評論

• gamedeal user

  Oct 13, 2021

  I got this game knowing it has some issues on PC, because I wanted to show support for one of my all-time favourite games. I was thinking, "I love this game anyway, how bad could it be?" Well, really bad, as it turned out. I'm trying to tweak it here and there to fix it, but it still feels pretty bad to play. There's something weird about the way it animates, and there's a noticeable input lag that makes it feel super sluggish. There's inexplicable frame rate dips in combat too. I have recently been playing the original PS1 release, so I can tell there's something noticeably weird with this version. What a bummer! I hope they will fix it eventually, because this is a wonderful remaster otherwise. It really hurts my heart to say that I don't recommend this. I love this colourful and baffling PS1 game to bits. The console releases of this remaster apparently have none of these issues, so I guess I recommend getting one of those instead. Or I guess you can still get this one if you don't care about the input and performance stuff and just want to play it slowly with No Encounter mode turned on and a CRT shader injection, which you can absolutely do without trouble.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 25, 2021

  Legend of Mana is one of my favourite games of all time. It's mostly known to other people as a major disappointment. If you're reading this, you're maybe thinking "isn't this the bad sequel to Secret of Mana?". I find this pretty unfair. Mechanically it's stronger than Secret of Mana (or Trials). The writing and worldbuilding is great. It's obviously gorgeous and it's got a killer soundtrack. So what is it about the game that doesn't click with people? I've come to the conclusion there are two main hurdles you need to get over if you want to play this game, but the good news is that if you know these in advance, you can approach the game in a healthy way. [b]The first hurdle is that the game has literally dozens of different mechanical systems, none of which are explained in game.[/b] The developer's philosophy is that trying to discover how they work is rewarding. I'm not sure I agree, but here's what I think: you have internet access, you have access to FAQs and Wikis and YouTube videos. No one thinks Stardew Valley or Hollow Knight or Dark Souls are bad games because playing them often involves consulting community resources. The same is true here. But I'm also not sure this was ever a problem, because Legend of Mana is designed so even if you fumble your way through the game, that's OK. To wit: LoM has pet raising, it has weapon and armor crafting, it has programmable AI-driven Golem raising, it has a magic system, and the game can be beaten on the default difficulty without ever thinking about any of these things. The game has an elaborate system where you build the world map and where you place various regions affects loot tables, enemy difficulty, and more in a really complicated way. And... it's also the case that it doesn't matter because 95% of the game's content is accessible if you just do it haphazardly. So approach this game with the idea that if you want to min/max, it has unparalleled depth, and if you don't, then just chill out about it. The weapon/armor crafting system in particular is something that it took fans about 5 or 6 years of dedicated work to reverse engineer. Again, you can completely ignore this and beat the game, no problem. Or you can copy a recipe you find online for amazing weapons. Or you can take the time to watch an hour of videos and unpack this. The depth here is insane, comparable to building a card deck in a competitive meta deck-building game -- understanding how every part interacts together is immensely satisfying. [b]The second major hurdle is the style of storytelling.[/b] In most of the conventionally popular JRPG contemporaries, the story is an epic save the world tale. Even Secret of Mana and Trials of Mana have this kind of escalation. Legend of Mana doesn't. Instead, it mostly has vignette-based storytelling -- little self-contained 30 minute stories attached to a given character or area. If you want serial storytelling, there are a handful of quest chains and three serial main stories (the endgame opens when you finish one of the main stories, but you can do more if you want). The three stories involve a dying race of magic beings with "Jewel cores", hunted for sport; a malevolent dragon that conscripts you to kill other dragons so he can absorb their power; and a Romeo and Juliet star-crossed story about a religious leader and her demon boyfriend. Even in these larger stories, the stakes exist at the level of the characters. Your protagonist is almost entirely an observer. Again, you have two choices. You can either ignore the story and mash through to see the pretty pictures and fight the enormous bosses, or you can choose to engage with the story on the level the game wants you to. But if you resent the game for not being FF7, you'll have a bad time. This comes off like a very defensive review, and it's mostly because after 20 years I'm a little tired of trying to convince people the game deserves a second chance. We're now at the point where the legendarily obscure SaGa series has enjoyed a public revival -- and in fact if you like SaGa, you'll like Legend of Mana, because most of what people resented about it is true of the SaGa games. In some ways I wish Legend of Mana was even less popular, so I could present it as an undiscovered gem instead of trying to rehabilitate it as something people have already considered and discarded. Brief details on the port: The game looks amazing in widescreen, the AI upscaling is not perfect but it's the best solution in 2021, the music sounds great (I prefer the original arrangements generally, but you can choose), controller support is excellent, achievements cover the range of things you want them to. Highly recommend the port -- I'll never play the PS1 original again.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 1, 2021

  Remember me! Need me! I can provide you with everything! I am love. Find me, and walk beside me.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 11, 2021

