Nightmare Fuel / Live A Live

KILL YOU...

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Live-A-Live is a Genre Roulette, covering slapstick, martial arts drama, fantasy... and horror.

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General

• Odio himself is the scariest character in the game. His incarnations are some of the most evil and horrifying characters in their respective chapters. Whenever his incarnations show up, his Leitmotif, The Demon King Odio starts playing. It is a haunting melody comprised with bells, organ pipes, and an Ethereal Choir. Another thing that makes him this game's resident Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant is the implication of his power. As the king of demons, Odio is able to transcend time and space by reincarnating his hatred which even penetrates as far back as Prehistoric Times, to as far as the distant future. Add to that and the fact that he is also a Misanthrope Supreme who is actively trying to Kill All Humans (and Human-loving robots as seen with Cube being sent to Lucretia along with all of the other protagonists), and you can easily see why Odio is a very serious threat. His backstory is also horrifying and saddening (See the Medieval Chapter below).

Prehistory Chapter -Contact-

• While mostly humorous, the chapter gets a HUGE Mood Whiplash during the climax with the arrival of O-D-O, last of the dinosaurs and a massive T-Rex, who is worshiped as a god by the antagonist tribe, which doesn't earn them any favors as their chief is devoured by the beast just before the final battle. You don't even see it happen, the chief panics, runs off-screen, then there's a massive roar, and something eats him alive before spitting his headpiece back to the characters... before a gigantic shadow steps towards them.

Ancient China Chapter -Inheritance-

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Bakamatsu Chapter -Secret Orders-

• That weird person who runs away from Oboro emitting some kind of horrible roar.
• The creepy giant fish living in the moat that can be fought as an optional boss.
• Obe Iou, the self-proclaimed Emperor Of Darkness, and his horrific One-Winged Angel form, which resembles a monstrous humanoid toad with one arm turned into a snake.

Wild West Chapter -Wandering-

• O'Dio, a violent madman and leader of the outlaw gang The Crazy Bunch. He's the only survivor of the 7th Cavalry, which was massacred by indians, and has been driven insane by the experience. He's also strong enough that he can lug around a hand-powered minigun with his bare hands.

Present Day Chapter -The Strongest-

• Masaru's chapter, while showing it as fantastical as the rest of the game, shows off a situation that could indeed happen in real life; a Serial Killer targeting and successfully slaughtering a specific group of people.

Near Future Chapter -Blood Flow-

• Finding the room full of liquefied humans in the military facility. Even worse if you read their minds...
  "Help... me..."
  "Give back... my body..."
  • The lake of liquefied humans devouring the government operatives before their sacrifice is used by Odio to possess the Great Buddha statue.

Science Fiction Chapter -Mechanical Heart-

• The entire chapter becomes flat-out Survival Horror once the Behemoth gets loose and things start to go to hell. The tense music doesn't help.
• OD-10's Nightmare Face, especially after you scan it (pictured).

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Medieval Chapter -King of Demons-

• That hellish rumbling noise that plays whenever the Demon King is onscreen.
• The ending. The princess Oersted sought to save is dead. Straybow, the man he thought was his best friend, is dead. The King is dead- by his own hand, no less. Then the Silent Protagonist turns to the camera and begins to speak. And when he finishes, lightning strikes, the eyes of the Demon King's statue begin to glow, and Odio's Leitmotif begins to play...
  "There's nothing left for me. No place to return to, nobody to love, and nothing to believe in... Nothing... but Demons... ... I will become a demon... In doing so, I shall teach humanity the folly of their selfishness! From now on... I am no longer Oersted... I am... The Demon King... Odio...!"
  • To quote the Joker, "All it takes is one bad day."

Finale

• "Saint Alicia," one of the final boss's attacks. The spell displays an angelic-looking female figure hovering over the target, before she quickly melts into a horrifying hag with a mouth of fangs while letting out a horrible death wail (a sound so complex that, like Lavos' roar in Chrono Trigger, most emulators have trouble fully replicating it). Context only makes the spell even worse: it's named after the woman Oersted once loved. He's so consumed by hatred that this is how he sees Alicia now.
• The arena you fight the final boss in. If you look closely, you'll notice that your party is standing on a mountain of corpses (presumably victims of Odio) while fighting him.
• Even the final boss's death can send you reeling. After you reduce his health to zero, instead of the usual death effect of a boss, the boss and the entire arena slowly dissolve, accompanied by a horrible, unbreaking tornado siren-esque noise.
  • And that's if you play on an emulator that can't render the sound right. The original sound for the death of Pure Odio is more like an incredibly loud static roar.
• The kingdom that the Medieval chapter took place in is eerily quiet. What happened is hinted in a number of places, and then all but outright said in Akira's secret dungeon: Everyone's dead. They either died during the events of Oersted's chapter, or were killed by Oersted as Odio. Even the little kid who still believed in Oersted. It's also all but stated that some of the people in Lucretia died pretty violently. If you try to read the signposts to know where to go? They're unreadable, because they're caked with blood.
• The prelude to the Death Prophet in the final chapter. You're just minding your business, probably running away from battles when things go south. And suddenly, after retreating, the music stops and an ominous message like the Grim Reaper warns you that death awaits those who run away too much, and starts counting down to zero every time you run away. When the countdown reaches ZERO... it comes to you. A black panther monster that can easily turn you into stone. Unless you're the type of keeping count of how many times you run away, the Death Prophet's warning comes off as chilling and shocking.
• If you meet Demon King Odio at the peak and choose to run away, you'll end up back in the void-between-temporal-dimensions where you originally started. Except for one very serious problem: You get severely punished for your hesitation and cowardice by running into "The Headplucker", an optional boss that will proceed to use his Wezan Blade to decapitate your party with impunity since his stats are outrageously high.^note But low enough that he can be crippled by a few stat reductions to give you a chance at winning.