On @Beowulf's advice, I return to the Mana Fortress.
To my surprise, Jema is here, and gives the party a quick pep talk, and directions to find the Mana tree itself! I find Neko's shop, but the armor is too expensive to buy even one set! I decided to hold onto one piece of the body armor and helm, in case the upcoming fights prove too much.
I try entering the flying fortress, only to be shooed away! I keep looking around the world map, until I find a conspicuous island with a small clearing surrounded by tall mountains!
Turns out, it's the dungeon they're supposed to go to! It's filled with exceptionally nasty enemies that punch anyone for three digits of damage, and I was immediately glad to have bought the new set for Revi. Of course, now I needed to grind out the money to get it on everyone. What a pain! Thankfully, Revi was capable of soloing the monsters with the new armor on, so I painstakingly grinded out all of the required money with him. This took him all the way to level 51! Well, at least one of my party memebers would be "on curve", heh.
The dungeon shows off its creativity by serving up a reskinned snake as its first boss. Thrilling. It had a lot of HP, and not much else. Kard fried it with thunderbolts, and it only ever seriously threatened Luna, when it managed to somehow both moogle and mini her.
The forest got a mite frostier ahead. It also brought the team to their first dragon!
The dragon was really hard to hit, and used lots of obnoxious spells, including a bunch of status inflicting breaths, but, once again, Kard's spells came through, and the team was never in any real danger, though it did take a walnut. The rest of the dungeon was quite boring, featuring small, bland rooms and a bevy of recycled bosses. Thankfully, there were save points within, and I could and did backtrack to restock on my items, but it was still not a great experience!
But hey, they get to the Mana tree in the end! The game acts like they've succeeded...until Thanatos blasts the tree out with a powerful beam of light! Ugh, what a dickhead.
The tree's spirit manifests itself for a few moments, reveals itself to be Revi's mother, and raises the sword's power to the maximum, finally allowing the team to forge the Excalibur! There's a few bits of humor, and the team resolves to beat Thanatos for good!
Now they were permitted entry into the fortress! Which looked uniquely imposing and funky. It was certainly a welcome break after so many bland and lazily recycled tilesets, and, in a pleasant surprise, the fortress felt like an actual enjoyable dungeon, with no stupidly overtuned enemies, no halfhearted layouts, just some cool slicin' action in a cool environment.
In fact, it was so good, I was even willing to forgive it having boss recolors. Especially since the team was now starting to be capable of using some really cool tools, like reflecting all magic back to their opponent or blocking physical damage with barriers.
At long last the team entered Thanatos' chambers. He revealed that he wanted Dyluck because his body was really strong, strong enough to hold a world conquering warrior. He had grown tired of his body, and decided to forcibly take over Dyluck's. Luna tried to stop him, but, well, didn't succeed. But, it turned out Dyluck's spirit was just as strong as his physique, and he thwarted Dyluck's attempt to take over him. Frustrated, Thanatos ran away.
But not before turning into a Lich! Who looked exceptionally cool, but was actually surprisingly easy to defeat. Avoid his hand form, reflect his spells back, throw some swings in, the works. Had a bit too much HP, tho.
The party had to hurry outside immediately after he was defeated; the Mana beast had already begun attacking the flying fortress! Revi has reasonable reservations over killing it, but Kard convinces him to get over it and fight to save the world. And save the world they shall!
Uhh...once I figured out how to damage it, that is! I tried fighting it for a while, without any success. I didn't understand why Revi's strikes were doing 0, he had fixed the Excalibur and got his party members to buff it with the mana spell. After a few failed bouts, I figured out why...he hadn't practised enough with his sword, so he simply couldn't charge his swings enough to do damage! Arggh!
Welp, that does it. I was willing to put up with the game till now, but arbitrarily making the final boss undamageable because of player choices? Utter bullshit! I pulled out some action replay codes and gibbed the bastard back into oblivion!
