Live A Live guide: Which disciple to pick in Imperial China storyline

Across Live A Live’s many chapters, there are several interesting stories and gameplay styles. During the Imperial China story, “The Successor,” the player will have to make a very important decision. Players will be in control of a Chinese Kenpo master who is going to teach a disciple his secrets and pass on his style to future generations.

Each of these three characters is encountered during the course of the story, but only one will move on to be the true disciple of Earthen Heart Shifu. All three characters have their own strengths and weaknesses, but who is the right one to pick for you?

Note: This guide contains major spoilers for Live A Live Imperial China chapter and minor spoilers for the final chapter.

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Live A Live’s “The Successor” story requires an important decision

The Imperial China story for Live A Live is not especially challenging, but it does come with a difficult decision that influences the final chapter of the game. After completing all of the stories, players go on to pick a protagonist they have played earlier, gather the rest of the protagonists up, and go forth to fight evil.

The problem is that Earthen Heart Shifu is an old man, he and does not live through the events of his tale. Neither do the other two disciples. This is also the only chance players have at getting a female protagonist to play.

Through this chapter of the Nintendo Switch RPG, Earthen Heart will encounter three characters. Lei Kugo, Yun, and Hong Hakka are the three potential disciples, and each have their own strengths and weaknesses.

Players will fight Lei Kugo and aid Yun. They have the option to fight Hong Hakka when he shows up in the Yunfa Market. It’s not a required fight, as Earthen Heart Shifu can talk him down and take him in.

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What can each of the disciples do well? Who is the best?

It matters who gets trained, so prepare and focus on just one character (Image via Square Enix)

As stated above, the other two disciples perish in a storyline event of this RPG, so it is a serious waste to use training battles on anyone other than the disciple the player has chosen. When it comes time to train these characters, there will be 12 training bouts to go through. They improve several of the character's stats and also teach some of the Shifu’s abilities.

On top of that, Earthen Heart Shifu passes on his skills to the characters he fights. When a disciple levels up, they will gain one of the techniques he used on them during that battle. This can be managed by keeping an eye on the character’s EXP and only using the skill the player wants to pass on in the level-up fight.

For these reasons, it is very important to only focus on one character. Wasting experience and stats on the other characters reduces the power of the newly formed protagonist. Focusing on just one grants them several skills in addition to their own and offers great stats to get them started.

1) Lei Kugo is the fastest of the three disciples in Live A Live. She’s excellent at getting in, dealing damage, and safely getting away from harm. She utilizes the skills of Earthen Heart Shiftu to incredible effect. In this writer’s run, she quickly outpaced Earthen Heart Shifu's damage. She gains an incredibly powerful AOE skill at level 16 and has excellent evasion/mobility.

2) Yun, unfortunately, is the weakest at first. His stats are the lowest, as he’s not really a martial artist initially. However, he has the potential to become the strongest of the three, as his stat growth is exceptional. He’s a good character, but nothing about him is great.

3) Hong Hakka has tons of HP, making him a solid tank if needed. He has useful skills when it comes to ranged and close-quarter clashes, but he doesn’t deal quite the same damage as the other two. He isn’t a bad pick, but he just doesn’t pack a punch like the others.

At the end of the day, Lei Kugo is easily the best of the three. She gains a great deal from Earthen Heart Shifu’s skills, and some of her skills hit even harder than his.

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The consequences of the disciple decision in Live A Live

Once a disciple has been picked, that character will ultimately join Earthen Heart Shifu for the final dungeon of the tale and fight the final boss alone. If players take some time to level up and focus the training on just one character, it’s an incredibly easy fight.

In addition, this character will become the new protagonist in Live A Live’s epic conclusion. If the player chooses to start that chapter as Lei Kugo, it will be the one time in the game a lead protagonist is a female character.

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Live A Live has several amazing stories to take part in, but few of the choices matter in quite the same way they do during Earthen Heart Shifu’s tale in Imperial China.