5th December 2010, 1:01 PM
Secret of Mana somewhat disappointed me when I got it several years ago, so much grinding, and some not-great design decisions... Final Fantasy Adventure is my favorite Mana game. I haven't played any of SD3 in years, but I do remember liking what I played of it, apart from getting annoyed at not being told where to go and just wandering around lost some of the time.
Sword of Mana was disappointing and really not very good. I mean, sure, you could play it, and it looks nice, but the actual gameplay was so lame in comparison to any of the older Mana games... it was completely linear, with no exploration really, easy, and more. I never actually finished it, I got bored well into the game and stopped playing.
I did finish Children of Mana, though. I didn't love it, it's not much above average, but it was one of the earlier DS games I got and I found it playable. It's an okay dungeon crawling hack and slash game with a somewhat confusing story, nothing more than that. Took me quite some time to finish, but I did keep coming back often enough to eventually get through the thing, so obviously I liked it at least somewhat.
I haven't played the PS2 Mana game, Dawn of Mana, but all reviews are awful, so I don't know how badly I want to. Heroes of Mana I do want to try sometime (the RTS-like one on DS). As for Legend of Mana on PSX, I've played (and liked) a few hours of the game in emulation, but wanted to save actually playing the whole thing for when I found an actual copy, which I haven't managed to do in the years since getting a PSX, so I haven't played more of it than that.
Oh, as for those other games, I played a little of Bahamut Lagoon a little while ago, and yeah it did seem pretty good. I was happy to see that it was a strategy game and not another RPG, I like strategy games more. It's something I should go back to. :)
Sword of Mana was disappointing and really not very good. I mean, sure, you could play it, and it looks nice, but the actual gameplay was so lame in comparison to any of the older Mana games... it was completely linear, with no exploration really, easy, and more. I never actually finished it, I got bored well into the game and stopped playing.
I did finish Children of Mana, though. I didn't love it, it's not much above average, but it was one of the earlier DS games I got and I found it playable. It's an okay dungeon crawling hack and slash game with a somewhat confusing story, nothing more than that. Took me quite some time to finish, but I did keep coming back often enough to eventually get through the thing, so obviously I liked it at least somewhat.
I haven't played the PS2 Mana game, Dawn of Mana, but all reviews are awful, so I don't know how badly I want to. Heroes of Mana I do want to try sometime (the RTS-like one on DS). As for Legend of Mana on PSX, I've played (and liked) a few hours of the game in emulation, but wanted to save actually playing the whole thing for when I found an actual copy, which I haven't managed to do in the years since getting a PSX, so I haven't played more of it than that.
Oh, as for those other games, I played a little of Bahamut Lagoon a little while ago, and yeah it did seem pretty good. I was happy to see that it was a strategy game and not another RPG, I like strategy games more. It's something I should go back to. :)