Final Fantasy Adventure vs. Sword of Mana

[KentaRawr!]

So, I wish to play the first Seiken Densetsu game. But, which version should I play? Should I play the remade Sword of Mana, or the original Gameboy version called Final Fantasy Adventure? I'm not aware of the differences between the two, besides that Sword of Mana replaces some things with series conventions that appeared from the time of Final Fantasy Adventure's release, like Cannon Travel, as opposed to Final Fantasy's Chocobo.

Which version should I play? :o

Edit: Oh, and Final Fantasy Adventure was called Mystic Quest in Europe, if I'm not mistaken.

[Flying Mullet]

I haven't played the Sword of Mana version, but I always enjoyed the original Final Fantasy Adventure version.

*debates taking it out an playing it...*

[KentaRawr!]

I haven't played the Sword of Mana version, but I always enjoyed the original Final Fantasy Adventure version.

*debates taking it out an playing it...*

Well, I've played quite a bit of Sword of Mana, but it was quite a while ago, too. But, based on what I remember of Sword of Mana, and the little of Final Fantasy Adventure I've gotten to play, Sword of Mana really changes the story quite a lot (and for the better, in my opinion), but is less of a gameplay experience than it should be.

[Bastian]

They are extremely different. Final Fantasy Adventure was clearly attempting to be a rip off of the original Legend of Zelda. Even each room in the dungeons are structured VERY like the original Zelda.

Sword of Mana, on the other hand, is very visually based on Legend of Mana . . . which, frankly, is a bit too cartoony and cutesy for me. It's a great game, but it marks the bridge into the "World of Mana" series of inferrior Mana games.

I really like the both of them. But they feel like two completely different games with similar plot points.

[KentaRawr!]

Well, I beat Final Fantasy Adventure. It was like The Legend of Zelda + Final Fantasy, really. >_> I really liked the story towards the end, but now I need to play Dawn of Mana to see if they incorporate Final Fantasy Adventure's Tree of Mana explanation. If not, I am sad. So sad.

[Flying Mullet]

This thread motivated me to pull out my old Final Fantasy Adventure cart and give it a whirl. I played for a bit last night and just made it to Wendel. I forgot how much fun the game is. :D

[Flying Mullet]

Yay for double posts.

I've arrived back at Glaive and just beat the Chimera in the castle and am looking for Dark Lord now. More people should play this game. It's a blast!

[KentaRawr!]

Yay for double posts.

I've arrived back at Glaive and just beat the Chimera in the castle and am looking for Dark Lord now. More people should play this game. It's a blast!

I agree. While its GBA counterpart (which I'm playing now) improves on various things such as the music, contains and massive edits to the story, the gameplay that made the first so fun is pretty much gone, which is pretty disappointing.

Edit: By the way, how are you leveling up your stats? I always raised the lowest stat while I was playing it, and I seemed to get by pretty fine. I kinda wish I raised my Will more often, though.

[Bastian]

FFA is fun to see the origin of a fantastic game series . . . but I might prefer Sword of Mana.

As for Dawn of Mana, everyone hates it except me. I love it. There is certainly room for improvment (no Flammie, no towns to visit/shop in/etc) . . . but . . . the music and the graphics and the story are amazing. The gameplay takes a bit to get used to, but once you do, it's awesome.

[Flying Mullet]

I picked up Sword of Mana for $10 over break and am on my second playthrough now. It's definitely a lot different than Final Fantasy Adventure but it's just as fun.

[Bastian]

I REALLY want to play the updated graphics version of FFA which only came out for Japanese cell phones. Grrr!

[Flying Mullet]

Emulator?

[Bastian]

Unfortunately no one has yet uploaded the colored (great, now I sound like my grandma) version yet. At least so far as I can google.

Argh.

Over at ZeldaClassic, someone has built a "tileset" for the game-creation software using a colorized version of FFA, I'm trying to convince him to build the whole FFA game in it.

[KentaRawr!]

Pay him to do it! :p

[RitzyRitz]

I personally Love SoM. Simply because it pulls you so deep into the game, You actually feel for the characters pain and sorrow and you WANT to kick the butt of the bad guy(s) . The other thing I like about it, Is you can play as either the male or the female, and even though the stories tie together , They are both sorta different.

[Davias]

I like FFA the best. I have played through Sword of Mana, but in my opinion, the original story of the old game is a little bit more..."epic". Also I like the ending of FFA better, it is "good" and "tragic" at the same time and in Sword of Mana the same scene looks rather poor.
I like the music and the graphics of the remake but the story in FFA leaves a lot more things to the players imagination when it comes to the story
But that opinion can come from my nostalgic feelings for FFA. It was the first Adventure I've ever played and the first game for my Game Boy;)

[Del Murder]

I've only played Sword of Mana, but I chose Final Fantasy Adventure anyway because I probably would have liked it better.

[Bastian]

Sword of Mana is the better game. It has a more engrossing plot, the characters are fleshed out a bit better, the cutscenes are more interesting, it has a much more "Mana" feel (Elemental Spirits, Lil Cactus, Round Drops, etc). The graphics are pretty.

However, I think I might have enjoyed FFA a bit more because I'm a retro-ist at heart, and enjoyed the notion that THIS was where it all began. And it's also fun to how blatantly Square was trying to rip off the original '87 Zelda game and their own Final Fantasy franchise at the same time by combining the two into something new.