Sword of Mana

"This game is so good, and so under-rated."

Sword of Mana.

Sword of Mana is basically a beefed up version of Final Fantasy Adventure for the original Game Boy. I rented Final Fantasy Adventure about 5 years ago and I fell in love with it. But the sad day came and I had to send it back to blockbusters. I never bought it and they stopped selling it in stores.

But then recently I heard of an enhanced remake of the classic game. I was so excited. I picked it up and boy, I’m not disappointed.

The game plays similar to Final Fantasy Adventure but with great graphics. Crisp controls and improved gorgeous music. Many people say the game isn’t epic enough. I found it plenty epic. You play a Granz soldier, who you name, who once worked for an empire controlled by a man named Dark Lord. Though the name sounds corny, the story isn’t corny at all. I won’t spoil it.

~~Graphics~~10/10~~

I think the graphics of this game even surpass Golden Sun. The character design is good and the overworld is very enjoyable to look at. After you defeat enemies there is a neat little ending animation. Like if you kill a Rabite, a small yellow rabbit creature, you will see bones fly everywhere. Defeat a bird and feathers go everywhere. All the monsters look very pleasing. The all have there own animations when they attack. And there own walking animations. It is very colourful and vibrant. And they vary from place to place. There is a gorgeous white snowy mountain, a yellow desert, a purplish mountain range. And green forests.
And as you travel the land it goes from day to night. At night the colourful land dims down to a bluish tinge.

Overall Graphics is excellent.

~~Music~~8.8/10~~

Oh my gosh. I can’t even to begin to tell you how good this is. But I’ll try. The music is simply put.. awesome. They took classic tunes from Final Fantasy Adventure and gave them excellent quality. I especially enjoy the overworld theme early in the game. And it has great epic music like the Glass Dessert, and great moody music like Dime Tower. It is enjoyable but it has a few flaws. Some tunes get on your nerves when your trying to concentrate on a tough puzzle. And I enjoyed Final Fantasy Adventures boss theme more than Sword of Mana’s. But those are the only two real flaws and they really no big deal.

Overall Music is very enjoyable.

~~Sound~~7/10~~

The sound effects are enjoyable but not outstanding. The hack and slash effects of your sword are pretty good and the “when you hit enemies” sound is tolerable. It gets annoying when an enemy hits you and it makes an annoying scratch sound. But it’s nothing to get upset too much about. The scratch sound is pretty loud though. Sound is above mediocre though. It’s pretty decent. It won’t bother too many people that much.

~~Story~~6/10~~

The story is pretty hard to explain without spoilers but I will try to do my best. You are having these nightmares of bad stuff in your past and you must go on a quest for vengeance against a man named Dark Lord, who I mentioned earlier. The story is average and the Idea’s been used many times in other games. But who cares if it isn’t Shakespeare. It is fun to watch the cool movies and see neat flashbacks. The story was just a little dull.

~~Gameplay~~9/10~~

This is the important part. After me pointing out the flaws of Sound and Story we get to the gameplay. A simple battle system is great for newbie players and there are a huge arrays of weapons to battle with. From the Sword to the Flair. Most of them are pretty fun to use. The game is a bit too easy for the masters of action RPG’s. But even the pro’s will have some challenges and deaths most likely. I found my self running out of HP numerous times. Especially at some boss’s. There are a large variety of monsters to battle. Over a hundred if I’m not mistaken. Though half of them are just different coloured remakes of earlier enemies. RPG programmers do that all the time to save the hassle of thinking of new designs. :p Each enemy has there own strengths and weaknesses. So you have to experiment with different weapons. After defeating an enemy it’s info get stored in the Popoi’s Notebook. An extremely important item that stores maps, tips, and monster data. You can have lots of fun trying to completely fill up the notebook.
You also collect spirits. They allow you to summon elemental magic on enemies. It is extremely useful. The range of the weapon depends on which weapon you have equipped. For stances. Equip the bow and used fire. You will shot a long range fireball. Equip sword and use fire. You will use a short ranged fire blast.

Overall Gameplay is awesome.

~~Play time~~7/10~~

While the game won’t keep you at it for months and months and months like Final Fantasy VII would it is a very decent length for a game boy game.

~~Replayability~~9/10~~

Yup, it’s worth it. The game has the big side-quest of filling in the entire notebook. Plus seeing how many of each enemy you can kill. The game is plain, simple fun you won’t get tired of quickly.

~~Buy or Rent~~

Buy. Definitely buy. It’s worth buying just for the music if you ask me. :p

~~Overall Rating~~8/10~~

This game is worthy of the square name. It may not be the greatest game to hit shelf but it’s pretty much the greatest RPG on GBA in my opinion. So run. Run as fast as you can to a game store. Run before the game stops being made!!!!

;)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/04/04