell tolls...

...Which puts you a little closer to the final boss encounter of this scenario. There will be eight bell tolls in all that signify how long you have until Dio and his storm-cowboys will try to destroy the republic of Success Town.

Mad Dog also has this cool feature in which he can mix oil and empty bottles to make Molotovs.

Wonder where he picked up that trade and why he didn't use it in our first battle NO ONE CARES.


Instead of showing every item picked up, I'll just show a few screenshots of some of the weirder things that I've found.


JACKPOT!


...No.

Heading over to Annie's room and trying to search her dressers will show the following...

"Sorry, Ms. I was just trying to figure out a way to implement these double-launching slingshots that we found in your dresser."





Notable Findings: Horse dung. I trout you not (no pun intended).

As soon as the Sundown Kid and Snoop Dog find all of the materials that they need, they return to the hideout to see everyone eagerly awaiting command.

The secret to this part of the preparation is to know who is the fastest and who is the slowest worker out of all the members of the town. As there is some sexism and ageism hidden in the cracks of the game, there will be items that only certain people will be able to use.


Subtle, Square.

Anywho, after giving most of the people an individual job to do (or two), time will creep on until the eighth bell tolls, and then you'll be treated to a scene showing the fruits of the town people's labors.


Pitfalls forming...


Our strong-willed woman in question, scoring a headshot on one of Dio's men. This is the best part of this entire story. A woman throwing a frying pan in the ultimate act of sexism.

But a few of the people who stormed Success Town survived. With one voice booming, "You have until the count of ten..."


Will our unlikely hero's survive the onslaught of Dio and his men? Find out in the next part of our adventure, which will involve...


Guns!


Duels!


Unlikely bodybuilders!

And the ending of one of seven scenarios!

[Ayen]

Looks like a fun game.

I vote you play wrestler next. Wrestler! *piledrivers*

[Brennan]

I'll be honest, I'm not quite sure that I'm conveying the gameplay all that well, it's a different experience than it seems when you actually play it! Not sure if you played it before, but I recommend it for a new experience!

[Psychotic]

Turn the bar into a beehive? What does that even...?

[Brennan]

Turn the bar into a beehive? What does that even...?

I not know what that even.

Last time we left our cowboys, they were being threatened to leave, 'less they are given hives from bees. And they step outside to face the infamous Ronnie James.



Sundown: "Howdy, padna."
Dio: "Y'all finally came out eh? Now it's time to see how y'all fare..."
Mad Dog: "Say, stranger, why you look like that Cid feller from FFIV?"



Sundown: "Ain't that a little heavy for a regular man to carry? How a man like you supposed to...?"
Dio: "Ain't you know that I've been into heavy metal since the 80's? "

OOC: I know that my jokes are terrible and getting old fast, but spoiler alert! (SPOILER)It's not getting old!













Dio: "Why y'all ain't laughing?!"
Mad Dog: "The hell are the 80's?"
Dio: "...I'm gonna turn all o'y'all into beehives."

-BATTLE TIME-



Sundown: "HOLY trout! We done pissed off one of them there 'roid monkeys!"

Dio's battle isn't too hard for a "final" battle. You just have to make sure to kill all of his subordinates before you trying to tackle the main man himself.
ALSO: Stay away from the four diagonal directions from Dio's sprite. Guy's got a nasty attack that's a OHKO everytime.

It's pretty easy to kill all of the lackey's. Just try to save your Molotov cocktails and dynamite for Ronnie James up there.

After a little while, Sundown and Mad Dog end up facing the macho maniac all by theirselves.



Now all that's left is to throw what's left of the Molotovs and dynamite at Dio. If that doesn't kill him, then a few special shots from both Sundown and Mad Dog will finish off this bandit tyrant.


...Although I managed to let Mad Dog get Gatling gun'd twice. Oh well, he just took up space anyway.


After filling him with more lead than a human body has the capacity to hold, Mad Dog seems to still be attached to the land of the living.
Oh, and Dio turned into a horse, cause that's a thing.


The question of all time. Although there was some exposition on how some people shot some other people in a war and spared some horse that held in all the dead people's anger. I'm not sure how that works, either.


Sundown: "Bro, we just spent all night coming together with stuff to kill this guy. Can it wait until later?"
Mad Dog: "Nope, I'm a punctual mothersmurfer."

And the duel proceeds, until.





The actual last battle of Sundown's scenario.
Mad Dog's pathetically easy, especially considering Dio's battle beforehand. He just takes one more attack than the first time we fought him.

