THE OBSCURED LEGEND OF MANA

by Misery Guts

No matter your favoured genre, there is always that one series which foregoes the whole moment of doubt and just makes you dig deep into your pockets and fork over your cash with no questions asked. For me it's always been Final Fantasy, though after VIII I might be more wary (that poor dead horse, let's not beat it). However, there are others. A sequel to Chrono Trigger? It's about time! A sequel to the Secret of Mana? Where do I sign up?

And sign up I did, prepaying and waiting in (relative) anticipation. I remember unwittingly playing the first Seiken Densetsu (sp?) game as "Final Fantasy Adventure". It was great! Oh how I coveted my friend's copy of "Secret of Mana" and borrowed it off of him every chance I could. I even spent hours scouring the web for an english translation of Seiken Densetsu 3, which I (sob) accidentally deleted. Grr!

So with the advent of Seiken Densetsu 4, "Legend of Mana", on the ever-impressive and ground-breaking Playstation, I was almost drooling. Just look at Final Fantasy's crossing over from 2D to 3D! What wonderous things would we see?

I saw a child's story book. And in retrospect, it was like Final Fantasy's transition from 2D to 3D - substituting story and gameplay for graphics. As you can probably guess, I am thus so far unimpressed with Square's latest sequel.

But before we start pointing out the bad, let's look at the good. The music is absolutely amazing - I've spent some time listening to the bonus music CD I received for pre-paying for my copy. It's fantastic!

Okay, that's about all the good I could find. The bad? Well.......me wife took one look at the screen and laughed. She thought I was playing a child's game, and I don't blame her. The backgrounds, while wonderfully drawn, look like they've been lifted out of a storybook geared towards 2 year olds, and the supporting characters vent similar origins. I wondered if I had accidentally misinterpreted "Legend of Mana" as a game for adults when it was in fact for children, but let's face it - it is somewhat too advanced for children. So who were they hoping to pander to?

Then there's the Landmake System - Square's half-hearted attempt at innovation. I'm sorry, but I just found it annoying. "Create your own world" they said. Well when you consider the sheer scope and size of the worlds in Seiken Densetsu 1 - 3, I was intruiged. However, the reality is just placing land-marks on an otherwise blank world map. True genious. What was truly innovative about the first three games was that the world was proportionate. It wasn't like in Final Fantasy, where you wandered a world map and walked into icons representing towns - the whole world was on the same scale and proportionate to everything else. Even the basic little Gameboy version managed to achieve this. Why did they so reduce the scope and scale of the world in "Legend of Mana"?

I only played a small fraction of the unreleased "Seiken Densetsu 3", but you only have to play it for a few minutes to realize what a come-down "Legend of Mana" is in comparison. In SD3 you could choose from a number of characters, and the whole game changed based on who you chose. Sure the plot and quote unquote "dungeons" remained the same, but character interaction varied to such a degree that I could definetely see an overwhelming replay value. In "Legend of Mana" you are offered two characters. Pick one. It doesn't matter who. They both have the same house.

I'm sorry to say that I am already bored with the game. It's so repetetive in it's linear, left-to-right areas, and when there's a hint of exploration involved it ends up just being damned annoying! All fights are initiated in the same areas, so there are few surprises, and weapons are only unsheathed when the fight begins. It's not like the predecesors, where you could be walking down a path and be suddenly attacked by a.....Rabite. It's all carefully controlled for you.

I know they say it's easier to critisize than create. I'm a writer, so I know how hard it is to create something that everyone would like. But I see very little effort put into the overall gameplay of this game. The work gone into the artistry is overwhelming, but sadly misplaced. I've put five hours into the game and I've yet to find any semblance of a plot either, or any clue as to why all these "events" are tied together.

The first thing I did after realizing that I threw away eighty dollars on this game was to go online and download a ROM of "Secret of Mana". Now there's a great game and it didn't cost me a penny.