Well, I've been playing games from the Mana series lately. First, I started a play-through of Seiken Densetsu 3 with my good friend Caleb. Then, when I got to my house, I wanted to play the first game in the series, and ended up playing Final Fantasy Adventure. Lurved it. Now I'm playing through Secret of Mana. Lurving it, too! I also played through Legend of Mana a while back, but only did one of the main plot-lines, and half-did some of the others. I've played through a good chunk of Sword of Mana as well, and I must say, Sword of Mana is very different in the gameplay department from Final Fantasy Adventure! I've played a tiny bit of Children of Mana, as well, but it's been stolen by my house. Heroes of Mana interests me, and I just want to get Dawn of Mana for its soundtrack, really.

As for my thoughts on the series, I must say that it changes quite a bit from game to game. Final Fantasy Adventure was a combination of new ideas for the area design, Final Fantasy influences, and Legend of Zelda gameplay mechanics. Secret of Mana, while expanding upon various parts of Final Fantasy Adventure, really doesn't seem to be a very similar gameplay experience due to its lack of keys, breakable walls, and a big, grid-based world map, and so far doesn't have much area interactivity like Final Fantasy Adventure. Then, Seiken Densetsu 3 distances itself even more by removing all area interactivity, save for being able to choose which element to use at specific times and pressing a button. Legend of Mana was still a real-time RPG, but almost everything about it seems like it was totally new, which is probably why it was considered a side-story to the main series. Thankfully, Sword of Mana kind of jogged the series' memory. "What? Final Fantasy Adventure? OHYAH!", but that's to be expected, as it was a remake of that game. The artwork for the game seemed to imitate Legend of Mana, that being Legend of Mana's most complimented points. The spriting, however, seemed to mimic Seiken Densetsu 3. Then, the gameplay itself was very Secret of Mana-ish. Children of Mana, however, seemed to base its gameplay elements off of the most popular games of the Mana series, but then formed the entire game totally differently by making it level-by-level. I haven't touched Dawn of Mana and Heroes of Mana yet, so I really can't talk about those much. Plus, I haven't beaten Sword of Mana, Secret of Mana, or ... (pout) ... Seiken Densetsu 3.

Anywho, what do you think of the Mana series?