Legend of Mana - I need information!

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Diana_Liuba
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Legend of Mana - I need information!

Post by Diana_Liuba »

Hey Seikens Community,

Today I was writing the introduction text for Legend of Mana, which will be released on my fan page like seikens.com but in German. I wonder why Square never released that game in Europe. And that's my problem:
Because I've never played Legend of Mana I don't know anything about that game and that would make it more difficult to write an informative text about that game. Now... I need your help.
It would really help, if you could give me some information about that game. Not the release dates and something like that. I mean something special about the game, the gameplay, why the game is different from other Seiken Densetsu games, special informations about the music and so on. And please... don't link me to the seikens mainpage. I don't really want to copy anything from pages I know. I think that this isn't very fair. They spent so much time in doing this beautiful page. So... please consider my point of view. It's in the interest of the authors of seikens.com.
Just tell me everything you know about Legend of Mana, yeah?

Diana

PS: I hope, it's in the right forum ;)
nick912012
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Re: Legend of Mana - I need information!

Post by nick912012 »

Hi, sorry this forum's a tiny bit inactive so replies might be on the slow side.

Legend of Mana is honestly hard for me to describe. It's a really really weird game. I don't even know how to begin talking about the characters since they're so diverse and abundant. I'll let someone take that I spose.

The gameplay features are different from other Mana games. From the start of the game, you select what gender you want and your starting weapon. After that, you select, on this world map, in what area you want to live. Wherever you choose, it doesn't change the core game though. After that, you're given a mailbox to plant on the map and that creates your house.

The mailbox is called an artifact, and you'll get those after completing "missions." You then plant them on the world map and new places emerge.

Your standard party looks like this:
Main character, ally, pet or golem (robot)

Your ally is generally based off of the events (what they call missions), and your pet is whatever you want it to be. You collect pets by going to certain areas in dungeons, and there'll be an egg there. You need to lure it in with food and then sneak up behind it and grab it. If it sees you, it'll try to run away.

Building golems... I've honestly never understood it, and I've always stuck to pets. haha

Another interesting mechanic is that you can build instruments. This is how you cast magic. However, magic in this game is underpowered and probably should never be used. To build instruments, you need to get coins from the spirits. Similarly to the eggs, to get the coins, you have to go to the same location in dungeons. You'll see a spirit, and you'll have to play them a song with your instruments. They'll either start dancing and coming near you or hate it and start running away. When you think they're close enough, you stop playing and run up and grab the spirit. They'll then give you their coin(s).

There's 90+ events I believe, and they range from 10 minutes to 2 hours (maybe a stretch on that). There are several story arcs, with three of them being pretty long. You have to beat at least one of those three to beat the game, but you can do all of them. I can try to go in depth on the story arcs if you really want, but it's been awhile since I've played the game, so it might not be too accurate.

Anyways, if there's any other things you want me to elaborate on, let me know.
Diana_Liuba
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Re: Legend of Mana - I need information!

Post by Diana_Liuba »

Oh man, thank you! That are great information I will include in this information text about LoM. Now... somehow I want to save the world of Mana... Haha ^^
I think I'm gonna watch a Let's play to understand the whole story. But I have the feeling that this game is more... well... I don't know the english words... There are more things you can form like you want. And I think that is very nice.
I'll let you know if I need any more. Thanks for your collaboration ;)

Diana
nick912012
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Re: Legend of Mana - I need information!

Post by nick912012 »

Hmm, so do you just use an online translator when you read my text or something? Maybe we can do coordinate something where we can watch it together and if you have any questions on what's going on, I can tell you and then you just run my text through a translator. We can play around with some ideas to help your site out.
Diana_Liuba
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Re: Legend of Mana - I need information!

Post by Diana_Liuba »

I hate online translator. To be honest: I'm the translator. I won't copy and paste your text you wrote. I'll use the information you gave me. But your help is welcome. I could need every help I can get. The one who should do the walkthrough for Sword of Mana went away and I don't have any contact to him... And the other one who should do the Seiken Densetsu 3 section has done the same thing... Well... If you like I can tell you how many things are completed.

Diana
nick912012
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Re: Legend of Mana - I need information!

Post by nick912012 »

Well, I can try to help ya out as much as I can. Any ideas on how we would work around this?
Diana_Liuba
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Re: Legend of Mana - I need information!

