Turning the Formula On Its Head
You know the scene. You leave town on some quest to same the world, traveling across an 8-bit world map with your friends, fighting off whatever nasty beasts are waiting to use your pixelated bodies like toothpicks.
So what you you do if the world map is empty? That’s just one of the things Legend of Mana does differently. You get to choose where to lay down artifacts which will become towns, dungeons, and landmarks to explore, ensuring that no two players will have the same world map – or journey through the world of Fa’Diel.
Luckily for us, we’re getting a brand new HD Remaster coming to the Switch later this year, with everything that implies like updated graphics and audio, although crucially the game will give players the option to use the original soundtrack, unlike many remasters which have been criticized for not giving players the option.
The game sees you journeying to restore the world to its former glory, and to do this you’ll need to find the Mana Tree – source of all life in the world. The Unique Land Make system means that you’ll have a personalized story, and this goes for the entire approach to gameplay; rather than an overarching campaign there are three main questlines, and you can head straight for the final dungeon after completing any one of them instead of playing the whole thing. Of course, that means missing out on part of the beautiful world, so whether that’s worth it is up to you.
In short, Legend of Mana had a whole lot of innovative features when it first dropped in 1999, and with the Switch’s technology it’ll be easier than ever to see how not only your journey, but your world stacks up against your friends.