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Yapping Eevee
Nov 12, 2011

STAND TOGETHER.
FIGHT WITH HONOR.
RESTORE BALANCE.

Eevees play for free.


Back in September of 1994, Japan received yet another game that would never get an official translation into English. A rather unusual RPG on the SNES; one that featured realtime grid-based combat, a number of different scenarios and a truly fantastic soundtrack. In 2008, the kind folks at Aeon Genesis finalised their unofficial translation and made this Let’s Play possible.

The SNES had many great soundtracks, but this one is really an underappreciated gem. It was created by Yoko Shimomura, who is responsible for the music of Super Mario RPG, Parasite Eve, Legend of Mana, and both the Kingdom Hearts and Mario & Luigi series (among others). Suffice it to say that we are in very good hands here.

Now… Be sure to tag your spoilers, click on Tindeck links and enjoy the LP!

Table of Contents
Update 00: The Grand Voting Post
Update 01: Meat and cheese.
More Mechanics Details (by EponymousMrYar).
Update 02: A whirlwind of emotion.
Update 03: Battling in the badlands.
Update 04: Big game hunting.
Update 05: Red Dwarf this ain’t.
Update 06: Tension resolved…?
Update 07: Just what we needed.
Update 08: Where things don’t start looking up.
Update 09: Troubleshooting.
Update 10: Unusual hiring practices.
Update 11: Tried and true training methods.
Update 12: WuTang Revengeance.
Update 12.5: Meanwhile, in other timelines…
Update 13: This stealth is an art.
Update 14: What an a-maze-ing castle.
Update 15: Meeting many strange men.
Update 16: Mechanised Melee.
Update 17: The impact of a Shinobi.
Update 18: Bloody brawls.
Update 19: Wandering into trouble.
Update 20: Waco & Mad vs. Crazy.
Update 21: Full Anime, Engage!
Update 21.5: White-Hot Rage.
Update 22: The Plot Kicks In.
Update 23: We Dig Giant Robots!
Update 24: Welcome to Lucretia.
Update 25: Taking on the Demon.
Update 26: The Power of Belief.
Update 27: Channeling AM.
Update 28: The Grand Crossover.
Update 29: Gee, ya think?
Update 30: Whirlwind Tour.
Update 31: Final Preparations.
Update 32: Quelling a Demon’s Hatred.

Yapping Eevee fucked around with this message at 00:06 on Apr 7, 2016

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Yapping Eevee
Nov 12, 2011

STAND TOGETHER.
FIGHT WITH HONOR.
RESTORE BALANCE.

Eevees play for free.
Artwork!

Calamitous_Justice's take on Odi's fate. (Kung Fu)

AlphaKretin takes a jab at another franchise.

Fish Noise draws a stylish fish.

Yapping Eevee fucked around with this message at 13:29 on Apr 11, 2016

Yapping Eevee
Nov 12, 2011

STAND TOGETHER.
FIGHT WITH HONOR.
RESTORE BALANCE.

Eevees play for free.
Update 00: The Grand Voting Post





Two groups whose work has brought me many hours of enjoyment.



Greetings, everyone! I’d also like to welcome you to something that is rather different from my usual fare, but which truly deserves to be shown off. There is an attract mode here, but let’s refrain from spoiling everything straight out of the gate…



Instead, let us examine our choices. You see, Live-A-Live offers the player seven scenarios straight after beginning a new game, with no direction as to which order to play them in. It really does not matter, and we will need to play all of them before the LP can reach its conclusion… But which to pick first?

Naturally, this calls for thread participation! Let us waste no time, and make with the introductions. In order of their music’s appearance on the soundtrack, they are…



The shinobi remain in the shadows even amidst the upheaval of societal change. To one such man, secret orders are given. Sneak past countless guards and traps to rescue the hostage! Can he kill 100 men?

