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Portables (Games) Role Playing (Games) Entertainment Games

Sword Of Mana - Another Square Enix GBA Success? 54

Posted by simoniker from the a-man-called-mana dept.
Thanks to Game Informer for their hands-on look at Sword Of Mana for the Game Boy Advance, as Square Enix follow up Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, which has sold almost 500,000 copies on Nintendo's handheld in the US alone, with this portable RPG, which GameNow describe succinctly as "...a retelling of the age-old black-and-white Game Boy release Final Fantasy Adventure... essentially a prequel to the rest of the Mana series." The official site has more in-depth information, and GameNow points out "most of the original Mana games team is working on this one", suggesting "RPG fans can't really go wrong" with the December 1st-released title. What other Square Enix games would you like to see on Game Boy Advance?
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Sword Of Mana - Another Square Enix GBA Success? More

Sword Of Mana - Another Square Enix GBA Success?

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  • Multi-player (Score:3, Interesting)

    by cloudless.net ( 629916 ) on Saturday November 22, 2003 @03:50AM (#7535244) Homepage
    IMHO the best feature of Secret of Mana on SNES is its multi-player mode. I played with 2 other friends for days and we tried to solve the puzzles together. I guess it is not as easy to do so on the GBA.

    • Re:Multi-player tsarkon reports SoM (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      SoM's best feature was very original and rich graphics and really good music. The plot was rather poorly stitched together and the multiplayer was useless because the screen wasn't split, making quick decisions and dealing with group actions and dealing quickly with more difficult situations (like needing to use a whip to cross a gap away from powerful enemies in the Mana Fortress) is a pain in the ass.

      The best feature really was the ring system which made doing repetitive actions on multiple characters ea
    • Well multiplayer's not there because multiplayer wasn't in Final Fantasy Adventure (Seiken Densetsu). It is, after all, a very prettied up port of that game.

      And for what it's worth, the original game was superb, and I have long been meaning to re-purchase it. I will definitely get Sword of Mana, and I probably will pick up a copy of the original as well (I suppose I should bite the bullet and get a cheap copy from eBay - I keep looking in local stores but they charge a bit too much for it IMO).

    • "I guess it is not as easy to do so on the GBA."

      First off, this game predates SoM as we know it. There weren't enough characters to have three players.

      But that's besides the point. Square dropped the ball with Seiken Densetsu 3 (SNES game not released in US) and Seiken Densetsu 4 (Legend of Mana, PlayStation). You still have parties of 3, but you can only have two players at a time.

      Oh, and you seem to be forgetting that GBA link cables were designed for up to four players in mind and can boot all fou
      • can boot all four GBAs from one cartridge

        Have you ever practiced what you preach? The link cable is slow and most games become severely restricted when playing this way. For instance, if 4 people use 1 cartridge with Mario Kart, only Yoshi can be selected. An RPG like SoM would never work that way, you would need 4 cartridges.

  • I want to see... new games? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by phyrz ( 669413 ) on Saturday November 22, 2003 @04:20AM (#7535298)
    Whilst i would love to have a copy of Chrono Trigger and FFIII/VI on the GBA, hows about we start seeing some true sequels to these old classics, hrm?

    Or perhaps even a completely new series...

    (Go Advance Wars!)

  • The rest of the Final Fantasies up to 6 (Score:4, Interesting)

    by shione ( 666388 ) on Saturday November 22, 2003 @04:24AM (#7535308) Journal
    How about the all the 2D Final Fantasy games (not all on one cart of course. They probably wouldn't all fit). One thing I love about the GBA is the return of 2D gaming. It's proof that past games never get old and the younger generation can still love them just as much as I did when I was *VERY* little. Hey, I'm still young now. :P

    These 'rehashes' if you can call them that may be more expensive compared to the originals at the 2nd hand shop/online but you have less to worry about where to find them and you don't have to question the physical condition of the carts/discs and if it comes with the manual etc.

    Sony claims their PSP will do 3d graphics , so the next GBA will probably be capable of the same. I don't have my hopes up that when these handhelds come out, there will be that many 2d games released.

    Sony seems to have a policy against 2d games which is why you don't see many 2d games on the PS2 but you do on the Dreamcast. They either have to be chepaer priced or bundled as two on the PS2 so most developers (porters) don't bother.

    This isn't a Square game but since they rereleased Lunar:SSSC on the GBA SP I'ld love to see the same happen to Lunar:EB.

    • I would love to see a new 2d game on a new home console system that makes up for graphics in the fact that it's *huge*. Maybe it also redefines what "pretty" is for 2d, or maybe a creative mixture of both 3d and 2d....

      I guess Sony's anti-2d policy is why we haven't seen anything creative like that. Maybe if I'ld get off my ass and do my C++ homework I'ld have a chance at becoming a game designer like I want and doing that, but I'm lazy.
    • Actually, they probably could fit all on one cart, assuming Square would get one of the larger carts (16MB+). None of the games are larger than 4MB, and the NES-era ones are less than 1MB; they should all fit on fine. Whether Square-Enix would be willing to do this (and lose any profits it might get from selling the games separately or in smaller bundles) is another matter entirely... for example, in Nintendo's recent Zelda bundle, they omitted Link to the Past (because they wanted its GBA incarnaton to s

  • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Sword of Mana (Score:4, Interesting)

    by neostorm ( 462848 ) on Saturday November 22, 2003 @05:07AM (#7535374)
    I have been looking forward to snagging this game all year. Daydreaming about having my friends (or at least one other friend) over to play through another great Seiken Densetsu, since we always enjoyed the originals (at least 2 and 3) so much.

