History YMMV / LiveALive

** In the Twilight of Edo Japan chapter on a pacifist run, you can peek into a hole where [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEUntIvmepU two mice are talking in human language.]]

*** The full nature of Odio is subject to speculation, [[spoiler:especially in regards to Oersted and the statues. Prevailing theories include Odio being an entirely separate being manipulating events and inflicting DemonicPossession on Oersted and others, merely a title that Oersted created upon giving into his hatred [[VillainousLegacy and gaining power in the roost]], or an embodiment of hatred that incarnates across time (with Oersted being the middle ages incarnation of Odio, thus both characters being one and the same)]]. This mystery also extends to the other [[spoiler:incarnations fought in the other chapters. Are they just avatars/puppets of Odio controlled from the roost, or actual reincarnations of Odio with the same soul and full lives?]] For what it's worth, Akira's [[spoiler:speech towards Oersted at the end supports the idea that Oersted wasn't possessed by any third party and his own rage at humanity for Streibough's betrayal is what led to Odio, since Akira at no point detects any presence of a Lord Of Dark possessing Oersted, and even refers to Sin of Odio as a collective manifestation of all the hatred in the world]].

** In the Near Future, Tadashi Tadakoro was shown to known what his government was doing, yet refused to rebel against them. Was this out of cowardice or because he was afraid for the safety of his children if something should happen to him?

* AngstWhatAngst: Akira's childhood trauma was hearing a gunshot, and then discovering his father's corpse. For some reason, he doesn't flinch during Sundown's recruitment when the latter [[ClickHello aims his revolver at him with suspicion.]]

** [[spoiler:All the Odio incarnations count in the Final Chapter as part of the BossRush if all the heroes have been levelled enough.]]

* {{Misblamed}}: The remake is sometimes criticized for not including things that were only added by the FanTranslation (e.g. Odie was not {{Bowdlerised}} — his WouldYouLikeToHearHowTheyDied remarks was a case of SpiceUpTheSubtitles. [[spoiler:However, it's still ''very'' clear that he did indeed kill the other opponents in all versions.]]) or were censored in the Japanese version of the remake as well (e.g. the Near Future chapter's [[PantyThief raid for Taeko's panties]] was replaced with pocket money theft and the Wild West chapter's healing items were replaced from alcoholic beverages and cigars to miracle tonics and jerkies; the Japanese version had these altered as well.)

** The Distant Future chapter takes place on a spaceship, and features, if briefly, [[spoiler:an impostor masquerading as one of the main characters killing the rest of the crew mates and trying to pin the blame on somebody else]]. [[VideoGame/AmongUs Fast forward almost three decades…]]

* OlderThanTheyThink:

* SpecialEffectFailure: The remake has a rather hilarious oversight with the "[[StoneWall Table]]" enemy in the Imperial China chapter. Non-major battles start with a camera {{pan}} from the side to the front, but because the Table enemy [[CheatedAngle lacks any side sprites]] unlike the regular enemies, the battle intro briefly has the table look like a cardboard cutout stand when the battle involving it starts.

** While Sundown's chapter itself is a BreatherLevel, the same cannot be said of his special dungeon in the Domain of Hate, which is considered to be the hardest special dungeon in the game, Trial of Time. It's extremely short, but either requires a lot of preparation beforehand, or lots of grinding for level ups. Much like Sundown's chapter, the dungeon has a gimmick that ends the progression immediately after the bell has tolled eight times in total. However, the time between the tolls is significantly shorter than in the Wild West chapter and what's even worse is that the lighting keeps getting dimmer and dimmer with each consecutive bell, until it's almost impossible to see anything. Adding to that, the dungeon is a maze, and trying to get Sundown's ultimate weapon and exit the dungeon without running out of time is extremely strict, requiring a lot of trial and error. If you fail, you are forced to fight one of the toughest superbosses in the game, so necessary precautions are a must here. [[spoiler:If you want one of the powerful Cosmic equipment pieces, you ''have'' to fight the boss here.]]

** In the Near Future, while Tadashi Tadakoro was shown to known what his government did yet refused to rebel against them. Was this out of cowardice or because he was afraid for the safety of his children if something should happen to them?

** The final battle against [[spoiler:Streibough in Oersted's chapter]]. While he has improved some since the fight at the beginning of the chapter, he's still relatively weak in comparison to the bosses fought before him. [[spoiler:This is possibly [[InvokedTrope Invoked]], as he’s the only FinalBoss that isn’t an incarnation of Odio.]]

* CaptainObviousReveal: Downplayed. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to notice that all of the final bosses are named after a variation of "Odio" and are likely connected, but [[spoiler:the fact that they all originate from Oersted is still a huge plot twist]].

** In the Middle Ages chapter, [[spoiler:the Lord of Dark Odio and his incarnations are vile pieces of work, but fans sympathize for Oersted because of all the shit poured on him. They instead focus their hatred onto Streibough, because it is ''his'' manipulation that turned his friend into the monster that (nearly) doomed all space and time, which was not even his overall goal, which was solely to screw over Oersted over petty jealousy rather than raging against humanity or the unfair world he lives in. When you find him in Akira's dungeon, reading his mind doesn't have him grasp the gravity of how much he screwed up, in contrast to Alethea -- herself having formerly been a jerk for spitting in Oersted's face, who went out of his way to rescue her, and then ''killing herself in front of him'' -- [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone realizing that she was the final nail in the coffin to Oersted's psyche]] [[TheAtoner and actively doing something]] [[SpannerInTheWorks to help Oersted.]]]] In the same chapter, [[spoiler:the cowardly Minister who immediately accuses Oersted of killing the King (which he did do, [[MurderByMistake but only due to misinformation]]) is also met with scorn from the fanbase, given that it's ''his'' fault entirely that Oersted is banished from the kingdom and brings about the downfall of Lucrece]].
** In Imperial China, Ou Di Wan Lee gets away with his vileness cause he's an ArrogantKungFuGuy whose boss fight is thrilling and fitting of a martial arts film. However, Sun Tzu Wang does ''not'' get that same treatment since [[spoiler:his petty desire to get revenge on the shifu made the shifu have to cancel his final lessons, thus letting the Indomitable Fist ''slaughter'' two of his disciples and one barely left standing and never appears again nor gets away comeuppance for his crimes. Thankfully, the remake's epilogue reveals that he and the successor would bury the hatchet, so he gets a slightly improved reception than the others later on]].

** The ending of the Imperial China chapter where [[spoiler:the successor ends up killing Ou Di Wan Lee, only to find the Shifu finally dying and to which they scream his name to the heavens]].

* AccidentalAesop: Some people see the conflict between Huey, Rachel and Kirk and all the resulting damage it causes as a prime example of why dating your co-workers is generally discouraged in real life.
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: The twist of the Middle Ages chapter operates on the fact that Oersted, and by extension the player, has ''no actual idea'' that the secondary characters might have goals and motivations outside of helping him achieve greatness. Once it's revealed that they do, a great many questions about why they make the choices they make go unanswered since [[spoiler:no one who could explain it is left alive.]] Much of the finale of this chapter is left up to individual interpretation.

