Sunday, July 15, 2007

Sword of Mana: Bad Customization

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4 Comments:

Blogger Yu-Chung Chen said...

Wow, Sword of Mana sounds like total crap... Good thing I never understand why the Mana-Series was popular, otherwise I would have bought that nice looking remake before you could tell me about the flaws.

Even the much praised Secret of Mana didn't left an impression on me. Actually I forgot why, but possibly because of the bad attack sounds (hits sound like light slaps, not meaty slashes) and poor animations (FF came away with it, but SoM is a ACTION-RPG, dammit!).

Big and colorful sprites x too few frames of animation = floating billboards. Yeah I mean you too, Guilty Gear.

16 July, 2007 12:05  
Blogger Krystian Majewski said...

Actually, the Action Part of Sword of Mana is good. Especially the graphics and animations feel very juicy.

Recently, I played some Secret of Mana and I agree - it doesn't live up to the expectations. However, it's not as bad as Sword of Mana. And hey, it even had Co-Op. You got to give kudos for that.

The amazing thing is that Mystic Quest is SOO excellent! It seems like Seiken Densetsu gets worse with every sequel.

17 July, 2007 00:50  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice trilogy on the worst game in one of my favorite series. I agree on everything - it is sad that such obvious mistakes can be allowed to taint a series of mostly great games.

I'm currently playing Children of Mana (NDS) and it seems like they listened to your critique.

The world design is still branching, but instead of the linear progression throughout the game a quest based system is introduced. Sort of like an MMORPG - take the quest you like, or take the main story quest if progress through the game.

The equipment system is simplified - we are back to four categories now. And the customization system is a bit like the materia system from FFVII - a "gem frame" is used to improve your skills. Fill in different gems for different effects.

The starvation vs. abundance of positive feedback is not totally fixed though. You can't equip new stuff during quests, but at least you have an idea about what the item you receive is worth.

10 August, 2007 12:56  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for the nice analysis. Very inspiring.

(Typo: there choices > their)

Kind regards

17 January, 2009 03:54  

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