Legend of Mana Remastered
Enter Legend of Mana. As was the case with SaGa Frontier I own the original PS1 version. I started it many times and never finished it. Looking back I have no idea why. It’s not a terribly long game (~20 hours for the normal player), and it’s not a difficult game. Anyways, let’s get into it! Make sure you check out the screenshots. I took a lot because the game is gorgeous. Especially the first screenshot.
Legend of Mana is non-linear bliss. Even the world is created at your whim. The game opens up with you picking a square area on the world map for you to play the game on. Upon which you receive the “Mailbox Artifact”. You place this anywhere in the sub-section of the map you chose. You notice it’s the only place available for you to explore. Well as you finish quests you receive more of these. Each map has at least one quest to complete and once you do you can place artifacts next them. This means every time you play you can place the lands differently. In the first town of Domina there are a few quests you can start off with, each providing you with a different artifact. So right off the bat you can begin to initiate the different quest lines. You can jump around them, or focus on that one. Again, meaning every time you play you can go through the game differently. The difficulty is balanced by the further away from “Home” you place an artifact and how many artifacts have already been placed when you put a new one down affect the difficulty of the new land. Overall it leads to a very open-ended play style. There are about 5 different main quest lines, and three that can open up the final dungeon. This means it’s possible to beat the game without even seeing most of the content! I think this is great because it allows for great replayability.
The graphics and music got a huge boost in the remaster. All the backgrounds and sprites got completely upgraded for widescreen and higher resolutions. However, I will say it looked way better handheld on the Switch, then docked. The sprites looked crisper and less pixelated. The backgrounds looked great either way. The music was redone with a full orchestra and it is a banger. Definitely listen to it on YouTube.
The double-edged sword of this game is the equipment and skills system. There are 11 types of weapons you can choose from. This is great, but I’m not done yet. The skill system is reminiscent of SaGa games, where you actions spark you to learn new actions. You have a set of “action skills” such as jump, crouch, and defend. You set these to two of your main 4 buttons. By using these you master new action skills such as double-jump, whirl, and counterattack. Now as you learn these skills you combine them with your attacks. This is how you learn “special techniques” which are weapon skills. It is a cumbersome process with not that much payoff because you need to spend a lot of time with one weapon to unlock the most powerful skills. With that many weapons, on a single play through, you only unlock mid-level STs (special techniques). On a single play through it doesn’t lead to much, but it allows for, again, massive replayability.
I barely bought any equipment, weapons or armor, throughout my play through. I picked up some average equipment, but the game is easy enough I never had to go out of my way to try to find anything stronger. Another aspect I didn’t explore was the instrument system. There’s no traditional magic in Legend of Mana, but you can buy/create musical instruments that cast magical spells. I used them about 2 times.
The battle system is okay. You can only attack left and right, with the hit boxes being a little wonky at times. STs take too long to activate. By the time you’ve used one, you may as well have just killed the enemy with normal attacks. With bosses, usually by the time you use your ST the boss has moved, or become invulnerable while they activate their own ST. Also, it’s very apparent when bosses use their STs, so you can get out of the way and avoid it. I think this makes the game too easy.
In conclusion, Legend of Mana, is a fantastic remaster that stays true to the source. It does implement some quality of life upgrades, such as save anywhere and widescreen support. However, some of the mechanics didn’t hold up well in the modern era. If you’re looking for a short, re-playable and gorgeous game with fantastic music definitely pick this up. It was my cup of tea personally, but it isn’t going to be for everyone.