** Contrastingly, Streibough eventually makes it very clear what he wants, but his account of himself [[UnreliableNarrator leaves many events unexplained]]. [[spoiler:If he just snapped due to envy while searching for the princess, faking his death is an uncannily premeditated way to snap. And if that is where his plot began, who kidnapped the princess?]] Supposing that he planned it all from the beginning simply opens up a different set of holes - [[spoiler:if he was manipulating Oersted from the start, why not just say so? After all, he gleefully tells Oersted how he tricked him into regicide.]] It's possible to construct a functional chain of events by assuming there are two antagonistic parties - [[spoiler:Streibough and the kidnapper(s).]] And it is an easy walk from there to the possibility that the two groups intersect at the conclusion [[spoiler:since it all goes down in the Lord of Dark's stronghold. Demons exist even assuming there really is no Lord of Dark, and Streibough's actions and dramatic change in demeanor could be the result of DemonicPossession.]] The remake lends some support to this notion, [[spoiler:because in the lead-up to the fight, Streibough has the same audio-visual trappings used for the Odio incarnations (the red aura and vocal echo effects) implying that the actual Lord of Dark possessed him. On the other hand, this can be interpreted as Streibough powering himself up through enough hatred rather than a sign of possession as at no point in the chapter is there a voice compelling anyone. ]] But none of this is explicitly stated. Additionally, in the remake Hasshe notes that [[spoiler: the fake Lord of Dark was a minion posing as his master, supporting the idea that the plot was set in motion by Streibough and the Lord of Dark's minions separately.]]
*** Did Streibough ever have feelings for Alethea? [[spoiler:When Akira reads his mind, Streibough makes no ''mention'' of Alethea at all, rather stuck at how he messed up entirely. And one must remember that part of his plan to ruin Oersted's reputation is to have him kill her dad, so he didn't care if he added regicide in his list of crimes if it made his best friend fall.]]
*** Streibough's situation in Akira's dungeon. [[spoiler:While it's commonly accepted that Streibough has no regrets in doing what he has done and prefers to just ponder if he messed up while probably will repeating that again given the chance, there's also a possibility that he's made by Oersted/Odio to be stuck in this mindset for eternity; he may have regrets, as shown in other portrayals like ''VideoGame/OctopathTravelerChampionsOfTheContinents'', but Oersted/Odio makes sure that he'll not be able to even express it, and so any visitors from any timeline will see him as [[HateSink a petty, remorseless traitor to be hated for his actions]]. Considering what Streibough put him through before, [[IronicHell this may not be coincidental in Oersted/Odio's design.]]]]

*** It is possible to interpret Oersted as [[spoiler:having underlying honorable intentions even as Odio; in effect enacting an extreme form of ToughLove on humanity. He has the ability to annihilate existence, but there are few circumstances where he does so. This suggests that he is willing to spare the world if he is proven wrong.]] To go in the complete opposite direction, it is also possible to interpret Oersted [[spoiler:as a DesignatedHero who, even if he did not deserve his lot, did nothing positive to avert it. The only achievement Oersted has to his name is violence. He beat up his friend and won a princess for it and never wondered how either of them felt about that until it was much, much too late. All his attempts at heroism fail terrifically, and still he has the nerve to ask, "Did I not do all that was asked? Did I not serve and seek my just reward?" Maybe there is no more fitting reward for a guy who ruins everything he touches than infamy.]]
*** Is it Oersted, Streibough or both who [[spoiler: exhibit an EntitledToHaveYou attitude towards Alethea? It's unclear if she ever had feelings for Oersted before the arranged marriage, and if she genuinely loved Streibough at the time she'd likely be horrified at the prospect of being forcibly married to someone else. And seeing that someone become entirely devoted to her might have played a role in her later breakdown. Did Oersted attempt to rescue her out of love, or did he see her as another of his "just rewards"?]]
*** The full nature of Odio is subject to speculation, [[spoiler:especially in regards to Oersted and the statues. Prevailing theories include Odio being an entirely separate being manipulating events and inflicting DemonicPossession on Oersted and others, merely a title that Oersted created upon giving into his hatred [[VillainousLegacy and gaining power in the roost]], or an embodiment of hatred that incarnates across time with Oersted being the middle ages incarnation of Odio thus both characters being one and the same.]] This mystery also extends to the other [[spoiler:incarnations fought in the other chapters. Are they just avatars/puppets of Odio controlled from the roost, or actual reincarnations of Odio with the same soul and full lives?]] For what it's worth, Akira's [[spoiler: speech towards Oersted at the end supports the idea that Oersted wasn't possessed by any third party and his own rage at humanity for Streibough's betrayal is what lead to Odio, since Akira at no point detects any presence of a Lord Of Dark possessing Oersted, and even refers to Sin of Odio as a collective manifestation of all the hatred in the world.]]
*** After you defeat the [[spoiler:Purity of Odio, he re-assumes his Oersted form and asks you to perform a MercyKill on him, which traps all of the seven heroes in Lucerce with no way out.]] Is this a [[spoiler:genuine offer or a ThanatosGambit that makes sure Odio is no longer stopped by the heroes in their respective timeline so he's free to wreck havoc as much as he pleases?]] Take note that if you reject [[spoiler:his offer, he makes clear that he's still not quite done yet.]]
*** Did he have any control at all during [[spoiler:the TrueFinalBoss fight? With the Sin of Odio just being an extension of his own power and hatred with no will of its own and Oersted eventually breaking free and striking down the strongest embodiment of his own hatred, or was the original Odio entirely and completely in charge by that point as an example of EnemyWithout[=/=][=/=]VillainOverride?]]

** Foreign fans tend to hate Streibough far more than the Japanese fanbase does, [[spoiler:mostly because of destroying Oersted's life in the most horrible way for a petty reason]]. JP fandom loves him and often ships him with Oersted.

** Depending on how you play through the chapter, [[spoiler:Oboro's FinalBoss can be a complete pushover or [[ThatOneBoss can be ungodly hard]]]]. The worst of his arsenal can be avoided by not being in melee range (as Oboro should because he plays like a mage).

** [[spoiler: All the Odio incarnations count in the Final Chapter as part of the BossRush if all the heroes have been levelled enough.]]

** One of the game's most beloved moments is [[spoiler: the reverse BossRush, where you can [[PlayAsABoss control every single one of Odio's incarnations]] and battle against the heroes, spamming their overpowered attacks to your heart's content. Should the fights not go your way, you can RageQuit, cast Armageddon, and not only win the battle, but ''end all of reality'']]. By 1994 standards, this was absolutely mind-blowing, and even today it's a very unique and downright ''fun'' set-piece.

*** Cube's chapter only has one required boss battle, and it doesn't have a single GuideDangIt. [[spoiler:That doesn't [[NothingIsScarier mean]] it's boring [[SurvivalHorror or that you can't die in it...]]]]

*** Much like Cube's chapter, the Trial of Wisdom is the easiest of the special dungeons in Domain of Hate, having no encounters whatsoever and the boss of the area being completely optional. While the dungeon itself has a lot of puzzles, they are mostly very straightforward and easy to figure out with some thought put into it.

* ClicheStorm: One way in which the game suffers is its short chapters -- the plots are general and predictable, and you tend to know exactly what you're getting from them. Whether that's a bad thing is up to your interpretation. However, this makes [[spoiler:Oersted's chapter]] all the more effective; [[spoiler:starting out with the archetypal JRPG plot of "{{save the princess}} and kill the demon king" and gradually breaking down its clichés until you're left with a FallenHero whose hatred consumes the entire timeline]] is a ''massive'' PlayerPunch. There's also the final chapter, in which [[spoiler:you can play as the villain and either just [[TheHeroDies kill all the heroes]] or [[ApocalypseHow straight-up destroy reality]]. Either way, TheBadGuyWins.]]
* CommonKnowledge: Players will believe that all martial/physical attacks use the Physical Attack stat while all magic/elemental attacks use the IQ/Special Attack Stat. The actual stat used varies between attacks and even the level of the character, Masaru's Worldbreaker's Wrath being calculated off his ''Vitality'' stat, despite being an earth element attack. Occasionally, some attacks are not affected by ''any'' of the character's stats. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] as this is not explicitly stated anywhere and is only known through internal game data and testing.

