Legend of Mana

"Who says interactive storybooks are for four year-olds?"

Legend of Mana was the third game in the Mana, or Seiken Densetsu, series to make it to our shores. Secret of Mana, the most popular of the Seiken titles in America, is known for its variety of weapons/spells and its real-time combat that took Zelda-style RPGs to a new level of control and involvement. Ever the innovators, Square takes the Mana series into further depths of untouched gaming area in this imperfect but rewarding PS1 title.

-Gameplay: 7/10

An incredibly unique experience awaits you in this game, as it throws linearity out the door. The brunt of this game is your involvement in "Quests", mini story situations that present themselves to you based on various factors. After a few initial Quests that expand your main world, the order you continue is largely up to you. There are quests you can get into in your first five hours of playing, but some of them I didn't reach until I had almost beaten LoM entirely.

The main world isn't a big, pre-designed map, it is a series of locations your character can instantly walk to. However, you must obtain an Artifact (AF) from one of the Quests before you can reach these locations. When you use the AF, you can place the location anywhere you want. Where you place them will affect how difficult the enemies in that place will be, along with other effects. While unique, this "create your own world" system has limited appeal - they're still the exact same places, whether you put them in the north or the south.

Battles in this game are a bit different than past Mana games. You don't just walk freely through the main world, killing what you want and running past everything else; instead, enemies you get close enough will automatically engage you in a fight, and you'll have to win to proceed. Not being able to skip fights can be annoying, especially when you get lost and are stuck wandering/fighting for an extra five or ten minutes. This isn't a new or unbearable flaw for RPG fans, but it still feels like a step down for the Mana series.

Furthermore, battles are not the game's strongest point. Executing simple weapon combos will usually be enough to kill enemies in short order. Some enemies will present smarter strategies and more effective techniques, but many of the fights will be repetitive and very easy. Both the enemy AI and the AI of your NPC partners is pretty bad, and detracts from the experience. The best part of these battles is your vast array of weapons, skills, magic, and special attacks. Getting access to all of these will require money, exploration, creation and experimentation on your part, but can be worth it, especially to see some of the powerful and visually impressive high-end abilities.

As you advance in this game you'll get the ability to make weapons, armor, and magical instruments for casting a variety of spells. You can also raise pets to fight with you in battle, or create robotic golems that can help you fight with a variety of skills. You can grow produce of different kinds in your Orchard to feed to your pets and change the growth of their stats. All in all, there are lots of things to mess around with, but how long these will hold your interest is questionable.

There are holes and imperfections in the gameplay, but it is also so fresh and interesting that overall I think it makes up for its shortcomings and provides a solid experience.

-Story: 10/10

While the overall plot of this game is limited, there are three major plot arcs you can follow any or all of, as well as many lesser stories. These stories are all about the interesting, unique, and lively characters of the world. Some of them are very funny, some will remind you of fairy tale characters, some may annoy you, but all of them are very original and give this game life.

The races, mythos, lore, culture, and locales of this imaginary world are very well thought-out. This might as well have been a series of books instead of a single video game. There is a decent amount of seriousness and drama, but this is largely a funny and lighthearted game. The story is easily the best part of this game, and it's the reason I played it all the way through.

-Graphics: 10/10

Really pretty. What else can I say? Cartoony in nature, but with fluid movements, beautiful use of colors, likable character designs, and impressive battle actions, this game stands to prove that PS1 was meant for 2D games. The game has a certain storybook look and feel which, in addition to looking great, also compliments the plot very well.

-Sound: 9/10

The sound effects were solid, and the music was great. The tunes don't pop into my head, but the feelings they left me with do. They were pivotal in influencing the mood of story events. The only problem I had was that a few of the tracks seemed overused. This didn't bug me until the latter half of the game, but it didn't detract much from the experience.

-Playtime/Replayability: 8/10

I spent about 30 hours on this game, and there were several quests I didn't find or finish. This alone adds to the replay factor, as most people will probably miss a few things their first time through. The New Game+ mode allows you to keep your level, items, pets/golems, and skills, in addition to offering much-needed difficulty options. The battles really were too easy, but the No Future mode helped to make up for it by making even the simplest monsters incredibly difficult. If you enjoyed it the first time, there's enough to keep you hooked afterwards.

Final Recommendation:

I went between frustration and addiction with this game, but overall I had a really great time. If you find yourself hating "kiddy" games or want something really challenging, you might be better off looking somewhere else. If you want a serious, Final Fantasy-esque story, this might not be for you. But if you just want to have some fun in a beautiful, creative fantasy world, I strongly recommend this title. I found it used for 25 dollars, and it was easily worth the price.

SCORE: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/17/04