The main character of each scenario is renamable, but this purple-haired gentleman is called Oboro by default. Oboro’s scenario is one of the longer and more involved ones, and offers the opportunity for mass murder or a clean hands run depending on the player’s playstyle. However, the best path lies somewhere in the middle… But more on that when we get there. Expect screwing up passwords, contemplating the slaughter of innocents and a touch of the supernatural.



A fierce youth has entered a global fighting tournament to experience and learn the combat styles of the world. He will see many unique techniques, and will use them to achieve the ultimate goal: The title of “Strongest in the World!”

Masaru’s chapter is one of the shortest, and may appeal to people who enjoy Mega Man and/or sweet wrasslin’ moves. As you might expect, it’s almost entirely about combat against a bunch of weirdos of varying nationalities. Expect stereotypes and silly attack names.



The Stone Age. The day a free-spirited boy and his friend Gori come of age has arrived… In a time before spoken communication, man possessed a keen nose indeed. Through his sense of smell, man could find any beast or avoid lurking danger.

This short and scruffy fellow is Pogo, and the lack of dialogue in his chapter will make cutscenes interesting to present in screenshots. Expect .gifs, hunting, wild behaviour and general indecency. It’s also another long chapter.



Behold the transport ship Cogito Ergosum, en route to planet Earth. Inside, a new kind of life-form is being created. The robot created by Kato the mechanic will become intimately involved as events spiral out of control on board…

The ironically named Cube might have had the shortest chapter if it wasn’t so dialogue heavy. Indeed, it is possible to have only one fight in Cube’s chapter at all… Though there are a few others that can be sought out. This one is all about the storytelling and atmosphere, despite being set in space.



In ancient China, an aged martial artist lives high atop a windy peak. He has begun to feel the need of a suitable successor for his technique. His disciples train hard, but only one will come to harness their master’s power.

Master Xin Shan Quan actually has an ‘average’ length chapter (surprisingly), and shares his name with the martial art he created. So be aware we’re renaming both those things at once… and that we will have to choose a successor for him. Expect an old man being badass. And tigers.



In a time when the West was wild and criminals were many… A haggard traveler with a price on his head wanders into Success Town, the recent target of a notorious outlaw gang. Work quickly to set traps and take down the Crazy Bunch!!

This mysterious man is none other than the Sundown Kid, and his scenario runs on a timer. Work fast, or suffer the consequences… Not a lot of combat in this one, and it’s also rather tiny. If you like Westerns, you’re going to love the music in this one.



In the not-too-distant future lives a boy with the power to read other peoples’ thoughts. His teenage years are troubled, and he gets into many fights. And yet over his shoulder silently watches a sleeping giant, the robotic Buruki Daioh…

The kid with a scar on his forehead and special powers is Akira, and his chapter is another of reasonable length. There will be drugs, fighting in the streets, motorcycles, a cult and at least one giant mecha.

:ducksiren: Voting Time! :ducksiren:

So, we need to decide upon our first scenario and possibly new names for our seven protagonists. New names are a maximum of six letters. Voting goes for… however long I feel like, really. A few days at least. I’ll be keeping a tally, so being specific with your votes will be helpful.

Yapping Eevee fucked around with this message at 09:11 on Apr 11, 2016

Pittsburgh Lambic
Feb 16, 2011
I love the poo poo out of this game. Let's see some caveman antics first thing. Keep his name.

Kinu Nishimura
Apr 24, 2008

SICK LOOT!
This game is w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-WICKED SIKK and good as h*ck. Do the Ninja chapter first because I want to see somebody try to explain the intricacies of that chapter.

JesterOfAmerica
Sep 11, 2015
Cowboy Let's Ride Crown

Bellmaker
Oct 18, 2008

Chapter DOOF



Pittsburgh Lambic posted:

I love the poo poo out of this game. Let's see some caveman antics first thing. Keep his name.

Not empty quoting.

