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Nall · Nov 4, 2007, 10:37 AM

Secret of Mana was the tops for me, Seiken Densetsu 3 was really cool too, and even Final Fantasy Adventure was one of the best handheld RPGs around when it came out. I really think Square's big problem with the whole World of Mana promotion was making too many games at once; all the top brass were just spread too thin (even if Masato Kato came back from Monolith to work on it). Granted, Children of Mana got pretty good reviews in Japan, where gamers are less hateful of dungeon crawls overall (36/40 in Famitsu, sold 100k units in, like, a week), but I don't really see it as a classic-in-the-making or anything. The new Mana games just don't feel like the older titles, either. Secret of Mana and SD3 were great because they were good single player games that happened to have a working multi-player component. CoM is a decent multi-player title with no story to cater to single-players, and Dawn of Mana is a very basic single-player game that has no multi-player at all. It feels like you're only getting half the experience with either title.

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Nall · Nov 4, 2007, 09:53 PM

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Secret of Mana was never known for its plot. Sorry, it's the truth. It was so fun that I didn't care that the plot was specious at best and hackneyed at worst, though.

I'll concede that there really wasn't much of a plot, but the game does have a lot of heart. What other RPG allows you to visit Santa himself, AND go on a quest for him? The game's just so fanciful and out-there it's impossible not to like! The newer Manas, pretty much from Legend of Mana onward, have all gotten so... odd. Every other NPC in LoM speaks in riddles or cryptic phrases, the music has become more serious and low-key, the art style has become more detailed and fantasy-like and less jovial and bright. It's not all bad, but it's drifting away from what made the series really something special instead of just another RPG. Hiroki Kikuta needs to come back, that's for sure.

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I don't know why everyone refuses to tell me what was wrong with Heroes of Mana.

If you want my opinion, nothing is *really* wrong with it, but the AI (both your team's and the enemies) are kinda wonky. Everything just sorta wanders around like it's trying to be random and not sticking to any sort of strategy. I think the big issue people had with it was it was an RTS with little strategy; you just sort of run in and attack anything that moves. Koichi Ishii said it was never supposed to be more than a "casual" game anyway, so some people judge it for more than it was trying to be: an entry-level RTS. It *does* have cameos from SD3, though, and that alone is worth something.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Nall · Nov 5, 2007, 07:00 PM

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Seriously it was never that good to begin with. I don't know why people expect something from each sequel. It's like you like having your hopes and dreams disintergrate on a bi-annual basis.

I read somewhere that Mana fans are the new Sonic fans, and it's very true. Every new game that comes out has thousands of hangers-on hoping against all odds that *this* will be the game to bring the series back. Regardless of how good of a game SoM was back in '92, from a technical or story-telling perspective, it has aged well in the minds of fans. Trying to recapitulate the memories of first playing the game are what keep people coming back to the series, no matter how lackluster the new games may be.

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Nall · Nov 9, 2007, 09:06 AM

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The series is a complete and utter joke now. It's dead to me.

Play Magazine said the same thing. They prefaced their Dawn of Mana review with "The Mana series is dead..." and gave it a 5/10. Their Heroes of Mana review a few months later was a respectable 8/10, though. I'm not convinced it's over yet, not unless they really mess up Secret of Mana in some way; a bad port or something. Even if the series has to live on in re-releases of the first three games, maybe it won't be so bad.

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I am somewhat surprised no remakes have come out, let alone remakes/releases of SD3.

That'd be nice. Still waiting for a virtual console version of SoM and SD3 with online multi-player support or DS versions with Wi-fi, myself.

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Nall · Nov 12, 2007, 05:35 PM

Seiken Densetsu 3 was fun for me because I played it right after the first English patch came out. Back then you could actually say there was something of an SD3 community, with boards lighting up across the net with people discovering things about a Super Nintendo game that came out like six years earlier. It was really something. The plot may not have been as cohesive as Secret of Mana, but it did have more replay value with all the different class and character combinations you could experiment with. The music was good too, Kikuta came back to write the score and it turned out really great. A little less light and fluttery than SoM's soundtrack, but enjoyable nonetheless.

That's what the Mana series needs, more Hiroki Kikuta.

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