Look, if you don't like the game or the series, why are you reviewing it?

[A Black Falcon]

I've been playing Sword (SoM is no good, since Sword and Secret have the same acronym...) more... great, great game. It's like the other Mana games, but with an improved interface and play system.

What do I mean? I'll explain. :)

*looks at it*

Uhh... this is a lot closer to a review than a "explanation"... I'll probably later expand it a bit and put it in the review section. :)

First... uh, why was anyone complaining about how hard it is to switch weapons? It's a very quick and easy process.

1) press 'start'
2) left/right over to the sword icon
3) press 'A'
4) left/right over to the weapon of choice
5) press 'A'
6) you are done.

Same process for items, just one more menu where you choose which type of item you want to use. :)

Items... change from FFA, but they work just like SD3 -- the circular menu system, where you can't quick-use a item on a button (by equipping it like FFA), but have to choose it in the menu. They make the menu easy to use, thankfully, so that isn't much of a problem, and is actually better in many ways because it easily lets you use all the items, something that was a pain in FFA especially since magic was also on that button and you used that more in most of the game...

Uh, anyway... the game has improved things in several ways: first, it lets you run at full speed in combat mode (something missing in SD3), second, it switches to combat mode very quickly and without much animation (again improved from previous games), and third... well, more controls -- jumping, a crouch move that regenerates your mana, etc... nice things. :)

The combat, of course, is classic Mana/FFA: kill stuff like Zelda games, with the FFA style of gameplay where you have a Zelda-ish variety (growing as you proceed) of weapons to use that all have unique uses (some can get you over pits, etc) and enemies that only they can hurt and things like that, unlike the style used in most of the later Mana games which is like a standard RPG where you just have weapons, one type per person, which you improve with better versions of the weapon as you progress. Armor of course works in the improvement system, but weapons use a more Zelda-ish system that is a bit more unique in RPGs... Square ones anyway. :) Oh, and the weapon you are holding also determines the form of the magic attack spells -- the rod is a targetted one, the bow has a arrow path, the sword one is closerange, etc... adds uniqueness, and variety (and more puzzles) to the game. I also like how there are more spells, 16 now (8 elementals with 2 each, one defence and one offence) instead of 6 (and with a different form of the attack spell for every weapon...). Plus magic is easier to use, being on its own button instead of sharing one with items... the one annoyance is that because which of the two spells for the selected elemental you cast depends on how long you hold the button down sometimes I've cast the wrong one, which is bad because it takes a while to get back that mana...

The story... seems good so far (like 2 and a half hours in). Much more depth than FFA, obviously. Sure, it's not the greatest story ever and it's clearly a expanded 8-bit story, but I at least think that it works great...

Finally, it's a Mana game! That means it's fun. :)