The towns feel homely, the caves mysterious and menacing, and the boss stages are as exciting as you'd expect it to be. Apart from the slight difficulty differentiating which places were accessible, I certainly didn't have any issues with them - the game looks good, and the remaster has managed to preserve most of the game's old-school charm to a T.
However, being wistful and embracing your inner child doesn't put pen to digital paper, so let's zoom into the aesthetics. You don't play because everyone is playing it, nor do you do it because it promises the best graphics and multiplayer performance on the market - you play it simply because it's fun, clean and enjoyable, and that's pretty much all the reason you need. These are all supplemented by regular dodging and tactical movements during each engagement, and I actually found the experience oddly blissful.Ĭoupled with the charming fantasy aesthetics, catchy soundtrack and the three or four surprisingly-engaging narrative arcs, the remaster really took me back to "simpler times", when I didn't have to worry about whether my KDR was positive or whether I would min-max one stat or the other. Instead of having to worry about 8-10 buttons simultaneously like you might need to do in franchises like Monster Hunter, LoM just hands you the bare minimum and calls it a day: attack, heavy attack and a small customised list of 3-4 magical and special techniques. Needless to say, the combat system stumped me a little at the beginning as well, but it wasn't as difficult nor as complex as I expected it to be. Nevertheless, I eventually managed to embark on my first quest - rescuing a princess who had apparently gotten lost in a cave. It doesn't help that the game isn't very explicit about which doors you can open and which entrances are actually, well.entrances.
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Admittedly, I understand that a two-decade-old game might not have the most refined objective system out there, but having to run about looking for a basically unmarked NPC and trying to figure out how to start quests very nearly put me off the game outright. Like many other rookies, I spent the better half of my first hour stumbling around trying to get my bearings, and this is probably the only bit about the game I don't particularly like. Amusingly, I think anything I say now might already be considered well-worn territory given the main content of the game hasn't been updated or changed.
With modern games constantly trying to one-up each other by being more complex and expansive, it's easy to forget that a simple concept done right can also make for stellar experiences, and this is where Legend of Mana shines. Perhaps the most surprising fact is that it's not the nostalgia factor that leaves me wanting to dive straight into the next zone or challenge another boss without delay - it's the sheer simplicity and the crispness of the gameplay formula that really makes it stand out. Not only is this game relatively easy to pick up, but I particularly like how the game does away with having a single overarching narrative in favour of several bite-sized arcs, making it easy for everyone to enjoy the game at their own pace. In the twenty-two years since its release, the game has aged beautifully, and it seems that all of the positive hearsay was well and truly founded.
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Although I didn't play the original Legend of Mana when it first came out in 1999, I did grow up listening to all of the hearsay about it being a fantastic game, and I'm just glad that the recent 2021 HD remaster (for PC, PS4 and Nintendo Switch) finally gave me a solid reason to try it.Īnd to cut a long story short, I've come to adore it.
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