This game hits all the cliches, but does it so well that it's both the best kind of flattery, and makes its surprises even more effective. I love it :allears:

Unoriginal One
Aug 5, 2008
I remember playing a lot of this back in the day. I think I even still remember the cheese strats for... well, we'll get to those in due time.

Anyways, let's go with kungfu, if only for the music.

AlphaKretin
Dec 25, 2014

A vase to face encounter.

...Vase to meet you?

...

GARVASE DAY!

Oh hey, now I can find out about that one game what got Theatrhythm FF DLC. :v: Would a Warframe joke be a better name for Oboro or Cube?

Oh and for anyone unsure about pronunciation the kana there says both "Live"s rhyme with "alive".

AlphaKretin fucked around with this message at 04:08 on Jan 16, 2016

BlackPersona
Oct 21, 2012


Never seen this before. Let's go with Caveman to see the gameplay.

Mraagvpeine
Nov 4, 2014

I won this avatar on a technicality this thick.

quote:

The kid with a scar on his forehead and special powers is Akira, and his chapter is another of reasonable length. There will be drugs, fighting in the streets, motorcycles, a cult and at least one giant mecha.
Gee, I wonder why that sounds so familiar :rolleyes:

Anyway, that's my vote.

Blaze Dragon
Aug 28, 2013
LOWTAX'S SPINE FUND

A brawler named Masaru, you say?



Anyways, let's go with the G Gundam scenario ft. the fifth Digimon anime protagonist.

Seyser Koze
Dec 15, 2013

Mucho Mucho
Nap Ghost
Let's get the brawler out of the way.

MachuPikacchu
Oct 15, 2012

Sacre vert! Maman!

This game owns bones and so does the caveman.

NewMars
Mar 10, 2013
We'd better begin at the beginning. Caveman

Blastinus
Feb 28, 2010

Time to try my luck
:rolldice:
Crap.
Echoing the calls for the Caveman chapter. Might as well get the hardest chapter out of the way first.

I don't mean hardest in terms of gameplay. I mean hardest to record. You aren't kidding when you say that you're going to need GIFs galore.

AlphaKretin
Dec 25, 2014

A vase to face encounter.

...Vase to meet you?

...

GARVASE DAY!

We live in the future now, it can be WEBMs galore! :science:

Please do not go WEBMs galore

EponymousMrYar
Jan 4, 2015

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.
Loved this game, did not love the previous LP of it. Hope to see it done justice!
it is in good hands

I am a fan of doing everything chronologically, as such:

:byodood::fork::burger: first.

Or Caveman for those who cannot speak pre-historic.

Bacter
Jan 27, 2012

Nie wywoluj wilka z lasu, glupku.
I love this game so much.

The only correct answer, of course, is PRIMEVAL GOOOOOOOOOON

(caveman)

Leave
Feb 7, 2012

Taking the term "Koopaling" to a whole new level since 2016.
Let's rock the Caveman and name him Ayla

JT Jag
Aug 30, 2009

#1 Jaguars Sunk Cost Fallacy-Haver
Voting that we proceed in approximate chronological order, because I'm turbo-boring. So... Caveman first I guess.

Carbon dioxide
Oct 9, 2012

Wrestler by the name of Goku!

StoryTime
Feb 26, 2010

Now listen to me children and I'll tell you of the legend of the Ninja
I want to see a Kungfu master performing the ancient 6-letter art of SCStnr.

Xander77
Apr 6, 2009

Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.



The Caveman chapter was the worst part of the last LP, so let's do it right this time around.

Oh, and as always, feel free to steal anything from the last one, be it sprites, gifs or whatever.

idonotlikepeas
May 29, 2010

This reasoning is possible for forums user idonotlikepeas!
Let's go chronological on this piece. Caveman first.

Leavemywife posted:

and name him Ayla

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

How bad was the last LP?

Let's go cavemen, ended up getting stuck in one section and couldn't progress.

Rigged Death Trap
Feb 13, 2012

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

become the undefeated of the East, West, North, South and Center

go punch men

Blastinus
Feb 28, 2010

Time to try my luck
:rolldice:
Crap.

