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1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: September 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Ther'es one specifc reason I don't like this game. Once you get to the final dungeon (the game is kind of like the legend of zelda) it locks you out and you can never go back!! If there's ever a game without any replay value, no matter how good, I would never get it...That's why I'm always cautious when buying my games, unless, of course, it's a puzzle game, etc. not being able to play those again would be like locking you away from the game. The last thing I have to say about this game is I got my hopes up that it would be like paper mario the thousand year door (read my review) but instead it doesent save at all once you're done beating the game! You're still in that damn final DUNGEON!!! Sadly, I might give this game a good rating IF it had replay value...Get this game if you don't care about replay value... ):

played for 3 days and then got bored!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 15
Date: June 01, 2004
Author: Amazon User

If i had to put this game into a few words then i would say: truley horrible.
where do i start. well, the graphics are a little less then supbar. and the gameplay is just downright boring. This is mainly because the bad guys are stupid little blobs and bats. The whole game is one bad cliche after another. you can either be a gladiator (sword fighting is extremely frustrating because of air units and land units) or a girl that uses magic (magic particularly sucks because you have to summon a spell and then cast it and it seems to be not even worth the while because it does little damage and wastes huge magic points) I got bored after 2 days and would hugely not recommend it.
graphics: 1
fun factor: 0.5
frustration: 5!!!!!!!!!!!!
plot:0!!!!!!!!
good for killing time (yes or no): heck no!!!!!
cliche factor: 4
worth your money? absolutely not

Feeble Offspring

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 8
Date: December 31, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The only thing that relates this rotten game to "The Secret of Mana" is the name. Everything else is just a rotten imitation of that fine game. The graphics are well drawn, but poorly animated. The music is lame. The story is weak, and worst of all, the play controls are horrendous.

The ring menu system from "The Secret of Mana" was a thing of beauty that let you quickly use items and equip your characters. "Sword of Mana" has ring menus as well, but they're sluggish, and they flash for no apparent reason. Also, it seems like it takes forever for the guy to swing his sword after you have pressed the button. If you play it with the GameCube GameBoy Player, you'll even notice a bit of flicker.

Another minor irritation is that no matter what kind of creature you kill, it leaves behind something that looks like a bull skeleton. I could understand that in 1992, but it's 2003! Surely ROM is cheap enough by now for the cartridge to hold an assortment of remains.

I doubt that the original Mana team even worked on this thing. In the opening, it mentions Brown & Browne, which makes me suspect that Square is just a publisher for this game, not a developer. They pulled the same dirty trick with "Breath of Fire" which was an okay game developed by Capcom, but it was not as good as a Square game.

If they couldn't be bothered to do it right, they shouldn't have done it at all.

Dissapointing

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 11
Date: November 30, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game was short and unsatisfying. The storyline and dialog attempted to become more and more "philisophical" as the game went on and became ridiculous by the end. The dynamics of the game were possibly even more flawed than the 1991 counterpart, which was in some ways more fun than this failure of a remake.

A good game to play from a friend but not to buy.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: March 31, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Everyone wants to compare this to the far superior "Secret of Mana". "Sword of Mana" should not have to be compared to "Secret of Mana" because "Sword of Mana" IS NOT "Secret of Mana." Sword is an exceptionally good game but a lot of frustrating gameplay elements will more than likely bring this down.

Sword of Mana certainly is a pretty game. The graphics are astonishingly good. Vivid and colorful graphics that while they look cartoony, the character artwork is incredibly artistic. Easily Sword of Mana has eye-candy that will distract you from some of the cons until they submerge.

I wish I could say the same about the music that I did about the graphics. Some tunes are memorable (such as the opening theme) but other tunes for whatever reason don't bring out the true essence of the game. A lot of tunes sound 8-bit, like something you'd hear on your original NES or Gameboy. The sound effects also sound 8-bit style. I'm not quite sure if this is to bring back memories of Final Fantasy Adventure or not but for the GBA the sound could've been better.

