User Reviews (1 - 11 of 124)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Another great hit from Squaresoft

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 50 / 51
Date: June 10, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I played Secret of Mana many years ago on the SNES, and when I found out last fall that Legend of Mana would be produced and be coming to the US, I got very excited. For those of you who don't know, Secret of Mana is actually known as Seiken Densetsu 2 in Japan. US's Final Fantasy Adventure was Seiken Densetsu 1. Seiken Densetsu 3 never made it to the US, but SD 4 was titled Legend of Mana and was shipped to the US.

First of all, it's a very non-linear game. "Scenarios" are triggered by doing certain events or randomly. There are 69 scenarios in all. You start with either a male or female character, a choice of an initial weapon, and where on the map you want to play. A really original aspect of the game is the Landmake system. During the game you will find artifacts, and they can be used on your world map to make places to go such as cities or jungles or dungeons. A whole array of characters can be found during the game, and they can assist you in battle. The battle system is a new sort of action battle, where you run around the screen and either use a quick attack, a slow powerful attack, or a special move. A second player can join in by being an NPC (non-playable character) or they can import their own Legend of Mana character to play.

Another great addition to the game is the fact that you can make your own weapons and items and such. You can create golems to assist you in battle, or raise little monsters to help you from time to time.

In conclusion, Legend of Mana is a highly reccommended game. The watercolor backgrounds and lush graphics, even though they are 2D, are amazing. The music is phenominal and so is the sound. This is a great game.

One of the Best game I ever played

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 24 / 26
Date: May 13, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I have played the Japanese version of this game and it is one of the best game I've ever played. The game play is awesome, just like the previous Seiken Densetsu series. The special moves is a cool addition to the game. However, unlike the previous Seiken Densetsus, there really isn't any room for 2 player since all the NPC come and go with regard to the event you are on. All the other features also increases the fun of the game. Catching eggs and breeding monsters to be in your party, making your own weapon and armors, as well as forging it with special abilities. You can also make your own golems by filling a 6x6 box with pieces made from your weapons and armors. Linking the pieces can result in the golem having special combos and attacks. Magic is now in the form of instruments and each one have a different magic depending on what you made the instrument with and which element of magic you forged it with. Overall, I think this game is one of my favorite and would recommand it to all the RPG/Seiken Densetsu lovers.

Weird story, but superb gameplay

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 23 / 24
Date: March 03, 2002
Author: Amazon User

To begin with, the mythology in this game is rather strange -- it's an odd mix of Buddhist, neo-pagan, and New Age theology that doesn't always hang together for me. Maybe that's because the game originated in Japan, and I'm just not as familiar with their folklore. Having said that, I will also say that this is one of the most complex, intuitive games I have ever played. You can program the controller buttons for skills that you choose, decide who to take with you on various quests, make your own customized armor and weapons, etc. Our family has logged many hours in three separate games, and we still have not solved all the scenarios. Definitely a challenge!

One of the neatest features is the "pets" you can grow, which are really monsters that fight as your allies. At various points in the game, you find "monster eggs" that you capture and put into your Monster Corral. You then feed them with foods that you win in the game. The various foods have different effects on the monsters' agressiveness, magic, etc. as the monster grows. You can keep up to five pets in the corral, and you get to choose which one to take with you on each quest. The pets level up in battles just like the RP characters, and some monsters are more powerful than others. As the game progesses, you have the option to sell ones you don't like to make room for new eggs. Part of the fun is seeing what they hatch into!

There are also magical trees where you grow the various seeds that you win in certain battles. The fruits that appear are hilarious -- Apricats, Cabadillos, FishyFruits, Rhinolopes, etc. These can be used as foods for your pets, or as ingredients to temper the weapons, musical instruments, or golems that you make in the workshops. You can sell extra items in the various shops to get money for materials to make more powerful weapons, too. So, it pays to harvest and re-plant your orchards regularly.

The storyline, as other reviewers have already pointed out, is flexible and non-linear -- a lot depends on how you solve the subplots. We found that, when family members each play their own versions, things occur in very different orders. How you answer the questions will also determine whether or not you get certain scenarios at all. The best strategy, I found, is to visit the different lands often, and talk to everyone you see there. When their conversations change or a new character appears, that usually signals the beginning of a new quest. (Hint: to find a couple subplots on the pirate ship, keep asking the helmsman to go in different directions in different orders.)

