Legend of Mana

A game so lost in my dark ages that it took me four years to remember I played it.

Legend of Mana is the fourth game in the Mana franchise. I've played the second and third entries before and didn't enjoy them, so I was worried about Legend. I only added it to my playlist because I dabbled in it before college. So I finished, to my knowledge, all of my depression era games with this reluctant playthrough, but then something good happened. This was pleasantly surprising!

Legend of Mana plays similar to other games in the franchise in that it's a real time/action/hack n slash game. It does away with the cooldown after swings, but there is still a timing mechanic to allow for chains, building up a special attack meter. Once the special meter is full, you can unleash a devastating attack that even chunks bosses. These attacks are learned by having certain abilities equipped. These abilities tend to be movement based, like jump, lunge, and back step, but they can also be attacks (grapple, push) or miscellaneous stuff like spin, cheer, or defend. Switching abilities to learn the techniques was something I actually sought out. It felt so fun and rewarding because of the gameplay. I learned everything my spear could learn. Techniques are learned pretty fast, so you never feel like you're wasting too much time. This is especially important as every weapon has its own techs. And there are eleven weapon types! The only downside to any of this is there is no way to attack north and south of your character. LoM is an old school beat 'em up, I guess.

The graphics of LoM are stunning. They're something out of a children's storybook with an almost watercolor aesthetic. It makes the world and NPCs pop and look unique, giving everything a whimsical quality. Interaction items can sometimes blend in, and I missed a lot of room exits, but I wouldn't trade them for the world. There were several times I just stood there and looked at the backgrounds.

The music was composed by Yoko Shinomura. Her compositions add to that whimsy. The town themes are spectacular and take you to an alternative world, and the battle themes are surprisingly metal. I really wish I could describe music better!!!

The plot is... a strange thing. There is no obvious a-plot in Legend of Mana. The most obvious one would be you have to restore the famed Mana Tree to its once majestic glory. You do this by helping people with their problems, allowing mana to flow better now that areas are at peace. I assume, at least. But this is a passive plotline. There are three main b-plots that you experience as you play. One involves slaying dragons to revive a dead man. Another is a love/friendship triangle with four people of varying races. The final is about a race of gem people who are dying out. There were a load of twists and turns in these three that kept me guessing. You only need to finish one to unlock the final dungeon, but I did all three because they were amazing. They each add areas to visit on the world map, so of course I was. But even the small, one off side quests are fun and varied.

There's also an excessive amount of other, smaller mechanics. Some are better than others... I dug being able to create my own world space. Finishing certain sub stories rewards you with an artifact that allows you to place a new town or dungeon on the world map. You can set that artifact on the map to create your world/board game space. There are strategies to this, as the placement creates stronger mobs (and loot) or better shops depending on the distance from your home.

You also forge and temper weapons and armor. Forging is fun, but tempering is tedious and confusing. I never figured it out. Fortunately, tempering isn't necessary to beat the game.

There's also golem and pet creation. You can find monster eggs throughout the world and help them grow to fight alongside you. And using your extra weapons and armor lets you form automatons to do the same. This was also something I never dabbled in, so I had a rabbite as my pet the entire game.

To expand all of that is the orchard. Feed seeds to a tree to farm fruits and vegetables and use them to strengthen all the above. It was... fine.

Magic comes in the form of instruments you can create, but guess what I never did?

The important mechanics are great and fun, but the tertiary ones don't hamper the gameplay. That's what's important!

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Plot: the worst bit. The main character is a mute. They speak one line and don't really have much personality. The main bosses almost make up for it, and the stories definitely do. 7/10

Gameplay: perfect. With the excessive mechanics and fun action gameplay, how could it not be? The missions are as varied as the battles! 10/10

Music: perfect. The OST has metal for bosses and relaxing songs for the whimsical hamlets. Sad, happy, and wanderlust are all abound! 10/10

Graphics: whimsical. I can not stress enough how beautiful this PlayStation 1 game is. It could do with some better contrasts. 9/10

Charm: instant classic. The world is what you make it, and the NPCs are wonderful and among my favorites ever. The exploration, sense of replay, and game length are also up to the player. I loved this. 10/10

Halfway through Legend of Mana, I knew it would get high scores. But I didn't expect a 46/50!

Legend of Mana is what a slice of live anime would be like if it were a video game. How you play the game is entirely up to the user, but the devs made everything worthwhile. The variety of gameplay, world space, and missions are so impressive. I played for nearly thirty hours and didn't get everything. And I kinda feel bad. There are a few NPCs I wanted to help, but the quests never triggered. A bit sad, but new game plus exists... I'm just glad I found a Mana game I liked!

I returned to Shining Force!

I have mixed feelings!

I played Shining Force on the Sega Genesis an inconceivable amount of time ago. I got mad that my MC got ganged up on and died, causing me to restart a battle that lasted almost an hour. But since my recent burn out has let me go all loosey-goosey with this blog, I wanted to do something odd. What really inspired this was a recent Majuular video essay about the Sega Saturn RPGs. He found many of them weird, but one of them was Shining Force III. I thought it looked neat, and Maj praised it for a number of reasons. It made me want to play it, but I've only experienced the Genesis version, which I didn't like. But what if I tried again?

And so I did. But this time, I gave a slightly more updated port a try. The Gameboy Advanced version exists, and the synopsis of it across the internet gave me good vibes with it. There's one thing, in particular, that I dug, but it wasn't my issue with the Genesis one. But we'll get to that soon...

Let's start with the good parts:
The gameplay is balanced. I got frustrated a few times, but rarely did I want to quit again. And once I had my first KO, even that frustration went away. Outside of Mae's terrible accuracy, at least. I even found it fun and went into overtime nearly every night.

Sadly, I think that's it. The graphics do look nice enough, but they're kinda generic. The Genesis version has more charm and aesthetics, and the GBA world textures feel so samey. Every town looked like they were neighbors.

Musically, I hated it. So many songs get reused, and I grew angry and annoyed by them. The town theme, especially. For the first time in four years, I'm giving my first negative score in the standouts category because that awful, repetitive, quick melody haunts me.

And the plot is shockingly barebones. Even with the new GBA feature of giving the thirty three member cast a personality, backstory, or world building, they didn't help out much. Most are still boring, and, because the cast is so giant, you can't experience everyone's story. And "unlocking" new dialogue triggers is a total unknown. I used most of the cast for the entire game, but I didn't hear the end of their stories. What happened to Gort's Land Whale tornado? My displeasure aside, it's still so much better than the original game, where everyone was a blank slate.
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Plot: unrewarding. With simple characters and a story that takes too long to go anywhere, the decent enough villains don't matter to me. 5/10
Gameplay: too basic. I found it fun and addictive, but there's nothing else to do besides repetitive battles. 4/10
Sound: hate. I don't want to hear the town theme ever again. 2/10
Art: generic. The Genesis was prettier. That aside, I have nothing too negative to say. 8/10
Charm: fine. The new character interactions expand the world more than anything else. But the lack of NPCs and the game length kills any cute or exploration bonus. Somehow, I see why people love this game, though. 5/10
The only negative is you can't grind melee characters late game. I wanted to explore some of the other horse boys and bird people halfway through the game, but they only did one damage and died to the enemy counter. -2

So, Shining Force gets a painfully disappointing 24/50. The GBA port adds three characters, only one of whom is relevant, but I don't know if that (and the interactions) make it better than the Genesis. Shining Force should be played only for the gameplay, I think, so maybe stick to the OG.

Do I still want to experience the rest of this franchise? I was having a lot of fun early on, but man did it crumble fast...