** Most players prefer to play the scenarios in chronological order, starting with Pogo. Helps that his chapter plays like a typical RPG for the most part.
** Lei is generally prioritized as [[spoiler:the new Earthen Heart Master and subsequent final chapter party member]], mostly for her popularity, but also because she's extremely fast and serves as a good middle-ground between Yun (who's strong but struggles with his MagikarpPower) and Hong (generally seen as underwhelming overall). She also gets the best exclusive skill, Sacred Dragon's Temper, a powerful screenwide attack that makes clearing encounters absurdly easy, something really no other character gets. Additionally, her presence [[spoiler:in the final chapter lets Pogo be recruited without a fight, enabling easy access to a very powerful party member and whatever equipment he brought over from his chapter]]. In the remake, all bets are off; Sundown's ''Hurricane'' gained a slight debuff in the form of an even longer charge time and some accuracy issues, while ''Heavenly Peaks Descent'' actually got a slight buff in terms of damage and maintained its reliability. This, combined with it being ''much'' easier to max out Lei's Special Attack, Attack, and Speed means that Lei has an immediate niche in The Dominion Of Hate as both a screen-nuker and a single-target DPS unit...while Hong and Yun arguably ''lost'' their niches as a result of Yun's MagikarpPower no longer mattering or applying solely to him and Hong's early advantage falling to the wayside when there are much better tanks around like Masaru and Pogo.
** Choosing Sundown as the player for the final chapter. On top of being one of the strongest player characters in the game (see GameBreaker and HighTierScrappy), [[spoiler:he's also extremely difficult to recruit there]]. Unlike the other heroes, Sundown isn't confined in a single spot and will not join your party [[spoiler:until you follow him to seven different locations spread across the overworld map. Therefore, starting with him cuts down ''lots'' of wasted time (especially with random encounters) and you have an extremely powerful GlassCannon of a character from the get-go]]. Moreover, if you want to have Masaru join without having to fight him, having Sundown will help out since Masaru knows that the cowboy with a gun would win a fight between them.
** In the Ninja chapter this is actually used ''against the player'', when they attempt a 100-Kill run. After overhearing a group of guards go over the password system, one accidentally blurts out "Potato" and is immediately taken away. "Potato" then becomes the player's go-to option to deliberately fail a password check to start fights. There is however, ''just one enemy'' who [[ComicallyMissingThePoint doesn't accept the word "Potato" as a wrong password, because it's his favorite food]] and leaves right after the exchange (meaning you can't kill him later). This means the player '''must''' give him the wrong answer then and there in order to start a fight, which consequently means that it's entirely possible for the player to accidentally give him ''the right answer'' and completely ruin a genocide run if they grew complacent and haven't paid attention to the passwords so far.

* DemonicSpiders: The Pistachio and Dragon Killer enemies in the Final Chapter. Both are resistant to all physical attacks and completely immune to all elemental attacks and have a huge amount of defense alongside a high dodge rate. Pistachios don't attack, but counter everything with "Hellish Fragrance" which hits the entire field and inflicts random status ailments on the party, often knocking them out for a few turns. The latter is often the "controller" of the Pistachios and has fewer hit points, but defeating it to eliminate the underlings will make you lose your chance of getting Power Parts for Cube, and it may use Steel Titan's "Marduk's Rage" to bring your party members down.
* DieForOurShip: The Lucrece LoveTriangle in the Japanese playerbase tends to favor Oersted and Streibough as a couple more, mainly due to the mentioned spending more time together [[spoiler:pre-betrayal, and [[{{Misblamed}} Alethea is often blamed]] for ''said betrayal'' due to being the final blow to Oersted's sanity.]]

* DracoInLeatherPants: [[AmericansHateTingle In comparison to worldwide players generally loathing him]] [[spoiler:for his life-ruining jealousy,]] Streibough is adored by Japanese players for [[LongHairedPrettyBoy his design]] and his friendship with Oersted [[spoiler:before his betrayal]].

** For someone who can be possibly KilledOffForReal and be only an afterthought, Lei is very popular for the fandom, due to her being [[TheSmurfettePrinciple the sole female that can be in the final party]], and her overall ActionGirl quality coupled with her well-written character arc makes her much rounder than the game's other female characters.[[note]]While Beru can also be devastating in her chapter, she mostly plays the role of a DamselInDistress and her lack of dialogue means her motivations remain unclear. Alethea feels a little more developed than mere DamselInDistress, but in an unfortunately UnintentionallyUnsympathetic manner. Compared to them, Lei isn't just devastating when picked: [[CharacterDevelopment She also grows to be a stronger, kinder character in a positive way, making her worthy of being a heroine.]][[/note]] This might have carried over to the remake announcement trailers, where Lei is shown more compared to the other students, especially in official artworks for the remake.

** Coming up with new "chapters" for the game, given the nature of the story, is unsurprisingly common. Just pick a time period and location, make a character to serve as the protagonist [[spoiler:and a foil for Oersted]], and create a incarnation of Odio to oppose them.

** There have been fanfics in which a different character [[spoiler:becomes the Demon King/Lord of Dark instead of Oersted.]] And if said [[spoiler:Lord of Dark isn't a protagonist, the time-displaced team will often consist of party members or [=NPCs=].]]

** Sundown is often portrayed as a smoker in fanart due to him being based on The Man with No Name, his official artwork in the 1994 version of the game depicting him with a thin cigar in his mouth and Cigars being one of the healing items in his chapter (in the original game. The remake changes this to jerky).

*** Unlike the others who at the end of the final chapter [[spoiler:give a slow and steady counterpoint argument about themselves compared to Oersted, Akira just immediately breaks out in a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech.]]
*** [[spoiler: Their ultimate skills present an elemental {{Foil}}: Akira [[HolyHandGrenade summons an angel]] to debuff enemies in an area, while Oersted/Odio slashes an enemy with [[DarkIsEvil demonic power]] that can potentially kill in one blow and his 'angel' summon melts into a horrific screaming ghoul.]]
*** [[spoiler: Someone close to them who kills a good character and later dies themselves is also a {{Foil}} to each other: Streibough manipulates Oersted to killing the King of Lucrece via an illusion while Matsu kills Akira's father. The big differences is that Matsu changes for the better after the incident, takes responsibility to make amends, deciding to take it upon himself to raise Akira and Kaori at the orphanage while Streibough continues to make Oersted's life worse and even ''after death'', still ponders on whether his actions were what caused Oersted to become Odio.]]

** Lots of media will also portray Lei as the [[spoiler:final chapter]] protagonist due to her and [[spoiler:Oersted being considered quite similar (even stated by Lei herself) and leaving the question of an interesting dynamic of what would happen if their lot in life had been switched.]]
** Despite the unlikeliness of [[spoiler:the protagonists meeting each other again after the Dominion of Hate due to them hailing from different time periods, some fans like to think of the most likely scenarios, such as an aged Masaru meeting Akira or Masaru meeting someone during his extended journey who's a practitioner of Earthen Heart]]. In a similar vein, while the exact years of each chapter are ambiguous, many people tend to place Present Day within a few decades of Near Future rather than the hundreds or millions of years between the other chapters for this reason. On a slightly less improbable note, the fact that Oboromaru's time period is is stated to be the Late-Edo era/Meiji period thus putting him around the 1860s along with [[spoiler:Oboromaru preventing the assassination of UsefulNotes/SakamotoRyoma which took place in 1867]], this means that he and Sundown are most likely contemporaries and thus a chance for them to somehow meet again is low, but not completely impossible.

