Legend of Mana

"With mistakes like this its no wonder Squaresoft borders on bankruptcy."

Well Squaresoft has officially succeeded in ruining another game series that once had incredible potential. Backtrack to 1993 with me. Michael Jordan announces his first retirement from the NBA after 3 successive championships. And a little game named Secret of Mana is released to the acclaim of millions of fans. SOM sells millions of copies, and goes down in history as one of the greatest games ever made. 2 years pass and Squaresoft decides to make a sequel to SOM, except there is a little problem. What was that? I forget. O yes, I remember now. They decided not to release it in America (pure stupidity). Sqauresoft’s stupidity becomes evident after some person (who deserves a medal, by-the-way) decided to translate the game into English, and then release it to emulation sites where it became one of the most downloaded ROMs of all time. Squaresoft CEO’s sits back and thinks…oops. As well his stupid ass should. Well along comes the summer of 2000. Squaresoft announces the release of 4 new games, 2 of which generate an insane amount of interest. The Legend of Mana and Chrono Cross. Gamers are instantly excited and anxiously await the release of these games. The day Legend of Mana came out I rushed out and bought it, only to find myself back to the same store I bought it from a week later waiting in a line with other unhappy customers to sell it back for 1/3 of the price. Damn you Squaresoft. Now the company is bordering on bankruptcy and with the stupid decisions they have made, I can understand why. I can do a better job of running that company than the guy who is doing it now. Anyways you want to know why this game is terrible? Then by all means, read on…

Story – 0/10
The story in this game, or should I say lack of one, plainly put, is terrible. Now that I think about it there is no story. A lot of emphasis is placed on the amount of non-linear gameplay there is in LOM. Appears that Squaresoft forgot to hire storywriters when they decided to appoint people to individual tasks, involving LOM. O well. LOM is divided up into hundreds of mini quests. There are about 12 characters you will learn about, but they come and go as they please, and develop their personalities very little. The story in SOM1 was incredible. SOM2 was disappointing, but LOM is easily hands down the worst.

Gameplay – 7/10
The same as all the SOM games before it, with some new qualities. You now have the ability to create the world map as you see fit. Big freaking whoop. Ooo you can place towns and areas wherever you want. Who cares? When the game starts you get to choose whether to be a guy or girl. You then get to choose what weapon you start off with. Your choice holds no commitment to that weapon for the whole game. In other words if you choose a weapon you don’t like you can still purchase other kinds of weapons down the line. There also is the ability to have your own house which acts as your base. Here you can create, weapons, armor, items, magic spells, golems (machines that fight with you), raise and train monsters (enemies you capture then raise to fight for you) and some other things. These qualities are awesome. There is a lot of diversity here, and a lot of options you can take to arrive at your destination. If only Squaresoft would use these concepts in a good game they would be ok. Maybe put all this and more into an MMORPG game and combine it with the gameplay and job class system of Final Fantasy Tactics. Oooo the possibilities. O wait. This is Squaresoft, stupid me, they wouldn’t know a good idea if it duck taped itself to a semi and then proceeded to repeatedly run them over. The gameplay is good. Fighting is good. Side quests are good. Overall gameplay is executed nicely.

Funfactor – 7/10
Game is very fun. And if the story was better and motivated you to play it more it would be even funner. Fighting is a lot of fun, and there are hundreds of items, armor, spells, etc. to discover. This game is very fun and will keep most people interested.

Graphics – 7/10
Graphics are marvelous. The environments are detailed down to every little object. The game has a comic book feel to it, which is nice. The detail in the towns is incredible. Everything outside that is simply average. Good job Squaresoft overall in this category.

Music/Sound – 5/10
I don’t really remember it honestly; I remember that the music had a kiddy feel to it, as do all SOM tunes. I also remembered that the tunes got old really fast.

Replayability – 7/10
There are over 100 quests to do, plus countless amounts of items, armor, weapons, etc. to discover. But overall the game isn’t very enjoyable; therefore you may not want to play it again. Game can be beaten very quickly or very slowly, depending on your actions.

Control – 8/10
Good. Characters still move very slowly.

Overall – 5/10

Pros
- Lots of stuff to do.
- Fun…at first.

Cons
- Silly Squaresoft. They forgot to include a story.
- Unfulfilling gaming experience.
- Second most disappointing game of that summer.

God. What the hell was Squaresoft thinking? They ruined 2 promising series that summer (Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger). This is one of the most tedious and unfulfilling games I have ever completed. Avoid paying $ for this game and instead invest it in some dead flowers to send Squaresoft thanking them for ruining another great series.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 03/01/04