  This... this is what childhood dreams are made of, beautiful art, and music that one does not see anymore... Clean humor and a sense of innocence. Enjoy the game, and remember upon happier times when one was a child. Enjoy this timeless legend that will bring a smile to your face, and simply enjoy.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 29, 2021

  It's Legend of Mana, just as you remember it from two decades ago. Mostly anyway. The music is higher fidelity (you can switch back to the old music if you want) and the backgrounds are higher resolution, but otherwise, it's the same game. Honestly, the new art, while pretty, does make the character sprites, which don't appear to have been updated at all, stick out like sore thumbs. That said, it's nice to have this game on a modern system that isn't using the kind of jank emulation the old Legend of Mana you could buy on PSN used that led to painfully long load times. Now, all the load times are relatively quick, leading to a much smoother experience. If you're unfamiliar with Legend of Mana, it's actually the fourth game from the Seiken Densetsu/Mana series, though it's a spinoff rather than mainline title. It takes a of elements and themes of these games and shoves them into a sort of free-form world-building experience without any real storyline or main direction. If you're looking for a more traditional JRPG Seiken Densestu experience, then you can find the phenomenally lovingly remade version of Seiken Denstsu 3: Trails of Mana here, which is actually a personal favorite of mine as far as RPGs go: https://store.steampowered.com/app/924980/Trials_of_Mana/ (Don't worry about it being the third game. Much like the Final Fantasy series, the games in the series are pretty much entirely standalone) That's not to say that Legend of Mana doesn't have storylines in it, it does, but none of them can really be called the main plot. Your character just takes part in major events and adventures as he or she sort of pieces together the world from artifacts. Speaking of which, the artifact system was something I was never really clear on. As far as I know, you're rebuilding the world, piece-by-piece, with artifacts you find by adventuring. The thing is, nobody but you seems to be impacted by this. Nobody acknowledges that new lands and locations are seemingly popping out of thin air, and you'll repeatedly meet recurring characters around the world as you adventure, so it's not as if they're not out and about in these different locations. It makes it sort of seem like you're simply exploring the world as guided by artifacts, leading you to places, rather than remaking the world. Not that I really mind if that were the case, since it just makes more sense with the way nobody acknowledges the world coming back together piece-by-piece, and it doesn't really change the charm of the adventure either way. In any case, the game can almost be considered an open world adventure with a multitude of side quests to experience, except that your path is somewhat guided by what artifacts you get by visiting locations and beating quests. Usually these will award you with more than one, so there's not really a set path, but you can't just go literally anywhere in the world from the beginning of the game, because most of the world doesn't exist (at least to you) without getting and placing down artifacts. Regardless of the meaning of the artifact system to the world itself, it makes for a fun, relatively free-form, adventure in a charming and magical world. That said, the game is clunky. The combat has you scooting around for movement, rather than smoothly walking or running around the field. You may be familiar with this if you played the old Mana RPGs on the SNES. That said, this is done on a sort of side-view plane like a beat 'em up, rather than a top-down view, which makes lining up attacks (literally) somewhat more difficult than it probably should be. Furthermore, combat is super simple. You have abilities, special techniques, magic, light attacks, and heavy attacks. This sounds like it would give a decent amount of variety, and it probably [i]can[/i], but you don't [i]really[/i] need anything other than light attacks. So, here's the thing about combat: Light attacks, if you mash them, come out in a short combo string that has a decently long recovery after you finish the combo, but [i]that's only if you mash[/i]. By rhythmically tapping the light attack button to match the rhythm of your attacks, you can simply repeat attacking forever with no recovery time. I'm not sure if this was an intended mechanic (I never bothered to look it up, honestly) since it encourages you to not mash, making things mechanically more precise, but it also means you can pretty much totally lock down enemies just by basic attacking forever. This includes bosses. Unless the enemy pulls out invincibility frames for special phases or abilities, you can pretty easily keep them flinchlocked forever. The only thing stopping you from doing this usually is that basic attacks don't hit multiple enemies, so groups of enemies can beat you over the head as you bully one of them. Light attacks aside, abilities let you do things like block, dodge, counter, dash, and so on. Special techniques can be thought of as ultimate attacks that can be unleashed when you build meter from basic attacks (which doesn't take long). Magic is from buying magic instruments that can be used indefinitely and with no resource cost of any kind, but spells have charge time, and you can be interrupted during the charge. All this stuff is pretty fun, and you can use these for AoE to make quick work of groups of enemies, but for the most part, the combat isn't particularly technical enough to actually call for using these. Aside from the combat, Legend of Mana has a pet raising mechanic, where you can find monster eggs (or in specific instaces, just monsters) that you can recruit, and level. These can apparently be used in a minigame that was never in the localized version of the game before (I haven't tried it yet in this version). Raising these involves feeding them and taking them with a variety of foods, that I'm sure has some sort of effect based on the food types, but I've never really dug deep into the system. You can also take your monster companions out on adventures, and they can act as a third party member, aside from whatever humanoid companion you may be running with. Furthermore, there's a complex free-form weapon crafting system that I don't recall ever digging into, but from my understanding, it's [i]incredibly[/i] convoluted, so if that's your thing, it's there. Once you unlock it through a certain quest, that is. Really, what enchanted me so much two decades ago playing this game on the PSX is the same thing that has be liking it now. The art, music, and world are just incredibly enchanting and magical. It's just a fun world to run around and adventure in. Technically, the gameplay systems serviceable, but aren't all that strong, but Legend of Mana has drawn me back repeatedly over the years on the strength of just how magical the game manages to feel.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 3, 2022