At the end of that battle, Sundown decides to leave Success Town, much to everyone's acceptance. Although everyone's happy, they have a confession to make.
All that money they promised Sundown? They don't have it.



There's no "No," button. Damn it.

Sundown: "It's fine, I learned to care for people less fortunate than I! YEEHAW!"



If it sounds like that ending was way shorter than it actually is, you're right. But I just gave the gist of it, anyway.
And thus ends our cowboy's adventure.

Be back next time for...

Hardcore.

Fake.



WRESTLING!

[Psychotic]

Giant Incredible Hulk with Minigun. In the Wild West. Well. That sure was A Thing.

[Brennan]

Due to Sundown's scenario being over, we start into a brand new story with...


Das wrestler!

Our wrestler seems to have an iron will, and will stop at nothing to become the best warrior that we've ever seen.

The Summary of the story...It's cliche as smurf.

Anywho, our scenario starts out with a training montage that's cheesy enough to bring a tear to Sylvester Stallone's eye!



"TO BECOME TEH GREATEST EVAAAA!!!1!!!1!1"

And, thus, we get to name our hero.



Oh smurf no. Masaru? Really?

Let's just say I got really lazy creative with naming this guy.



Rocky ain't know what Rocky done got himself into, as I was sure to figure out!



HindsightOh no you smurfing don't, sir.

I guess I'll just start playing the game by looking for any items that I can find and...



BWUAAAAAAAAAAH??
Wasn't this a JRPG? Since when was I playing a clone of Megaman?

Oh well, let's see, I'll fight this chick--



--named Namcat, who used the Muay Thai style--



...

Uhhhhh...






THAT THING'S A GUY?

Well, I'm still gonna kick it's ass!



BRING IT, PRETTY BO--


God... Damn... It...

If this story plays out like my battle with Namcat, then I'm screwed at this point.

So, I guess I'll just tell you guys how this storyline works out.

You play as Mas-- Rocky, who is fighting to become TEH LEET warrior. Thus, you engage in battle with many "wrestlers" in the world. (I suppose fighter didn't sound good enough to the translation team. Meh.) In battle, you start with a basic punch, a battle-cry that heals a little HP and gives you strength, and a roundhouse that spins enemies around so that they can't attack you...



...it does pitiful damage, though, and the enemy turns right back around after your turn.

But the good part is collecting skills.

Basically, when an enemy uses an unique attack, Rocky learns it. So when they use abilities that are more powerful than your own...





...Rocky does a spin kick and let's how a "HIYA," which means that he learned the skill. How he does so is beyond me, considering one of the kicks does so much damage that I can hear his jaw detaching from his body. But then you can then use your enemies attacks against them. Pretty neat mechanic in a game that's 20 years old!

Anywho, with some luck, persistence, and learning the crap out of where Namcat's attacks land, I managed to finally beat him down.



Which means that I punched him into another dimension of pain and suffering from when he has put me.

So, after learning two new abilities, and breaking every bone in Namcat's pretty little face, our hero sets out to reach the next step of destroying the world with his roundhouse becoming the Arena's next grand champion becoming the ultimate warrior!

See you next time!

[Psychotic]

Revolver Ocelot and ghetto Hulk Hogan would also make good opponents.

[Brennan]

Fighting is something I can't really transcribe without video. Since I don't have a way to record video, this is going to be the dullest installment yet.
Also, not re-sizing all of these pictures so that we're not bombarded with their sheer size :P

Anyhow, let us begin...!


We begin with this "Great Asia" guy, who basically looks like a zombie.


He's also really friendly!


-Insert racist joke here-


Compared to Namcat, this guy is a breeze.


NEXT!


Tula Han!


He teaches us a new ability...


...That turns Rocky into a kamikaze jet. I wonder if Great Asia would be weak against this attack?


And another body hits the floor.


NEXT!


Some old guy, who teaches us the greatest skill ever, but that comes in later.


He's ridiculously difficult to hit, but with some patience, he'll go down.


Depends on who I stole it from, really.

NEXT!


Hulk Hogan?
Something tells me Square got really lazy during this story.


It's time for my secret technique that I learned from the old man!


Which causes you to teleport...

Dash back where you were, slamming into the enemy...

And turns them around for a follow-up attack.

Basically, Abise-Geri is the attack we're gonna use for the remainder of the story. Bite me.


NEXT!


Fat Bastard!


Dem tights, though.


Yoink!


No idea what he's going on about, either.

Next time, stay tuned for MOAR BATTLEZ!

With our guest...!


....Uhhhh...
I... Dunno...?

Post-script: It's really hard to have witty any dialogue when there's nothing but battles, that's why I just put five battles in one and called it a day!