Square-Enix’s Seiken Densetsu series, known as Mana outside Japan, began as a spinoff of the Final Fantasy franchise, the first installment for the Gameboy known to Anglophones as Final Fantasy Adventure. While North American gamers would receive its first sequel for the Super NES, Secret of Mana, its sequel, only a few years prior given the official English name Trials of Mana, remained absent outside Japan until recently. The next Mana game Anglophone players would receive after Secret was Legend of Mana, with Square-Enix in recent years breathing new life into the series with remakes and remasters, Legend among the recipients of this treatment for Windows, the Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4. Is the rerelease worth playing?
Legend of Mana occurs in the world of Fa’Diel, where war incinerated the Mana Tree, and all the world’s various lands and inhabitants stored in artifacts, the first of which is a mailbox that creates a home serving as the playable male or female protagonist’s home base, with the primary hero or heroine tasked with rebuilding the world to its former glory. There are plenty of well-developed mini-stories throughout the game, and many memorable characters, although the central narrative is somewhat lacking, along with the general poor direction of the overall plot and accommodating gameplay.
The translation largely remains unchanged from the PlayStation version’s, which is a good thing, as it was one of the strongest ones of the original incarnation’s era, with nary a spelling or grammar error in sight, different dialects for certain characters such as Teapo’s Cockney speak and the pirate penguins, general comprehensible dialogue, occasional humor with references to things such as “getting stoned” and “being hard,” and the like. The font choice was definitely good, as well, with only minor spots in the localization regarding certain names such as “tako bugs”. Regardless, the translation very much helps the remaster far more than hurts.
Legend features a methodical structure where the player, largely through the completion of story quests, receives artifacts they place on the overworld to rebuild a town, dungeon, or field, new adventures encountered provided they’ve conversed with the right NPCs, entered an area, or fulfilled an objective that admittedly might necessitate use of a guide to uncover. Many quests revolve around traversing open fields and dungeons and maybe defeating a boss, and after a mission’s completion, the player can converse with Li’l Cactus at their home to get him to write a brief journal entry, with opportunities for obtaining these missable should players complete another quest in the meantime.
Within fields and dungeons, the player will frequently encounter enemies, which causes the screen to lock into place, akin to a beat-em-up arcade game, the general combat mechanics taking plentiful cues from the aforementioned gaming genre. When starting a new game, the player can select the hero or heroine’s initial weapon, although they can change to other weapon types throughout the game, and in the game menus, the player can assign skills such as jumping and dodge-rolling to two buttons, whilst the other two dictate weak and strong attacks, players able to string these in combination strikes.
There are plentiful safeguards against potential frustration with the game mechanics, such as the ability outside battle, new to the remaster, to toggle enemy encounters on or off except for storyline battles necessary to advance a subplot, not to mention the protagonist and his/her two allies starting each fight at full health. The player’s companions typically consist of a character central to the storyline and either a “pet” the player can capture through certain means and raise or a golem with fixed stats, sentient allies and pets able to level alongside the protagonist.
One of the main issues with Legend’s game mechanics, however, lies in its reward system, with defeated enemies dropping either an item for instant health recovery within the battle (with there being no system of consumable items, although a character’s health will slowly restore when they stand still), an item for various uses in things that may necessitate a guide, or experience crystals and coins any of the characters can collect, although without the use of a certain accessory or an additional player to control the second character, leveling allies can be somewhat taxing, and the hero or heroine will very easily be an experience hog, and experience crystals disappear after a few seconds.
Fortunately, battles tend to be quick affairs, although they generally don’t become too complex, the protagonist occasionally getting special skills they can use when their ability gauge is full, although these tend to require a great deal of foresight, given that their execution causes them to stand still for a few seconds before ultimately unleashing the skill, with enemies having ample opportunity to get out of the way. Should the main character or one of his/her allies lose all health, they naturally remain unable to fight, although gauges gradually fill that, when full, thrust them back into action with full health, but all characters losing all hit points results in a game over.
Given the generous save system, more generous in the remaster, however, wasted playtime is minimal, and as long as the player takes advantage of things such as blacksmithing to create better weapons and equipment, they’ll have little problem making it through the central storyline. The game mechanics generally work decently, battles being optional in the remaster being a major plus, along with some nifty features such as enemies blinking before executing powerful skills, although there are issues aside from the reward system such as having to track down certain allies to get them back in the party, given that they leave whenever the player enters their home, and in the end, the gameplay is largely serviceable.
On the subject of saving, Legend of Mana still has golden sprite statues where the player can record their progress, but most of the time outside combat, they can save anywhere, somewhat making said idols superfluous. The menus are generally easy to get a handle of, with an auto-equip function for the protagonist and no need to worry about the equipment of allies, although there exist major issues with regards to the field and dungeon designs, which can be convoluted, the total absence of in-game maps not helping. There’s also the difficulty of finding out how to advance the game without consulting a guide, and in the end, the remastery team could have made some effort to increase user-friendliness.
Yoko Shimomura’s soundtrack is one of the game’s highlights, with plenty beautiful town themes such as in Domina and Gato, and epic field and dungeon themes, the player able to choose between orchestrated or original instrumentation, and listen to any track within the game. The sound effects are somewhat generic and lack diversity, but otherwise, the remaster is a definite aural treat.
One could possibly say the same about Legend of Mana being eye candy, given plentiful positives such as the superb character and enemy designs and gorgeous environments scaled to contemporary widescreen televisions, along with a new, nice anime introduction before the title screen. However, the pixilation of the animate character and enemy sprites is very noticeable, and there are some reskins and recycled environments as well, and while the graphics rise above average, they don’t reach excellence.
Finally, the game can take as little as twelve hours to beat with a straightforward playthrough, up to twenty-four if the player decides to partake in every available quest, with a New Game+ theoretically adding replayability, although the weak control and ability to do every quest in a single playthrough (some are, however, missable), may deter players from wanting to go through again.
Overall, Legend of Mana is a bit of an odd duck, undoubtedly a polarizing game, given some of the unrefined aspects such as its game mechanics (which are otherwise decent), its control, the general absence of a strong overarching storyline, the unpolished parts of the visuals, and the average lasting appeal. However, it does have many astounding aspects, particularly its engaging mini-stories, the solid localization, and the beautiful soundtrack. Much like the Final Fantasy franchise from which the Mana series derives, the game, like many before and after it, dared to be different, and for the most part did a decent job in that respect, warranting a look, if nothing more.
This review is based on a playthrough of the PlayStation 4 version digitally downloaded by the reviewer.
The Good:
+Serviceable game mechanics.
+Interesting subplots.
+Excellent translation.
+Superb soundtrack.
+Good art direction.
The Bad:
-Guide necessary to get most of game.
-Dungeons and fields need maps badly.
-Weak overarching storyline with poor direction.
-Some rough spots in remastered graphics.
-Can be slightly tedious to go through again.
The Bottom Line:
Not the best Mana game, but still a decent remaster.
Score Breakdown:
Platform: PlayStation 4
Game Mechanics: 6.5/10
Controls: 5.0/10
Story: 8.5/10
Localization: 9.5/10
Music/Sound: 9.5/10
Graphics: 6.5/10
Lasting Appeal: 5.0/10
Difficulty: Moderate
Playing Time: 12-24 Hours
Overall: 7.5/10
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