Legend Of Mana opening

[Obligatory Spoiler Warning]
[Please forgive the image quality. Some photos were taken by laptop camera]

I've played a lot of games in my life. Very rarely have I played a game that makes me restart it(via a new game or new game+) directly after finishing it. Only one game has made me do that over 5 times. The variety of quests and equipment provide that unique twist to each playthrough. The episodic nature of the stories doesn't hurt either.

Upon starting a new game you'll be asked 4 things. You'll get your standard questions: choose your character(male or female), choose a starting weapon type, and name yourself. Then you'll be asked something...different.


Choose an area of the map.



Choose a spot for home.

Wait, what!? Where's the map? There's no towns, nothing. You're greeted by an empty world. Then, automatically, and item will be selected, and you'll be prompted to place it somewhere, anywhere, on the map. So you place it, and thus, your story begins. The world starts to live.

That is the key defining feature of the Legend Of Mana. Throughout the course of the game, you'll acquire items known as "artifacts" that can only be used on the world map. When placed on an empty plot of land, it will transform into a place you can go to. On the one hand, it does kind of make for a disjointed world. On the other, the arrangement of pieces of land can effect the flow and progression of the game making each play though different from the last.

Depending on you placement of lands, and the quests you partake, you'll get artifacts and lands in different orders. This means different quests will be available at different times in the game. Some won't be available at all if you don't place your lands right. Ah, but I speak of quests, but not about the quests.

Legend of Mana's story unfolds in a highly episodic way. You will get quests, and a story will tell itself during that quest. Some quests will chain together to form a slightly larger narrative. Others are just stand alone, with a story arc that is contained entirely in the same quest. To an extent, it feels like your partaking in episodes of an anime or tv show. Each quest has a splash screen for its intro when you first get it, and a splash screen at the end.

The main thing is that you're and outside observer in most events. You are there, but these stories are (almost) never about you. They are about the people you come in contact with, and how they interact with others in the same story arc.


An early quest. Side Note: I can tell he did this quest second instead of first as you meet someone important to one of the story arcs if its the first quest you do.

There are three main story arcs that can take you to the end of the game. Only one needs to be completed to reach the end, but all three can be done in one playthrough. The stories never change too much between playthoughs(maybe the difference between one person dying and another), but they are interesting enough that I don't mind going through them multiple times. The characters are interestingly written, and its not hard to pick characters to like, and characters to dislike.

Interesting antagonists range from the likes of Drakonis, the fallen dragon lord who tricks you into helping him regain his power, to the demon Irwin who wants to eradicate humanity from existence so he can be with his human love without the restrictions of human laws.

It's always fun crossing paths with those whacky pirate penguins, or witnessing the suituations that Teapo the living teapot and Duelle the onion knight get into. Oh, that crazy merchant bunny Nicoolo, whose money is he taking this time. Bartenders made out of jigsaw puzzle pieces? What kind of world is this?

Certainly not one I wish to leave anytime soon.

Of course, even with such a wide variety of story options available, you wouldn't want to try and see them all unless the gameplay was interesting enough to keep you in the world. Thankfully, Legend provides. Combat plays out in more of a 2D beat em up manner. There are magics, abilities and special techniques you can equip your character with in addition to the standard light attack combo and strong attacks. Eleven weapons, 26 abilities, 191 special techniques and I don't know how many magic spells.


Special Techniques examples: Flail.

The different combination of skills and equipment alone are enough to keep combat fresh through multiple playthroughs. I could start the game using a two handed sword. At any time I could switch weapon types though. I could try a bow, or a spear, or a flail(nunkachu). Maybe I could go with all magics and no special techniques, no magics and nothing but special techniques, or meet somewhere in the middle.

Weapons can be forged and strengthened as well as armor and accessories. I've spent lot of time here trying to figure out what combination of materials applied in which order can benefit, and trying to undo those that didn't work. The spare equipment can be used to make golems, which can aid as pets in combat. Time is again spent trying to find a proper arrangement of the logic blocks(gotten from the equipment used) to make a functional golem.

Catching monster eggs for pet raising, and finding mana coins from mana spirits takes a good time too. This isn't just due to the systems themselves, which has you growing food to feed pets and forging instruments in the same way as weapons. The monster eggs and mana spirits that appear are also impacted by the lay of the lands. Different ones will show up depending on the lands around the current area.

Of course, what would this game be if you couldn't save all this hard work after you beat the final quest. There is a "New game +" mode that lets you continue a new game with your previous characters stats, equipment, pets and the like carried over. You'll even get a book that will allow you to increase the difficulty of enemies(theres a mode where all enemies are lv. 99, great fun).


Best book EVAR!

All these elements blend together into one package that shouldn't fit on one Playstation disk. It's a package where I pop it in, and view through the window in to a world filled with interesting characters and stories. It's one where I can play through it once, and the second time find something new in it. It's a game that makes me feel like I'm there, not because it was made to look that way. It's not drawn hyper-realistically. Its not in an "immersive" perspective. It's the way the stories inside the disk are written. They include me as a character. I can meet some people. I can help some people. I can hurt some people. Then I can do it all over again, and maybe run into some old friends.