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

[A Black Falcon]

http://www.gamespy.com/reviews/december0...ofmanagba/

[Dark Jaguar]

Because they get paid to pretty much.

[A Black Falcon]

Read the review. The guy makes it clear he didn't like Legend of Mana. And that he dislikes the combat in the series and has for years. So of course the game is bad because he dislikes the combat, yup! Argh, awful and very biased review... he says that almost all the good points are irrelevant, that the added depth is bad, that making the story better is stupid... so strange...

[OB1]

What an idiotic reviewer. Legend of Mana's combat is pretty different from Secret of Mana's, and Sword of Mana has the same combat as Secret of Mana. So what gives? And who doesn't like Secret of Mana's gameplay? What a crappy review.

[OB1]

Hmm, so far the game has an average score of 79% based off of five different sites, so gamespy isn't alone in thinking that it's not too hot. The main complaints in the reviews are that the story sucks, the weapon switching system is a huge pain (you need to switch weapons to defeat certain enemies but you have to switch them in the pause menu), save spots are too infrequent for a handheld, and it's a bit on the short side.

That's sad to hear, but it won't stop me from buying the game tomorrow. Best Buy is selling it for $25, so with the $5 coupon and the $10 in reward zone bucks that I have, it'll only cost me a measly $11.60 after tax. :D

[A Black Falcon]

Yes, in FFA weapon switching is vital and done very frequently, as anyone who played the game should remember (to cut trees, go over pits, etc, etc). In FFA it was simple -- pause, choose weapon, switch... switching items/magic (same button) was done a lot too (since you can only hold one), but not as often...

Oh, like two or three weeks ago I got the rom (yes, in English) of the game... but managed to stop myself after playing about half an hour. Wasn't easy... :)

Yeah, the fact that it has save locations while the original had save-anywhere is quite dissapointing... not surprising, sinceall the games after the first one also had the save spots (statues), but dissapointing nonetheless...

The story... clearly based on the classic game's story, but with a lot more complexity. I thought the beginning parts were okay at least... sure, it's hardly the best story ever (and is clearly based on a hugely expanded version of the classic, which IMO is great... I loved FFA...)

But then again, I love the series, so I am hardly a fair judge of the game. :)

Now the question is... can I wait all the way to Christmas to get this, or will I like spend everything I have left and buy it now...

Oh yeah, and as for length... I at least would say that you'd want to play it through twice, once as each character, since the story seems to be fairly different from each side...

[OB1]

Nintendojo posted a very positive review of the game: http://nintendojo.com/reviews/GB/view_it...1071065571

[A Black Falcon]

Hey, NintenDojo has a new look...

And that review is way better than the other ones. Maybe the mediocre reviews are being more "balanced", but I like this one more. :D

[alien space marine]

Kind of reminds me of a IGN reviewer who said alot of stupidness in regards to the story and plot of warcraft II he clearly was a noob to warcraft and most readers probaily know more then he did.

The reviewer for ROC talked about medivh but his hole time frame was wrong, He said medivh was in warcraft IIx, But medivh was dead since warcraft orcs and humans and he confused him with Ner'Zhul, Medivh waisnt even in either war2 games!

As for this dude your talking about he should honnestly tell his boss to assign someone else to review those games .

my little short breif period at C4 games before it death(, We always had the people that love the game judge the game.

[A Black Falcon]

I couldn't help myself and got the game. Yup, great game... I love the Mana series. :)

[Great Rumbler]

I have to put Mana on my "Games to buy next year" list.

[alien space marine]

Soon enough I am gonna start my own game and my freind who works at ubisoft might lend me a few things and give me a few lessons.His dad is actually a well awarded author ...

I am thinking somthing like alien abductions were your either a alien abducted by humans or a human abucted by aliens, You have to break free and trash the place and give your captures a living hell.

"GALACTIC PROBERS"

[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. :)

[Dark Jaguar]

Um, the way you describe it sounds a lot like Secret of Mana, especially what you call the improvements over SD3 like being able to run in combat.

[A Black Falcon]

Eh, I think you can run in SD3, I just remember it being slower or something than normal running... or maybe it's the conversion thing you have to do to switch between normal and combat -- you switch, and then you have the weapon out and don't move as fast even running.

[A Black Falcon]

[OB1]

I really like the lighter tone. The other Mana games have a fairly light tone, so it's good that this one does as well.

[A Black Falcon]

Hmm... you're right, the other Mana games have a lighter tone... isn't it interesting how FFA has such a small actual number of people who die but has such a depressing tone while the other Mana games, including Sword, have, overall, far more actual casualties we know of but feel lighter... Sword is the perfect example, as I said -- they increase the number who die by killing his parents, her villiage, etc. but the tone overall is noticably lighter.

I know, it now fits with the series and Square's games better... but I liked the original one!