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invisibleham
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Hi

Post by invisibleham »

Hello, I'm new here. Love the Mana series games (the good ones) & looking forward to discussing them!

Cheers
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Kimiko
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Re: Hi

Post by Kimiko »

Hey there Ham :D Welcome to Seikens!

Short for 'hamster'?
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Dr. Sheexy
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Re: Hi

Post by Dr. Sheexy »

Hey welcome to Seikens!

That's an awesome avatar, did you draw it?

Which of the Mana games is your favorite? (gonna guess SoM?)
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DeadWolf
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Re: Hi

Post by DeadWolf »

invisibleham wrote:Love the Mana series games (the good ones)
Are you implying that there are bad ones?
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invisibleham
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Re: Hi

Post by invisibleham »

Thanks everyone for the welcomes!
Kimiko wrote:Hey there Ham :D Welcome to Seikens!

Short for 'hamster'?
Short for HAMBONE. Actually I don't know, it's just a weird name that isn't usually taken. :)
Sheexy wrote:Hey welcome to Seikens!

That's an awesome avatar, did you draw it?

Which of the Mana games is your favorite? (gonna guess SoM?)
Yes that's my artwork. He's from a game that I never made because I remembered that I don't know how to program.

My favorite mana game is SoM, next would be Final Fantasy Adventure. What little of the Japanese only SoM sequel I played I really enjoy. I'm a fan of the music from all of the games however.
DeadWolf wrote:
invisibleham wrote:Love the Mana series games (the good ones)
Are you implying that there are bad ones?
Well I should rephrase and just say 'the ones I did not enjoy so much'
I got burned with Sword of Mana, I really had high hopes for that game since Final Fantasy Adventure was my favorite game for a long time & I knew SoM was a kind of remake. The game was severely disappointing to me however and every game after it for me has been mediocre at best.

It's ok though, I have my Super Nintendo and my SoM cartridge that I can play any time, & that's all I need really!
:D
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Ailise
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Re: Hi

Post by Ailise »

Welcome to Seikens (^^,)
IMissSqrSoft
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Re: Hi

Post by IMissSqrSoft »

invisibleham wrote:Well I should rephrase and just say 'the ones I did not enjoy so much'
I got burned with Sword of Mana, I really had high hopes for that game since Final Fantasy Adventure was my favorite game for a long time & I knew SoM was a kind of remake. The game was severely disappointing to me however and every game after it for me has been mediocre at best.

It's ok though, I have my Super Nintendo and my SoM cartridge that I can play any time, & that's all I need really!
:D
haii, ah man you're so lucky that you still have a Super Nintendo and a copy of SoM!

I'm curious to know why Sword of Mana was severely disappointing for you? I was planning to give it a try sometime in the not to distant future hopefully. Care to share some reasons why you didn't like it?
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Dr. Sheexy
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Re: Hi

Post by Dr. Sheexy »

invisibleham wrote: Yes that's my artwork. He's from a game that I never made because I remembered that I don't know how to program.
Oh I thought it was supposed to be Randi! It's a really neat style, do you have animations from that character to show off?
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invisibleham
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Re: Hi

Post by invisibleham »

IMissSqrSoft wrote:
invisibleham wrote:Well I should rephrase and just say 'the ones I did not enjoy so much'
I got burned with Sword of Mana, I really had high hopes for that game since Final Fantasy Adventure was my favorite game for a long time & I knew SoM was a kind of remake. The game was severely disappointing to me however and every game after it for me has been mediocre at best.

It's ok though, I have my Super Nintendo and my SoM cartridge that I can play any time, & that's all I need really!
:D
haii, ah man you're so lucky that you still have a Super Nintendo and a copy of SoM!

I'm curious to know why Sword of Mana was severely disappointing for you? I was planning to give it a try sometime in the not to distant future hopefully. Care to share some reasons why you didn't like it?
My parents got Secret of Mana for me when it was new, kind of randomly for Christmas when I was little. Over the years I sold my SNES & all the games but later after college wanted them back, so I did a bit of ebay shopping and kind of built up my old collection all over again ;]

So Sword of Mana... I knew it was a 'remake' of Final Fantasy Adventure, which for me was the best game boy game ever made, it just has everything. So when I bought the game and played it, the only thing that impressed me was the visuals and the music. The story was so long and drawn out & boring. You literally have to sit through about 15 minutes of story to even start a new game, and it's not even interesting.

The gameplay itself is sluggish and very awkward. In Secret, when you tap attack, your character attacks right away, but in Sword there is this annoying half second delay, just feels sticky and slow. The game overall was just not my cup of tea. I like simple, and Sword just felt like 5 tons of detail poured over the top of something that could have been really simple and appealing.

For me Sword put story first and gameplay second. The game wants you to sit down and listen and pay attention to it's boring, overly complicated story & if you behave yourself, it will let you go play for a bit, then immediately punish you with more story you can't skip over. You don't get this in Secret. In Secret, the story sits second to the gameplay. It's more like "there's trouble way over there on the other side of the world, go there" then you go and have an adventure and kill monsters, lvl up etc, have a great time. Once you get there it's another brief story interlude that acts as a segway to go have more adventures.

