Live a Live review: a lost Japanese RPG gem from the 1990s

Nintendo Switch; Square Enix/Nintendo
Seven beautifully unpredictable genre stories, each designed by a different manga artist, are playfully rendered in this novel remake

In a year where Kate Bush and Metallica re-entered the charts, it's fitting that 2022's most intriguing game so far has been plucked from the past. Directed by Takashi Tokita of Chrono Trigger fame, for decades Live a Live appeared destined to remain the RPG that time forgot. Its initial Japanese release on the Super Famicom (SNES) in 1994 was a commercial flop, ensuring it never left its homeland - until now.

Resurrected for Nintendo's fittingly anachronistic current console, the Switch, this eyebrow-raising relic has been reanimated using Square Enix's gorgeous 2D-HD engine, a graphical style that melds rich high-definition backgrounds with retro 16-bit sprites. The results are glorious, injecting once-flat environments with a playful, eye-catching charm that never quite loses its magic.