The Strongest

(現代編 『最強』, Gendaihen “Saikyō”?, lit. Present Day Chapter "Strongest")

**The Strongest** is Masaru Takahara's chapter in Live A Live and takes place in the present day.

Its completed chapter icon is of a dumbbell. Its menu color is yellow.

## Chapter Description

To be the world's strongest fighter. The best of the best. A dream shared by many, but one young warrior believes he truly has what it takes to claim the title. By the making the skills of other masters his own, he intends to prove himself. Muay Thai, professional wrestling, lucha libre, Koppo, sambo, and sumo—the most powerful techniques of these storied traditions he will learn. All he needs to do is to bait his opponents into revealing their secrets...

## Chapter Mechanics

This chapter is unique among the others as it is made up of all battles and no field breaks between them. Masaru Takahara, the chapter's protagonist, seeks to become the world's strongest fighter, and thus enters a fighting tournament in order to prove his worth.

The chapter pits you against six initial opponents the player can choose to face in any order, the main goals being to learn their moves and defeat them. Each opponent has a set of two techniques Masaru can learn by allowing them to attack him with it, where he will then automatically gain said ability for his own use. When selecting a fighter you will be able to see what moves Masaru can learn, if you defeat an opponent but missed a move you have the option to rematch them. It is possible to miss some, or even all techniques during this chapter, but Masaru can also learn them naturally by leveling up in the final chapter. Masaru does not gain any levels or obtain any new equipment during this chapter, but his high base stats compensate this.

Once all six fighters have been bested, a seventh fighter, Odie O'Bright appears, having killed the previous six fighters in his own personal test of strength. Unlike the other fights, the only goal is to take him down since Masaru can't learn his moves. After killing Odie, Masaru receives the title of the world's strongest fighter, and the chapter comes to a close.

The gameplay of this chapter can be compared to that of Mega Man in the style the opponents are chosen, and Final Fantasy's Blue Magic system, where one must first be attacked by a move they can learn to be able to learn it.

## Secrets

There is an extra third move that can be learned from Jackie Iaukea. The name of this move is Worldbreaker's Wrath, also learnable by the Mimic Mammet and Masaru Takahara at Level 16. To get it, you must use Tula Han's Armlock on Jackie in order to Restrain him, making him unable to use his other attacks Aloha Slap and Mano Toss. If you see his ATB bar turn red, that means that he is charging the move. It is recommended to have full health while trying to learn it (if you don't, use Focus to heal), as it can do around 250 damage.

## Opponents

A list of all opponents in the chapter:

* Namkiat
* The Great Aja
* Tula Han
* Seishi Moribe
* Max Morgan
* Jackie Iaukea
* Odie O'Bright

## Boss

After the initial six opponents are beaten, Odie O'Bright will then appear. Odie O'Bright kills off all Masaru's previous fighters, claims that he is the greatest warrior, and faces Masaru. Odie O'Bright is not particularly hard, just make sure to avoid his now stronger Diving DDO by seeing when his ATB bar turns red. A few uses of Celestial Palm, German Suplex or Aloha Slap followed by repeated use of Fleetfoot or Frankensteiner should make fast work of him.

## Chapter Endings

### Bad Ending

Not necessarily an ending, but can be seen through getting beaten in any match. Masaru will be shown bruised and beaten, as the opponent he last faced berates him for his failure. The game then cuts to the usual Game Over screen.

### Bad Ending (Odie O'Bright)

Losing to Odie O'Bright will not directly lead to a Game Over screen; instead, a countdown will begin, and you can retry the fight if you choose so. Otherwise, the usual Game Over screen appears.

### Normal Ending

The only ending of this chapter. After defeating Odie O'Bright, Masaru walks up and stares out at the sea for a bit, as an unknown fighter appears behind him saying that if he will be known as the greatest warrior which means that when he beaten Masaru, then he will be the best of the best implying that Masaru's battles have only just begun.

## Music Tracks

* The Strongest - Victory Road
* World Warriors
* Versus!
* Knock You Down!
* World Warriors - Rematch

## Trivia

* This chapter's overall presentation and aesthetics are reminiscent of fighting video games, which upon the time of *Live-A-Live's* release were explosively popular due to the proliferation of arcades and the wild acclaim of the breakthrough Capcom fighting game *Street Fighter II*. Some examples include:
	+ The Defeated screen when Masaru loses to Odie is a spoof of Street Fighter II's continue screen.
	+ The Defeated portraits of the fighters and Masaru are also inspired by Street Fighter II.
	+ The way you can select who to fight is reminiscent of Street Fighter.
	+ Yoko Shimomura previously worked at Capcom, and created the soundtrack for *Street Fighter II* and its subsequent installments.

* The remake's fighter select HUD bears a resemblance to that of *Street Fighter V*, the newest game in the series at the time of its release.
* The weakness system each fighter is given in the remake also resembles the Capcom series *Mega Man*, and how each Robot Master in that series takes extra damage from the weapon of another. (Such as Fire Man being weak to the Ice Slasher, for example.)
	+ Namkiat: Armlock/Cross Heel Hold/German Suplex (Grappling), Worldbreaker's Wrath (Earth)
	+ The Great Aja: Rolling Wheel Kick/Lookpanjama Kick/Spiral Knee/Fleetfoot (Agile)
	+ Tula Han: Frankensteiner/Tornado Press (Projectile)
	+ Seishi Moribe: Armlock/Cross Heel Hold/German Suplex (Grappling)
	+ Max Morgan: Aloha Slap (Wind)
	+ Jackie Iaukea: Rolling Wheel Kick/Lookpanjama Kick/Spiral Knee/Fleetfoot (Agile)
* As this chapter is based in the "Present Day", this chapter can be interpreted as being set in the year 1994, the same year Live a Live came out.
* All of the fighters in this chapter were based off of or named after real life wrestlers/martial artists that were famous in Japan. These were Napa Kiatwanchai, Keiji Muto "The Great Muta", Volk Han, Seishi Horibe, Hulk Hogan, King Curtis Iaukea and Gary Albright.
* This chapter's art direction and character design is done by Ryoji Minogawa, whose profile includes the alternate history sci fi action manga series *Spriggan*, and whose later contributions would also include art design for fighting games, including the Japan only cult hits *Gen'Ei Tougi* and *Critical Blow*, and alternate guest character designs for the breakthrough Namco 3D fighting game series *Tekken*.
* Interestingly, despite Odie O'Bright's malicious intention of killing Masaru, losing to him won't get you a Game Over screen unlike your other opponents; instead, you're given a countdown and you can continue without having to go through the Game Over screen.