PSCN-5007: LIVE A LIVE Original Sound Version

[Liontamer]

I've always wondered, if track 1 clearly says "Live-A-Live", then isn't the game name likely "Live-A-Live" rather than "Live A Live"?

No help here, apparently: http://www.square-enix.com/jp/archive/live_a_live/

[Crash]

Well, page 1 of the liner notes has the logo for the game at the top-left, and next to it are the words "LIVE A LIVE Original Sound Version". Also, the left side of the tray liner says "LIVE A LIVE Original Sound Version".

[Muzza]

In other discussion, how awesome is this soundtrack? Of all of Shimomura's works, I'd say this is my very favourite. And thanks to .spc sets, I can listen to everything looped! ='D

"KNOCK YOU DOWN!" has Sasai's fingerprints all over it, methinks.

[Liontamer]

Originally Posted by Crash

Well, page 1 of the liner notes has the logo for the game at the top-left, and next to it are the words "LIVE A LIVE Original Sound Version". Also, the left side of the tray liner says "LIVE A LIVE Original Sound Version".

Excellent, thanks a lot for the info! Just looking at the back scan, it was still ambiguous.

[LuxKiller65]

How is the title supposed to be pronounced? I never understood... nor the meaning.

[Ramza]

I think the idea is "Live Alive." The first word being "live" (rhymes with give) and the other being "alive" (rhymes with arrive). What that means...I have no idea.

[seanne]

"Live a life" could be another possibility, since you're given the choice of playing as several different characters in different time periods and parts of the world.

[Ramza]

Originally Posted by seanne

"Live a life" could be another possibility, since you're given the choice of playing as several different characters in different time periods and parts of the world.

True...though it's kind of a false choice. It's a rather linear game. Play as seven characters, then play as a bonus 8th character, then the original seven time travel to medieval era and kick some @$$.

The only real choice is with the Chinese monk that dies, picking one of the three kids (boy, girl, or fat boy).

Ramza

[Metroid]

Look at the cover well, it's written "LIVE A EVIL", "black white", meaning two opposite sides and "A" on the middle, the player should be at middle and the choices are live and or evil.

[Dais]

Originally Posted by seanne

"Live a life" could be another possibility, since you're given the choice of playing as several different characters in different time periods and parts of the world.

live a life, select a life, live for life

it's not that hard, guys.

[LuxKiller65]

I just noticed that on the tray, among all those "LIVE A LIVE" there is a small hidden word near the bottom right corner, "♥ LOVE ♥".

Nice touch.

[Alcahest]

If anyone has an extra obi for this album (somehow ^^), I'm interested, please pm!

[Xenofan 29A]

I think the name was supposed to be something like Live a Life, but the katakana are actually Live a Live, both rhyming with hive. But Japanese doesn't have the short i sound that English uses in live, so it's hard to tell.

Anyway, great soundtrack.

[layzee]

In accordance to the duality presented in the title:

"Live" opinion: A diverse soundtrack with a little something for everyone, whether it's Wild West-style whistles, traditional Japanese style instruments or heavy rock. Yeah!
"Evil" opinion: The soundtrack is like the characters from Street Fighter 2 (which Shimomura also worked on): filled with outdated and offensive stereotypes and tropes. Yikes!

As far as the origin of the name and what it means, I couldn't find anything so far. The history of the game basically began in a manga magazine where a manga artist drew a picture with the prehistorical ages as the subject. Then he invited game companies to make a game out of that and Squaresoft responded while also giving it a name (i.e. Live A Live). Several other artists also drew similar pictures (as shown in the soundtrack's booklet) and I guess they also got incorporated into the game.

Originally Posted by Xenofan 29A

I think the name was supposed to be something like Live a Life, but the katakana are actually Live a Live, both rhyming with hive. But Japanese doesn't have the short i sound that English uses in live, so it's hard to tell.

I know this was almost 10 years ago but I don't think that's quite true. There are plenty of words with the short i sound:
Guilty Gear ギルティギア
Tales of Destiny テイルズオブデスティニー
Indignation インディグネイション (spell from the intro of Tales of Phantasia)
Unless those "i" are fundamentally and linguistically different from the one in "live"? I'm not an English scholar so I dunno. You tell me.

"Give" seems to be a word in Japanese (ギブ). "Live" however doesn't seem to be recognised as katakana. But if it did, it would probably look like リィブ or リブ.

Or maybe this whole Live thing is just a case of Engrish and we're trying to make sense of something that doesn't inherently have any. I'm going with this option unless more information arises.

[Aifread]

Originally Posted by layzee

I know this was almost 10 years ago but I don't think that's quite true. There are plenty of words with the short i sound:
Guilty Gear ギルティギア
Tales of Destiny テイルズオブデスティニー
Indignation インディグネイション (spell from the intro of Tales of Phantasia)
Unless those "i" are fundamentally and linguistically different from the one in "live"? I'm not an English scholar so I dunno. You tell me.

"Give" seems to be a word in Japanese (ギブ). "Live" however doesn't seem to be recognised as katakana. But if it did, it would probably look like リィブ or リブ.

Or maybe this whole Live thing is just a case of Engrish and we're trying to make sense of something that doesn't inherently have any. I'm going with this option unless more information arises.

Japanese doesn't have short vowels at all. The ones you mentioned are all long "ee" sounds, even where the English transliteration would be short "ih" sounds. The i in Live (pronounced like "alive") is actually a diphthong of "ah" and "ee," which does exist in Japanese and is the one used in the title of this game. If they wanted to approximate the way "live" sounds as a verb, it would be リブ (pronounced roughly the same as the German "lieb"), but again that's with a long "ee" sound. They may have gotten their Japanization of the word from the loanword ライブ, which means live show or performance.

In any case, I'd chalk this all up as another case of weird English used for marketing to non-English speakers just because it sounds cool and not because it has some deeper meaning.

[layzee]

So the "ti" in ギルティ (e.g. I like Guilty Gear) is different "i" sound to the "li" in live (e.g. I want to live)? They honestly sound the same to me.