** Fans of ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'', and ''VideoGame/TriangleStrategy'' also get along with fans of ''Live A Live'' since the latter paved the way for the former three's gameplay, use of multiple characters, and use of time travel, just to name a few with ''Chrono Trigger'' being the RPG that came after ''Live A Live''.

*** The Sundown Kid, considered the most powerful character in the Super Famicom version. He actually starts out fairly weak, due to awful defenses and access to only two elements, with Hollow Point's range pushing/interruption being his only major boon. This changes with his level 16 technique, Hurricane. Hurricane is a multi-hit attack, meaning its damage is variable on top of a very lengthy charge time, but if it rolls enough hits it can deal 999 damage in a game where no boss ever gets much higher than 2,000. He'll always be a GlassCannon, but due to his high range, he can be safely placed behind other characters to attack from afar. Even after having his ultimate move being {{Nerf}}ed in the remake[[note]]Hurricane now takes even longer to charge up and the accuracy of individual hits is reduced, making it far more likely some will miss[[/note]], he's still considered top-tier.

** The Cola Bottle from Pogo's chapter can become this in the final chapter. [[spoiler:Just make sure to equip it to Pogo as an accessory before his chapter ends, and it'll carry over to the final chapter when he joins your party]]. The Cola Bottle is an infinite-use item with an attack that can deal 999 damage to almost every minor enemy in the game (and even some bosses!). Needless to say, the final chapter becomes a breeze with this in your arsenal. This is one of the main reasons why [[spoiler:you can't use it during the final phase of the Sin Of Odio fight]].

* HarsherInHindsight: Masaru's speech to [[spoiler:Oersted]] if chosen as the final protagonist has him proclaim that simply being the best can't be the only thing to strive for, as even the greatest fighters will be broken down by time, and when that happens only strength of spirit will be all that remains. In other words: Don't live solely for glory and then cling to it once you're past your prime. In retrospect he probably should have given that same speech to [[Wrestling/HulkHogan Max Morgan]] and [[Wrestling/RicFlair his cohorts]].

** For years, despite the game's small but dedicated cult following, a remake was discussed but not considered. But finally in 2022, the HD-2D remake of the game was not only announced for the Nintendo Switch, but also scheduled to finally release in the West. Looks like "as long as there is one man who believes in you" has some truth in it after all. The Tips for the "Captain Square" game seem to be an allegory for this game's fanbase still showing their love for it decades after its release considering "Captain Square" was stated to have been released on September 2nd, 1994 which is the same date as the original game's launch.

** A CrisisCrossover involving figures across all of human history, would have killed everyone in all of time and space if it succeeded [[spoiler:and caused by a human?]] [[VideoGame/FateGrandOrder There is no way this kind of story is ever going to be replicated]].
** The Final Chapter consists of [[spoiler:the hero waking up in the ruins of a Medieval fantasy RPG landscape overrun by monsters and has the option to run straight to the final boss, but is likely weak and encouraged to explore the land to become stronger before doing so. [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Sound familiar?]] Ironically, the SwordOfPlotAdvancement is mandatory here whereas you could play ''Breath of the Wild'' without ever encountering the Master Sword.]]
** The Distant Future chapter takes place on a spaceship, and features, if briefly, [[spoiler:an impostor masquerading as one of the main characters killing the rest of the crew mates and trying to pin the blame on somebody else]]. [[VideoGame/AmongUs Fast forward almost three decades...]]
** The Near Future has a psychic whose name starts with "Aki" who eventually becomes a BadassBiker on a red motorcycle...do you think he and [[Anime/YuGiOh5DS Aki Izayoi]] are related in someway? Bonus points is that Akira's boss takes the form of a giant bird, while the final boss of the Dark Signer saga is a raptor (although Aki never fights them). Alternatively, Yusei Fudo seems to also take inspiration from Akira as he was also raised in an orphanage, has a red motorcycle, and also has a unique ability in "Clear Mind".

** In the Distant Future chapter, the main antagonist is OD-10, a mother computer and [[spoiler:incarnation of Odio]] that eventually resorts to KillAllHumans to achieve its goal of maintaining order in the ship. Its reasoning turns out to be very solid, since most of the humans in the ship are quarrelsome. As a result, several fans chose to despise the token JerkJock Kirk Wells instead. This is because he's antagonistic towards Huey Trumbull, [[TheBully bullying]] him, and reminding him why his previous girlfriend dumped him for Kirk. [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom His impatience, followed by his argument with Huey, eventually accidentally justifies OD-10's decision to kill everyone, with Kirk being the first victim.]] While he is a jerk with a short temper, Kirk never meant to kill Huey despite the conflict between them. However, bullying is often seen as an extremely relatable antagonism, and fans consider Huey to be TheWoobie. Therefore, it's a lot easier for these fans to hate Kirk instead of OD-10.
** In the Middle Ages chapter, [[spoiler:the Lord of Dark Odio and his incarnations are vile pieces of work, but fans sympathize for Oersted because of all the shit poured on him. They instead focus their hatred onto Streibough, because it is ''his'' manipulation that turned his friend into the monster that (nearly) doomed all space and time, which is not even his overall goal, which is solely to screw over Oersted over petty jealousy rather than raging against humanity or the unfair world he lives in. When you find him in Akira's dungeon, reading his mind doesn't have him grasp the gravity at how much he screwed up, in contrast to Alethea -- herself having formerly been a jerk for spitting in Oersted's face, who went out of his way to rescue her, and then ''killing herself in front of him'' -- [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone realizing that she was the final nail in the coffin to Oersted's psyche]] [[TheAtoner and actively doing something]] [[SpannerInTheWorks to help Oersted.]]]] In the same chapter, [[spoiler:the cowardly Minister who immediately accuses Oersted for killing the King is also met with scorn from the fanbase, given that it's ''his'' fault entirely that Oersted is banished from the kingdom and brings about the downfall of Lucrece.]]
** In Imperial China, Ou Di Wan Lee gets away with his vileness cause he's an ArrogantKungFuGuy whose boss fight is thrilling and fitting of a martial arts film. However Sun Tzu Wang does ''not'' get that same treatment since [[spoiler:his petty desire to get revenge on the shifu made the shifu have to cancel his final lessons, thus letting the Indomitable Fist ''slaughter'' two of his disciples and one barely left standing and never appears again nor gets away comeuppance for his crimes. Thankfully, the remake's epilogue reveals that he and the successor would bury the hatchet, so he gets a slightly improved reception than the others later on.]]

** Some fans go for the remake's soundtrack so just for the song sung by Hironobu Kageyama who sang the opening of ''Manga/DragonBall''.
** In an adjacent example, the obscure Square Enix mobile RPG ''Holy Dungeon'' is mostly known by fans of ''Live A Live'' for it featuring the cast of the Middle Ages chapter (including [[spoiler:Oersted's Odio form]]), which was the first time they were ever rendered in non-chibi artwork prior to the remake. It helps that most of the designs and details from ''Holy Dungeon'' were used in the remake such as [[spoiler:Oersted wearing a cape as Odio]].

*** Akira specifically is more of a support and healing character with some offensive abilities as well — unfortunately, that's the same role that Cube has, and Cube sacrifices the some of the crowd control Akira has for a group heal that also cures a few StatusEffects, and a status buff heal. Many of the crowd-control abilities also [[UselessUsefulSpell are useful against standard enemies but not against bosses]]. Akira at least has a niche as a ''very'' potent debuffer[[note]]Something which becomes even more pronounced in the remake, where it takes much, ''much'' less from the player to know which moves have secondary effects and what those secondary effects do.[[/note]], but Hong has no such luck.
*** Hong starts at the highest level of the Earthern Heart students, which is actually a ''bad'' thing as it means he's very likely not to finish learning the Shifu's attacks before the chapter's over (whereas Lei and Yun will almost always learn at least one of their unique attacks by the boss fight), and the majority of his unique abilities require charging, which is ''very'' easy to disrupt[[note]]If a character has their facing forcibly changed or is moved on the map before the attack finishes charging, the charge breaks and the character's turn is wasted[[/note]]. About the only thing to his credit is his high defense and HP, and that's not enough by itself to outweigh Lei and Yun's advantages.

