Sword of Mana (GBA; replayed on X9-S)
Sep. 1st, 2019 10:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroThe original remake of Final Fantasy Adventure, which was also remade as Adventures of Mana more recently.
Despite its flaws, I've always loved this game. The fact that many of the systems (particularly the class system, but also tempering and some of the sidequests) are really obtuse and require a separate guide to really understand is one of those flaws. The actual dungeons are generally a lot shorter and less complex than the original game, and though a ton of plot and character has been added, some of it (such as the hero's relationship with Amanda) comes off as hackneyed and the translation is only mediocre.
I have two basic ways that I've played this over the years, either as the boy and following the Warrior/Sage class track (which I did this time), or playing as the girl, actually using magic besides healing, and using a guide to collect spirits and choose the appropriate class to use them. When you’re play warrior-style, there are some undead enemies you just need to avoid, and you need to at least forge and practice with a jab-style weapon (flail, bow or lance) to handle some enemies and bosses. But anything you can hit with a sword dies very quickly, and that includes most bosses. If you get the Brownie Ring*, this is just writ large for the second half of the game. This takes about ten hours of gameplay and is as close to the original game as you can get, for that matter.
You can play the girl’s story warrior-style, but the staff isn’t as strong as the sword and more enemies resist it. The girl is better suited for a second play-through, using a guide to pick the class / weapon / elementals you’re aiming for, and actually doing all the sidequests. If you get all eight elementals associated with the class you follow, you can activate a summon attack that, while it really isn’t worth the trouble, looks pretty cool. Basically, if you really like the game and want to go spelunking into all the stuff they crammed into it, this is the way to do it. You’ll spend more like 15+ hours on it, and you’ll still end up annoyed that the Amigo system is effectively dead and trying to get everything in a single run is basically impossible.
Upon reflection, while I love the hints of a larger world (Malvolia and its denizens is a major one), it doesn't actually pay off well. I wonder if playing Trials of Mana soon after this will shed some light on things. It occurs to me that this ends on a much more hopeful note than the original, where the girl is the last member of the mana clan. In this, a number of mana woman were saved by Count Lee, and Willy rejoins them at the end.
Overall: It’s been over a decade, and it was fun to revisit this. I don’t claim that it’s a classic everyone should love, but I find it decidedly fun and undeserving of the hate it gets.
Despite its flaws, I've always loved this game. The fact that many of the systems (particularly the class system, but also tempering and some of the sidequests) are really obtuse and require a separate guide to really understand is one of those flaws. The actual dungeons are generally a lot shorter and less complex than the original game, and though a ton of plot and character has been added, some of it (such as the hero's relationship with Amanda) comes off as hackneyed and the translation is only mediocre.
I have two basic ways that I've played this over the years, either as the boy and following the Warrior/Sage class track (which I did this time), or playing as the girl, actually using magic besides healing, and using a guide to collect spirits and choose the appropriate class to use them. When you’re play warrior-style, there are some undead enemies you just need to avoid, and you need to at least forge and practice with a jab-style weapon (flail, bow or lance) to handle some enemies and bosses. But anything you can hit with a sword dies very quickly, and that includes most bosses. If you get the Brownie Ring*, this is just writ large for the second half of the game. This takes about ten hours of gameplay and is as close to the original game as you can get, for that matter.
You can play the girl’s story warrior-style, but the staff isn’t as strong as the sword and more enemies resist it. The girl is better suited for a second play-through, using a guide to pick the class / weapon / elementals you’re aiming for, and actually doing all the sidequests. If you get all eight elementals associated with the class you follow, you can activate a summon attack that, while it really isn’t worth the trouble, looks pretty cool. Basically, if you really like the game and want to go spelunking into all the stuff they crammed into it, this is the way to do it. You’ll spend more like 15+ hours on it, and you’ll still end up annoyed that the Amigo system is effectively dead and trying to get everything in a single run is basically impossible.
Upon reflection, while I love the hints of a larger world (Malvolia and its denizens is a major one), it doesn't actually pay off well. I wonder if playing Trials of Mana soon after this will shed some light on things. It occurs to me that this ends on a much more hopeful note than the original, where the girl is the last member of the mana clan. In this, a number of mana woman were saved by Count Lee, and Willy rejoins them at the end.
Overall: It’s been over a decade, and it was fun to revisit this. I don’t claim that it’s a classic everyone should love, but I find it decidedly fun and undeserving of the hate it gets.
