In the opening hours in particular, I really felt the need for a modern guiding hand. It’s boldly different and commendably open-ended. You’re flung into its world without a goal, left to traipse around looking for things to provide purpose, helping characters you don’t know to do things you don’t understand, because what else is there? Completing short quests rewards you with artefacts, which for some reason transform into towns and dungeons when placed on the world map, so you trot over to these new pastures to find another tale to stick your nose in.
This is an action RPG that sweeps away the breadcrumb trails of plot, quest structure and exploration you’d expect. I soon came to realise that its whole modus operandi is a wilful obtuseness, and the remaster makes no attempt to address the frustrations that this causes. Simply being able to toggle a small arrow over access points would save a lot of hassle.īut then that’s the thing with Legend of Mana – this kind of fuzziness isn’t an accidental oversight, it’s by design. It’s very easy to circle around a town or dungeon and not spot a crucial door or passage, because it’s obscured by another object or looks like a dead end. On a more functional note, they really should have done more when recreating the scenery to highlight exits and entryways in each screen. But it’s difficult to see exactly what some of them are as they pixelate under the hi-res microscope – I had no idea that one chap I was talking to was actually a centaur, for example. Character design in Legend of Mana is entertainingly eclectic, with walking teapots and sea lion pirate captains mingling with the usual spiky-haired JRPG youth. The only question here is whether Square Enix could have gone a step further, redrawing the people and creatures that populate these places as well. From lush green jungles to a particularly proud pirate ship, it’s a sumptuous world to dive into. An already superb soundtrack receives an orchestral overhaul (with the option to switch between old and new arrangements), there’s a new animated into sequence and, most impressive, freshly repainted backgrounds that remain faithful to the originals while adding HD crispness and detail. The more striking developments, however, are audio-visual. Both are welcome, and I found the latter especially handy when trying to pick my way out of some of the game’s mazy dungeons, keeping focus on where I was going. In practical terms, the standout tweaks are an ability to save almost anywhere, instead of only at designated points, and to deactivate regular enemy encounters. This new version is helped along with some valuable changes, too.
#Legend of mana switch series
As I expected, it’s a fascinating departure for the series with its experimental approach to RPG design, even if it falters in its execution. In truth, having since played some of the later games, including Trials of Mana and Sword of Mana, I’m not sure they ever really recaptured that Secret magic, but I kept an eye on Legend regardless. To be clear, as much as I’m a fan of the Mana series, this was my first time with Legend, mainly because it wasn’t originally released in Europe – a rather cruel move by Squaresoft (as they were before merging with Enix), who blessed us with the seminal Secret of Mana then refused to feed the hunger they’d created for more. READ MORE: ‘Scarlet Nexus’ review: A tale of psychic powers that might overload your brain.Or maybe Legend of Mana was always a fragile construction that now needs additional scaffolding to support its smartest features. Maybe I’ve grown spoilt since the game first came out in 1999, possessed by an unreasonable sense of entitlement. It has clearly had a lot of work put into it, above and beyond the norm for re-releases, especially by Square Enix standards.
It feels a little churlish to criticise this Legend of Mana remaster for not making enough effort.
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