Seiken Densetsu \ Mana
Welcome to another Tier List Tuesday! This week we’re going to tackle the Mana games. This series has had a lot of highs and lows. Let’s dive in, we’ll start from the bottom first!
D Tier
Avoid these games, they’re just trash and buggy. We have Dawn of Mana and the remake of Secret of Mana. Dawn of Mana took too many risks, and didn’t deliver on anything.
The remake of Secret of Mana was a huge let down for me. I remember seeing the teaser trailer, and literally jumping out of bed dancing. I pre-ordered and played it right away but I was left with a feeling of regret. The OST was butchered, there were no quality of life improvements, and the voice acting in english is horrendous. When I say no QoL improvements, it literally feels like they somehow managed to retrofit the engine exactly as it was, but with a new look. Even the weird staggering issues when you’re hit or hit an enemy exist. Every little thing that the original got away with because it was an SNES game is here.
C Tier
We have Final Fantasy Adventure along with one of its remakes, Adventures of Mana. They’re both here for different reason. The original hasn’t aged well, but it’s still a classic in the action JRPG genre. The remake offers a lot of gameplay improvements, while remaining faithful to the source, but it’s pretty bug ridden.
Not a whole lot to say about Children of Mana. It’s absolutely mediocre.
C Tier
Sword of Mana is another remake of Final Fantasy Adventure. However, they really took liberties with the story, and integrated the ring menu system the series was known for in the SNES days. I really enjoyed everything Sword of Mana brought to the table as a remake.
Heroes of Mana is an interesting RTS game in the vein of Warcraft in how the battles flow. Definitely check it out for something different!
A Tier
Legend of Mana is a PS1 classic. It built upon everything from the previous titles, spruced up combat, and brought a slew of fun mechanics. The most interesting was the world building. By progressing the story you obtain artifacts, which you place on the world map to control how it looks. This affects certain quest lines, and can change the game every time you play. There is also monster taming, so you can have all sorts of pets in battle with you! The branching storylines are the best feature, with each sub-character having their own set of events and conclusions.
The original Seiken Densetsu 3 on the SNES in 1995 never officially made it stateside until the Collection of Mana came out with an official english translation of it 24 years later in 2019. I’ve played both, and I really like the official translation, but the fan translation of the 95 game has a special place in my memories. It was designed for replay value, with 6 available characters, that you choose 3 at the start of the game. While it does have difficulty/balancing issues and some non-major bugs, this game was a huge accomplishment for the time. The music is phenomenal, and the class upgrade system added even more to replayability.
S Tier
We have arrived to the best of the Mana series. The Trials of Mana remake learned from the failures of the Secret of Mana remake and blew me out of the water. They rebuilt every mechanic from the ground up, and did a great job with the OST. A little replayability is lost as you can reset your class options late-game, but it doesn’t matter that much. I prefer that actually. The graphics also got a huge upgrade here. The environments and animations are great! For a small budget remake they knocked this one out of the park. I played it on hard my first go, and it was still easy though. This is a great entry point to the series, and perfect for beginners to action JRPGS.
Secret of Mana. My favorite of the series and one of my favorite games of all time. This game blew me away as a kid. The battle system, the music, the choice of weapons. Even with it’s weird mechanics like stun-locking enemies with physical attacks, or spamming bosses with magic until they die, this game is a blast. The mode 7 over world while flying around on your dragon Flammie or getting launched out of a cannon and flying over everything was a marvel at the time. I could go on about this game for a while, but all you need to know is you need to play it. There’s a reason I own it complete in box, the guide, and all four Nintendo Powers that cover it.