The overall goal is to heal the Mana Tree, which is like the Tree of Life. As you solve the various subplots, you will be given "artifacts" that you place on the World Map. The artifacts morph into new lands where you find more scenarios to solve. At some point you will receive the Sword of Mana, which grows into the Mana Tree. If you choose to climb the Tree and solve that scenario, you will beat the game. The first time through, I did that right away -- and the graphics for the finale are absolutely beautiful!

When I played a second time, I chose not to climb the Tree until I had found the scenarios that I missed the first time. BTW, when you play again, you can import your HP level and certain other attributes from the first game. I also discovered that I could import another player's character from their game, complete with his or her weapons, etc. (Before you do this, though, be sure each of you has a backup copy, in case you accidentally overwrite somebody's data.) In 2P mode, the second player can control their character in my game and join me on the quests. This can be very useful for defeating a powerful monster! But watch out -- some scenarios will send the second player home. When that happens, he or she will be prompted to save whatever points s/he has earned in your game.

Infinite Fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: June 22, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This has to be the best game, much less, RPG I have ever played. Sure, some games are great, but then they get too hard or too boring. This is not that type of game. It has a scattered plot and many things about the game revolve around your choices. Many mysteries lie in this adventure.

Quests range from being as powerful as discontinuing a war waged by 2 powerful races to being as odd as helping a lovestruck centaur win the heart of a siren. Worried you might have missed getting a quest artifact? You can always get it later, usually. There are roughly 70 quests.

The world map takes place where you select your "Play Area" at the beginning of your game. Then you place your mailbox. This creates your home, you keep getting more items called Artifacts and placing them on the map, customizing your world as you please. And for areas where you fight monsters and things, the farther from your home you place things, the harder and more experience-giving the enemies will be.

The battles are not turn-based. You move freely using techniques to help you evade and defend, and even attack. Striking many ways and with many combos with your weapon, enabling special Synchro effects, and casting spells and special abilities.

There are beautiful spells of many elements, special moves depending on what weapon you specialize in, and techniques, like somersault, back-roll, and lunge. there are 15 moves for each weapon, and 26 techniques. I don't know how many spells, i can't count.

You can choose what gender, weapon (10 choices), and area at the beginning.

While the graphics aren't all 3D, they have gorgeous areas and some of the most impressive spells i've seen.

Side with dragoons, take young wizards as your apprentices, join a jumi knight, catch pets, build golems, and even bring a friend along from his or her on game! This is the best game I have seen, buy it!

Long Live 2D Adventure games!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: July 04, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I recently bought The Legend of Mana and it is by far the most enjoyable game I've played this year! I've bought six games this year so far and this is the best.

I've never played The Secret of Mana for the Super Nes until a few months ago. I fell in love with it immediately. I loved playing the 2D Adventure Secret of Mana and wanted a game similar to play. Then I found out only two week ago that the Legend of Mana would be available for Playstation. I looked at pictures and wondered how similar it was to the Secret of Mana.

Now after buying the Legend of Mana I realized it has all the best stuff from the Secret of Mana and a whole lot more! This is a really big game. It is worth every penny you spend on it. It allows you to create your own weapons, magical instruments, and golems to take on an adventure with you. One feature that caught my eye is that it allows you to play through the adventures multiplayer! Yup! A two-player single screen adventure just like in the old days! And unlike many RPG's The Legend of Mana has real-time battle! No more turn based fights with commands like fight, run, or use magic. All the battles are done by the hands of players. This game is sooo much fun! I hope Squaresoft will continue making games based on The Legend of Mana.

The games graphics are amazing! They are beautifully drawn and sparkle with bright colors. The graphics are 2D and resemble a cartoonish look. I think the video game industry should produce more games in 2D. The Legend of Mana proves that 2D games can be more elaborate and more fun than many of the 3D games on the market! 2D adventure games are what got the video game industry booming, so don't forget that!