Also, that whole debacle made me think of one thing...the only reason the beast was there was because the flying fortress was provoking it, right? And according to the legend, the hero of the sword took it down with his...sword. So...why didn't they just take the fortress down and call it a day? Why this last minute drama with a fight they clearly didn't need to fight?!
Arrgghhhhh, whatever, anyway they win but at the cost of Dyluck and Kard. Then the credits roll, Revi and Luna take a stroll through past locales, and the game ends. Also Kard becomes a spirit watching over the world or something.
Sooo that was Secret of Mana. It could have been a good game, it evokes the vibes of the classic NES Final Fantasy games in a good way, with a lot more whimsy and a much more expressive visual style. And it genuinely has some truly great ideas, as well as some good dungeons in the middle.
But then the second "half" hits, and the halfassedness of everything takes a serious toll on the game. Too many dungeons are either pointless spaces, or overtuned hellholes. Too many enemies are obnoxious blobs of stats who force you to go buy new equipment. Too much of the combat is based on ridiculous inflated number games instead of inventive solutions.
Secret of Mana is not a bad game. Even after all the frustration the game put me through, I still have to acknowledge the neat ideas, the cool vibes, and the intricacies of its systems. It was just too ambitious for its good, without the budget or development time to back it up. Had it been given one or two years more of development time, it could've been a great game. As it is, it's basically a Terranigma. Or perhaps an Icarus?
I am sorry for sounding so negative, it was not my intent to diss the game. I am merely offering what are my genuine thoughts on the game. Perhaps I overlooked something, perhaps it plays better with a mod, or perhaps, most simply, it was not to my taste. Any of these could be true, but for now, I'm just content to put this down.
It was fun to exhibit the game, though, and I enjoyed the chatter and insights everyone brought to this thread, without which the whole endeavour would've certainly been far less exciting. Thanks to you all, thread participants.
Well, that about covers everything I have to say about Secret of Mana. I shall be putting up a poll for my Trials of Mana characters soon-ish. Until then!
To my surprise, Jema is here, and gives the party a quick pep talk, and directions to find the Mana tree itself! I find Neko's shop, but the armor is too expensive to buy even one set! I decided to hold onto one piece of the body armor and helm, in case the upcoming fights prove too much.
I try entering the flying fortress, only to be shooed away! I keep looking around the world map, until I find a conspicuous island with a small clearing surrounded by tall mountains!
Turns out, it's the dungeon they're supposed to go to! It's filled with exceptionally nasty enemies that punch anyone for three digits of damage, and I was immediately glad to have bought the new set for Revi. Of course, now I needed to grind out the money to get it on everyone. What a pain! Thankfully, Revi was capable of soloing the monsters with the new armor on, so I painstakingly grinded out all of the required money with him. This took him all the way to level 51! Well, at least one of my party memebers would be "on curve", heh.
The dungeon shows off its creativity by serving up a reskinned snake as its first boss. Thrilling. It had a lot of HP, and not much else. Kard fried it with thunderbolts, and it only ever seriously threatened Luna, when it managed to somehow both moogle and mini her.
The forest got a mite frostier ahead. It also brought the team to their first dragon!
The dragon was really hard to hit, and used lots of obnoxious spells, including a bunch of status inflicting breaths, but, once again, Kard's spells came through, and the team was never in any real danger, though it did take a walnut. The rest of the dungeon was quite boring, featuring small, bland rooms and a bevy of recycled bosses. Thankfully, there were save points within, and I could and did backtrack to restock on my items, but it was still not a great experience!
But hey, they get to the Mana tree in the end! The game acts like they've succeeded...until Thanatos blasts the tree out with a powerful beam of light! Ugh, what a dickhead.
The tree's spirit manifests itself for a few moments, reveals itself to be Revi's mother, and raises the sword's power to the maximum, finally allowing the team to forge the Excalibur! There's a few bits of humor, and the team resolves to beat Thanatos for good!
