Legend of Mana

"An excellent game that bears virtually no resemblance to Secret of Mana"

It is unfortunate that this game is part of the Seiken Densetsu series. People who are expecting a real sequal to Secret of Mana (i.e. Seiken Densetsu 2) or Seiken Densetsu 3 are going to be sorely disappointed. In reality this game bears only a superficial resemblance to any of the previous Mana games. However, I personally like this game more than I liked Secret of Mana or Seiken Densetsu 3, so change isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Graphics 9

The graphics are excellent in every respect but one, which I'll save for last. The backgrounds are simply the best ever, hands down. Saga Frontier 2 was good, but these are so much better that there is no comparison. The character designs are equally fantastic. Every character has a character portrait when you talk to them and they are all very good. The artist for this game is simply a genius. Every character's design is highly imaginative and highly detailed. The whole game has a very ''The Neverending Story'' feel to it, much more so than the previous Mana games. The only problem is the battle graphics. This game really shows off the Playstation's utter lack of ability when it comes to sprite based graphics. The battle animation is actually worse than it was for Seiken Densetsu 3, and there is also the occasional case of slowdown. Fortunately this is rare. Also, you can only attack horizontally, unlike previous Mana games. This was probably a necessity due to the playstation's dismal lack of onboard memory. You'll also notice that the elementals are no longer animated during spell casting. Lots of incidental stuff like that is missing during combat. On the other hand, the spell and special move effects look good. It's just the sprite based graphics that have problems.

Music 7

I'm less thrilled with the music. Although what is there is good, there aren't nearly enough different pieces. Nearly every non-town area uses one of only two or three pieces, so they tend to get old after a while. The towns have different tracks, but there aren't very many towns and you don't spend much time in them. On the other hand I was very pleased with the vocal piece that plays during the intro and ending. I was a bit irritated though that the Seiken Densetsu theme music was nowhere to be heard, yet more evidence that this isn't really a Seiken Densetsu game.

Gameplay 8

For me this is far and away the most important catagory. The gameplay is drastically different from the previous Mana games, but still very good. This game has a very strong sense of exploration. There is no main plot, but rather there are many, many sub-plots, some of which are required, but most of which are entirely optional. If you do only what you must, you can finish the game in 10-15 hours easily, less if you use a walkthrough. However, if you take advantage of everything the game has to offer, expect to spend at least twice that long, more if you spend a lot of time on things like blacksmithing and golem making. More on that later. Unlike most console RPGs, this game does not lead you around by the hand telling you exactly where to go and what to do. It is up to you to decide what to do. For the most part, you can go anywhere, anytime and do whatever you want. You can simply explore each area, taking on various quests as they are presented to you and you will eventually complete the game, or you can make a concerted effort to reach the final goal, its up to you. Although the game has little in the way of a plot, it does have a lot of background and atmosphere. There are many characters to meet and there is a lot of interesting character interaction among the NPCs.

Besides the quests themselves, there are several other activities to keep you busy. The blacksmithing is extrordinarily complicated. If the equipment combining in Vagrant Story was too much for you than this will really confuse you. The golem making is also very complex. You make golems from weapons and armor, but then you have to program them using things called logic blocks, which are also made by combining pieces of equipment. There are probably hundreds of possibilities so you can make golems that do all manner of useful (or useless) things. There is also the monster raising, which is much more straigtforward, and instrument making, which allows you to use magic. About the magic system, this is one area that the game is lacking in. As far as I've seen, all of the spells in the game are attack spells. No enchantments and no healing spells. The only differences between them are the elemental type and the casting power and range. Spells can be used as often as you like, but since they are relatively weak, there's not much point to do so.

The battle system itself is fairly complex. There are lots of special techniques to learn for each weapon. You can pull of all sorts of combos. My main complaint is that once you enter battle you can't change your weapon or any of your equiped abilities, which can be a problem if you find your current weapon is doing very little damage.

I have to mention the difficulty of the game. The default difficulty is ridiculously easy. You could conceivably keep all of your starting equipment to the end of the game and have little trouble. Fortunately once you beat the game once you have the option of playing it over again with the same character. The second time through you have the option of upping the difficulty to one of two extra modes. Nightmare mode is hard, but doable. No Future mode is for masochists. In order to have a chance in either mode you must make use of the blacksmithing, golem making etc.

Overall 8

If you like games that give you a lot of freedom and have lots to do then definitely give this game a try. On the other hand if you like games that are all story, you may not like this. Just don't expect anything like Secret of Mana.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/22/00, Updated 06/22/00