Post by Diana_Liuba »

I think at first I should show you what I've already wrote. It could be that the grammar sucks... I didn't learn english since I was born.
Spoiler: show
English:
Three years of silence went into the world of Mana until Square released Seiken Densetsu: Legend of Mana on July 15th 1999 for japanese shops. One year later american fans of the Seiken Densetsu series could buy the game in american stores on June 7th 2000. However the game never reached Europe and we never could play the game which was made a bit different than the other titles. (it's a very word-by-word translation...) This legend brings a new spring into the series.
At the very beginning Square wanted to make it as a Spin-off. That would explain why the japanese title of Dawn of Mana is called Seiken Densetsu 4. This game also made a great jump away from Nintendo because it was released on Sony's Playstation. Square got an adventage for the whole game. However the world isn't fixed like the other titles - you have an open world which you can build like you want. The player has the option to create a whole world through artifacts. And the whole story was divided into three single story arcs but not all of these have to be done, to see the ending. That means, that you can replay a lot and won't get tired of it because there are a lot of events which goes from 10 minutes until 10 hours.
We also have a new composer for this game: Yoko Shimomura. Through the Playstation with it's high development standarts the player is able to build and play in selfmade instruments to lurk the spirits, caught them and th gain their coins to cast magic. You also can get pets if you're going to a special place in the dungeon where you can find eggs. You have to feed them and take care. These pets can be your ally in battles and help you like the golems which you have du build. It's possible to choose which gender and weapon you want to have. The gender tdon't have any effect on the story and abillities. But you don't have to fight through the great world alone. Based on the missions advance you also have an ally which is a NPC who helps you out, too.

I also attached my German version. It isn't a 1-to-1 translation. I'm not able to do that because I would need more english lessons. But most of what is above is like the German one below.
German:

Drei Jahre der Stille zogen ins Manaland, als Square dann am 15. Juli 1999 Seiken Densetsu: Legend of Mana in die japanischen Läden brachte. Knapp ein Jahr später durften sich auch amerikanische Freunde der Reihe an dem Spiel laben, als es am 7. Juni 2000 in den hiesigen Geschäften zu kaufen gab. Leider erreichte dieses Spiel auch Europa nicht und verwehrte uns einen Spielspaß der etwas anderen Sorte. Dieses Epos bringt eine angenehme frische Brise in die Serie mit.
Als Square es vermarktete, wurde es als ein Spin-Off der Serie angedacht. Dies schlussfolgert, warum der japanische Titel von Dawn of Mana Seiken Densetsu 4 lautet. Des Weiteren mach dieses Spiel einen riesen Sprung von Nintendo weg, denn es wurde für Sonys Playstation entwickelt. Square hat sich dadurch einen Vorteil ergattert, was das gesamte Spiel angeht. Die Welt ist nicht mehr komplett so gehalten, wie man es aus dem letzteren Spielen kennt. Der Spieler hat die Möglichkeit, sich eine komplett eigene Welt mit Artefakten zu basteln. Außerdem wurde die Handlung in drei Kapitel geteilt, wobei zu erwähnen ist, dass nicht alle davon zu lösen sind, um das Ende zu sehen. Durch die vielen Nebenmissionen, welche von 10 Minuten bis zu 2 Stunden gehen können, ist es ein sehr langes Spiel mit Spielspaß, der nicht nur beim ersten Durchgang anhält.
Die musikalische Komposition leitete nun ein neuer Musiker: Yoko Shimomura. Durch die damalige fortschrittliche Playstation wurde das gesamte musikalische Bild gelockert, als man das Erstellen und spielen von Musikinstrumenten einbaute. Mit diesem Extra kann man die Geister anlocken, sie fangen und spiezielle Münzen von ihnen ergattern, um Magie zu wirken. Du kannst dir ebenfalls Monster als Haustiere halten, die dich im Kampf unterstützen können. Um sie jedoch erst zu finden, musst du in verschiedenen Verliesen an einem bestimmten Ort ein Ei finden, welches du hegen und pflegen musst. Nicht nur ein solches Monster kann dir im Kampf helfen sondern auch ein Golem, den du dir ebenfalls erschaffen kannst. Ebenso ist es möglich, am Anfang des Spieles das Geschlecht und die Waffe deines Charakters auszusuchen. Da weder dein Haustier noch der Golem Pflicht sind, hast du als Unterstützung einen Verbündeten an deiner Seite, der, je nach Fortschritt im Spiel, variiert.
That is the only thing I don't have in my category about LoM. Have you ever played DoM? I don't have anything about that. It was also never released in Europe. And I hope the translation isn't so bad ;)

Diana
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Kimiko
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Re: Legend of Mana - I need information!

Post by Kimiko »

Let's Plays are a nice way to see the mechanics of the game. Other sources you could use are reviews of it, or good old Wikipedia.