Now they were permitted entry into the fortress! Which looked uniquely imposing and funky. It was certainly a welcome break after so many bland and lazily recycled tilesets, and, in a pleasant surprise, the fortress felt like an actual enjoyable dungeon, with no stupidly overtuned enemies, no halfhearted layouts, just some cool slicin' action in a cool environment.
In fact, it was so good, I was even willing to forgive it having boss recolors. Especially since the team was now starting to be capable of using some really cool tools, like reflecting all magic back to their opponent or blocking physical damage with barriers.
At long last the team entered Thanatos' chambers. He revealed that he wanted Dyluck because his body was really strong, strong enough to hold a world conquering warrior. He had grown tired of his body, and decided to forcibly take over Dyluck's. Luna tried to stop him, but, well, didn't succeed. But, it turned out Dyluck's spirit was just as strong as his physique, and he thwarted Dyluck's attempt to take over him. Frustrated, Thanatos ran away.
But not before turning into a Lich! Who looked exceptionally cool, but was actually surprisingly easy to defeat. Avoid his hand form, reflect his spells back, throw some swings in, the works. Had a bit too much HP, tho.
The party had to hurry outside immediately after he was defeated; the Mana beast had already begun attacking the flying fortress! Revi has reasonable reservations over killing it, but Kard convinces him to get over it and fight to save the world. And save the world they shall!
Uhh...once I figured out how to damage it, that is! I tried fighting it for a while, without any success. I didn't understand why Revi's strikes were doing 0, he had fixed the Excalibur and got his party members to buff it with the mana spell. After a few failed bouts, I figured out why...he hadn't practised enough with his sword, so he simply couldn't charge his swings enough to do damage! Arggh!
Welp, that does it. I was willing to put up with the game till now, but arbitrarily making the final boss undamageable because of player choices? Utter bullshit! I pulled out some action replay codes and gibbed the bastard back into oblivion!
Also, that whole debacle made me think of one thing...the only reason the beast was there was because the flying fortress was provoking it, right? And according to the legend, the hero of the sword took it down with his...sword. So...why didn't they just take the fortress down and call it a day? Why this last minute drama with a fight they clearly didn't need to fight?!
Arrgghhhhh, whatever, anyway they win but at the cost of Dyluck and Kard. Then the credits roll, Revi and Luna take a stroll through past locales, and the game ends. Also Kard becomes a spirit watching over the world or something.
Sooo that was Secret of Mana. It could have been a good game, it evokes the vibes of the classic NES Final Fantasy games in a good way, with a lot more whimsy and a much more expressive visual style. And it genuinely has some truly great ideas, as well as some good dungeons in the middle.
But then the second "half" hits, and the halfassedness of everything takes a serious toll on the game. Too many dungeons are either pointless spaces, or overtuned hellholes. Too many enemies are obnoxious blobs of stats who force you to go buy new equipment. Too much of the combat is based on ridiculous inflated number games instead of inventive solutions.
Secret of Mana is not a bad game. Even after all the frustration the game put me through, I still have to acknowledge the neat ideas, the cool vibes, and the intricacies of its systems. It was just too ambitious for its good, without the budget or development time to back it up. Had it been given one or two years more of development time, it could've been a great game. As it is, it's basically a Terranigma. Or perhaps an Icarus?
I am sorry for sounding so negative, it was not my intent to diss the game. I am merely offering what are my genuine thoughts on the game. Perhaps I overlooked something, perhaps it plays better with a mod, or perhaps, most simply, it was not to my taste. Any of these could be true, but for now, I'm just content to put this down.
It was fun to exhibit the game, though, and I enjoyed the chatter and insights everyone brought to this thread, without which the whole endeavour would've certainly been far less exciting. Thanks to you all, thread participants.
Well, that about covers everything I have to say about Secret of Mana. I shall be putting up a poll for my Trials of Mana characters soon-ish. Until then!
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