The Gameplay of the game is actually where the game's problem is. The music I can deal with even if it is 8-bit, it isn't bad. But the gameplay showers frustration. For one thing, as so many others have said, your AI partner is not so smart. A lot of the time you'll rush into battle and your AI partner won't even ATTACK the enemy. They'll stand there walking into a wall or pathetiaclly getting the crap kicked out of them.

Battling itself can be a joy. You run around and swing your weapon at the enemy. You've got about 8 different weapons to choose from and each has its own potential and "trait". Either a Slash, Jab or Bash. Some enemies are weak to one trait more than another. To me this was creative and best of all, makes it so that you can put a strategy to your gameplay rather than just try to stay alive.

But even the combat has its problems. There's a three hit combo you can do but for some odd reason it can't be pulled off whenever. You may pull it off sometimes but it is incredibly difficult (you'll more than likely do this three hit combo by accident). Not only that but it gets more frustrating to battle as you progress. You start to miss enemies all the time and battling suddenly becomes a hassle.

The Ring menu. Simple and easy to use. Not as fast as it could be though. VERY easy to use but you spend A LOT of time in it. BUT for what its worth the Ring Menu has short cuts to the two things you'll access the most! Weapons and Magic. However, as one reviewer pointed out, the amount of time spent in the menu is torture at times. I select one category and depnding on what it is I'll go off into another catagory, a sub catagory. I may or may not go into ANOTHER sub-category. That and the menu doesn't switch to the next sub category fast enough. Still, the ring menu is fast and efficient.

My last problem with this game is a small one. The lack of actually playing the game sometimes. There are several points where the dialogue carries on and on and on. There's nothing wrong with a good storyline but when I can't interact with it enough there's a problem. It's a GAME. It's supposed to be fun WHILE intriguing and entertaining. You can't speed up the dialogue either and the character developement only helps to make it worse.

Overall, Sword of Mana isn't such a bad game. It just suffers from a lot of cons that stand out, especially in the gameplay. If you ARE a fan of the Mana Series then yes, grab this. Pick it up. If you aren't familiar with the series it's a love/hate relationship all the way.

Way to overated insults good RPG fans everywhere.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 17
Date: June 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is overated. The story is confusing. The characthers arn't introduced properly. The story will have you running around the same place for hours. You get killed to easy. The bosses are waaaaaaaaaaaay to easy. Half the stuff in the menus/items you don't even use. All the custimizable features arn't used that much. It's a long game but to easy. For the conclusion this game is not recommended for Good RPG players.

Doesn't hold a candle to Secret of Mana

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 9
Date: January 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I'll admit I was expecting a Secret of Mana type game. Instead I got something different. It isn't all that great too. You start off by selecting either a male or female and then sit through a VERY long intro (but good intro) before the game starts.

The elements in Sword of Mana are very similar to Secret but they don't flow as well. The gameplay is a such example. Sword of Mana is fun to play at first. The gameplay elements are awesome with all the weapons and items but then a few things start to stick out. One: Attacking isn't like in Secret of Mana. You have this three hit combo that for some reason is impossible to pull off. The power gauge at the bottom is nice but takes to long to charge (you do it by attacking enemies.) Another thing about the gameplay is simply that as you progress further, it becomes more frustrating. You start to miss enemies a lot and even taking out a simple enemy becomes more than its worth.

Lastly, your AI character is an insult. They stand there, either casting spells like crazy or getting themselves killed. Its a hassle to keep them alive throughout the game.

The ring menu is also different. In Secret of Mana the ring menu was fast, efficient and simple to use. In this...it's...not as easy, fast and efficient. Example: First I open up the Ring menue. Instead of it instantly flashing up like in Secret, it has to take time to open up. This isn't the gripe, let's keep moving. Next, I select the item icon. Again we watch it slowly flash to the next menu. THEN I have to choose a sub-category...ok...once that's done with I have to choose ANOTHER sub category depending on the icon I choose. Then you'll have to choose ANOTHER sub category. So when you open up the menu you'll be in it for a while. Rather than the ring menu they should've had the one similar to Legend of Mana.

