PLATFORM: PC, PS4, SWITCH (REVIEWED) | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
The Mana series is one that often overlooked. Plenty of people are aware of Secret of Mana on the SNES, but few are aware of the rest of the games in the series. Luckily they’ve been getting a new lease of life over the past few years, firstly thanks to the SNES mini, followed by remakes of Secret and Trials of Mana, as well as 2019’s excellent Collection of Mana. Now it’s time for a remake of 1999’s PS1 instalment, Legend of Mana.
Firstly let’s get this out of the way – Legend of Mana is straight up weird and it makes no apologies or explanations for it. It starts out normal enough with a character selection screen, then it gets a little stranger when it asks you to choose your weapon, giving you no explanation of the differences – fair enough, just overcompensate by picking the biggest one they’ve got. Now you’re ready to start, just pick whatever a play area is (it isn’t explained…), and all that’s left to do is pick where you want your mailbox to go and boom you’ve created a village for some reason. Cue awesome intro music.
The game continues to confuse from that point onward, offering no direction as to what you’re supposed do. You’ll be exploring a cave with your new party member, defeat an enemy, and the next thing you know you’ve completed a mission you didn’t even know you’d started, and that party member isn’t a new friend but just some meaningless side character. In some ways this is a refreshing approach, but in other ways it’s really annoying not knowing what you’re supposed to be doing, or if you’re already doing it, and just hoping you get an artefact to create a new place to visit.
The combat system is fairly simple, and falls somewhere in between Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger. You get a battle screen like most traditional JRPGs, but it’s not turn-based and feels more like a hack and slash. As you level up, you unlock new attacks and dodges, of which, even initially, you get quite a few to choose from.
In terms of the port, it’s developed by M2. If you ever had a 3DS you’ll probably be familiar with their excellent work on 3D versions of classic Sega games, as well as the Sega Ages series of ports elsewhere. They’re highly regarded in the industry as going above and beyond, and that’s definitely the case here. Any shortcomings the game may have are down to the source material, but in terms of the port itself, it’s perfect. It’s smooth, visually stunning and has beautiful arranged versions of the original music.
Legend of Mana is a unique experience that has been beautifully remastered. Mechanically it’s not the best JRPG though, and often the only challenge it offers is aimlessly walking around hoping to trigger a mission. But, having said that, there’s nothing else quite like it, so you may well discover a new favourite!
