The Mechanical Heart/The Mechanical Heart (1994)

(SF編『機心』, SF-hen “Kishin”?, lit. Sci-Fi Chapter "Mechanical Heart")

**The Mechanical Heart** is Cube's chapter in Live A Live and takes place in the distant future.

Its cursor is a wrench.

## Chapter Description

Behold the transport ship Cogito Ergosum, en route to planet Earth. Inside, a new kind of lifeform is being created. The robot created by Kato the mechanic will become intimately involed as events spiral out of control on board.

## Chapter Mechanics

This chapter is unique among all other chapters in that it contains no combat whatsoever with the only combat consisting of the final battle with OD-10 and in the game Captain Square while the rest remains puzzle and story based.
To progress through this chapter one must talk to the various crew members and go around the ship checking things or picking up items and as each thing is completed the story moves on. Eventually the beast known as Behemoth gets loose on the ship. Cube must avoid it at all costs as coming in contact with it can result in an instant game over. Other things can account for a game over such as opening the doors in the airlock to outside or getting Cube's first thought out name by Kato wrong when asked who is the real Cube.

## Captain Square

The Captain Square (Minigame) is in the chapter and is (besides the final battle) the only combat in the chapter. You play as Captain Square and the mini game is split into nine stages, each harder than the last. An item called the Memory Card can be found in Kirk's room to be used on the game. It enables the player to save their progress, so that way even if one is to lose the game they can start on the stage they left off at.

## Boss

The boss of this chapter is OD-10, also known as Mother Computer. She was invented to care about all functions on the ship and to make sure the crew is safe, but after seeing the crew fighting among each other such as Kirk and Huey fighting or being insulted by Corporal Darthe, she becomes hurt and gives up on humans, beginning to kill the crew off one by one and saying that perfect harmony must be maintained. Her battle is not very hard and can be finished quickly by using Repair and Restore multiple times followed by a few Maser Cannon attacks. It's best to first destroy the little helper bits that surround her as they heal her nearly every turn.

## Chapter Endings

### Bad Endings

Easily obtained from some grave errors such as letting the Behemoth catch you, getting sucked into space or answering Cube's original name wrong.

### Bad Ending (OD-10)

This ending is only obtained by losing the battle against Mother Computer, it displays some information about the Cogito Ergo Sum and how the status of the crew is unknown.

### Normal Ending

The only ending in the chapter it can be triggered after giving Corporal Darthe coffee. However before that one can wander around the ship for one last time and a secret in the Main Computer Room can be viewed at this point. To access the Main Computer Room first you must get the password from the Interface Room, after that you can enter the room, in it you can check the status of the ship and a Secret File which can be accessed by inputting the Captain's password (OAKFDE). The secret file details the following:

1/11

## Music Tracks

* Unseen Syndrome
* Space Crisis
* Tense Situation
* CAPTAIN SQUARE
* Captain of the Shooting Stars
* Words of Trust

## Trivia

* According to "Live A Live Complete Strategy Guidebook", the chapter was mainly inspired by the movies ALIEN and 2001: A Space Odyssey. The plot of this chapter also shares similarities to an anime called Lily C.A.T..
* This chapter lacks music, aside from the Captain Square theme, the ending music and the ominous music that happens.
* The creator of the art design and characters for this chapter is Yumi Tamura, a shoujo manga artist who became known for her various post-apocalyptic series including *Basara* and *7 Seeds*.