Legend of Mana

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: June 11, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I had really high hopes for this game, as the Secret of Mana was and is one of my all time favorites. Square did not dissapoint. The music alone is worth the price of entry. The system of the game is new to me, and I feel that it can only increase the replay value of the game. Don't miss this great game!

A game with NO limits.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: February 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Being from the era with final fantasy legends 1 & 2 for gameboy; Let's just say I've a seen, played, and beaten a slew of games. Those who know about the games previously stated, you'll most likely recall FFA. (Final Fantasy Adventure). Back in the day, that was a great game. Then a few years later, as well as many RPGs, On the fabled SNES was released "Secret of Mana". I'm certain that this was loved as much by others as it was by myself. I've stated these 2 games specifically, due to their being the predecessors to the game at hand....

"Legend of Mana"; is a legend in it's own. A guarenteed 160 hrs of gameplay and still counting... An innovative, colorful, well balanced, enjoyable, challenging, imaginative, inticing, and to say the least an excellent action/adventure/rpg.

That being said, this game is inordinatly impossible to truly gain full achievement without it's strategy guide. I've also found many good web sites that have even more info than the book does on this game. By that I mean that the game can be beaten without help, but you can do a lot more with guidance.

You are able to catch & raise pets. After caught, you can raise whatever stats of the animal you desire when they gain levels, as long as you remain dedicated to them. I've got a lvl 99 rabite... (Imagine that) If you don't want to bring a monster with you, you can create a robotic golem to fend of the baddies. They can be a lot of fun to make, but they get expensive after a while. You can also decide what attacks they have, and map out their entire attack plan.

About leveling up: very easy to do, and fun as well. You'll be lvl 99 in 2-3 weeks and not even realize you've played that long already. There are few monsters that will serve your head to you on a platter, but there are some. The game can only get as difficult as you want.

With difficulty, comes power. And being powerful, implies wielding powerful weapons, casting powerful spells, and defending with powerful armor. To get the best of the best, the creators of this oddysey have given the player the ability to create their own. (There are web sites that tell you exactly how to obtain weapons and armors of a 999 stat. Very monotinous, yet highly affective). As for the spells, you can create quite a bit of spells based on the 8 different elements that parts of the game are based on.

The gameplay is inside of 2d/3d environments. Ranging from forests, lakes, cities, caves, fortresses, towers, & bizzare plains that will further expand on and beyond that in what you've come to know in an RPG. When fighting monsters, you're able to move up and down, left and right as well as the diagonals. You physical attacks are centered on a left and right basis, but you can hit monsters above or below your position if you're standing near them. Some of the spells can be cast anywhere on the board at the players discression. Some will be positioned randomly, while other extend sideways. There are also ones that fan outward in front of you. There are also many different techniques that you can use with whatever weapon you've learned them with. Along with these, you'll gain abilities to even further allow you to dominate boss, after boss, after boss.

The end of the game is nice, especially when you go into your library afterwards. You find a text entitled "The forbidden tome", which allows you to let the monsters go up in level by a little, or by an extreme. The changes ARE reversible as well. Look into it...

The world map is designed the way the player wishes it to be. The concept of this is; the further an area is from your home, the more challenging the opponents become.

You can choose from a male or a female in the beginning. If you can't figure out a name for them, the game is programmed to offer you choices fom MANY different names at random. When the characters are chosen, you may chose the weapon you start with. From there you can chose where in the world you wish to begin you beloved quests. (78 in all).

The game is 1 - 2 player simultaneous, just like it's prequel "Secret of Mana". You can load up a friend's character from their memory card save, or you can choose from many different characters that the game offers throughout it's course.

The game requires 2 blocks of memory. It has mini-games to uncover, and it's stories are very indepth and will draw you in after the first 3 or so missions. Oh... and you can also have a garden... Growing and selling your own foods, adds a "Harvest Moon" aspect to the game. You can also fight your friends in an arena.

That being said and all; it's a great game for anyone with dedication, motivation, and a little time. Come; enter the world of Fa'diel to experience that in which can only be dreamed of in most games. The legend within itself, "Legend of Mana".

Enjoy!

