Like any normal person, I LOVED Secret of Mana, the globally-acclaimed SNES masterpiece. Thus, after finishing it, I started researching the Mana series. I soon learned that the series has been on a sharp decline for quite a while. This seemed to begin when the "World of Mana" project began. It was intended to revive the series by releasing several Mana games in a rather short time period. Of course, the 2 Mana games before the World of Mana project - Legend of Mana and Sword of Mana - both got the same kind of reception. Is this the same kind of thing Sonic fans are going through? I feel bad for them now...
A mere 3 of the Mana games earned very positive reviews - Final Fantasy Adventure, Secret of Mana, and Seiken Densetsu 3, which I will be reviewing. This title was GOING to be released in America, but the game proved to be too large to fit on Western cartridges. To the despair of many fans, the official translation was cancelled. However, some die-hard Mana fans decided to play the Japanese version, while others decided to get the very popular fan-translation. Either way, Seiken Densetsu 3 was pretty much the last good Mana game. Any Mana fan who has been very disappointed with Square for destroying the precious franchise, you'd best look towards Densetsu 3...
Just a quick note, this game does have
some vulgar language in it, more than likely because Japan is much more
tolerant with that kind of stuff.
STORYLINE - 9.4/10
It's hard for me to cover this story since the game has 6 main characters that you can choose from - Duran the swordsman, Hawk the thief, Kevin the werewolf, Angela the magician, Carlie the sprite, and Lise the Amazoness. I, myself, chose Duran, Hawk, and Angela. I supposed I'll just explain Duran's story, since he is a commonly-chosen character.
In the kingdom of Forecna, Duran works as a loyal knight for King Richard. Whilst guarding the castle one night, there is a violent uproar and Duran sees that many other soldiers have been killed or injured. Racing across the castle to find the source of all this, he encounters a red-cloaked wizard by the name of Koren. Determined to stop the intruder, Duran threatens to attack. Koren's magic, however, is far too powerful for anyone in Forcena. He mercilessly injures Duran and leaves him on the ground to die.
Luckily, Duran is able to recover from the brutal attack, but he feels that he was deprived of his honor by falling at the feet of Koren. Not to mention, this mage is a servant of the Dragon Emperor, a powerful man who killed Duran's father long ago. With both these reasons at hand, he sets out to get revenge on Koren.
Early in his journey, Duran sees a bright light wandering around a field. After following it, this light actually turns out to be a Fairy from the Mana Holy Land. Desperate to find a "host", she selects the nearby swordsman. She reports a dire situation involving the depletion of Mana, a resource that keeps peace in the world and allows people to use magical powers. If Mana is drained from the world, several "Mana Beasts" will be unleashed to terrorize - and ultimately destroy - the world. The one who the Fairy chooses is obligated to find a way to restore Mana, which the Sword of Mana has the power to do. This legendary blade rests at the foot of the Mana Tree, the source of the world's Mana and that is at the center of the Mana Holy Land. The gate to the Mana Holy Land can only be opened by the power of several Spirits, though. Duran now has to find these spirits in order to save Mana, but his quest to defeat Koren still remains...
With 6 different main stories to offer,
each character has his or her own separate goal to perform. But they all
have one quest in common - to restore the world's Mana. Of course, due
to the variety granted by the multiple characters, the story's score was
bumped up quite a bit. And although it's a bit cliché, you can't
go wrong with a "Use a legendary sword to save the world" plot, now can
you?
GAMEPLAY - 8.4/10
Now, there are 2 things that make this game unique. If you read the story section, you probably know what the first one is. Yep, multiple characters choices give you a lot of control over the game. You don't just choose characters based on how cool they look or sound, they each have separate abilities. As an example, Duran is the only one of the group who can equip shields. Kevin turns into a wolf at nightfall. Angela knows a huge variety of magic spells. Outside of magic, however, a lot of them remain quite similar.
The second thing that makes the game unique is the class change system. Upon reaching level 18, you can use one of the world's Mana Stones to change your class. When you do so, you can choose a Light or Dark class - each with its own different advantages. Whichever one you choose, you know you'll end up with a significantly stronger (And recolored =D) character. This first class change feels very refreshing, giving you the immense power to steamroll the enemies that have troubled you before. Your second class change... It doesn't have as much charm to it. There are 2 main reasons why this is so. Doing this class change requires a ??? Seed, which is dropped by enemies called Boulders. If you plan to change the class of all 3 of your characters, it will be frustrating to find 3 of these seeds. The second negative factor is that your character isn't powered up as much as they were in the first class change. It's always nice to get even a little boost, but the second one doesn't really seem like it does much. The recolor does still look cool, though~
The game's creator was motivated by his desire to create a fictional world. Given this fact, you'd think the environments would be designed better. This game has a strange level design that has affected several Mana games after it. They're not linear - TOO... not... linear. In a lot of areas, you'll commonly be greeted by 2 or 3 different pathway routes. Some of these routes will only lead to dead ends containing a few enemies. It makes the game's level design somewhat boring and predictable.
One of Secret of Mana's biggest flaws
was its annoying bugs - Seiken Densetsu 3 fixes a lot of them, but introduces
new ones... and more major ones, for that matter. While the hit detection
system is fixed and it's unlikely that you'll get trapped in a wall, whether
or not a big glitch will affect you is all based on luck. When I was near
the end of the game, I suffered a glitch that removed many special effects
from the game. It even went so far as to remove the entire foreground from
a few areas. In simpler terms - Densetsu 3 takes away a lot of Secret's
minor bugs, and replaces them with some bigger ones. Is this better or
worse? That is your decision.