Robindaybird posted:

How bad was the last LP?

Let's go cavemen, ended up getting stuck in one section and couldn't progress.

It was a bit hit-or-miss, since the guy who started it got banned partway through and the guys reading it got this amazing idea to do a round robin of every chapter, with varying degrees of quality. I did the Sci-Fi chapter and didn't even know how to make GIFs at the time. Let that sink in.

Kinu Nishimura
Apr 24, 2008

SICK LOOT!

Robindaybird posted:

How bad was the last LP?

Let's go cavemen, ended up getting stuck in one section and couldn't progress.

It's the skeleton in my closet.

Xander77
Apr 6, 2009

Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.



Robindaybird posted:

How bad was the last LP?

http://lparchive.org/Live-a-Live/

I still think it was fairly good for its time. And having different people LP different chapters was actually a fairly solid idea, as far as that goes, hit and miss as some chapters were, and a complete miss though the "reprise" was.

MightyPretenders
Feb 21, 2014

Caveman

The previous LP did some things right and stumbled a few times. But it's fun to look back on.

EponymousMrYar
Jan 4, 2015

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.

Xander77 posted:

http://lparchive.org/Live-a-Live/

I still think it was fairly good for its time. And having different people LP different chapters was actually a fairly solid idea, as far as that goes, hit and miss as some chapters were, and a complete miss though the "reprise" was.

Cool idea, poor execution. Live-A-Live is not a game that has a consistent workload.

evilspacehopper
Oct 10, 2012

Hinawa remembered in death as she was in life: endlessly eating birds.
I never read the previous LP and have never played the game so I have no idea what I'm in store for but I'm gonna go with the crowd and say Caveman with whatever name.

Yapping Eevee
Nov 12, 2011

STAND TOGETHER.
FIGHT WITH HONOR.
RESTORE BALANCE.

Eevees play for free.

Aside from evilspacehopper's vote which came in after I took this picture (and Blaze Dragon's vote which I wasn't 100% certain about), here's how the voting currently stands. There seems to be a definite trend here. :v: Guess you folks want to put me through my paces, huh?

I'm quite busy today, so voting remains open until tomorrow. (This LP is on :australia: time.) Also, I'm amazed almost nobody has tried to rename characters. All defaults is fine by me!

Unoriginal One posted:

I remember playing a lot of this back in the day. I think I even still remember the cheese strats for... well, we'll get to those in due time.
If I should happen to miss any good strategies that you remember, please do let me know. :)

AlphaKretin posted:

Oh hey, now I can find out about that one game what got Theatrhythm FF DLC. :v: Would a Warframe joke be a better name for Oboro or Cube?

Oh and for anyone unsure about pronunciation the kana there says both "Live"s rhyme with "alive".
This is an all-round good post. It appears Theatrhythm chose a good song to use, but we shall get to that later. Rest assured that I will try not to gush about the soundtrack too much, but it will remain great.

The answer is the Ninja, by the way. Cube lacks the arms needed for proper space ninjaing. :ninja: (Warframe is a good game, come play it with us.)

Blastinus posted:

You aren't kidding when you say that you're going to need GIFs galore.
Oh, I'm quite sure that VirtualDub will be getting a workout with this one.

JT Jag posted:

Voting that we proceed in approximate chronological order, because I'm turbo-boring. So... Caveman first I guess.
Fortunately, it's fairly easy to tell which chronological order the other chapters come in, except maybe Kungfu and Ninja. I would presume Kungfu comes first.

Xander77 posted:

The Caveman chapter was the worst part of the last LP, so let's do it right this time around.

Oh, and as always, feel free to steal anything from the last one, be it sprites, gifs or whatever.
Thanks for the offer, Xander. :hfive: Looking back on that LP while the voting's going, I actually have to disagree about the Caveman chapter. It clearly needed .gifs, but I'm exactly the sort of nerd who likes to know all about the various enemies you encounter in an RPG. :v:

AlphaKretin
Dec 25, 2014

A vase to face encounter.