    I recently discovered the ROM was already released online (not officially, nor legally, of course) and decided to give it a preview before Dec. 1st. I was really glad I did for several reasons.

    At the time I had no idea they had no real multiplayer. This was no irritating to me, primarily because it was the sole function I was waiting for all this time. No other RPG, at least until FF Crystal Chronicles comes out, does multiplayer as well as these games. Though I enjoyed the other AD&D licensed ARPGs, I didn't enjoy them nearly as much as Secret of Mana or Seiken Densetsu.

    Regardless, I had a lot of fun with the original release of Final Fantasy Adventure, so I decided to give it the benefit of the doubt. As a big fan of Squares 16-bit productions, despite the disappointment of having my most-looked-forward to aspect ignored this is THE best Square RPG I have played since the Super Nintendo era.

    I've played about 6 or so hours into the game so far. The graphics are fantastic, combining the beatiful hand-painted style of Legend of Mana with the technically-unbelievable tile detail from Seiken Densetsu 3.
    The gameplay is finely honed and may possibly be the best in the series. Looking back over the past games Secret of Mana featured the smoothest control of the first four games, with SD3's slower combat movement cutting down on the playability (though not much) and Legend of Mana's removal of vertical attacks almost destroying the combat options entirely. Sword of mana combines the best of all these, with smooth animation, responsive control and weapon attacks that have a large hit radius making it easier to kill the smaller enemies.
    Magic, in this installment, is handled in a very different way than previous games. Where in the first few games the action was paused momentarily for casting a spell, Sword of Mana allows for spell casting in real time.
    An elemental is selected from the menu beforehand, and while in combat the player has the option of casting either support magic, or attack magic. A quick press of the button will cast the elementals support spell, while holding down and releasing it after a few frames allows for an attack spell to be cast. More interestingly is the fact that attack spells change depending on what weapon type is currently equipped, giving you even more options.

    Also incorporated was a stripped down version of SD3's class system, making all 6 "classes" available to the player when leveling up. Primarily acting as a method to distribute the players status points at level up, the class feature also unlocks various benefits and abilities when different class options are focused on.

    The story is also pleasently surprising. Though some of the early dialogue is a little too modern (a few too many "dudes", "chicks" and "Ya mans" for my age group) it delivers the plot and characters really well. Most of the original, major characters are intact with large amounts of new dialogue to each of them, as well as slightly different plot paths. However, the most pleasing aspect of this is the near-total lack of *hours* *of* *needless* *and* *irritating* *cinematics*. The game is not over directed what-so-ever, and instead opts to show simple cinematic scenes to move the plot along and then drop you right back into the action, or leave you to wander the area and gather more information or story on your own. (if you're confused by this, just think of most 16-bit square RPGs.)
    Another interesting addition in this department are the side-quests, which range from very simple, to very lengthy, but are always amusing. The rewards for doing them are usual small, often exchange for items or money, but since I haven't completed the game they may yield a larger prize the further along you are.

  • Actraiser (Score:3, Interesting)

    by VermifugeRT ( 461717 ) * on Saturday November 22, 2003 @09:39AM (#7535845)
    Of all the games I would like to see an Original ActRaiser Game. A little More "sim" with some great platformer action. I would like to see what else they could do with the series.

  • Important to note (Score:3, Informative)

    by Bagels ( 676159 ) on Saturday November 22, 2003 @10:46AM (#7536025)
    The original GameBoy game was marketted in the US under the name "Final Fantasy Adventure" to capitalize on the FF series' success. In reality, it was the first game in the Seiken Densetsu series, not the well-known SNES game "Secret of Mana" (that was Seiken Densetsu 2). The next step now is to release Seiken Densetsu 3 on the GBA - it's certainly got good enough graphics and gameplay (including a neat storyline that changes based on which characters you choose at the beginning), but it was released in the SNES' dying days and never made it to the US.
  • If you took out all the FMV and redid the cut-scenes with in-game graphics, you could probably pull off FF7 on a Gameboy. It obviously wouldn't be quite as impressive as the PSX version, but you guys DID play this game for the story rather than the graphics, right?... right..?

    Alright, well even still, this was the most popular FF game ever it seems... so it would be an instant success anyways.
  • If they move FFVI to the GBA I'll finally get a GBA. I've been waiting mainly because none of the games interest me enough to get something that i'll prolly just play around with on campus.

    FFVI would be awesome though. Prolly won't happen though :x
  • Yes, I know that Paper Mario was an N64 game, but I would love to see it ported to the GBA. Mario&Luigi:Superstar Saga is one of the best games I've played on the GBA [just tons of fun] and I'd love to see the unofficial prequels to it make an appearance on the handheld. Oh, and I'd pay good if they packed the three Zelda GBC games into one GBA package [2 Oracle games, Zelda DX].

    As for Square-Enix games, the original Dragon Warrior [from the NES], and a release of the Earthbound games for those of us

  • You know - it would be nice if Square would put Chrono Trigger with enhancements on the GBA. CT is still a DAMN good SNES RPG that deserves to be on the GBA.

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