Live A Live’s remake is the perfect showcase for Square Enix’s HD-2D style

Nintendo and Square Enix’s remake of the cult 1994 role-playing game Live A LiveThis is among the best reissues over the past few years. Mostly, that’s due to the source material itself. Live A LifeThe previously unreleased game ‘Portmanteau Game’ was not released outside Japan. It is now available for play. Cloud AtlasThis covers a variety of scenarios, from prehistory through the future. It also includes Imperial China, America Wild West and Edo-period Japan.

It’s a fascinating curio that takes the format of 1990s Japanese RPGs to places those games didn’t usually go — not just in terms of the varied and colorfully cliched settings, but in terms of its loose, parallelized, nonlinear structure. It’s not always successful, but it’s clearly readable as a kind of eccentric, experimental rehearsal for director Takashi Tokita’s ensuing masterpiece, Chrono Trigger. This, along with its inaccessibility for most Western players makes it an extremely worthwhile release.

Live AliveSquare Enix used a different vehicle to make the remake. The game has been remade in “HD-2D,” a kind of style template within Unreal Engine that Square Enix created, alongside developer Acquire, for 2018’s superb retro RPG Octopath Traveler. Square saw quickly the potential of HD-2D in both new releases as well as rehashes. It has been used since then for new tactics RPG. Triangle StrategyThis is a remake from the classic 1988 film. Dragon Quest 3It is in progress.

A scene on board a spaceship in Live A Live

Image: Square Enix/Nintendo

A town scene in Octopath Traveler

Image Credit: Acquire/Square Enix

A castle scene in Dragon Quest 3’s HD-2D remake

Square Enix Image

Characters meet by candlelight in Triangle Strategy

Image: Nintendo

Start clockwise at the top of the page: Live Alive, Octopath Traveler, Triangle Strategy, Dragon Quest 3

HD-2D allows 2D, Pixel-Art sprites to be placed in 3D worlds that mimic traditional, hand-drawn backgrounds. It also allows for seamless camera moves, advanced lighting, and atmospheric effects. Placing 2D characters in 3D worlds is nothing new — the Paper Mario Series is an example of how these conflicting elements can create a cohesive aesthetic. HD-2D’s strength lies in how skillfully its components are blended together. To maintain consistency and uniformity with character sprites’ pixelated textures, 3D environments are wrapped in 3D textures. Lighting places 2D characters realistically in the scene while not exposing their flatness. Colors are drawn from rich jewel-like hues of 16-bit. Exaggerated depth gives this scene an almost diorama-like feel. It’s at once miniaturized and epic — nostalgic and modern.

It’s a gorgeous style that goes beyond a pure retro look to create something timeless — an extension of a classic ’90s video game aesthetic into the present, which deepens and enriches it whilst staying faithful to its original character. Live The LifeHere’s our first glimpse at HD-2D when it is applied to a real classic RPG.

This is mainly due to how the characters are treated. Live A Live’s sprites have been redrawn in greater detail for this remake, but they still move and behave in the same way. The exaggerated form, the huge, emotive eyes, the sparing, decisive animation frames — they communicate as much, but also leave as much to the imagination, as the original sprites did. The same applies to us.

A fiery combat scene in Live A Live

Image: Square Enix/Nintendo

Characters get sucked out of a spaceship airlock in Live A Live

Image: Square Enix/Nintendo

A mountaintop kung fu training session in Live A Live

Image: Square Enix/Nintendo

A Wild West gun battle in Live A Live

Image: Square Enix/Nintendo

This problem has been an issue for updating old games. How can you make them more visually rich without filling in details that might clash with the details in players’ memories and imaginations? What can be done to preserve the original tone and style? HD-2D provides a solution to this problem. Live AliveAlthough it looks great on a modern monitor, the game still feels, moves and functions like a 1994 videogame. It retains the original gameplay mechanics as well as the storytelling style. It should.

You Can Live The Life is also a perfect choice to show off HD-2D’s range. As the game cycles through different settings, characters, and gameplay styles, skipping from ninja stealth to deep-space intrigue, it’s like flicking through a catalog of lost cult classics, each steeped in its own distinct (and distinctly mid-’90s) genre influences. HD-2D animation brings these characters to life while not compromising on their innocence and simplicity. It’s hard not to play this tasting menu of a game without wishing to see other classics of the era handled with such imaginative care, reimagined and preserved at the same time. We hope so Dragon Quest 3 won’t be the last HD-2D remake we see.

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