Live-a-Live is a lost Super Famicom game by Square-Enix that's getting a second life on the Switch! Utilizing the "HD-2D" engine popularized by Octopath Traveler, Western audiences finally will get a chance to try out this cult favorite in July.
I love seeing releases like these and Trials of Mana. Lost SNES games we never got to play getting a new lease on life with updated visuals and junk. It's exactly the kind of stuff I want to see more of on Switch (Terranigma, please!) and the HD-2D look is just lovely. Within minutes of firing up the demo, my eardrums were blasted with awesome music, and when I started with the China mission, I found the calm old kung-fu master to be an appealing protagonist.
That said........I, um, don't really like it! The battle system is just not clicking at all with me. I don't think the China section is supposed to be difficult since the shifu is meant to be overpowered, but it just felt wholly unintuitive to play. I don't know the parameters of my own attacks nor the enemies', so a lot of the combat just feels like getting in kind of close and doing guesswork while highlighting all my attack options.
What's more is that the story and dialogue aren't landing for me either, with a cool premise in the Future chapter spoiled by glacial pacing and little in the way of fun characterization to latch onto.
Anyway, has anyone here tried the demo yet? What'd you think?
URL to share (right click and copy)