* MagnificentBastard: In the "Distant Future" chapter: [[AIIsACrapshoot OD-10]] is the A.I. control system of the ''Cogito Ergo Sum''. Designed to maintain order on the ship, [[TheComputerIsYourFriend OD-10]] perceived the crew as liability to the mission after seeing them fight among themselves, and decided to kill them to preserve order. Starting its killing spree by cutting off oxygen for Kirk's spacesuit and then sabotaging his medbay's life support, OD-10 sent his grief-maddened girlfriend Rachel a fake message, telling her to open the airlocks as a way to "save" Kirk. Using the distraction to release the dangerous alien beast Behemoth, OD-10 killed Captain Hor by asphyxiating him in his own locked chamber. As the Behemoth killed Huey, OD-10 finished the wounded Rachel off by disabling her cryo-pod using [[RobotBuddy Cube's]] prototype body, sending it to (nearly) kill Kato afterwards. As Kato, Darthe and real Cube [[SpotTheImposter out the imposter]], OD-10 finally reveals itself as the killer and locks the ship's systems, forcing the survivors to use the game console to connect Cube to its MUR-TH-UR Matrix to reset its systems, with OD-10 refusing to go down without a fight, an ultimately well-meaning and undeniably clever incarnation of Odio.

** What d'you think you can do...against this Gatling Gun?! [[note]]O. Dio's dialogue before he battles the players in the original fan translation, and his gatling gun attack is indeed one of the most powerful enemy attacks in the game. Since the remake is out, many fans use parodied version of this to describe how Square Enix takes down videos as effective as O. Dio's gatling gun, be it soundtrack video, or just regular gameplay ones. [[/note]]
** Everyone: *Heartful speech* Akira: "LISTEN HERE YOU SON OF A-" [[labelnote:Explanation (spoilers)]]In the remake's GoldenEnding, all the heroes give Oersted speech on why they keep going despite humanities faults, or at least take time to comfort him as he's on deaths door. Akira is notably ''not'' one of them, instead chewing Oersted out on becoming the Dark Lord in the first place. Fans often tend to summarize it as the protagonist giving a heartful speech only for Akira to immediately resort to swearing.[[/labelnote]]
** [[VideoGame/AmongUs Cube was not The Impostor.]] [[labelnote:Explanation]]In the remake, one of the ways Cube can get a Game Over is by opening the airlock and being shunted out into space. Given the nature of the Distant Future chapter, fans inevitably would compare it to Among Us.[[/labelnote]]
* {{Misblamed}}: The remake is sometimes criticized for not including things that were only added by the FanTranslation (e.g. Odie was not {{Bowdlerised}} - that was a case of SpiceUpTheSubtitles. [[spoiler:However it's still ''very'' clear that he did indeed kill the other opponents in all versions.]]) or were censored in the Japanese version of the remake as well (e.g. the Near Future chapter's [[PantyThief raid for Taeko's panties]] was replaced with pocket money theft and the Wild West chapter's healing items were replaced from alcoholic beverages and cigars to miracle tonics and jerkies; the Japanese version had these altered as well.)

** Odeo's followers had already crossed it when they [[spoiler:ordered the Crusaders to burn Bright Sparks down in retaliation against Akira and Matsu for messing with their laboratory]] They cross it one more time [[spoiler:when they had already sacrificed 2,000 humans to revive Odeo]].
** OD-10 [[spoiler:crosses it when it hijacks a Cube prototype to kill Rachel offscreen and attempt for Darthe and Kato's life, while claiming that the ship is under its control and "resistance is futile"]].

* {{Narm}}: In the Present Day chapter, losing to any of the fighters results in a GameOver and a forced file reload, even though they're friendly exhibition matches and many of opponents' [[TheComputerShallTauntYou victory lines]] aren't antagonistic. Losing to Odie O'Bright, a match that's explicitly a fight to the death under terrifying circumstances, results in a Continue countdown lifted right out of ''Franchise/StreetFighter''. Even if it's [[AntiFrustrationFeatures so you don't have to re-watch cutscenes]], it can still be major NightmareRetardant.

** The Near Future chapter has the plot device about mecha [[spoiler:being fueled by liquified humans]]. Being that it is a homage to the mecha genre, it sounds like a reference to ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' but it actually predates that anime.
** Plenty of people thought that many things that inspired ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' such as Oboro's chapter enabling a No-kill and no-mercy run, the [[FinalBoss final boss's]] first form, and the song Megalomania were actually copied from Undertale. Creator/TobyFox has actually gone on record of saying "Actually, I got this from Live A Live".

** The Imperial China chapter. The Shifu takes in three bright, promising pupils who all show signs of being inheritors of Earthen Heart Kung Fu, and then [[spoiler:two of them are murdered by Ou Di Wan Lee's goons]]. Even worse is that, once you know [[spoiler:how the game chooses which ones live, it's basically ''you'' deciding which ones die]]. Go ahead, ''try'' not to feel bad when you replay the chapter, with that knowledge. ''Especially'' if you aren't choosing [[spoiler: Yun considering how modest and hardworking he is, or that he has a beloved grandma.]]

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Akira was somewhat of a LowTierLetdown in the original version. Akira makes for one of the best support characters, but in boss fights it's better to swap Cube in since Cube replaced some crowd control and debuffing for group healing. The remake manages to make Akira's debuffs more easy to figure out, making him a more popular choice to take to the end.

** [[spoiler:Oersted's Odio form in many fanart isn't a LivingShadow or a grotesque face, but his handsome self given wings and/or a cape with Purity of Odio having him completely naked, resembling Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei's Lucifer/Helel instead of the game's [[Literature/LordOfTheRings Gollum]]-like appearance.]]

** In the Cowboy chapter, you set traps to prevent having to fight O. Dio's goons. Of course, you don't have to set a single one and fight the guy with his entire ensemble, which take up most of the field, AND O. Dio himself. Observe: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOIowYJvhu0 The reason why the Sundown Kid's the most badass of all the main characters.]]

** [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] but choosing Masaru as the Final Chapter protagonist can count. In Masaru's case, he starts at the lowest level of all the protagonists at level 2. This means that levelling up against enemies and recruiting the other heroes who need to be fought first will be difficult due to his low level and the fight against the other heroes are one-on-one fights.
** Depending on how much Akira was leveled up compared to the other protagonists can count too, considering that picking Akira means that the player has the most compulsory fights ([[spoiler:assuming Lei Kugo was chosen as the Earthern Heart master]]) when recruiting the other heroes with none of their fights able to be skipped. Choosing Oboromaru, Pogo and Masaru skips their compulsory fight while [[spoiler:choosing Lei Kugo means that not only will she be skipped, but she does not need to fight Pogo for him to join]]. Choosing Cube and Sundown skips Masaru's fight and he will join without needing to be fought. Although Akira himself can still be fought by the other protagonists, choosing the correct dialogue option skips the fight entirely.
* ShockingMoments: The Middle Ages chapter is infamous for being [[spoiler:an ''absolutely brutal'' deconstruction of [[Creator/SquareEnix Squaresoft's]] own trademark [=RPGs=] like the ''Franchise/DragonQuest'' or ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series. Especially in 1994 where ''nobody'' is expecting a rather standard hero character in a StandardFantasySetting broken down and turned into ''the Lord of Dark'', of all things and ends up with no happy ending.]]

