Legend of Mana is a beautiful game full of wonder and whimsy. Every time I hopped into this gorgeous remaster, I found myself grinning from ear to ear. Though I do not have experience with the original Legend of Mana, I feel fans will be quite happy with the work put into this remaster.
Legend of Mana is a remaster of the fourth game in the Mana series. It is a beautiful treat that fans of the series will adore. And though my experience with JRPGs is limited, I found myself enjoying Legend of Mana much more than I had anticipated. Beautiful graphics and music pair well with interesting gameplay in a spectacular remaster. Just take a small peek for yourself:
To say that Legend of Mana is beautiful would be an understatement. The game treats you to beautiful artwork as soon as it loads. An anime-style opening greets you and brings plenty of joy with it. Bright colors and music set the tone for a game that follows suit.
The backgrounds in Legend of Mana are stunning. Each new area brings a beautifully crafted stage to the player. As soon as I took control of the protagonist, I spent no shortage of time just running around my home admiring the artwork. It reminded me of some computer games I played growing up, and I was giddy.
However, one issue I had with the art is that all sprites are still pixel-art-based. While this pays a nice homage to the original Legend of Mana, it is a little jarring to see against the beautifully rendered backgrounds. Though, it does make finding interactable items easier to find. I do think it would have been nice to see some remastered sprites that matched the work put into the backgrounds.
Though the sprites may not have seen a re-work like the background art, the music certainly did. The rescoring done in the Legend of Mana remake is phenomenal. There is a setting in the menu where you can switch between the original music or the new score. I would casually flip between the two when I began. However, I enjoyed the new music so much that I quickly abandoned the switch back to the old scoring.
Since my knowledge of the Mana series is quite limited, I knew nothing of Legend of Mana before hopping in. I knew it was a JRPG, and that was about the end of it. And when I think of JRPGs, my mind goes to turn-based combat, especially since the original Legend of Mana came out in 1999.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that Legend of Mana uses a real-time battle system. Though I found the controls a little odd at first, I enjoyed them. Timing seemed to be quite crucial in battles. You can’t just mash the attack button. Doing so wears out the protagonist, and they must take a short rest before attacking again.
The combat in Legend of Mana relies quite a bit on strategy. Two of your buttons are devoted to two other types of actions the protagonist can make. These can be things like lunges, defending, or counter-attacks. The versatility actions grant you some more choice in your playstyle. I am quite a fan of the counter-attacks. When timed correctly, they can be a literal lifesaver.
The gameplay in Legend of Mana is quite open-ended. While there are main questlines, there are a plethora of side quests as well. There is always something to be done. I do like that there are some non-combat-based quests as well. Sometimes it’s nice to run around, try to learn a language on the fly, and sell some lanterns. But the missions, while fun, might not be the most intriguing part of the game.
Legend of Mana brings in a unique map-building mechanic. The world is built based on your decisions. Using artifacts picked up in your journey, you get to decide where new areas spring up. It is such an interesting mechanic, and I found myself excited every time I picked up a new artifact. The map-making is such a fun mechanic to explore. It also helps increase the replay value of Legend of Mana since you can build out many types of maps.
There is so much to do in Legend of Mana. Honestly, it is a little overwhelming. There are systems that I feel like I would not understand without some more guidance. If I wanted to take full advantage of all that Legend of Mana has to offer, I feel like I would need to sink some serious time into it. Or find some guidance in a walk-through.
I believe Legend of Mana is a fantastic remaster for fans of the series. The game is all-around gorgeous. And while I might have been overwhelmed with some of the systems, I still found myself enjoying it. I enjoyed being able to knock out a quest or two without having to sink too much time into it. I don’t feel that I am always able to do that, so it was a nice change of pace. And though some of my sessions may have been short, I enjoyed every one of them.
