Sword of Mana

"How I Long for the Glory Days of the Originals"

Gazing down on the silhouette of the moon, one man resides. Sword in hand, blessed fury aroused, the Hero of Mana is ready to battle again.

With the immensity of success that followed the original Secret of Mana, a series of powerful epics were born. So powerful they were that in reality, few could ever match their splendor. Time, however cruel it was, brought this legendary series to its knees, though, never allowing it to rise again. Years have passed since the last release of a Mana title. We now find it under a new name, hoping to erase of the curse of its brethren, yet retain the power that stirred its original players to battle.

While fans of the original Mana titles loved them for their unique RPG exploration mechanics, very few games after that era have been able to duplicate it. The premise of the game play is simple: run around a couple of screens, bash some enemies, and then kill a boss. Sword of Mana follows that pattern strictly, choosing to deviate only at certain agendas.

The game play itself is awkward at points, but still everything that I could have expected from a title like Mana. The world in which the game is set is expansive, enemy variety (although a bit lacking), is as creative as ever, and the weapon system is solid. Playing as one of two heroes, the player can truly immerse himself in what Mana has to offer.

Unlike previous Mana titles, unfortunately, SOM chooses to enforce a linear use of its world map. The story has a harsh way of dictating where you go and when, making it almost impossible to completely enjoy what the game has to offer. And while you are given the opportunity to explore previously visited areas, there is little reason, if any, to do so. Most of the side quests can be accomplished on a first run if the player is even weakly perceptive of his or her environment, with the rest being simple fetch quests that do little for the imagination.

Don't get me wrong however, there are a couple of benefits that come with the linearity. In the end though, it still reduces the game to the exact opposite of what I enjoyed from Secret. The surprise, vigor, heck, even the jokes, are missing, all in favor of a choppy revenge stricken cliché. Playing as either a male or a female, players have the opportunity to witness an intertwining adventure from two different perspectives.

One is of Revenge, the other of plight. Reduced to nothing but a caged gladiator, we find our main hero brooding for retribution. Taken from his parents at a young age, deprived of even the joy of life, he has every reason to. On that same token, we also find our heroine, a fleeing descendant of the Mana clan. Under the protection of a knight, she sets out to right the wrongs done to her and her clan. Paths twisted together by fait, destinies bound together by some unremarkable force, changes are going to happen.

Notice what was said though in the last sentence. Unremarkable. That single word perfectly describes the main problem with SOM, the story doesn't offer any excuse for what it does. Why did this guy end up where he was? Why is he our enemy? Where the heck did that rabbit come from? Ambiguity is good, I use it all the time, but there's place in time where it's not acceptable. When you get to the point where a plot hole pops up with every new character that's introduced, it's easy to become lost – especially if you aren't paying attention in the first place.

The redeeming point of SOM's story is that it isn't very long, so if you do get lost, don't worry about having to think of some ambiguous character 20 hours down the road. The actual game length (clocking in roughly at 15 hours if you're good), isn't the length of some novel either, which can be a good or bad thing. If you want more when it's done, well, tough luck. If you couldn't wait for it to be done, then you just got redeemed brother.

If I had to take a rough guess, the average player is going to fall into group B more often than not. It's not like the music does anything to help the cause either, it actually sticks a knife through it. Along with not flowing very well, it utterly messes up the atmosphere presented by the game. What you would expect to be moody and brooding is replaced by some wacky track that serves for nothing more than my expansion of energy by clicking the volume off.

If everything said so far about the game has scared you (and it should), then I'd advise you to at least take comfort in SOM's decent graphics. Contrary to what's been done in the past, the game tends to take a gothic style that sets up the atmosphere for the story to be what it was. There is a slight haze over the color schemes (actually a popular mechanic called resource shading), which only adds more to that style.

Out of all the RPGs that have been released for the GBA as of late, SOM is probably one that you'll want to miss unless you're truly dedicated to the series. Even then, it may be just another reminder of how terribly wrong things have gone since the originals. Until a good Mana title comes out, it's back to Secret for me.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 04/17/07