The Strongest/The Strongest (1994)

(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 cursor is a dumbbell.

## Chapter Description

A fierce youth has entered a global fighting tournament to experience and learn the combat styles of the world. He will see many unique techniques, an use them to achieve the ultimate goal: The title of "Strongest in the World!"

## 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 strongest man on Earth, 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. 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 Oldbright 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 Strongest man in the world, 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 Earth-Rending Fury, also learnable by the O-Robo and Masaru Takahara at Level 16. To get it, you must use Tula Han's Arm Lock on Jackie in order to Restrain him, making him unable to use his other attacks Aloha Clap and Ogre Grip.

## Opponents

A list of all opponents in the chapter:

* Namcat
* Great Asia
* Tula Han
* Moribe Seishi
* Max Morgan
* Jackie Iaukea
* Odie Oldbright

## Boss

After the initial six opponents are beaten, Odie Oldbright will then appear. Odie Oldbright kills off all Masaru's previous fighters, claims that he is the greatest warrior, and faces Masaru. Odie Oldbright is not particularly hard, just make sure to avoid his now stronger Acro DDO by not standing diagonally to him. A few uses of Tsuda and Abise-geri should defeat him easily.

## 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. It is unique compared to most game overs being that it doesn’t send you back to the title screen and allows you to retry the fight.

### Normal Ending

The only ending of this chapter. After defeating Odie Oldbright, Masaru walks up and stares out at the sea for a bit, as an unknown fighter appears behind him saying that if he knocks Masaru down he will be known as the strongest then he will be known as the strongest implying that Masaru's battles have only just begun.

## Music Tracks

* Ultimate Strength - Victory Road
* Martial Arts Master
* Versus!
* Knock You Down!
* Defeated...

## 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.
* 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*.