I'm a year late, but all I can say is that Legend of Mana is the dragon that I am forever chasing in video games. Nothing has ever been as good at delivering the feeling of an open world that you shape and explore where everything matters.
Legend of Mana is one of my all time favorite RPG's. I have spent more than 500 hours on my current save of the game, and this is after having lost a prior save that had over 300 hours of content on it. This game is phenomenal and the Golem and Weapon and Armor crafting is INCREDIBLY deep in the game. Things I would suggest would be to not worry about trying to get every single mission or encyclopedia item in one play through, as that is incredibly difficult. It took my several a play through before I was able to find the most efficient way of placing every single map item and order each individual mission in order to be able to get every single one in one go. Play the game as if you are exploring each individual aspect and fall in love with the characters and the worlds. When you do want to go much further into the deep aspects of the game, there are still amazing online communities for crafting and map placement. I have my own order and map place that I have boiled down to a science after over a decade of playing this game, so if you want any suggestions for recommended play order, I would be more than happy to do so. Don't feel as if you HAVE to do that though. Part of the games charm is in playing it over and over again and getting different experiences every time. Enjoy, this game is a true gem.
Yea man. I love that the game can either be beaten very quickly or mastered by pouring hours into it. I wrote down my own personally perfect playthrough that allowed me to get all of the demi human monsters, all of the missions, and some of the best crafting materials. I dont think i will ever be as involved in playing a video game as I was with Legend of Mana.
Victor Contreras hey I know that post was over a year ago but if it's still possible to get that 100% play through guide I would suuuuuuper appreciate it. I was always told and read that some quests such as the wimpy thugling and Rachel are impossible to trigger do to glitches. It would be crazy awesome to finally see all the events of the game.
Victor Contreras There's a reason Square pretended this game didn't exist and apologized to the public after this game came out. It's one of the worst games ever made, hands down.
First Look is back! Let me know what you guys think of the format. I really enjoyed making this, and I feel like it fits better with the kind of content most of you subscribed for. For those of you who still miss the raw, off the cuff thoughts of the old format, I'll be streaming on twitch when I capture the footage for these first look episodes, so follow me there if you'd like to see my genuine first reactions to these games. Here's the link to my twitch channel: www.twitch.tv/mike_darkpixel I'll be announcing these streams on my twitter account, so follow me there if you want to stay in the loop: @mcbreest Thanks for watching and supporting! We have the beastliest community of all time!
I think most of us are in agreement that the new format is working well and that you seem to take well to it. The only suggestion I would have, to take or leave, isn't even First Look related - it's that the review priority list is currently a little Final Fantasy top-heavy. Don't get me wrong, I love Final Fantasy as much as the next guy, but a little bit of spacing goes a long way to avoiding burnout. Stay beastly my friends.
This format is SO much better. Taking your time to put your thoughts together and speak about the game without the rush of real time critique is great. Good job!
Thanks, Inanis! I feel you, I'd like to space out Final Fantasy more, which I have done for the last few months, but I get people every day asking about whether I ever plan on finishing the FF review series. People really seem to be subscribing because they want more of that, and aren't as interested in the other stuff. I need to finish the FF review series, and then get started on phasing in some story analysis and other kinds of videos for FF. I'll still do a variety of games, but it's clear people really want more FF videos.
It's just too crazy, if I remember right literally everything you do affects the next world and because of my OCD and needing to see every outcome it was too much for my autistic mind Looks great though
Legend of Mana is my all time favorite game ever made. Everything about it filled me with emotions I hadn't known yet when I was a kid; and to this day I feel just as strongly about it. Even considering all its flaws (the combat is honestly kind of shallow) I still love it. I really hope one day I'll be able to make a long, proper video to sing my praises, but for now, thank you for helping keep this game in modern memory.