With Sword I feel like a little kid that wants to go outside and play but grandpa is keeping me in to tell me some boring old story that I don't care about.
Sheexy wrote:
invisibleham wrote: Yes that's my artwork. He's from a game that I never made because I remembered that I don't know how to program.
Oh I thought it was supposed to be Randi! It's a really neat style, do you have animations from that character to show off?
He's definitely inspired by Randi, no doubt. I wanted to make a side-scrolling action game with some light RPG elements that borrow heavily from Secret of Mana. I have a story worked out and some characters but that is about it. I knew I couldn't program so my plan was to do all of the animation cycles (running, jumping, dying, etc) & hopefully pair up with someone and put all the elements together, but alas, real life and other projects have gotten a bit more important to me since then.

So no I don't have any animation of him yet but maybe someday. There's another drawing of him and a monster at my Deviantart http://siskavard.deviantart.com/gallery/#Game-Art

There's some other things there, I am working on a cartoon at the moment, though it has nothing to do with Mana or anything like that.

Cheers 8)
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DeadWolf
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Re: Hi

Post by DeadWolf »

invisibleham wrote:The story was so long and drawn out & boring. You literally have to sit through about 15 minutes of story to even start a new game, and it's not even interesting.
I can agree that sitting through 30 minutes of dialogue (**** you chrome that's spelled right) before fighting Julius was quite annoying but it doesn't mean the story is bad. They messed with the hero's motive a little bit which sort of ruined it [Inevitable Sheexy comment about willy]. I feel that they captured Julius's character very well. The remake actually made him seem evil. The remorse that Julius makes everyone feel at the end is just gripping.

And you're going to say that it's boring?
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invisibleham
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Re: Hi

Post by invisibleham »

DeadWolf wrote:
invisibleham wrote:The story was so long and drawn out & boring. You literally have to sit through about 15 minutes of story to even start a new game, and it's not even interesting.
I can agree that sitting through 30 minutes of dialogue (**** you chrome that's spelled right) before fighting Julius was quite annoying but it doesn't mean the story is bad. They messed with the hero's motive a little bit which sort of ruined it [Inevitable Sheexy comment about willy]. I feel that they captured Julius's character very well. The remake actually made him seem evil. The remorse that Julius makes everyone feel at the end is just gripping.

And you're going to say that it's boring?
Yes. It bored me. I'm not making an overall statement that the story is boring, everyone has their own tastes, it's just that it's not my flavor.

The Willy thing doesn't really bother me, it's an odd choice for sure, can't deny that.

I agree that Julius was more defined when compared to FFA. In fact, all the characters were over-defined. That's kind of a give-in since they had more room to explore and expand the game. I don't believe that adding detail necessarily counts for good story stuff. This is my problem with most contemporary Japanese storytelling in general.

Sword was just so full of details that didn't drive the story forward, and to add insult to injury, they game IS the story. It would have made a better novel than a game. The team behind it obviously got way too involved in telling their boring story to remember that it was a game & that's why I think the game suffered.

...but that's just kind of me... I don't necessarily go to games to find compelling stories. That's what books are for. If the game is fun, engaging and there happens to be a nice, uncluttered storyline then I'm all for it (Secret of Mana)

I shouldn't get too into it though I haven't played the thing for a couple years. Maybe I'll pick it up again, I have it on BGA, somewhere... gathering dust! I could definitely play it again with a fresh mind and maybe see something there that I haven't been able to see...
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DeadWolf
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Re: Hi

Post by DeadWolf »

invisibleham wrote:It would have made a better novel than a game. The team behind it obviously got way too involved in telling their boring story to remember that it was a game & that's why I think the game suffered.
I agree with that. I was about to say that the game would make a great book in my last post. I misunderstood you. I thought that you just hated the story but that's not right. You hate the focus on the story getting in the way of what could have been good game play (My problem with Final Fantasy 10).
invisibleham wrote:...but that's just kind of me... I don't necessarily go to games to find compelling stories. That's what books are for. If the game is fun, engaging and there happens to be a nice, uncluttered storyline then I'm all for it (Secret of Mana)
A good RPG has to have some story or else it turns into a dungeon crawling grind fest and will get old quick. I think Secret of Mana had a good balance going on while other games fail in one direction or the other.
invisibleham wrote:I shouldn't get too into it though I haven't played the thing for a couple years. Maybe I'll pick it up again, I have it on BGA, somewhere... gathering dust! I could definitely play it again with a fresh mind and maybe see something there that I haven't been able to see...
It's been about 4 or 5 years for me. When you find it how about a race?
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Tomoji
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Re: Hi

Post by Tomoji »

nice icon xD
and welcome!
Last edited by Tomoji on Tue Oct 12, 2010 6:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
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invisibleham
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Re: Hi

Post by invisibleham »

DeadWolf wrote: It's been about 4 or 5 years for me. When you find it how about a race?
Haha, thanks but no way. You'd win. I may give up before even making it through the intro XD
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Duran
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Re: Hi

Post by Duran »

Wow, talk about late...

Welcome to Seikens, as you initiation, you must present the member known as 'Duran' with an offering of a roast rabite! Doing so will earn you a FREE COOKIE!
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