* StuckInTheirShadow: Hong is likeable and gets enough good lines to avoid being TheScrappy, but he's easily the least popular of the Earthen Heart successors and the main cast as a whole. He's not as inherently cool or interesting as the other two Earthen Heart students, and despite some efforts taken to avoid it, he comes across as a simple-minded FatComicRelief without much of a chance to break away from the mold [[spoiler:if he dies]]. His performance in battle is also seen as subpar, and after Akira was improved in the remake he took his spot as the weakest character for the endgame. Most players only take Hong as the successor for the novelty, or because the Ancient China Watanabe scene is only shown if [[spoiler:he survives]].

*** [[spoiler:Odo has Swoop, which can do massive damage to anyone in the party, and Trample, which can interrupt charging attacks, cause knockback or paralyze.]]

*** [[spoiler:O. Dio has Gatling Barrage, which almost always does enough damage to result in a OneHitKill. The remake makes it even worse by making it a multi-hit attack and expanding its area-of-effect to include ''all four cardinal directions.'']]

*** [[spoiler:The Great Inko Statue Odeo has Binding Unity, which does random damage, but normally does plenty. It can also disable the Steel Titan's arm movements, limiting your moveset. There's also Odeodeo Showa, which deals the Broken Leg status which prevents you from moving or using Babylon Stomp, your strongest attack.]]
*** [[spoiler:OD-10 has Reformat Sector, which deals tons of damage and creates electric panels; however, she will only start using them if you cast HP Lookup on the middle of her sprite to change her graphic.]]
*** [[spoiler:Purity of Odio]] has a bunch of disruptive attacks that allows him to potentially wipe even over-leveled parties. Denial, which hits everyone and instantly disrupts any attacks you have planned while shoving the party around. Expunge, a powerful life-draining attack with incredibly high reach. Shadow of Despair is nothing special in the original, but in the remake, it plants an electrical panel under the target, meaning it's possible for the attack to knock out a character and immediately remove them with panel damage. However, the worst is actually [[spoiler:Saint Alethea, which will deal ridiculous amounts of damage and will inflict you with nearly every Status condition on the book, including Petrification, for sure if you don't have the Cosmic Equipment. It's bad on its own, but what makes this exceptional is that Purity of Odio tends to positively spam it. Thankfully in the remake version, he uses it in much lower frequencies and it no longer occupies nearly the whole battlefield.]]
*** In the remake, [[spoiler:Sin of Odio has Torment's Draught, which just like Saint Alethea, can inflict your whole party with every status on the board, deals around 200 damage on average and may occupy the whole battlefield. He won't spam this attack, but you'll have to endure it at least once.]]

** The {{superboss}} from the Prehistory chapter, Mammoth King, has Great Fire Boom and Mount Big Boom. Both attacks hit extremely hard, which is bad enough on its own, but they also create fire tiles which can then heal the already beefy Mammoth King and undo a lot of your progress. The latter in has a range spanning the entire battlefield but is a charged attack and thus can be potentially interrupted, while the former "only" hits a 5x5 area centered on Mammoth King but comes out immediately.
*** The healing factor is made infinitely worse in the remake due to healing from hazard tiles being made cumulative, meaning the Mammoth King will be healed by 24 HP ''multiplied by the number of fire tiles it occupies'' - up to a staggering 216, nearly a ''quarter'' of its max HP! If you're not extremely diligent about either preventing Mammoth King from using these moves or getting rid of the fire tiles as quickly as possible, it'll actually end up recovering HP faster than you can damage it, turning the fight into an exercise in futility.

** [[spoiler:Streibough's Black Abyss, his strongest attack and Demonic technique which he learns at Level 16 that foreshadows his true nature, is a counter that not only hits really hard but he usually follows up with an about equally hard-hitting Amber Flurry which usually results in dealing ''two-thirds of damage to Oersted's HP''! Not only does Amber Flurry covers nearly half of the battlefield with Lightning Tiles, but Streibough can recover health from being in said Lightning Tiles.]]

** The Archon's Roost, like Akira's chapter, usually wears out its welcome by the end of the game due to the fact that the player is required to traverse the entire dungeon no fewer than ''three times''--once partway through the Middle Ages chapter, once at the end of the Middle Ages chapter, and again as TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. Add in the fact that facing the Headhunter {{superboss}} requires getting to the FinalBoss and ''leaving'' and that a player can optionally traverse the ''entirety'' of the Archon's Roost in the Middle Ages chapter during the period where [[spoiler:Oersted is exiled and wandering]] (which is indeed a valid way to end this sequence, albeit one far more troublesome than simply [[spoiler:returning to Lucrece]]) and a player aiming for OneHundredPercentCompletion could end up braving the Roost a total of '''''five times.''''' Not helped is that the Roost is already a MarathonLevel that is one of the longest, most complex, and most labyrinthine levels in the game, or that essentially nothing between these runs changes except which boss you fight at the end. The Archon's Roost isn't hard, per se, but it quickly becomes tedium incarnate.

** For those looking to earn the platinum trophy, the {{Superboss}} Death Prophet is a definite hurdle. Not because he's hard to fight, as a properly leveled and geared party can take him down in short order, but because he's hard to ''find''. You have to run away from a hundred random encounters in the final chapter alone before you can face him, making him incredibly tedious to defeat compared to every other optional boss. There isn't even a hint this is how you encounter him until the ''ninety-fifth'' time you run away (at which point a voice declares that you have five left).

** The Sheriff of Success in the Wild West chapter would have been an interesting character play as when confronting the Crazy Bunch, given that he offers to fight alongside Sundown and Mad Dog. Same goes with Annie, the tough barmaid having stood up to scum like Pike, given the game's lack of playable heroines.

** [[spoiler:Streibough never gets any sort of redemption or a scene where he is chewed out for ''all'' of the mistakes he made. The only thing that happens is he is perpetually stuck in a NeverMyFault mindset whereas ''Alethea'' is the only one brave enough to fix her mistakes. Speaking of which, there's no scene of Alethea or practically ''anyone'' in Lucrece who learns the truth about what happened, or the fact that Streibough essentially gets away with causing everyone's deaths for one act of petty jealousy.]]

* ValuesDissonance: In the original version of the game, the Bountiful Heart was characterized as a DepravedBisexual and an AbhorrentAdmirer who tries to woo the (more often than not male) lead party member while chasing and fighting them. Back in 1994, when the game was first released, such depiction would not raise eyebrows from the crowd because LGBTQ+ people were considered to be targets of vilification, but starting from TheNewTens and onwards, LGBTQ+ awareness became a serious issue, thus making the joke cringeworthy at best and downright offensive at worst. It's most likely for this reason the remake drops such characterization for the Bountiful Heart and instead depicts him as relentless martial artist who wants to fight the protagonists [[BloodKnight for the sake of thrill of combat]].

** The King of Lucrece has to deal with the fact that his tournament is [[spoiler:the cause of '''everything''' that went wrong not just in Lucrece but throughout eight different time periods, led to his death, Oersted's fall, his daughter's suicide and can only watch, blaming himself for what was just an innocent gesture.]]