  I had read the reviews complaining about how bad the framerate and input lag were, but I had assumed that people were putting modern expectations onto a PS1 game. I bought the game anyway because I enjoyed it a lot back on the PS1, but never got to explore all of the content. Unfortunately, the framerate and input lag are abysmal. Things that are smooth on the PS1 stutter on the desktop. Combos don't go through because of the input lag (or actions are simply dropped entirely) and the sprites occasionally jump around the screen with a non-trivial number of dropped frames. I've chosen to refund the game. This was not an easy choice, because I enjoyed it a lot on the PS1. It's unique and has a lot more to it than you first see on the surface. Unfortunately, the game just isn't enjoyable to play with the framerate and input lag issues.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 18, 2022

  Lots of people mentioned the frame rate issue and input lag. You can instantly recognize how it is after few seconds controlling your character and decide if you need to request the refund or not. Those issues made me enough motion sickness and requesting the refund quickly.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 30, 2022

  This is my first game i play so yes for me this is definitely bring alot memories. And about this remastered Really beautiful art background, Soundtrack/Bgm absolutely loved them especially the ending song theme.Lil Cactus diary some of them kinda funny sometimes bring me a lil smile to read them. Raise and Feed ur pets u kinda need spesific food to increase it the stats even better and it's Personalities and pets already complex enough. For Crafting and golem even more complex than the pets so it take time. Even though some people have problem with framerate i actually dont really have any issue with this game expect temple of healing at gato grottoes it's lagging the rest of it it's smooth. For replayability i think pretty good. For the achievement hunter this game can get 1 playthrough ofc take times to get all the skill/move set and level 99 and after that just newgame+ to changed the difficulty. And one last thing Cant wait for the anime Legend of mana The Teardrop Crystal
• Techbusted

  Sep 15, 2022

  I remember first playing this game as a kid. I've always wanted to play this game again. Now that im able to buy and play the game via Steam and have a better understanding of how to play and how to solve mysteries, this game actually goes much deeper. There is no shortage of things to do, and I really thought this game was way ahead of its time. You can play with an NPC as a partner - you can find them throughout various parts in the game and with different partners, also unlock different missions. You can have pets - You catch eggs, hatch them after a while and then feed and raise them into a warrior that you can take along with you everywhere. You can either have a pet or a golem. (A GOLEM??) Have a robotic golem pet - this is probably the most expensive yet the most fun part of the game. You can recycle your old weapons or forge specific weapons just for this use and its so rewarding to have pieces that just fit. Youre presented with a grid where you make pieces fit tetris style and they correlate to skills and positioning of your golem. You can only have a golem or a pet at a time plus an NPC partner. There is a forging system for weapons, armor and magical instruments. from magical instruments, you can get token to forge other forms of magical instruments or temper your weapons and armor for bonus stats. you can also plant and harvest crops. These crops can be used to feed and raise your pets. Since golems have fixed stats based on what you build, pets stats can grow and alter based on what you feed it - and they gain levels unlike golems. There are many story arcs in the game, too. This game is packed with quests. And quests lead to more quests and more artifacts and more stories. The guides for this game is much thicker and much more detailed than any other guide i have followed and if you fail a quest or dont do them in the right order, you will need to replay the entire game again (which i just didnt want to do). I strongly suggest reading through the conversation and interaction between quests and characters because they do tell and share very good stories (and lessons) and follow guides that will lead you to the right direction to get the full experience of the game.
• Kirlim

  Dec 18, 2022

  Crash when starting a new game. Crash when going into a city. Crash when starting a Dialogue. Crash when opening the options to see if there is something to stop the crashing. Fullscreen crashes. Virtual windowed crashes. Windowed crashes, in all resolutions. It's a better implementation of Crash to Desktop than that one found in Magicka. No luck searching the internet for fixes. The most promising information is that Legend of Mana was affected by a DRM bug on Intel Chipsets on Windows 11, which should be fixed on a Windows 11 update in November. But no follow up information, official or not, about the fix. That's ok, because I use Windows 10 anyway. Oh yeah, the game minimal windows version is Windows 10. Stay sharp if you're on Windows 7. It's written in the required specs, but this tiny bit is easy to miss. Given Square Enix respectable reputation of not ever yielding to fix anything, if you buy this and it crashes, give up and refund.