Just plain fun.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: June 25, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Just because there are no bloody 3-D graphics doesn't mean a game can't be fun. This game actually has wonderful graphics- all the backgrounds are handpainted watercolor images. Anybody who says the cuteness factor is too much for the Mana series didn't really pay attention to Secret of Mana, because that game was pretty cutesy. Although I must admit, this game is a bit cuter. The watercolors also add to the games light feeling. The game itself is fun, too. There's really no linear story, it's a bunch of side quests, but that only improves the replay value. You shape the land as you wish, putting cities wherever you want. There are many cities to explore, each with their own unique environments. What I like most, though, is that this game gives a lighter contrast to all the dark games that have recently come out. It goes back to the traditional RPG ideas of magic and strange places, full of imagination. All in all, it's just a great game.

Simply amazing.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: February 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

As a longtime fan of Squaresoft's work through the Final Fantasy series and branching out into Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, etc., I've come to have a general idea of what to expect: great games, plain and simple.

This one really took me by surprise, though.

I was really captivated at first by the composer Yoko Shimomura's choice to make the opening and ending themes in Swedish. These songs have a wonderful feel to them and definitely highlight the pastoral, almost mythological "aura" to the game.

The locations have a very hand-drawn look to them; this only enhances it, and it personally gives me a "storybook" type of feeling.

The next thing I noticed was that this game gives subtle influences to later RPGs, which had me completely delighted. The overlapping, multicolored boss HP bars were something I had not expected to see in a game this early; I had only witnessed this really good idea in Kingdom Hearts, a much more recent title. The placement and arrangement of locations on the main map smacks of conceptual Dark Cloud, and for what it's worth I like this idea much better.

The monster encounter engine is the same as seen in Chrono Trigger -- at fixed locations on the map, and the monsters only appear once you reach that point. However, the battle engine itself is fantastic, allowing you free range to jump, guard, dodge, and move around the map at will. This departure from turn-based battle again does wonders for Legend of Mana's originality; it also makes the player think about tactics, which are definitely useful in the boss battles.

The depth in this game is incredible. Golem creating, weapon forging, and crop growing are all dependent not only on the items used to manufacture/grow the product, but on the combinations of items thereof and down to the very day of the week. Monster raising is featured as well, and you can take your pets on adventures with you -- a great help if they are properly levelled, as they can help you in tough spots.

Consider that to unlock all possible sidequests, all the locations must be placed in a very certain order on the world map; after you realize that, you get a grasp on exactly how huge this game is. You could be at risk of losing access to sunlight for months! (Which is exactly what I was guilty of doing...)

A warning, though: this game will take thought and this game may be a little difficult even to moderately experienced gamers. However, if you're up to the challenge and you have a good amount of time on your hands...I recommend it as a 'must'!

By far the best rpg to date on the PSX ...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: June 17, 2000
Author: Amazon User

In typical Square fashion, we are treated to an excellent title. Legend of Mana continues on in the tradition of the Secret of Mana (Seiken Densetsu) series. This latest offering from Square proves that 2D gaming is alive and well and have pushed the envelope on RPGs in general.

Quite frankly, if you are looking for cutting edge CGI (ie, FF8) and flashy gameplay look elsewhere. Because where LoM shines is its gameplay. Simply put it is addicting and a very enjoyable experience. You are placed in the role of either a female or male character to which you can name and assign a weapon to. You will also decide on which part of the world map to base your quests on. The gameplay is unique as you progress through the story, your character will receive additional artifacts in which it allows you to open up additional parts of your "custom" world. There are over 65 quests and they all play nearly non-linear.

In addition to the story, you will also have side quests that you can engage in. Workshop involves creation of custom weapons, armors, magical instruments and golems (like robots). There is an orchard scenario in which you harvest produce to feed your ... pets, which is another scenario. These side quests and more is what set LoM apart from the other RPGs currently available for the video game consoles.

Another cool feature is the ability to have a friend play alongside you. Your friend could have his own game data and when he visits you he can import that data to your game. There is even a battle arena to challenge your friend and all the levels and skills gained can then be saved to his memory so that he can take it back to his game.

In short, if you enjoyed the original Secret of Mana, you will not be disappointed. Much improved graphics and a higher quality of gameplay makes this game, IMO, the best that Square has put to date.

For you pundits out there, I suggest not setting your expectations too high. ;)

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next 

Actions