Like Nick said, Legend Of Mana is rather different from the other Mana/SD games. There is no predetermined storyline that you play through. Instead, you build the plot yourself, from building blocks you get by completing other building blocks. Some of them are places like your character's home, or the orchard (where you grow fruits and veggies). Some are towns where all sorts of colorful or cute characters live. And some are what you'd call 'dungeons' in most other RPGs (except that only some are actually underground). The order and pattern you place these blocks (called artifacts in the game) on the map determines some of the things that happen, or which enemies are a little stronger, or such things. Some artifacts can only be placed on or next to water because their stories require that. Usually, the further away you place an artifact from your main character's home (the first artifact), the stronger the monsters there will be.

There are lots and lots of things to discover or collect or combine. For example, you only pick a starting weapon for your character, but you can gain new weapon classes throughout the game. Each of those classes has a whole lot of different moves your character can learn. At some point, you gain a forge/workshop where you can use materials dropped by monsters and the fruits and veggies from your orchard and some other things to make new weapons with specific stats and abilities. Like Nick explained, pets can be gotten from eggs that you need to catch. After that though, the food you give the pet determines how its stats grow. Golems are similar in use to pets, but are created in a very different way. There are so many many details to this game that it requires several encyclopedias to describe everything. Fortunately, the game provides you with some books where information is added as you discover it.

Besides the placing of artifacts on the map and then visiting them, the game consists of talking to NPCs to gain new information and quests, and then visiting the dungeons to complete the quest. Usually, the NPC will come along with your main character on the quest and leave again afterwards. Other times you can pick your favorite NPC from several who are available most of the time. Your pet or golem always stays with you. Inside dungeons, gameplay is much like other Mana games, except viewed a little more from the side than the top. The three of you (main character, NPC, and pet) walk around together, battling monsters and bosses. Dungeons are divided into parts that you could call 'screens'. That is, you can usually view most of that part on screen at once, with little scrolling.

The various quests and events combine to three main storylines focusing on related characters and events. There are many more smaller stories though. Overall, the game is about building a world with all these artifacts (building blocks), and at the end, fighting the Mana Tree/Goddess. I don't remember the explanation given for that last part very clearly, but it's not too important. Eventually you'll obtain an artifact containing the ending. When you visit that, you can end the game. There is nothing forcing you to do that though. You can keep revisiting other places and crafting new weapons and fruits and pets and whatnot.

Personally, I like this game a lot. Together with SD3 it is my favorite Mana game. Others don't like it so much though. Common complaints are that there are just too many unimportant details, that the game is too easy, or that the story doesn't make sense. Well, there are indeed tons of little details that you don't need to explore. They are just there for those who want to dig a little deeper. People who just rush through the game to the end will be disappointed. Or confused by all the things that don't impact the main storylines directly. Legend Of Mana is a wonderful game for people who like to explore every corner of a game world and learn about the characters that live there. Those who are looking for a challenge, or who want things neatly ordered in sequence from beginning to end, won't like it as much.

Sheexy or Kassidy may explain better how this game compares to and influenced the rest of the Mana series. There are of course many things it has in common with earlier games, most of all the general colorful and friendly style, and the various types of monsters and spirits. Some elements of Legend were used again in Sword Of Mana. That game is a remake of the very first Mana game, Final Fantasy Adventure, as concerns its story, but many circumstantial details come from Legend Of Mana. The orchard for growing fruits and the crafting of weapons from materials for example are simplified versions of gameplay elements from Legend. Li'l Cactus was so irresistible that it was added to Sword as well. Nicolo is a familiar NPC from earlier games in the Mana series, but his appearance as a sort of rabbit comes from Legend.

The music of Legend Of Mana was composed by Yoko Shimomura. Because the game was made for the PlayStation, it has a richer soundtrack than earlier games for the SNES. In addition to themes for some of the NPCs, there are themes for the various places in the game, and of course some awesome boss battle tracks. The opening/ending theme, "Song Of Mana" was sung by Annika Ljungberg, in Swedish (another reason why Squeenix should release this game in Europe; what's the sense of having a theme song in Swedish if the game isn't even available there?).

Well, I hope that covers most of your questions. Feel free to ask for more details :) My German isn't too good, so don't think I can help with translation, but I could probably read what you write.
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Kimiko
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Re: Legend of Mana - I need information!

Post by Kimiko »

I see you wrote back to Nick while I was writing my reply.

Hmm. Most of what you wrote is correct, but the music you play for spirits in order to gain the coins is not something you have much influence on. You just pick one of four 'moods' and if the spirit likes it (which depends on the in-game weekday and your character's skill I think), they'll reward you with some magic coins. I don't remember clearly how the coins are used then. Like Nick said, magic isn't very powerful in this game, compared to weapon attacks and special attacks, so there isn't much need for players to figure out how that aspect of the game works.

