History YMMV / LiveALive

*** 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, [[KarmicHell this may not be coincidental in Oersted/Odio's design.]]]]

** In the original Japanese script, Kato's first choice for his robot's name is "Koro" -- an onomatopoeia to describe something rolling around like a ball -- to reflect the robot's shape. However, since "Koro" is a stereotypical pet name in Japanese, he decides to be more original and name it "Cube". While the official localization of the HD version translates this somewhat literally (Kato's original choice is "Roundy", which he thinks is too predictable), the Aeon Genesis FanTranslation of the original uses a clever localization to preserve the original joke: he initially goes with "Rover", referring to the robot's roving treads while also being a stereotypical dog's name in the English-speaking world.

** A minor one from the Aeon Genesis FanTranslation: in the Sci-fi chapter, Kato the mechanic's first choice for Cube's name is "Koro," a Japanese onomatopoeia for a rolling sound, or "to roll." Finding it too much like a pet's name, he names him Cube. The AG translation's clever change is "Rover," keeping with the rolling motif and also noting that Cube does, indeed, move on rover treads. (The remake goes with "Roundy".)
** In the definitive fan translation, each chapter has their own unique font to make them stand out. In the final chapter, each character speaks in their respective chapter's font.

*** [[spoiler: Their ultimate skills present an elemental {{Foil}}: Akira summons an angel to debuff enemies in an area, while Oersted/Odio slashes an enemy with demonic power and his 'angel' summon melts into a horrific screaming ghoul.]]

** Many people used to comment "Hey, they got this from ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' didn't they?" on videos of gameplay footage, both ironically and unironically. As of TheNewTwenties, the comments changed to "Comment if you came here ''before VideoGame/{{Undertale}}''.

* HarsherInHindsight: Masaharu'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]].

** Everyone: *Heartful speech* Akira: "LISTER 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]]

** 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.

** 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.

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

** [[spoiler:Ou Di Wan Lee. Turns out the Earthen Heart Successor's lack of confidence was justified. Your only sources of healing are whatever items you picked up on the way, as none of the pupils learn any healing moves [[spoiler:until the Dominion of Hate in regards to Lei and Yun, who start developing their own skills and eventually learn a self-healing skill each]]. Ou Di Wan Lee himself hits extremely hard, particularly with his Mad Dragon's Rage attack, which can hit almost every square on the battlefield. The only consistent safe spot is right in front of him, and even then he can just use Rabid Wolf's Rage to toss you back into divekick range. And unlike [[LimitBreak Heavenly Peaks Descent]], which you can only use once per battle, Ou Di can use Mad Dragon's Rage as many times as he feels like.]]

*** [[spoiler:During Oersted's visit to the Lord of Dark statue room, the statue of Odeo, Akira's final boss, defaults to be put at the center, whereas in the final chapter, whoever you choose as the leading character (besides Oersted or Akira) will have their chapter's boss statue move to the center instead.

** Despite him being agreed to be the worst player character stat-wise, there's a surprising amount of media that portrays Akira as the [[spoiler:final chapter]] protagonist. This one may have basis, though: [[spoiler:During Oersted's visit to the Lord of Dark statue room, the statue of Odeo, Akira's final boss, defaults to be put at the center, whereas in the final chapter, whoever you choose as the leading character (besides Oersted or Akira) will have their chapter's boss statue move to the center instead. Additionally, his dungeon is unique compared to the others, where it's populated by the spirits of the people killed by Odio, and unlike the others who at the end of the final chapter give a slow and steady counterpoint argument about themselves compared to Oersted, Akira just immediately breaks out in a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech. As well with them having an elemental {{Foil}} in their ultimate skills, with Akira summoning an angel to debuff enemies in an area, while Oersted/Odio slashes an enemy with demonic power and his 'angel' summon melts into a horrific screaming ghoul. 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 and decides to take it upon himself to raise Akira and Kaori at the orphanage while Streibough continues to make Oersted's life worse. The difference is that Matsu took responsibility to make amends while Streibough, even ''after death'', still ponders on whether his actions were what caused Oersted to become Odio.]]

** Despite him being agreed to be the worst player character stat-wise, there's a surprising amount of media that portrays Akira as the [[spoiler:final chapter]] protagonist. This one may have basis, though: [[spoiler:During Oersted's visit to the Lord of Dark statue room, the statue of Odeo, Akira's final boss, defaults to be put at the center, whereas in the final chapter, whoever you choose as the leading character (besides Oersted or Akira) will have their chapter's boss statue move to the center instead. Additionally, his dungeon is unique compared to the others, where it's populated by the spirits of the people killed by Odio, and unlike the others who at the end of the final chapter give a slow and steady counterpoint argument about themselves compared to Oersted, Akira just immediately breaks out in a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech. As well with them having an elemental {{Foil}} in their ultimate skills, with Akira summoning an angel to debuff enemies in an area, while Oersted/Odio slashes an enemy with demonic power and his 'angel' summon melts into a horrific screaming ghoul.]]

** For years, despite the game's small but dedicated cult following, a remake was discussed but not considered. But finally in 2022, the 2D-HD 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.

** In the Mechanical Heart 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 Lord of Dark 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 Medieval 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.]]

* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Lei. She's been shipped with Akira, [[FoeYayShipping Ou Di Wan Lee]] [[spoiler:and Oersted by extension]], Masaru, Oboromaru, and occasionally Yun.

* {{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]]) 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; Japanese version had these altered as well.)

** 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 Kung Fu 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.]]
** The Medieval chapter is one long train of Player Punches. Over the course of the chapter, [[spoiler:two of your buddies are killed in the rescue attempt, you're forced to come home empty-handed, you're duped into regicide and imprisoned, your last buddy sacrifices himself to help you escape, and your best friend turns out to have been behind it all because he was jealous of you]]. The absolute worst punch is the ending, though; [[spoiler:Alethea accuses you of never bothering to try and help her, declares her sympathy for the man who completely ruined your life, and then offs herself to be with him. No wonder [[ThenLetMeBeEvil Oersted's sanity goes bye-bye]] at the end of it all.]]

** [[spoiler:The (false) Lord of Dark's strongest attack instantly stones 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.]]

** [[spoiler:Ou Di Wan Lee. Turns out the Earthen Heart Successor's lack of confidence was justified. Your only sources of healing are whatever items you picked up on the way, as none of the pupils learn any healing moves. Ou Di Wan Lee himself hits extremely hard, particularly with his Mad Dragon's Rage attack, which can hit almost every square on the battlefield. The only consistent safe spot is right in front of him, and even then he can just use Rabid Wolf's Rage to toss you back into divekick range. And unlike [[LimitBreak Heavenly Peaks Descent]], which you can only use once per battle, Ou Di can use Mad Dragon's Rage as many times as he feels like.]]

** In the Lord of Dark 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.]]]]

** [[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.]]

*** 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.]]

* 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 AcceptableTargets, 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]].