** In the remake, the use of GratuitousIambicPentameter and FloweryElizabethanEnglish for the Middle Ages chapter aptly lends the entire chapter the air of a Shakespearean tragedy, and is especially effective during [[spoiler:Oersted's ThenLetMeBeEvil monologue, a soliloquy of seething rage and despair that is carried by its lofty writing and Dario Coates's thundering performance]]. This writing style is kept in the final chapter for the BigBad and appropriately lends the confrontations with him a level of grandiosity not seen in the original. For bonus points, Streibough's Japanese and English voice actors are both well-versed in Shakespeare, [[spoiler:which makes Streibough instigating the tragedies all the more fitting.]]

** [[spoiler:Oersted's Odio form in many fanart isn't a LivingShadow or a grotesque face, but [[EvilIsSexy his handsome self]] given wings and/or a cape with Purity of Odio having him completely naked, resembling Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei's Lucifer/Helel instead of the game's [[Literature/LordOfTheRings Gollum]]-like appearance.]]

* ViewerPronunciationConfusion: Because voice acting didn't exist in the original version, there's no concrete way to pronounce OD-10's name at that time, and it can be pronounced as "OD-Ten", "OD-One-O", or "OD-One-Zero". The remake uses the pronunciations "OD-One-O" in the English dub, and "OD-Ten" in the Japanese version, meaning both of these are correct.
** The title of the game itself also had confusion with people pronouncing Live like "I live" instead of like "Live TV". It wasn't until the remake that the "Live" is prounounced like the latter.
* VindicatedByHistory: Live a Live had been considered a below-average performance by Square and generally disappeared in the public consciousness in favor of its much more well known sibling ''Chrono Trigger'', which wasn't helped by the fact that it was never localized and only managed to gain traction in niche circles due to the fan translation. It wasn't until the remake's release that a larger eye managed to be put on it, its soundtrack, and its story, with discussion of it nowadays singling it out as one of Square Enix's most unique games with a creative premise and memoriable villain.

** For someone who can be possibly KilledOffForReal and be only an afterthought, Lei is very popular for the fandom, due to her being [[TheSmurfettePrinciple the sole female that can be in the final party]], and her overall ActionGirl quality coupled with her well-written character arc makes her much rounder than the game's other female characters.[[note]]While Beru can also be devastating in her chapter, she mostly plays the role of a DamselInDistress and her lack of dialogue means her motivations remain unclear. Alethea feels a little more developed than mere DamselInDistress, but in an unfortunately UnintentionallyUnsympathetic manner. Compared to them, Lei isn't just devastating when picked: [[CharacterDevelopment She also grows to be a stronger, kinder character in a positive way, making her worthy of being a heroine.]][[/note]] This might have carried over to the remake announcement trailers, where Lei is shown more compared to the other students.

** The angel Akira summons for his Heaven-themed attacks (particularly his final skill "Judgement Day") is frequently associated and depicted alongside him in fanart despite being a generic sprite that can appear in the Prehistory chapter if Pogo uses the Rock of Rocks in battle, [[DivineDate often either shipped with him]] or shown as his GuardianAngel FightingSpirit.
** Mimic Mammet, a GuestStarPartyMember in the Twilight of Edo Japan chapter whose main existence is to be an ActionBomb for a pacifist run and unceremoniously dies, is a fan-favourite who is usually spared in fanart such as joining the Enma alongside Oboromaru.

** Akira. Look through his Pixiv tag and you're bound to find him shipped with multiple members of the small cast, including but not limited to Matsu, Oboromaru, Lei, Masaru, [[FoeYayShipping Oersted/Odio]], his summonable Angel...

* AngstWhatAngst: Akira's childhood trauma was hearing a gunshot, and then discovering his father's corpse. For some reason, he doesn't flinch during Sundown's recruitment when the latter [[ClickHello aims his revolver at him suspiciously.]]

*** Much like Cube's chapter, the Trial of Wisdom is the easiest of the special dungeons in Domain of Hate, having no encounters whatsoever and the boss of the area being completely optional. While the dungeon itself has a lot of puzzles, they are mostly very straighforward and easy to figure out with some thought put into it.
*** And like Masaru's chapter, the Trial of Strength is extremely simple. The boss (which, unlike most other dungeon bosses in the Dominion of Hate, it's ''not'' a {{Superboss}}) is fought at the entrance so you can get it out of the way early, and the dungeon itself is just one long corridor towards Masaru's InfinitePlusOneSword. No maze navigation or puzzle solving, just random encounters.

* SpecialEffectFailure: The remake has a rather hilarious oversight with the "[[StoneWall Table]]" enemy in the Imperial China chapter. Non-major battles start with a camera pan from the side to the front, but because the Table enemy [[CheatedAngle lacks any side sprites]] unlike the regular enemies, the battle intro briefly has the table look like a cardboard cutout stand when the battle involving it starts.

** Cube's chapter only has one required boss battle, and it doesn't have a single GuideDangIt. [[spoiler:That doesn't [[NothingIsScarier mean]] it's boring [[SurvivalHorror or that you can't die in it...]]]]
** Sundown's chapter has a total of five battles, of which one is optional (and eliminates one of the others if you choose to fight), three are laughably easy, and one is against the chapter's boss [[spoiler:and can be made significantly easier depending on how you set the traps]].
** Much like Cube's chapter, the Trial of Wisdom is the easiest of the special dungeons in Domain of Hate, having no encounters whatsoever and the boss of the area being completely optional. While the dungeon itself has a lot of puzzles, they are mostly very straighforward and easy to figure out with a thought put into it.

*** And finally, Kazuko Shimamoto, the original character designer for Near Future, would produce a manga of the final dungeon that ''specifically'' has Akira be the main character.

** The Near Future has a psychic whose name starts with "Aki" who eventually becomes a BadassBiker on a red motorcycle...do you think he and [[Anime/YuGiOh5DS Aki Izayoi]] are related in someway?

** Sundown is often portrayed as a smoker in fanart due to him being based on The Man with No Name, his official artwork in the 1994 version of the game depicting him with a thin cigar in his mouth and Cigars being one of the healing items in his chapter in the original game. The remake changes this to jerky.

*** Pogo has basically everything he needs to succeed in both versions. He'll likely enter the end-game at a high level if the {{superboss}} in his chapter was killed, bringing some very strong equipment with him like the Fang of the King, Cola Bottle, and Rock of Rocks. His HP is the highest in the game, with his tankiness only rivaled by Masaru and Hong, alongside very good speed. His attacks are extremely varied and powerful as well, with Bing Bang Boom being the only other move besides Hurricane that can reliably hit the damage cap (it debuffs all of his stats for a long time after using it, but buffing items and Cube can alleviate this). His only weak point is [[MagicallyIneptFighter bottom-of-the-barrel special stats]], but this is even easier to counteract than Sundown's defenses.

*** Akira specifically is more of a support and healing character with some offensive abilities as well — unfortunately, that's the same role that Cube has, and Cube sacrifices the crowd control Akira has for raw healing. Many of the crowd-control abilities also [[UselessUsefulSpell are useful against standard enemies but not against bosses]]. Akira at least has a niche as a ''very'' potent debuffer[[note]]Something which becomes even more pronounced in the remake, where it takes much, ''much'' less from the player to know which moves have secondary effects and what those secondary effects do.[[/note]], but Hong has no such luck.

** The Mecha Chapter has the plot device about mecha [[spoiler:being fueled by liquified humans]]. Being that it is a homage to the mecha genre, it sounds like a reference to ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' but it actually predates that anime.

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Akira was somewhat of a LowTierLetdown in the original version. Akira makes for one of the best support characters, but in boss fights it's better to swap Cube in since Cube replaced crowd control and debuffing for pure healing. The remake manages to make Akira's debuffs more easy to figure out, making him a more popular choice to take to the end.

