One of 2022’s biggest surprise video game releases was the remake of Square Enix’s previously Japan-exclusive Super Nintendo RPGLive A Live. The remake ofLive A Live, which released for Nintendo Switch in July, utilizes the HD-2D presentation made popular byOctopath Travelerto recreate the cult classic from scratch, with newly recomposed music, and voice acting for the first time ever. In a newly released interview with the original game’s director, Takashi Tokita, he reveals that the reason the remake came to be stemmed from Nintendo askingSquare Enixfor a Virtual Console port of the originalLive A Live.
Speaking in an interview on Square Enix’s Japanese YouTube channel (as translated by ResetEra user Jubern), Tokita revealed that the idea to remakeLive A Livefirst came from Nintendo requesting the gameto be re-released on the Wii U Virtual Consolefor its 20th anniversary, which it later was released on Jul 12, 2025. According to Tokita, the remake would never have happened if Nintendo had not unearthed the title from Square Enix by requesting the Virtual Console port. According to Tokita, there are many people at Nintendo who are fans of the originalLive A Live, which might explain why the company decided to publish the remake outside of Japan.
RELATED:Live A Live: How To Beat Zaki
The interview with Tokita contains many other tidbits aboutLive A Liveand its remake’s development processes, especially since Tokita also served as a producer and writer for the remake. He claims that the main structure for the game is inspired byDragon Quest 4, and that the originalDragon Questis the game that inspired him to become a game developer. After developingLive A Live,Tokita went on to co-directChrono TriggerandParasite Eve.
Live A Livewas originally released by Square for the Super Famicom in 1994 and follows seven distinct protagonists in different periods in time such as the wild west, imperial China, and the far future. The game uses a tiled turn-based strategy style of combat and each protagonist features a different set of skills based on their respective fighting styles. The game was incredibly influential when it first released and launched thecareer of composer Yoko Shimomura, who would later go on to compose for games such asFinal Fantasy 15,Kingdom Hearts, andStreet Fighter 2.
Live A Livewas originally intended to be released outside of Japan with a translation byFinal Fantasy 6translator Ted Woolsey, however, he later claimed in an interview that Square canceled this localization due to the game’s low graphical quality compared to theFinal Fantasyseries. This makes theNintendo Switch release the first official English version ofLive A Live.
