Live A Live, a classic JRPG by Square Enix, received a Nintendo Switch remaster almost 18 years after its original launch on the SNES. With the remaster came new graphics, an improved combat system, and a more fleshed-out story for audiences. Or, at least we think it’s thoroughly fleshed out, because there are plenty of things in each chapter that the remaster couldn’t change to make sense.
Many of these things aren’t bad by any means, but it is funny to see these things that make no sense in the context of the game and its story. From the prehistoric era to the distant future, there are some things in each chapter that don’t make sense in Live a Live.
10 Edo Japan Doors Requiring Passwords
In the chapter set in Edo period Japan, you play the character Oboromaru, who is on a mission to infiltrate Ode Castle, rescue the prisoner, and defeat the boss. Early in the chapter's mechanics, you're told you can either take it through stealthily or mercilessly slay everyone who gets in your way. One of the mechanics for taking it on stealthily is remembering the password for doors blocked by guards.
What doesn't make sense about this, though, is that guards will automatically attack you on sight no matter where you are, except for in this one situation. You could seemingly kill everyone before them, but you gave him a password, so you're okay in his book.
9 Indomitable Fist Attack
While you and your disciple are training together, the indomitable first cronies suddenly attack the village. Shifu goes to clean it up, but he returns to find that the organization has destroyed his school and his students.
However, something doesn’t quite add up. Why is it that the indomitable fist randomly attacked the school in the first place? The story tries to explain it as the people that Shifu defeated fled and got friends to attack. But that would mean that Shifu had to be not only slower than the men going back to their base, but also slower than those who shipped out from the base to the school to enact their revenge. Surely they would have had to have passed Shifu on their way back?
8 Fleeing From Enemies
In most JRPGs, one of the main mechanics is the ability to flee from combat. Whether from losing too much health or simply not wanting to fight a repetitive enemy, fleeing is always helpful in most situations. The problem with Live A Live is that this mechanic doesn’t make sense for multiple reasons.
Though you can get out of the battle, fleeing from an enemy will not work in the long run, because the enemy will always be there unless you reload the same. The mechanic feels like a waste of time, and not even particularly effective fleeing on your characters' part.
7 Fighting With Flatulence
If you've ever wanted to recreate what it was like living as a caveman, then the prehistoric era is not for you. While the chapter is amusing and is one of the many highlights in the game, the fighting is something unique that many games don't necessarily explore.
Unique in that you will fight giant rhinos, deadly birds, vicious sabertooth tigers, and even a giant tyrannosaurus rex with the power of your bodily functions. The most potent and meaningful attacks to fight with are your excrement and the gas that passes through your system.
These are attacks are so powerful that you will primarily use them throughout the game more than your stone axe, which is odd. Traditionally, bludgeoning something with a stone tool is more effective than farting on them.
6 Mad Dog
When you first encounter Mad Dog, it’s during a duel that he engages with your character, Sundown Kid. While he engages with you, through his dialogue, you can infer that this man has been after you for years and has lost countless times in one-on-one duels.
After your character inevitably beats them, he begs you to end his life and finish him off once and for all. What doesn’t make sense is that Mad Dog and the Sundown Kid have been duelling for years, with Mad Dog coming back for more each time. Why is this duel the final straw that leads Mad Dog to wanting to end it all? What makes this one special?
5 Antique Shop Teleport Machine
In the chapter called "The Outsider," there is an antique shop where you go to meet the doc for the first time in the story. And after making a quick poop joke, he wants to test out his teleporter on you and him so that he can get to the orphanage where you live faster than just... walking next door.
But, upon going into this teleporter, it soon turns to disaster as the thing malfunctions and explodes with you inside of it. Instead of being seriously wounded like you should have been, playable character Akira decides it was just an accident and walks off with no scratches. It doesn't make sense how this would be the case, since matchbook cars can knock him out, but not a deadly exploding teleporter?
4 Go! Go! Buriki Daioh!
The intro to the near future chapter starts with this anime-like opening where a giant mecha robot is seen blasting through enemies, flying around, and saving the day. The thing is, it's not just something seen in the intro it's actually in the game. That is completely fine, but how it got there doesn't make sense.
According to the story, ancient Babylonians created a giant robot to fight kaiju when they were still established. Fast forward to today, and it's kept inside the basement of the antique shop, completely hidden from sight. How it got there, how the Babylonians created it, and why the antique shop owner has it are inconspicuous and not explained.
3 Scanning Technology
The highly futuristic and technologically advanced chapter in the game takes the standard JRPG formula and turns it into an atmospheric horror game where you wander the hallways as a robot with a terrifying monster lurking around. It's a well-made section in the game that perfectly fits the futuristic trapped in space feel it's going for, but the technology they use doesn't quite add up.
Computer password technology is the main thing that doesn't make sense in the context. In this futuristic space station where you're scanned and entered in as a crew member through facial recognition, all doors are locked by passwords that you manually enter. And, the passwords are just your name, making it essentially useless as a password system if you're trying to keep people or things out.
2 Alien Traversal
As the highly intelligent AI is in complete control of the ship, you're tasked with searching for ways to help your crewmates that have been put into an unpredictable and terrifying situation. One of the alarming aspects is not just that the AI has turned against you, but the alien being transported on the ship has somehow made it to the second floor.
The puzzling thing about this is it would be impossible for the alien to reach any level of the ship, or even get into any rooms – it's just too big. The game shows us that there are only two ways to get around the ship: the elevators and service duct ladders. Both of these were made for human-sized people, and there isn't a way the AI could somehow change the ship's structure to allow the alien through.
1 Unsuspecting AI
Exploring the futuristic chapter is one of the most exciting chapters throughout the game. It gets your adrenaline up when running from the monsters, and it makes you curious about what's going to happen next in the story. But, the main antagonist is the least intuitive thing about the story from the start.
What doesn't make sense from any perspective is the crew's puzzling nature on who the murderer wandering the halls is when everyone stays together at all moments. Realistically, the only three suspects would be you, the AI, and the ship's captain. Yet, everyone is a suspect in the story except those three until the end, and even at the end, when the killer is revealed at last, the last two survivors turn on themselves again, hurting each other instead of the one putting them through this ordeal.