Live A Live: Character Recruitment guide for the Final Chapter
The brutal final chapter of Live A Live, titled The Dominion of Hate, isn't all gloomy - because for the first time you can bring together the characters you've been getting to know throughout the rest of the game. There's only one catch; you have to embark on a character recruitment mission to gather all of your allies for the final battle.
This guide is all about that. While we have a separate final chapter walkthrough as part of our wider Live A Live guide, this page goes into more detail about the final chapter character recruitment, so you can nab them all quickly in order to help yourself along towards the true ending of the game.
How Character Recruitment works in Live A Live's final chapter
At the onset of the chapter, you'll have to pick a lead character. This character will be who you start as, and determines your starting position and combat abilities - and you also won't have to recruit them, so you can then focus on the others. Some quick advice on that:
- Oersted isn't part of this; if you choose him, you'll play a different scenario that leads to Live A Live's bad ending.
- I'd recommend picking one of your higher-leveled characters for your party lead, as you'll have to do battle with some allies before you can recruit them.
- Alternatively, pick one of the more difficult to recruit characters so the recruitment section is less painful. In particular, The Sundown Kid is a real pain to recruit, and much frustration can be circumvented if he's your party leader.
- Our Final Chapter Walkthrough has some further advice on the pros and cons of each character.
A final note, however, is that you can't later replace your party leader with another character. The party can be a maximum of four strong, but as you recruit characters you can swap the final three members in and out - which is even required to access different areas and such. Your party leader always stays, however.
If you do swap party members, you can always have someone re-join your party by going back to where you found them to recruit them - which we'll now detail below...
Character Recruitment Locations
Akira is sleeping on a bench in the Condemned Village in the west. If you say you don’t trust him you’ll need to defeat him in battle before recruiting him. Alternatively if you infer that you do trust him you can get Akira as a party member without fighting.
Cube can be found atop the castle but he’ll need a battery before you can recruit him, this can be found on the mountains, north left just before the path towards the cabin.
Masaru Takahara is in the prison of the castle, so from the castle entrance head left and through the doors. No matter what you say, you’ll need to fight him.
Oboromaru is found by the sign just before the entrance of The Archon’s Roost. Reading it will trigger a battle and success will allow you to recruit him.
Pogo will be down at the flower field in the southern part of the SIlent Wood; you'll need to chase him around a few times in the area before defeating him in battle. Though if you’re playing as Lei you won’t fight him.
The Sundown Kid is perhaps the most annoying character as you’ll have to repeatedly follow him before you join. He first appears on the mountains next to the cabin, then in the southeast of the mountains, then at the signpost towards the castle town, then in front of the throne, follow him left where he’ll be in bed and finally once you’ve exited the castle town, he’ll offer to join you.
Shifu Master is always in the same location, though who this is will depend on what apprentice succeeded in the Imperial China chapter. Whichever one it is can be found at the grave at the top of the mountain. If Hong Hakka was your successor you’ll need to feed him food items roughly nine times; the easiest item to do this with is tufts of Balmgrass. Much of this can be found in the same area as Pogo and in the Condemned Village, but you can always gain more from enemy drops. Yun Jou and Lei Kugo can be recruited in more simple means, by simply talking to them.
