It's all in the mind! Let's play Live A Live

With all but one of his opponents out of the way, Masaru is well on his way to realizing his dream.



Enlightened in the ancient Japanese art of bare-handed killing, Moribe's strikes can pierce even the toughest armor, yet can damage internal organs without breaking the skin.

Skills:
Abise-Geri
Tsuda




Embrace literacy!




Moribe has a lot of defense and evasion, but as he's also so old he doesn't have much health.




Spiral Knee has the same range as Abise-Geri, so starting out with that seems like a good idea.





Tornado Press usually does at least 30 damage.





Abise-Geri turns the target around in the same fashion as Roundhouse. It does great damage as well.

Even German Suplex barely seems to scratch him (when it so much as hits).






Tsuda does pretty decent damage and inflicts a lot of debuffs. The most effective is the speed debuff, which is often enough to allow Masaru to attack twice for each turn an enemy gets.




It's handy. Both of Moribe's moves have pretty goofy animations. Abise-Geri has Masaru teleport behind the target and then hit them with a spinning kick. With Tsuda, Masaru charges them and then leaps into the air to return to his tile.




Frankensteiner has a fun animation too.



Here's Masaru unleashing The Big Leg (Cross Heel Hold).

Moribe accepts defeat gracefully.

Tsuda—Hand Tech/Halve target's stats
Abise-Geri—Kick Tech/Jump kick enemy



A pipe organ?

Next Time: You are such a...tiny man.

So I have not beat this game I got to the area where you fight all the bosses again, but I lost interest like 20 minutes from the end game. Anyway the Japan-Land chapter is my favorite I level ground on spirits soooo much I actually managed too Get the Mmasamune Twice! anyway its a fun game and I hope the Lp turns out great.

even if the end makes me feel sad...

This game is fascinating. I need to find a copy for myself.

Well.



Uh, hey bro.






I am not impressed, though. The competition was not exactly stellar.

I gave them...quick deaths.



I twisted Tula's joints in ways nature never intended!

Then Max, and that fatass, Iaukea.



They were weak...so they died!

Now, you fight me!

Namcat's ashiwaza...
Great Asia's Lucha...
Tula's armlocks,
Jackie's strength...
Morgan's power,
Seishi's technique!






One final enemy stands in Masaru's way.






Let's see how far his newfound abilities can take him.




Gu Fa Tie Pao isn't very threatening, but Odie is much more dangerous at close range, which we'll see momentarily.




He's even got his own version of Battle Cry. The healing isn't exactly a threat, but it has some buffs tied to it as well.

Hitting him with Masaru's powerful close-range attacks is tempting, but it carries a lot of risk.




Death's Scythe does about 90 damage. It's his main melee attack, too, there's no weaker alternative watering it down.




He can do a lot of damage real fast, so we'll want to keep him away.





Things can end badly if he gets close.





On our second try we see exactly the kind of threat Oldbright poses.

Ouch. Acro DD takes off most of Masaru's health in one shot. You really don't want to let him position himself diagonally to you.



The best strategy is to keep him as far away from you as possible.





Aloha Clap can hit from a square away and knocks back. Odie has nothing that can hit Masaru from two squares away, so this lets him attack (mostly) with impunity.





Tsuda's speed debuff is also incredibly valuable.



Masaru survives with precious little health left.

The title...passed on, until it reached me...

I, the great one! The invincible!



You...can't be...human.








Roll credits.

I, Masaru, will knock you all down!

I really didn't like his chapter when I played through it. It was painful to sit there and wait for them to use their specials (Great Asia used bite for like 30 minutes)... I beat the main boss on my first try however with only like 3 of the specials learned.

I am glad you got his chapter out of the way first.

Hoping Cube is next.

If you don't care about 100%, you can easily skip most of the specials. Come on, you aren't gonna use Masaru in the final chapter anyway.

Even though he's totally badass and strong?

...I did.

By the way, even though I had accidentally spoiled the ending to his chapter (with Odie slaughtering the other fighters), it still kind of stunned me when their portraits were being greyed out. I think it was the music that did it for me.

MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD

You have to use Cube. That's not optional. So who gets the other three slots? The classiest choices are the heir, Sundown, and Oboro, but that leaves you with a pretty squishy team. For more bulk, sub in Pogo for Oboro. If you are a heartless monster, you can sub in Masaru for the heir. There is never a good reason to use Akira.

The big problem with Masaru is that he doesn't offer any utility. There are characters who hit harder and at better range.

Again with the spoilers.

My final team was Oboro main (Cus he is a freaking ninja and you cant use O-robo...), Akira (Esper made me make it work...), Sun Down (He is just all kindsa awesome), and The Heir (I forget the not chubby boys name, but then I didn't really care either, but I did make him master like everything).

Anyway I went off and found them all just to grind a bit, but since I didn't level up them all it still made the ending too annoying to finish.

Now that Masaru's story is complete, we're moving on to another era.



Inside, a new kind of life-form is being created.

The robot created by Kato the mechanic will become intimately involved as events spiral out of control on board...



Yes please.




Vessel name--
Cogito Ergosum
Vessel type--
Civilian Transport

Destination--
Earth





This probably won't end well.




The screen pans through several areas of the ship.



Very specific.

...



Finished!







That should've done it...



Trying to move will start him talking again.





I'm Kato. That's K-A-T-O. Kato.

Good morning? Er...

Say, that's right! You don't have a name yet.







I've got it! How about I give you a silly name completely opposite to your nature?





Kato: ...maaaaaybe not. Oh well, I'm sure I'll think of something.





And we're given control again. The ship hums peacefully in the background.

There's nothing to do in here, so let's follow him.

This floor of the ship consists of two parallel tube-shaped corridors leading to different sections of the ship. Cube follows Kato from the crew quarters



To the elevator exit



and through the other corridor to this hall.









...

Here we go!





Kato: Good morning! I need to register a new crew member.

--Understood--



Classification...
Worker Robot





Cube is the default.



Kato: Now you can come and go as you please. Mind, each of the crew's individual cabins have security locks. If you don't have the owner's permission, you won't be able to get in.

Have you copybooks ready. He even asks if he needs to repeat that, so we know it'll end up being important.

Kato: All right then, Cube. I need you to follow me on your own. I need to test your AI.

With Kato gone we can examine this terminal.



I know all about you. You are the first robot that Kato completed. I look forward to working with you.

This will probably end badly.







We head up another corridor and find him in this hall.



[b]During long trips through space, we use this place to go into cryogenic stasis. Don't suppose you'd have to, though.

Well, please wake everyone up.







Cold Sleep Capsule.

There's a name plate here.

Pilot—Kirk.

What's this?






Whatever you say, buddy.







Having the newly built robot do a vital job doesn't end as disastrously as you'd think. Kato walks in when they've all been opened.

Come to think of it, no one here is qualified to do Space Biology. Who's going to study the thing "in great detail?" The Mother Computer?

Kato: Yeah! he's called Cube.





Rachel: Ha. Huey's still asleep.







Huey's deadliest foe yet.



Kirk, c'mon. I thought I told you to lay off...







Kirk: Ey, Huey. Finally awake, huh? That's the robot that Kato was building.

Huey: Eh?

A...robot? Oh, you finally finished him?





Probably angry.

Rachel: Corporal... The robot that Kato was building is done. He's called Cube.



This time it's a bit more emphatic.











And he heads to the break room. Shocking, I know.



Kirk: Eh, don't worry about it so much.





When we wake up from cold sleep, we have a meeting in the break room. Come on! You're part of the crew too, so you're obligated to attend.

Don't worry about Corporal Darth. He'll get used to you.



Kato: You really think so?



Next time: exploring the Cogito Ergosum.

Kirk and Darth aboard the Nostromo. Good times.

Love this game. For the longest time, I had the Sunset Kid as the login picture on my computer.

The atmosphere on the ship is really great, and I was impressed by how non-traditional this chapter is. Cube's design is also pretty great.

I really have to re-try this game again. I played it years ago on ZSNES and kind of lost interest.

Interesting LP is interesting, going to follow it with great intent.

Hmm cube is pretty cool his chapter has a better story than most of the others (even some of the cooler characters).

Also this games music isn't as memorable as some of the other games for the SNES, but there are a few I really like.

*cough* Kiss of Jealousy *cough*