*** [[spoiler:Odo has Chew, which can do massive damage to anyone in the party.]]
*** [[spoiler:Ou Di Wan Lee has Mad Dragon's Rage, which can easily kill the Inheritor when you face him.]]

*** [[spoiler:Odie O'Bright has Diving DDO, which can kill Masaru in one hit. Two hits, if the player's lucky. However, it debuffs Odie O'Bright's stats after use, regardless of whether it hits or not.]]

*** [[spoiler:Purity of Odio]] has a bunch of disruptive attacks that allows him to potentially wipe even over-leveled parties. Denial, which hits everyone and instantly disrupts any attacks you have planned while shoving the party around. Expunge, a powerful life-draining attack with incredibly high reach. Shadow of Despair is nothing special in the original, but in the remake, it plants an electrical panel under the target, meaning it's possible for the attack to knock out a character and immediately remove them with panel damage. However, the worst is actually [[spoiler:Saint Alethea, which will deal ridiculous amounts of damage and will inflict you with nearly every Status condition on the book, including Stone, for sure if you don't have the Cosmic Equipment. It's bad on its own, but what makes this exceptional is that Purity of Odio tends to positively spam it. Thankfully in the remake version, he uses it in much lower frequencies and it no longer occupies nearly the whole battlefield.]]

** [[spoiler:The (false) Lord of Dark's strongest attack instantly Petrify anyone hit by it. This can, however, be cured with one of Uranus's healing moves, and fortunately he cannot be stoned. Of course, God help you if ''he'' gets wiped.]]

** Getting the hidden items in Pogo's chapter. One involves going very close to the end of the chapter, then going to a rock that did nothing before this and examining it ''one hundred times'', which opens a door elsewhere with no hint as to where that door is. The other is much simpler... except for the part where it requires fighting King Mammoth, often described as the single hardest boss in the entirety of the game. And the item in question (the [[spoiler:Cola Bottle]]) is a '''''random drop'''''.
** The Muramasa in the Twilight of Edo chapter. This requires fighting one of two [[Superboss superbosses]], being Majin Ryuunosuke. While the fight itself can be quite hard given that Majin Ryuunosuke is a superboss, ''finding'' him is hard enough as it requires walking in a specific manner in the Path of Shuttered Lanterns to find the room where the Muramasa is. Like with the Basic Rock in Pogo's chapter, the method is tedious but doable, the catch is that there is absolutely no indication in the game that hints on ''knowing'' this method in the first place. The remake provides some tips about the Path of Shuttered Lanterns but otherwise is still cryptic in the hint.

** Several fans disliked the remake's name changes to a few characters in the Middle Ages chapter (Straybow to Streibough, Hash to Hasshe, and Alicia to Alethea), especially since few other major characters had their names altered for the localized release.

** The Sheriff of Success in Sundown's chapter would have been an interesting character play as when confronting the Crazy Bunch, given that he offers to fight alongside Sundown and Mad Dog.
** It's lamented that due to the nature of Cube's chapter, [[spoiler:military badass Corporal Darthe]] is unable to be played as.

* ViewerPronunciationConfusion: Because voice acting didn't exist during 1994, there's no concrete way to pronounce OD-10's name at that time, and it can be pronounced as "OD-Ten", "OD-One-O", or "OD-One-Zero". The remake uses the pronunciations "OD-One-O" in the English dub, and "OD-Ten" in the Japanese version, meaning both of these are correct.

** The Earthen Heart Successor [[spoiler:regardless of who that ends up being. They come to lose their entire adoptive family -- in Lei and Hong's case, the only family they actually have (Yun at least still has his grandmother) -- and their beloved Shifu, who taught them all his secrets and gave them a better life, dies in their arms after giving them some last words of encouragement. At the end, the Inheritor is left to rebuild the school and keep training a new generation of Earthen Heart students alone, but with the knowledge that the Shifu and the other two students are watching over them.]]

** The general consensus among the Japanese fandom seems to be that Streighbough and Oersted have known each other since they were young children, with their relationship being on equal and respectful terms until their adulthood.

** Akira. Look through his Pixiv tag and you're bound to find him shipped with multiple members of the small cast, including but not limited to Matsu, Oboromaru, Lei, Masaru, Oersted/Odio his summonable Angel...

* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Lei, due to being the one of the very few playable female protagonists [[spoiler:whose status may stick to the end of the game depending on her survival]]. She's been shipped with Akira, [[FoeYayShipping Ou Di Wan Lee]] [[spoiler:and Oersted by extension]], Masaru, Oboromaru, and occasionally Yun.

** While it's generally agreed to be used very well for story and gameplay, many fans mourn the fact that the Behemoth is only a OneHitKill hazard and can't be fought. Similarly, it's lamented that due to the nature of Cube's chapter, [[spoiler:military badass Corporal Darthe]] is unable to be played as.

* UnderusedGameMechanic: The [[NonElemental Void]] attack element is very underutilized when it comes to playable character moves: there's only two Void techniques spread across two different characters, and neither move is particularly remarkable. Moreover, since said characters are Yun and Hong, [[spoiler:they're mutually exclusive skills, and are completely inaccessible during the final chapter if Lei becomes the Earthen Heart Master over either of them]].

** Choosing Sundown as the player for the final chapter. On top of being one of the strongest player characters in the game (see GameBreaker and HighTierScrappy), [[spoiler:he's also extremely difficult to recruit there]]. Unlike the other heroes, Sundown isn't confined in a single spot and will not join your party [[spoiler:until you follow him to seven different locations spread across the overworld map. Therefore, starting with him cuts down ''lots'' of wasted time (especially with random encounters) and you have an extremely powerful GlassCannon of a character from the get-go]]. Moreover, if you want to have Masaru join without having to fight him, having Sundown will help out since Masaru is a big fan of westerns (or in the remake, it's because Masaru knows that the cowboy with a gun would win a fight between them).

* LowTierLetdown: Akira and Hong. While they aren't exactly ''bad'' per se, they're just outclassed by people who either require a lot less work to make effective (Lei, Cube), or have much greater payoffs (Yun).
** Akira specifically is more of a support and healing character with some offensive abilities as well — unfortunately, that's the same role that Cube has, and Cube sacrifices the crowd control Akira has for raw healing. Many of the crowd-control abilities also [[UselessUsefulSpell are useful against standard enemies but not against bosses]]. Akira at least has a niche as a ''very'' potent debuffer[[note]]Something which becomes even more pronounced in the remake, where it takes much, ''much'' less from the player to know which moves have secondary effects and what those secondary effects do.[[/note]], but Hong has no such luck.
** Hong starts at the highest level of the Earthern Heart students, which is actually a ''bad'' thing as it means he's very likely not to finish learning the Shifu's attacks before the chapter's over (whereas Lei and Yun will almost always learn at least one of their unique attacks by the boss fight), and the majority of his unique abilities require charging, which is ''very'' easy to disrupt[[note]]If a character has their facing forcibly changed or is moved on the map before the attack finishes charging, the charge breaks and the character's turn is wasted[[/note]]. About the only thing to his credit is his high defense and HP, and that's not enough by itself to outweigh Lei and Yun's advantages.

* TheScrappy: Hong is easily the least popular of the Earthen Heart successors. While Lei has a strong skill set and a DefrostingIceQueen character arc, and Yun has some ''potent'' MagikarpPower and GrewASpine for a character arc, Hong is just a FatIdiot who's obsessed with food, nothing video games (or media in ''general'') hasn't shown us a thousand times before. As noted under LowTierLetdown, almost all of his personal skills have to charge, which makes him a downright liability in the final chapter. Most players only bother taking Hong as the successor because the Ancient China Watanabe scene is only shown if [[spoiler:he survives]].