Sword of Mana for the GBA is pretty good if a bit weird. It's a remake of the original Final Fantasy Adventure (Seiken Densetsu 1) except it removes all the blatant nods to FF and jam packs it with elements from other Mana titles, specifically Legend of Mana. Here's a list of what was added/changed from the original game:Originally Posted by maybee
- You can now play as the Girl and you can choose which character to play as at the start. The Boy is closer to the original game, while the Girl's scenario is more story driven.
- The story has been expanded and altered with a heavier Mana flavor to everything.
- Several minor characters were expanded on such as Willy and the villains
- In addition, a few new characters are introduced such as Gouramand, as well as LoM immigrants Lil Cactus, and Niccolo
- There is a weapon/armor crafting mechanic introduced which uses a system similar to LoM.
- Magic has been modified to follow the Mana series tradition.
- There is a job class system of sorts that plays some lip service to SD3's Job system. When the character levels up, they get an allotment of points to put towards their stats. You're given a choice of Warrior, Monk, Magician, Sage, Thief, and Random which will auto-allot the points towards those type of builds. If you level up one build exclusively, you'll unlock a unique item. These stat upgrades will then unlock actual classes which grant bonuses to your stats or if damage bonuses for using specific weapons and spirits. For instance, in my playthrough I chose Random enough times to unlock Barbarian class, and eventually leveled it to Dragon Master which granted me +35 bonuses for using Spear weapons and Salamando, Undine, Sylph, and Gnome magic.
- Excalibur is now the Mana Sword and a plot item as opposed to a usable weapon.
It was an interesting experience, and a bit more gut wrenching than FFA, since the expanded scenario saw fit to add more player punches.
I love me some Secret of Mana, but I honestly really love Legend of Mana as well, I'll have to see with Seiken Densetsu 3, but I do feel like the World of Mana entries are a bit hit or miss. Sword of Mana was okay, but Children of Mana was kind of bad.My thoughts on the series: Secret of Mana was a fluke. As much as I'd love to a new installment in the series that returns to that greatness, I've no evidence that they ever held that level for more than a single game. Even SD3, the most similar in the series, simply pales in comparison with a slapped together incoherent plot randomly cobbled together based on which characters you choose and a gameplay system that, despite its similarity to SoM, just doesn't work. Legend of Mana was alright as its own sort of thing, but definitely didn't give the sense of a successor to Secret of Mana. Secret of Mana was a fluke and we will never see its like again.
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