Review #730: Legend of Mana

 A Mana game unlike any other.

 Legend of Mana is probably one of the most divisive games in the series, and for good reason! While it's still an action-JRPG with a very tragic flair, as well as the elements we've come to expect(Weekdays based on the spirits, Rabbites, the Tree of Mana, etc) it's very different in how it plays.

 While most Mana games end with the Tree of Mana meeting its end, spoilers I guess?, this one actually begins with the Tree of Mana dying. Not to worry, because the task of rebuilding this world rests in your hands. While people in the game don't seem to notice that they were dead until you brought them back into the world, that's pretty much your whole objective: Complete Quests, gain artifacts and use said artifacts to rebuild towns and dungeons, opening up more quests in the process. The plot has a very laid back progression, and the entire game is based on different 'events' you can trigger. More often than not, you won't be able to see every single event in a single playthrough, since what events you gain access to depend on how you build the world and when you trigger each event. That said, it is possible to see every single event, but you'll need a guide at hand. There are 67 different events, and there are 3 story branches made up of about 7-8 events each that follow a different plot: Larc and his hunt for the Dragons, The Jumi(Jewel people) hunter and the one about the Demon Irwin trying to destroy the world. You need to finish at least one of these story branches in order to get the Sword of Mana artifact and open up the way to the final event. As a whole, the narrative feels very disjointed, and some parts of the dialogue can be hard to make heads or tails out of them, but a few events were fairly interesting, and there are always depressing, tragic themes permeating most events. A few events are pretty dumb though, and a few have some depressing elements hidden beneath its silly exterior.

 As per usual, combat takes place in real time, and you fight in a three-man party, consisting of you, the player, a pet or golem and a party member. A second player can join in. There are a ton of different weapons you can equip and use, each one having different properties and abilities. Landing attacks fills a gauge beneath your health bar that lets you use powerful super moves or spells. You can no longer use items in battle, which can make combat a bit tough until you get the hang of it, but if any character dies you can just wait until they revive. Or if you die, hope to god that your other party members manage to survive until enough time passes and you revive. What's a bit weird is how spoils work, after beating any enemy they may drop a useless healing item, useless because you get fully healed after each and every battle, money, an item or... experience points. That's right, enemies may not even drop experience points at all, and you have to grab these XP crystals before they disappear. Party members level up as you complete events, so you don't need to worry about them, but your golem/pet are too dumb to go after XP crystals, so you NEED to get yourself a Forbidden Ring in order to share the XP and level them up. It's pretty weird.

 The combat itself is a bit better, X are your basic, weak attacks while Square is a stronger and slower move. You can assign various different abilities to the X and Circle button, such as crouching(Healing), jumping, spinning(Knock enemies off balance), defend, etc, which is pretty neat. How party members work is also weird, 'cause, y'see, they leave your party every time you return to your home. You can re-recruit them if you remember where they are. Take Larc, he's always at the Underworld's entrance so you can recruit him pretty easily, but Sierra? You have to go through an entire dungeon in order to find her, and you can keep her up until you decide to go back into your house and save the game!

 The game has a ton of other mechanics that are poorly explained, if explained at all. How to upgrade your Golem after you build it, how to feed your pet, how to get the fruit you want from the tree, how to get the pet you really want, how to properly Temper your equipment in order to make it strong beyond belief, how magic works, how the world layout affects the world itself, etc. There are a lot of different things you could spend a lot of time learning how to do and then doing them. Heck, did you know that your stat growth upon leveling up depends exclusively on which weapon you were using when you levelled up? Honestly, so much is left unexplained, even considering that the game offers a few 'encyclopedias' you can read for more information.

 Unlike its SNES prequels, I don't think that Legend of Mana is a classic, but I still think it's a rather good game. It's a much 'lower scales' kind of affair, and the episodic nature will throw a lot of people off, but, despite that, Legend of Mana keeps true to the core elements of the series. It's a Mana game through and through, a weird one, but a Mana game nonetheless.
 7.0 out of 10