Adventures of Mana
Dec. 27th, 2016 04:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroIn 1991, SquareSoft released a Game Boy game called Final Fantasy Adventure, (Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden in Japan) that then spawned the entire Mana series of games. 25 years later, they released a beautiful remake of that game.
Is it utter blasphemy to say I might have liked the 2003 total-remake Sword of Mana better? There's a sliding scale of video game remakes, from "slight graphical upgrade" all the way to "completely different game with similar plot and characters"; and I find it very amusing that Final Fantasy Adventure got both ends of the spectrum. This is absolutely the same game as the original--improved translation, better graphics, ring-menu interface (which is totally unnecessary)—but the gameplay, maps, events and such are all completely unchanged. But they did add an automatic quicksave feature and the ability to save anywhere, which is lovely on a portable game. (Especially since, if you lose to a boss, choosing to "continue" just restarts that fight.)
The graphic improvements actually highlight some of the absurdities we just accepting in the Game Boy era: The fact that the world map is actually tiny and several endgame areas are right next to beginning areas. The fact that enemies floating through the air looks really silly. The fact you can cut down four trees with a swing of your axe.
I give them credit that the "sliding cross-pad" interface has been improved from the Final Fantasy Android games (Or maybe I'm just more used to it; though with four interface "options", couldn't one of them be a static control pad?) I love the shortcut extra buttons that you can set--it means not having to swap in keys and mattocks constantly.
I had not quite realized how many of the enemies in this game just wander around and don't actually bother you if you avoid them. Similarly, I think I'd forgotten how many of them are immune to most of your weapons. (That Mithril Sword you're forced to buy is the best thing because it actually damages everything you meet for the next dozen dungeons.) Half the weapons are unnecessary (but the other half are absolutely critical, as they either remove impediments or are the only way to damage certain foes) and the armor improvements get very piecemeal and easy to miss in the late-game.
I think the NPC sidekicks have actually gotten worse: I remember several of them (like the Marsh Cave Man and Marcie) actually being very useful because they fired ranged attacks in a straight line with relatively-high frequency. Not so much here—I don’t think an NPC killed a single enemy over the course of the game, as they attacked fairly rarely and never in the direction of foes.
And the remake developers did absolutely nothing to solve the "make sure you're always carrying plenty of keys and mattocks" problem. Yes, there's a room in every dungeon with enemies that drop them, but that room can be very hard to find and there's a room up in the final dungeon that requires a key and has an easy-to-mess-up puzzle behind that locked door. If you didn't bring enough keys to retry the puzzle, you need to hike waaaay back down and pray for random drops once you find that one room.
Overall: While I appreciate the blast from the past, gaming has moved on in a bunch of ways since 1991 and things that were acceptable then are frustrating now (even knowing about them in advance). I enjoyed playing this, but I think the previous remake was actually more of what I want—if I wanted the original all over again with no new gameplay material, I’d pull out my old brick Game Boy and play it.
Is it utter blasphemy to say I might have liked the 2003 total-remake Sword of Mana better? There's a sliding scale of video game remakes, from "slight graphical upgrade" all the way to "completely different game with similar plot and characters"; and I find it very amusing that Final Fantasy Adventure got both ends of the spectrum. This is absolutely the same game as the original--improved translation, better graphics, ring-menu interface (which is totally unnecessary)—but the gameplay, maps, events and such are all completely unchanged. But they did add an automatic quicksave feature and the ability to save anywhere, which is lovely on a portable game. (Especially since, if you lose to a boss, choosing to "continue" just restarts that fight.)
The graphic improvements actually highlight some of the absurdities we just accepting in the Game Boy era: The fact that the world map is actually tiny and several endgame areas are right next to beginning areas. The fact that enemies floating through the air looks really silly. The fact you can cut down four trees with a swing of your axe.
I give them credit that the "sliding cross-pad" interface has been improved from the Final Fantasy Android games (Or maybe I'm just more used to it; though with four interface "options", couldn't one of them be a static control pad?) I love the shortcut extra buttons that you can set--it means not having to swap in keys and mattocks constantly.
I had not quite realized how many of the enemies in this game just wander around and don't actually bother you if you avoid them. Similarly, I think I'd forgotten how many of them are immune to most of your weapons. (That Mithril Sword you're forced to buy is the best thing because it actually damages everything you meet for the next dozen dungeons.) Half the weapons are unnecessary (but the other half are absolutely critical, as they either remove impediments or are the only way to damage certain foes) and the armor improvements get very piecemeal and easy to miss in the late-game.
I think the NPC sidekicks have actually gotten worse: I remember several of them (like the Marsh Cave Man and Marcie) actually being very useful because they fired ranged attacks in a straight line with relatively-high frequency. Not so much here—I don’t think an NPC killed a single enemy over the course of the game, as they attacked fairly rarely and never in the direction of foes.
And the remake developers did absolutely nothing to solve the "make sure you're always carrying plenty of keys and mattocks" problem. Yes, there's a room in every dungeon with enemies that drop them, but that room can be very hard to find and there's a room up in the final dungeon that requires a key and has an easy-to-mess-up puzzle behind that locked door. If you didn't bring enough keys to retry the puzzle, you need to hike waaaay back down and pray for random drops once you find that one room.
Overall: While I appreciate the blast from the past, gaming has moved on in a bunch of ways since 1991 and things that were acceptable then are frustrating now (even knowing about them in advance). I enjoyed playing this, but I think the previous remake was actually more of what I want—if I wanted the original all over again with no new gameplay material, I’d pull out my old brick Game Boy and play it.