To be honest, I can somewhat agree with people who say that Squeenix went a little overboard with all the details and subsystems in Legend. Some things are just too complex and not really necessary to play the game. Magic is one of those things. Weapon forging, golem building, and pet raising are other aspects that are much more detailed than needed. I mean, very few people will want to spend weeks figuring out which combinations of seeds and timing will lead to which fruits and veggies, which can then be used to influence some stats but not others of a weapon or armor that has several more ingredients. Special attacks and character level are much easier to influence. Likewise for feeding pets the right things to influence their stats. It's much easier to get a stronger monster as a pet instead. And pets are just little helpers anyway. You could play through the game without a pet and not have any trouble. Which isn't to say that it's not fun to have a collection of pets of course; just that there's more detail than needed.
Diana_Liuba
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Re: Legend of Mana - I need information!

Post by Diana_Liuba »

As you can see, it's difficult for me to write an informative text about a game I didn't played. I can tell you of goddess of Mana and the Mana Tree, their use in the world, every detail of the characters from FFA (called Mystic Quest in Germany but not Final Fantasy Mystic Quest!) to SD3, LoM not, because I don't know very much, just the manga (which should I mention in the description, too) then SwoM to Children of Mana (This is my favourite game of the new ones. I think it's a good game at all), I know a bit about DoM and a lot about Heroes of Mana. It's so full of things where I get a bit confused, because I've played SD3 at first. At first there were nothing than shadows where the god-beasts hide. And then centuries ago were a witch who summoned these beasts? Err.... It's a bit confusing but I think this storyline is a good edit. I also used in my RPG.

Kimiko... You've wrote a full novel... With lot's of information I do need indeed. Thank you for that! (If you could speak German I would give you the chance to be a member of my team. You would be the perfect moderator for the LoM section. I mean I don't care if you're just speaking English. that wouldn't be a problem. And I and my web designer can translate it. I wonder where you gained all these information?)
Useless details remembers me on Zelda... I never got it to find all 20 heart pieces... And I never wanted to find them. I don't think very good about that series... I also read that American people didn't like the game so that is the reason why it was never released in Europe. Why? I don't care if it has English subtitles... But most German don't play a game with foreign subtitles... All of them are stupid... pure stupidity...
Well sorry for my off topic gibberish.
It's indeed very sad that we are the people with the most unluck... And somehow I like detailed things. Don't you think, that the developer have done very in-depth thinking how to design the game? I mean when you got the information about every unnecessary thing, the developer thought a lot about the game. And I think that's something good and is important. Then to go into that deep storylines costs a lot time... And that means, that their first thinking wasn't profit. I think a game should come from the deepest place in the heart. And everything will do the Sword of Mana ^^

When I've read your novel, I remember on Sword of Mana... Go to Nicolo, buy the cactus syrup and go to these stupid pots to plant the Cactus House (please tell me that you didn't live in a cactus house?!) If you're talking to that Cactus head (btw: called "Kaktusfranz" in the German version) he do really NOTHING! Go to that stupid blacksmith house and know that you don't have the materials to upgrade your weapons/armours. Then you have to go to that wood head and plant some fruits/vegetables. Haha somehow the gameplay of Sword of Mana is amusing. Is LoM like that? (When I was in the Dime Tower, which is btw very good translated <.<, I defeated that golem with my staff and defeated it by hitting every time that he lost 1HP. At the end my staff gained Level 73 xD) The Goddess of Mana seems to be an easy enemy, or? I've seen a video where someone defeated her. He/She needed 2-3 minutes o.o
Well... I've finished my novel ;)

Diana
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Abdul_Moti
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Re: Legend of Mana - I need information!

Post by Abdul_Moti »

congrats then.. :)
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manaman
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Re: Legend of Mana - I need information!

Post by manaman »

Hey there,

I don't know if this is helpful at all but I would just like to share my first memory of LoM.

When I Legend of Mana came out, I was already a big fan of Secret of Mana. I had always imagined a sequel and wasn't even aware until much later that in Japan there was one. One day, however, I was in a local box store and there was a demo unit of a PlayStation and Legend of Mana. I remember seeing the name and thinking, "Could this be? Could this be the sequel I've been waiting for?" I grabbed the controller which was somewhat unfamiliar to me and played a bit of the game. The visuals and sound were stunning but I remember distinctly that at the end of my ten or so minutes of playing, I determined without a doubt that this game was not related to Secret of Mana.

Looking back, I think that is pretty funny. Years later, I discovered that it was linked and that it was considered pretty good. I was gifted a PSone and the first game I sought out was Legend of Mana. I can't help but wonder at how the game breaks from tradition but now I appreciate the sidescrolling and battle system. The story is astounding and while it seems to be a completely unique game all its own, it's an interesting and enjoyable addition to a world that is strange and wonderful all its own.

Peace,

manaman
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