5/3/2023 0 Comments Switch legend of manaThe Tree of Mana – the recurring central figure to the entire franchise – has been reduced to nothing more than a sapling. At the very start of the game, the only environment on the overworld map is your own home. See, where Legend of Mana stands out is that you actually build the world around you. For other people, though, it’s going to be a bigger issue and getting “lost” and “confused” about what the game wants them to do next is a real possibility. I love it for its whimsical creativity and I’ve been playing games long enough that the lack of hand-holding doesn’t bother me. Unfortunately, Legend of Mana isn’t going to be the same. Last year’s 3D remake of Trials of Mana hopefully took strides to right the ship and draw mainstream attention, because that was a particularly effective modernisation project. Of course, the Mana series has always been known for its particularly beautiful art style, while also having the unfortunate distinction of being one of Square Enix’s more fringe properties. Every second I spend playing this game I was deeply, truly immersed in the picture it was painting for me. Even with the relatively streamlined narrative and silent protagonist, enemy designs are so charming, and the occasional NPC designed so cleverly, that there’s a deep sense of place and time in Legend of Mana. With much of the game being broken up into small chunks (more on that later), it’s the aesthetics that do the heavy lifting in terms of giving the world context and cohesiveness, and the developers achieved this with such perfect mastery, even back in 1999, that every new environment was a joy to explore, simply to experience it at all. On its art and aesthetics alone, this is one incredibly noteworthy game, and it has been nothing short of a gift for Square Enix to give us this HD remaster – a release for the first time in Europe and Australia – and the chance to experience one of the “forgotten” gems in Square’s deep, deep library.Įvery square centimetre of every environment in Legend of Mana absolutely drips with atmosphere, thanks to its hyper-detailed sprites, beautiful background work, and hand-drawn art. As I was playing Legend of Mana, I found myself constantly wondering at just how innovative and beautiful this game must have seemed back on the PlayStation, where it originally released in 1999 (2000 in North America).
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