...Vase to meet you?

...

GARVASE DAY!

I think the lack of name votes is because we're voting for characters at the same time; people might be worried their name won't matter because the relevant character isn't picked and others might have name ideas, but not for the character they want to see first. Of course, that might change a bit now that we know Caveman has all but won. :v: (My opnions are futurama_grey_planet.mp4, fwiw)

AlphaKretin fucked around with this message at 04:30 on Jan 17, 2016

Blaze Dragon
Aug 28, 2013
LOWTAX'S SPINE FUND

Yapping Eevee posted:


Aside from evilspacehopper's vote which came in after I took this picture (and Blaze Dragon's vote which I wasn't 100% certain about), here's how the voting currently stands. There seems to be a definite trend here. :v: Guess you folks want to put me through my paces, huh?

My vote was for Wrestler. C'mon, I even mentioned his name in my post.

I'll try to make my references more clear next time.

Unoriginal One
Aug 5, 2008

Yapping Eevee posted:

If I should happen to miss any good strategies that you remember, please do let me know. :)


I probably shouldn't say strategies, as that implies that they have more than one or two steps. It's more that I recall that a couple of otherwise tough optional fights that people always used to complain about are vulnerable to hilariously stupid things that pretty much trivialize them.

Yapping Eevee
Nov 12, 2011

STAND TOGETHER.
FIGHT WITH HONOR.
RESTORE BALANCE.

Eevees play for free.

AlphaKretin posted:

I think the lack of name votes is because we're voting for characters at the same time; people might be worried their name won't matter because the relevant character isn't picked and others might have name ideas, but not for the character they want to see first. Of course, that might change a bit now that we know Caveman has all but won. :v: (My opnions are futurama_grey_planet.mp4, fwiw)
Fair point. Note that I did not say you had to restrict naming votes to the character we are using first, though. If you want to see the Caveman scenario and have a great Wrestler name, throw it out there! If you want to offer names for a couple of characters or even all seven at once, go nuts! I'm not stopping ya.

Blaze Dragon posted:

My vote was for Wrestler. C'mon, I even mentioned his name in my post.

I'll try to make my references more clear next time.
That's what I would have guessed, but "the G Gundam scenario" made me uncertain. I have not watched any Gundam at all (nor will I).

EponymousMrYar
Jan 4, 2015

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.

Unoriginal One posted:

I probably shouldn't say strategies, as that implies that they have more than one or two steps. It's more that I recall that a couple of otherwise tough optional fights that people always used to complain about are vulnerable to hilariously stupid things that pretty much trivialize them.
I remember a fair bit of fights like that in this game. It's kind of the whole point for the combat system. Everything is weak to something and if they aren't they're weak to being punched in the face.

Also I always went Ninja -> Kung Fu in my chronological playthroughs, because Kung-Fu is broader in terms of the times while Ninja is clearly a certain time period.
It helps that Kung-Fu is probably my second favorite chapter so I wanted to spread out the stuff I didn't like as much as the stuff I do.

Blaze Dragon posted:

My vote was for Wrestler. C'mon, I even mentioned his name in my post.

I'll try to make my references more clear next time.
There's a problem with that specific reference because it crosses over two scenarios in this case. One on hand you have wrestling and punchamania. On the other, you have Mecha :v:

EponymousMrYar fucked around with this message at 06:12 on Jan 17, 2016

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Xander77
Apr 6, 2009

Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.



Yapping Eevee posted:

Looking back on that LP while the voting's going, I actually have to disagree about the Caveman chapter. It clearly needed .gifs, but I'm exactly the sort of nerd who likes to know all about the various enemies you encounter in an RPG. :v:
Every chapter had enemy breakdowns though (assuming it had enemies).

Edit - eh.

Xander77 fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Jan 17, 2016

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