GRAPHICS - 9/10
Beautiful. While the environments and backgrounds haven't changed much from Secret of Mana, the character models look excellent. Rabites, the Mana equivalent to Goombas as well as the mascots of the series, looked very cute when I first saw them sleeping in Rabite Forest. Not to mention, they have many more poses than they originally did. Needle Birds - I don't know what it is about them, but the graphics just make them look so cool. Maybe it's the size reduction of the characters that makes them look so smooth. Their smaller size makes them look much less pixilated.
It should also be noted that the graphics
don't look as cartoony as they did in Secret of Mana. I know that Rabites,
Mushbooms, and Chobin Hoods are all rather whimsical... but they DO look
more realistic in their new style. I'm not saying Secret's cartoony graphics
were a bad thing, I'm just pointing out the graphical differences between
these 2 games.
MUSIC AND SOUND EFFECTS - 9/10
Yep, you can never go wrong with a good, solid 9. Just a few points below Secret of Mana's soundtrack, Seiken Densetsu 3 has a very funky soundtrack. Let me tell you one of the more notable features of the soundtrack: there's a big variety of boss themes. I mean, Secret's boss theme was great, but it gets repetitive since there were, what, 40 bosses in the game? ... Yeah, Densetsu 3 doesn't have that many, but it has FAITH TOTAL MACHINE. Despite the name making absolutely no sense, it's my favorite boss theme in the game, and likely my favorite music in the game overall. Other great boss themes include Nuclear Fusion (which is also a remix of Secret of Mana's final boss theme), Frenzy, and Secret of Mana... Mana Mana Mana Mana Mana. I'm abusing that word more than I abuse "however".
A thing I like about many songs in the game is... this one awesome instrument. I don't know what it's called, but it makes this "KSSSH!" sound. Some sort of... drum, perhaps? Anyway, as I said, it's a commonly-used instrument. It makes a lot of songs very cool and trippy, especially the aforementioned Faith Total Machine and Frenzy. Listening to songs with this instrument also gives you this... dangerous vibe. In a good way.
... And is this just in my head, or
does this game use a lot of Super Mario RPG sound effects?
LENGTH AND DIFFICULTY - 8.9/10
Just like Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3 does a good job with balancing out the difficulty. Not many enemies or bosses are particularly overpowered, and the game is mostly based on fighting and exploration, so there's not many puzzles to solve. You may find this to be either a good or a bad thing depending on your intelligence. But, like a lot of RPGs, the hardest part of the game is the boss battles. The bosses are noticeably stronger than Secret of Mana's beasts, but fortunately, they don't spam their magic as much. Still, a good Spiral Moon or Eruption Sword can get you pretty darn low in HP.
One particular problem I had with the
game's difficulty is a part in the game where you have to fight several
bosses in a non-linear fashion. Honestly, I don't know what happened here...
When I drew my sword to fight the first of these bosses, I ended up using
all my items and didn't even win the battle. The same thing happened with
the second one of these monsters I faced. Only after just a little bit
of grinding, somehow, the bosses seemed MUCH easier and I did end up beating
them all. No one else seems to have had this problem, though...
REPLAY VALUE - 6.5/10
Kind of disappointing, but I shouldn't have expected too much after seeing Secret of Mana's replay value. There really aren't many sidequests here, but there is one optional boss, an extremely difficult foe that has become well-known and infamous among Mana aficionados. If you chose Duran or Angela as your main character, you have the option to fight the one, the only, Black Rabite. Despite just being a palette swap of the Mana mascot, this little guy has demonic power, hosting some of the most powerful magic in the game. Not to mention, if you hit him too hard, he can use one of his various counterattacks on you, such as a very powerful magic spell or summoning a Level 99 Great Demon. He also has an extremely high amount of HP. You think there'd be a suitable reward? Think again, for you are only to be granted the Moogle Badge. It lets your characters get the Moogle status effect, as well as erase it. Definitely an unworthy reward, but at least it earns you bragging rights.
Those with a high amount of patience
should try multiple playthroughs of the game with different characters.
For whatever character you choose, there'll be a different intro, final
area, and final boss for them, not to mention a few cinematics that you
wouldn't be able to see otherwise. I, myself, usually don't replay games
until it's been years since I’ve finished my first playthrough and then
if I randomly feel the need to replay them. For those like me, you'll probably
consider just watching videos of these scenes.
FUN FACTOR! - 8.3/10
Now this is how a REAL Mana sequel should be like. No dungeon-crawling, no real-time strategy, no remakes with huge amounts of boring text added, no completely broken gameplay; Just a good ol' action RPG. Seiken Densetsu 3 bears the largest resemblance to Secret of Mana, and since Secret was a masterpiece of a game, this game comes... fairly close to that. It's not exactly a game that you absolutely must have in your collection, but it's very well worth checking out.
The only thing I need to complain about
with the fun factor is the rather dull battles. Since your characters move
rather slowly in battle, it makes these fights more boring and slow-paced,
not to mention it makes you more vulnerable to physical attacks. Also mentionable
is the somewhat flawed atmosphere. As with all sub-par atmospheres, it's
hard to detect what the problem is with it. Maybe the whole thing's a bit
cliché or something.
OVERALL - 85/100
There you have it, the final good Mana game before the infamous decline. Still, you shouldn't put your expectations TOO high, even despite the brilliance of Secret of Mana. Keeping expectations in check, you should have a delightful time with Seiken Densetsu 3. A few people have even dubbed it as a superior game to Secret of Mana... Of course, me and most other people would object to that, but it's all a matter of opinion. Point is, the game's good, check it out. Whether you want to import the game or get the fan translation, it won't be a game you regret getting. Plus, it's lonely being the only Mana fan in Lemmy's Land. D=
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