The Mana Chronicles
 

It's not a new game, or a collection or anything, it's just a title used to indicate the entire Mana series. I want to know who's a fan and who's not.

Has anyone here taken a shot at Sword of Mana yet? If not, I'd highly recommend it. I've only played about 5 hours of it, but it's wicked fun. If you're a fan of the Mana games, you don't really have an excuse for not grabbing it. Plus, it's technically the first game in the seres, so that's a bonus.

I just grabbed a copy of Secret of Mana off of Ebay last night, and I'm sweating in anticipation. Now, SoulBlazer and The 7th Saga are the only old-school SNES games I still need to grab in order to complete my kickass collection. I never beat SoM, although I rented it a ton and got about 70% of the way through it multiple times. I can't wait, the game is so awesome!

Never played the third Mana game, mainly because I don't like the idea of emulating old games. It just takes something away from the entire experience. It's not a moral thing, I just don't like playing SNES games on my comp. Just doesn't feel right. Did anyone here play the third Mana game? If so, how was it?

I'm probably alone on this, but I fucking loved Legend of Mana. Sure, it wasn't a giant epic quest with a long-haired, katana-wielding villain, but don't we already have a number of those? It was cool because the art direction was phenomenal and it was an original, inventive idea. It was all side-quests! That's fucking brilliant!

Overall, this series is easily one of the best in video game history. I've played (and now own) three of the current four games, and not a one of them is a letdown in any fashion. What do you guys think?

SEIKEN DENSETSU 3 OWNS.

and so does Deus Ex.

=/


























Your mom.

I'm hoping that Square releases it in another one of those Final Fantasy two-packs with FF3. That would just rock my balls off.

Well, Secret of Mana was absolutely awesome, great, innovate, spectacular, and a whole throng of other good words.

SD3 was really good as well. The werewolf pwnz ass.

Sword of Mana, I'm sad to say, isn't anywhere good as either of them. Here's why:

One of my worst problems with the Mana games was the NPC pathing. They would alwalys get stuck on a damned tree and not follow you. Then you had to wait on them to get around the tree to advance. Well, in Sword of Mana, you don't have to wait for your ally, but s/he still doesn't follow you as well as a drunken monkey could.

The storyline... *sigh* Has anyone ever played... *sigh again*
(I can't remember the name of the game. It's an old RPGMaker 2000 game in which the storyline is so absolutely typical for an RPG that it's funny. The sidekick makes fun of the hero for being so sterotypical. I was going to look up the game, but the website where I used to download RM2k games is down...) ~insert name of laughably sterotypical RPG here~ ? While playing Sword of Mana, I was actually reminded strongly of this *gestures* game. The plot is horribly predictable. I don't usually whine about these things, but on several occasions, I actually called what was about to happen.

He's gonna fall off the bridge. Just you wait. He's gonna... Oh there he goes!

Oh it's obviously the girl from his childhood... No doubt about that.

(I said these things out loud while playing... omfg)



Reasons why I like Sword of Mana:
1. The level system is pretty cool. There are lots of classes you can go into.
2. The alternate storylines (similar of course, but still different) of the male and female hero.


Anyhow, I knew the storyline was typical when I bought it. I had read reviews. Anyone who isn't particularly fond of live action RPGs should stay away from this game. You won't like the playstyle, adn you definately won't stick around for the storyline. To any Mana fan, I would reccomend Sword of Mana. If you've played any of the games before, head on it. It's pretty fun.





p.s. You're right Raz. You are the only person that has ever liked Legend of Mana. I couldn't stand it. I didn't like the fighting style, and the fact that you could plant DUNGEONS to explore really pissed me off.

I've played Secret of Mana plenty of times, I didn't like how the bosses were repetitive but it was a great game. Never played legend of mana or sword of mana. I did however play SD3, which was pretty cool but I didn't like the battle style but it might have just been the emulation.

The battle style was very similar to that of Secret of Mana.

Yes, the plot in Sword is pretty predictable, but I don't honestly consider this a terrible thing. The plot is Skies of Arcadia was by-the-books too, and that game was terrific! The NPC complaint is a genuine one, but not as serious as it was in Secret of Mana. At least in Sword, you can just run ahead and after a few seconds the NPC will just phase right through all obstacles and come right to you.

My only honest complaint with Sword of Mana is the dialogue. It's not that the translation is bad (it's actually pretty good) it's just that the language the characters use doesn't seem right. It's a medieval setting and the hero is tossing around terms like "ya know?" The language just seems a bit out of place.

Legend of Mana was awesome. The only flaw with the combat system was that it forced you to engage in combat with enemies. You couldn't just avoid the baddies that popped up. The dungeon-planting thing wasn't so bad, in all honesty. If you knew how to do it correctly, you could make the dungeons a cake-walk, or increase the difficulty dramatically. I thought it was a great idea.

Oh I never said it was difficult. I only said I didn't like it.

It's been a while since I played, but from what I remember, there's a menu system? Wtf? What self-respecting game with live-action fighting has a MENU SYSTEM for its fighting?

Are you saying you didn't like it because of the absence of a ring menu?

I didn't like it because it wasn't like run in, swing, dodge, back up, charge up your weapon, strike, switch people and heal, switch people and power up while the boy is charging his weapon, etc.