a cartesian nightmare wrapped in a winnie the pooh-esque husk, legend of mana goes out of its way to be unmarketable, genuinely weird, aimless, and wholly contrarian, but in the most charming way possible. koichi ishii is on record basically saying he wanted to be an asshole with this game and make a game about nothing.
legend of mana's development came hot off of saga frontier, which ishii and battle chief hiroshi takai both worked on. the team that made that game splintered into two, one for legend of mana and one for saga frontier 2, so it's interesting to compare the two and the relatively similar styles they both present. it kind of also represents the rebelliousness in which mana was made with - ishii wanted to go with these insane ideas he had for frontier which were shotdown (which evolved into many of mana's systems like the world make system and the monster raising), and takai felt like at least his take on turn-based games were crystallized and perfected with frontier.
there's this transgressive rub to legend of mana which will definitely turn people off, which is one of the most perfect aspects of the game. the true enjoyment comes with just not giving a fuck anymore and really sliding into the saccharine comedy and weird arcane elements of the game. you can really do whatever you want and interact with whichever systems you feel like, or totally ignore them. it's a game that really could not care less if you're playing it or not, yet has a weirdly emotionally resonant story despite all this - I mean, yoko shimomura did the soundtrack, so you know it bangs and is gonna make you cry at some point.
though the story is light and fractured, there's some excellent and creepy components that bind it together. one of those are the sproutlings, which are a hive-mind race of little cabbage fairies that once guarded the mana tree that walk around the world talking about how the world is all a giant lie. people react to them similarly to say a beggar or a soothsayer - some people like niccolo straight up detest them for no particular reason and most everyone else just ignores them as if they aren't there. but you as the player totally know they're telling the truth because you are actively reconstructing the world.
there's also a few plotlines that have several events that progress in sequential order. it can be very easy to miss these or forget what's going on within them. that's perhaps why the cactus diaries exist (which is another fun and sweet little system that you could wholly not know exists or participate in). the most compelling of these imo is the jumi plotline, but all of them are interesting enough to keep me pressing on. you have to finish at least one of the main story arcs to finish the game but you can theoretically do all three in one go and there's a few differences depending on how you do them.
there's a lot to dig into here - it's legit teeming with STUFF to read and ponder and replay. but it also cannot be understated how absolutely gorgeous the game is. the music is incredible. the drama of laying an artifact on the board and watching it froth with golden bubbles or ignite a geyser of fire is invigorating and mythic. and all the backgrounds are incredible - the style is somewhere between final fantasy tactics and beatrix potter. my favorite areas are probably the junkyard, tower of leires, and gato grottoes but a ton of them are genuinely memorable. the character designs are probably my fav thing from the game. the design team was told no one could be straight up a human besides the main character so you have people that are cornucopias, centaurs, onions... there's a little girl who's super angsty because her force her to dress like a fairy (her dad's a beetle and her mom's a butterfly).
this is probably the only thing i've played this year that i would actually replay. v happy with it!
legend of mana's development came hot off of saga frontier, which ishii and battle chief hiroshi takai both worked on. the team that made that game splintered into two, one for legend of mana and one for saga frontier 2, so it's interesting to compare the two and the relatively similar styles they both present. it kind of also represents the rebelliousness in which mana was made with - ishii wanted to go with these insane ideas he had for frontier which were shotdown (which evolved into many of mana's systems like the world make system and the monster raising), and takai felt like at least his take on turn-based games were crystallized and perfected with frontier.
there's this transgressive rub to legend of mana which will definitely turn people off, which is one of the most perfect aspects of the game. the true enjoyment comes with just not giving a fuck anymore and really sliding into the saccharine comedy and weird arcane elements of the game. you can really do whatever you want and interact with whichever systems you feel like, or totally ignore them. it's a game that really could not care less if you're playing it or not, yet has a weirdly emotionally resonant story despite all this - I mean, yoko shimomura did the soundtrack, so you know it bangs and is gonna make you cry at some point.
though the story is light and fractured, there's some excellent and creepy components that bind it together. one of those are the sproutlings, which are a hive-mind race of little cabbage fairies that once guarded the mana tree that walk around the world talking about how the world is all a giant lie. people react to them similarly to say a beggar or a soothsayer - some people like niccolo straight up detest them for no particular reason and most everyone else just ignores them as if they aren't there. but you as the player totally know they're telling the truth because you are actively reconstructing the world.
there's also a few plotlines that have several events that progress in sequential order. it can be very easy to miss these or forget what's going on within them. that's perhaps why the cactus diaries exist (which is another fun and sweet little system that you could wholly not know exists or participate in). the most compelling of these imo is the jumi plotline, but all of them are interesting enough to keep me pressing on. you have to finish at least one of the main story arcs to finish the game but you can theoretically do all three in one go and there's a few differences depending on how you do them.
there's a lot to dig into here - it's legit teeming with STUFF to read and ponder and replay. but it also cannot be understated how absolutely gorgeous the game is. the music is incredible. the drama of laying an artifact on the board and watching it froth with golden bubbles or ignite a geyser of fire is invigorating and mythic. and all the backgrounds are incredible - the style is somewhere between final fantasy tactics and beatrix potter. my favorite areas are probably the junkyard, tower of leires, and gato grottoes but a ton of them are genuinely memorable. the character designs are probably my fav thing from the game. the design team was told no one could be straight up a human besides the main character so you have people that are cornucopias, centaurs, onions... there's a little girl who's super angsty because her force her to dress like a fairy (her dad's a beetle and her mom's a butterfly).
this is probably the only thing i've played this year that i would actually replay. v happy with it!
ghost_girl
2 years ago