Legend of Mana (Playstation, 2000)

Square has always been the juggernaut of the RPG scene, and no era displayed this better than the Playstation years. Leading the charge with Final Fantasy VII, Square released two more Final Fantasy titles, launched the Final Fantasy Tactics series, and also released several great non-franchise titles, such as Xenogears and Vagrant Story. Because of the critical and financial success of these titles, it seemed that any Square game was a safe bet – which may explain the success of some of the lesser quality titles, like SaGa Frontier.

The magical mysterious plot.

Legend of Mana falls somewhere in the middle. It's certainly not fantastic, but it's not terrible either. You can choose between a male or female protagonist, though, aside from aesthetics, there really is no difference. Your job is to restore mana to the land, and you do this by helping people on various quests. When enough is restored, you will revive the magical Mana Tree, which withered and died long ago.

Did I mention catgirls are involved?

This is the kind of game that will drive people who enjoy structure absolutely nuts. Contrary to most Square titles, Legend of Mana is completely non-linear, and has no overarching plot line (aside from the vague “quest to restore mana”) to tie everything together. You open up areas by placing artifacts on the world map, which magically sprout into different towns and dungeons. Talking to NPCs in these areas initiates the various quests in the game. Once a quest is completed, the Mana Tree gets just a little bit bigger.

Placing artifacts causes new locations to sprout.
This means that every game you play will be a
little different depending on where you place each artifact.

Battles are executed in real-time, and with the aid of one of the many NPCs you meet, who can be controlled by a second-player. This technically makes Legend of Mana a two-player game, but I wouldn't recommend it, as battles are the only time the second player has any control. Battles are more repetitive than difficult; though you can create combos and use special abilities, it is little more than button-mashing.

A second player can control whoever your party member is.

There is a large degree of customization in the game, in terms of creating things like magical instruments, raising monsters, and even creating golems. The problem with these features is that because it is so non-linear, you may not uncover these abilities until several hours into the game. For example, one of the first quest you can complete is opening up the Mana Orchard (which allows you to combine seeds to produce items) in the back of your house. This can be done after the first hour or so of the game, but I didn't do it until about fifteen hours in.

You can combine items to make magical instruments,
which give you magic abilities.

The graphics are quite lovely, opting to use watercolor-style art over pixelated sprites. The towns are varied and each have their own charm, and the music, per most Square games, is beautiful. The game also offers a high replay value, as it is impossible to obtain all the quests in one play-through, unless you are somehow attuned to Mana yourself and know exactly where to place all artifacts on the map.

This is the town of Domina, where many of your early adventures begin.

I guess my real problem with Legend of Mana is the lack of an overarching plotline. Even the most open-ended RPGs have a prominent main storyline, with dozens of side quests to keep you busy. Since Legend of Mana doesn’t have a main storyline, or a backstory to your character, or really, any development around your character at all, you often feel like you’re drifting through the game as a spectator rather than a player. There are several interweaving storylines going on around you at once, but your involvement is little more than doing the dirty work of the NPCs, killing monsters and bosses to keep them alive. Perhaps this doesn’t bother some people, but as an avid RPG fan, I can honestly say it’s the one genre where plot matters.

Always talk to the cactus after completing an adventure,
so he'll record it in his cactus diary.

But still, I would recommend Legend of Mana for a once playthrough. It’s a Square classic at this point, and despite its shortcomings, the various side-stories make it entertaining enough to finish. After all, even when you’re just a spectator, it’s still fun to watch the players.

Legend of Mana is available new and used on Amazon for varying prices. It’s an out of print Square RPG, which means it’s a little pricier than most retro games. But legend has it that Square-Enix has plans to bring this title to the Playstation Network soon, and you can bet that this blog will let you know when that happens!