The music isn't nearly as good as the other two Mana games. Seeing as how Square took so much time to redevelope the game in revamping the graphics (which shower AMAZING detail) they didn't spend as much time on the music. Some tunes are good but a lot sound VERY 8-bit style. So much to the fact that they're annoying and repetative.

The story and how its told is great though! The one thing that hasn't changed in the Mana series, great storytelling (Legend of Mana STILL had good story-telling with all its subplots). However, the dialogue is very stupid at times and the character developement isn't quite there. Sicne the game is so short we don't get enough time to learn as much about these characters as possible. Mix that in with the fact that whoever you don't choose in the beginning is absent from the story for long periods of time.

Overall I was disappointed. The gameplay is what ruined the game for me. It's frustrating a lot of the time. The menu isn't easy to use anymore and monsters that can dodge anything isn't my idea of fun.

Not Final Fantasy Adventure

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: November 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Final Fantasy Adventure for the original game boy is one of the best games of all time. Sword of Mana took the original game boy game and sucked all the life out of it. What they got wrong: pacing, length, too much story, and unnecessary deviations from the original. The original had many connections to the Final Fantasy series. The original title for the game even called it a Final Fantasy game. It was as good as the best Final Fantasy games. This version would be a playable, slightly enjoyable waste of a few hours, but only if you've never played the original. For those who have played the original this game will just make you wish you were playing the original again. Bottom line: this is the saddest remake I've ever played in terms of its' destruction of the game its' based upon.

It took over a year to complete, I was THAT bored.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: January 24, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I bo't this b'cuz I'm quite fond of SQUARE 4 the Final Fantasy series. I was sorely disappointed. While it started out great it dragged itself along. The two stories (Here/Heroine) were different, with the Heroine story being the most compelling. The game's about a world that was destroyed the wrongful use of Mana power by an evil tyrant Vandole who was subdued by a powerful Sword created by the Goddess. So now it seems the Vandole has been reincarnated intends to do it all again.
The sad thing thing is that there are too many characters that have nothing to do with the overall story (The Mavoles for example) - not to mention just too many characters - period. What was the purpose of the trip to the Ice Castle - just to kill the monster and unfreeze it's people. You're sent helping people just to satisfy the "journey" aspect of the game but it contrast this game offers no real adventure or journey, and the endgame was equally as disappointing. I got confused of who the real enemy actually was and in the end I was even more confused because the game offers no resolution.

The story itself was really uninspired as I had this game for a whole year without playing it, only to just "get it over with"; you will spend a GREAT DEAL OF TIME looking for Spirits, but if think the game or any character will TELL you how to find ALL 64 Spirits NO! GameFaqs will be your best friend for this game. A complete waste of time and money.

Decent adventure title for the GBA or DS.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 12
Date: April 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I remember how great Final Fantasy Adventure was, which was really part 1 of the mana saga, and how wonderful the Secret of Mana was for the Super Nintendo.

Now comes Sword of Mana, which is the 4th in the series, and its magic doesnt hold up to the older games.

The gameplay of sword play and magic is standard fare and does nothing to dazzle you. Same goes for the story which is a rehash of Final Fantasy Adventure. The game is fun but nothing memorable which is a departure from Square games which usually leave a dramatic lasting effect.

The main problem with this game is that a strategy guide is almost mandatory for all the items, spells, seeds, fruits, vegetables, etc. The crafting, forging, level up classes, and stats are all way too complicated for what they are.
It seems that Square thought we were all stat obsessed and item hunters/gatherers with this game.

All in all its a fun and short adventure but nothing that will go down as a classic like Secret of Mana or the Legend of Zelda games.

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