Live a Live/YMMV

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Alicia can be seen as either two ways. A) Always in love with Straybow and Oersted was just reading too much into context. Or B) Shallow typical ditzy princess who only crushed on Oersted after kicking ass in the tournament and was easily seduced and manipulated by Straybow, whom simply wanted to ruin Oersted out of hate either way. Depends entirely on how much you read into things really.
  • She can also be viewed in more of a sympathetic light, in that she truly did have feelings for Oersted but was emotionally manipulated into falling in love with Straybow. If you buy into the idea that Straybow was the one behind her kidnapping in the first place, this seems like a perfectly viable interpretation.
• Anticlimax Boss: Several examples.
  • Mad Dog in Sundown's chapter, though this may be intentional. Defeating him on the second fight removes an additional scene from that chapter's ending.
  • O-DI-O from Pogo's chapter is really simple if Bel learned her singing attack.
  • OD-10 in Cube's chapter can be easily defeated by standing next to him and using High-Speed-Op and Upgrade, Cube will counter each time he is attacked, and become stronger with each heal. Eventually, he can do more damage than the boss has HP.
  • Depending on how you play through the chapter, Oboro's Final Boss can easily be killed or be ungodly hard.
  • The final battle against Straybow in Oersted's chapter. While he has improved some since the fight at the beginning of the chapter, he's still relatively weak in comparison to the bosses fought before him.
  • Level up Sundown enough in the final chapter, and he learns an ability that can usually do 999 damage in one hit, making almost every fight an Anticlimax Boss.
• Awesome Music:
  • The boss theme Megalomania, hands down.
  • "The Bird Flies In The Sky, The Fish Swims In The Water" is very nice.
  • Oersted's theme. Especially in the Final Chapter.
  • The title theme. Which is also the Final Chapter battle theme.
• Breather Level:
  • Cube's chapter only has one required boss battle, and it doesn't have a single Guide Dang It. That doesn't mean it's boring...
  • Sundown's chapter has a total of five battles, of which one is optional (and eliminates one of the others if you choose to fight), three are laughably easy, and one is against the chapter's boss and can be made significantly easier depending on how you set the traps.
• Cliché Storm: One way in which the game suffers is its short chapters: the plots are general and predictable, and you tend to know exactly what you're getting from them. Whether that's a bad thing is up to your interpretation, but it gets subverted near the end of the game either way.
• Complete Monster: A number of Odio's human reincarnations have signs of this, but in particular:
  • Ode Iou, as his goal was to prolong fighting in Japan just so more lives are spent. Ends up transforming into a giant frog/snake monster.
  • Odie Oldbright, who thinks 'cruel and brutal murder' is the path to becoming the strongest. He even brags about the act, as if he accomplished some great feat.
    • Oboro's chapter can be played this way, killing every single person you find, even innocent women. Granted, some of those 'innocent women' turn out to be demons.
    • The Antagonists in the Mecha chapter, they know full well what they're doing, since they know their victim's hatred over being stripped of their bodies against their will is what will fuel the Odeo statue.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: In Japan, at least (where a fandom has actually had the chance to develop) Akira/Li. Also surprisingly popular is Sundown Kid/Mad Dog and, even more bizarrely, Odi Wan Lee/Li. Yes, really.
• Game Breaker: The Cola Bottle from Pogo's chapter can become this in the Final Chapter. Just make sure to equip it to Pogo as an accessory before his chapter ends, and it'll carry over to the Final chapter when he joins your party. The Cola Bottle is an infinite-use item with an attack that can deal 999 damage to almost every minor enemy in the game (and even some bosses!). Needless to say, the final chapter becomes a breeze with this in your arsenal.
• Goddamned Boss: Voice Heart. After encountering him several times in an extra dungeon, you will want to scream "JUST LEAVE ME ALONE".
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Li. See Fan-Preferred Couple above, and combine that with pairing her with Masaru, and also Oboromaru, and occasionally Yuan.
• Narm Charm: Matsu, after drinking himself silly, exclaims "MASSU AYN'T DED!!" while piloting Buriki Daioh. It actually adds onto the epic feel of the scene.
• Player Punch:
  • Amongst many, die while piloting Buriki Daioh. Akira and Matsu revive as spirits and Matsu says "You Bastard!" to Akira before the player returns to the load screen, feeling a lot like the You Bastard in question.
  • The Kung Fu chapter. The Master takes in three bright, promising pupils who all show signs of being inheritors of Shin San Ken, and then two of them are murdered by Odi Wan Lee's goons. Even worse is that, once you know how the game chooses which ones live, it's basically you deciding which ones die. Go ahead, try not to feel bad when you replay the chapter, with that knowledge.
• Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: The game's theme is obvious but handled tastefully: anyone can become a villain with enough hatred.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: Buriki Daioh's theme is a rearrangement of the theme of Mazinger Z.
• That One Attack: All of the Odio incarnations have an example of That One Attack:
  • O-D-O has Bite, which can do massive damage to anyone in the party.
  • Ode Iou has Poison Serpent Whip; while it doesn't do much damage, it covers almost the entire battlefield in poison spaces. Also, Drink Blood is pretty strong and heals Ode Iou.
  • Odi Wan Lee has Kuang Zhuan Yan Wu, which can easily kill the inheritor when you face him.
  • O. Dio has Gatling Shots, which always do 999 damage.
  • Odie Oldbright has Acro DDO, which can kill Masaru in one hit.
    • Two hits, if the player's lucky.
  • The Inka Kuruu Odeo has Liquefied Human Curse, which does random damage, but normally does plenty.
  • OD-10 has Driveback and Driveback-Counter, which deal tons of damage and create electric panels; however, he will only start using them if you cast Info Research on the middle of his sprite to change his graphic.
  • The Demon King's strongest attack instantly stones anyone hit by it. This can, however, be cured with Uranus's healing move. God help you if he gets stoned.
  • Pure Odio has Cancel Ray, which instantly disrupts any attacks you have planned, but he and Illusion Odio also have Life Eraser, which will stone you for sure if you don't have the Ariel Equipment. Pure Odio likes to use Life Eraser (which also heals him for any damage done) after every move you make, which means hurting him is nearly impossible.
  • Optional boss Amakusa in Oboro's path has Electric Barrier, which deals 120+ damage and surrounds you with electric tiles. Oboro has about 160 HP if you've killed everyone in his path up to this point. And Amakusa likes to use this attack twice in a row (this is not a Bonus Boss, but rather one you must fight if you take a specific path through the chapter).
• The Woobie: Cube. And depending on your temperament, Yuan from the Kung Fu chapter.