Legend of Mana is excellent, and especially unique. I can say I've never played a game quite like it. The story is all very loosely connected, which left me wanting more. I was actually shocked when the game was over, but since it was my first playthrough I really had no idea there were so many extra quests that remained untouched. It has a very prominent new game + feature that encourages the player to put more time into the game, and I personally lost count of how many times I actually played through it. The world map constructing is an interesting mechanic that actually does play a role in how the game plays out. For instance, some missions are not accessible unless the elemental strength of a map location is full (one in particular only triggers if the Shade element on Domina is 3/3). This is programmed in such a way so that multiple playthroughs are required to experience every missions. The crafting mechanics are extremely complex, far too complex in my opinion. It's almost as if the developers had these great ideas they were working on, much of which made it into the game, but were unable to finish everything in order to integrate it into the overall experience as originally intended. There are so many random items that really have little to no use. Most of them can be used in crafting to some degree, however there's nothing in the game to provide clues on the attributes and properties of each. The pet raising was fun for a while, but pets often need combat experience to continue getting stronger, so you find yourself avoiding exp drops so your pet can get them, but the pet is not programmed to collect them, so they only end up being accidentally collected by the pet. It would have been great if there were more reliable ways to do this. After a while, I lost interest in much of the magic and golem crafting, as well as pet rearing. Much of it ends up being extremely frustrating and relatively futile in the grand scheme of the game. Many of these mechanics are exciting initially, but offer little incentive to delve into as the playing hours compile. The exception is the weapons crafting. Every now and then I would get lucky and temper a weapon with 100+ power, the highest of which I got to 240. After your first completion of the game, an option is unlocked to change the game's difficulty. It basically raises the levels of all the monsters in the game. One increases monsters' levels by 30, the second levels all monsters to 99. I found the key to being successful at these modes is to have super strong gear, even when your own level is maxed out at 99. The problem is, the overly complex crafting system must be utilized to achieve this if you're going to avoid impossibly difficult and infinitely long boss battles. There are three main sub-stories that can be played in the game. One is very easily accessed and progressed through, the other two require some more work and it is not always apparent what needs to be done in order to progress their quest lines. Sometimes you just happen to stumble across triggering scenes that provide clues and advance the story, unless you're following a guide or you've done it once before. All that being said, I LOVE this game. Every playthrough ends up being different, largely based on how you arrange world map locations, which is something few games can claim. I only wish some of the mechanics in the game were more fleshed out and more readily advanced at end-game levels. The game had so many good ideas shoved into it but it didn't seem that they all got to be implemented to their potential. Even still, the gameplay is solid, the music is unforgettable, and the art design is unlike any other game ever made. It's far from perfect, but this game offers hundreds of hours of quality entertainment.
There are some AMAZING & very in depth crafting faqs you can find online. Like how to make a Dior wood blunt weapon with attack over 6-800. As for the monsters, you have to give them the right personality if you want them to pick up experience crystals. there are many facts on that as well online, especially on gamefaqs by a poster named tricky. If you feed them the wrong foods, you can sabotage the pet and have to start all over!.. I was very sad about my sky dragon when that happened. The link abilities with the person can be phenomenal as well. Have fun everyone!
@@Dracobyte I definitely remember thinking a Legend of Mana remaster should be in the works when they announced the Trials of Mana remake. I'll be very interested to see how they modernize it and make various quality of life improvements.
Words cant describe my love for Legend of Mana. When I first played it, it was like opening a book and being sucked inside for a journey that took me through the highs and lows of my emotions. I smiled with the addition of Bud and Lisa to my family, I was sad upon learning about the forbidden love story of Darwin and Matilda and I was absolutely devastated when I had to choose between Escad and Daena. I love this game and only a handful of games have made me as immersed as Legend of Mana. Also the art style of LoM is absolutely breathtaking. One of the loves of my life. I would argue this videogame as a genuine piece of art.
When I first played this game, I picked the male character thinking he was a girl! Like a Red Riding Hood or something. And gave him my name lol It was my brother who pointed it out to me: "Why does your guy have your name?"
Hi,so I have some advice regarding legend of mana, I've played this game in and out and know all its little lerning cerves from the land placing, craft system, meanings for things, pets, goloms, ext. one of the first things you probably want to know is you can cancel heavy attacks by pushing a shoulder button at the end of the animation. The farther you place land from your home, the stronger monsters and more rare items you'll obtain. The monsters arnt just higher level they actually perform in battle more. Every 4 levels depending on the weapon you hold you'll aquier stats that act as a class system. Ex. Gloves increase hp more. If you change weapons say after 3 levels, you don't get the maximum bonus of that weapon. Also if you want a rare monster like a chimaera, you have to make sure the land that has the demon egg is far enough away from your house. Game FAQs is loaded on in depth guides for the systems in this game. It is quiet amazing and customizable. One thing I've done once and other people say happens rarely is you can cancel the long yellow charging animation for special by pressing the button FRAME PERFECT while an enemy attacks you and it will be a defend animation instead and the special will come out instintaniously. I did this once and I'm pritty sure that's how it works. Only once though it is rare, like a crit in seiken densetsu 3. But while everyone complains that this game seems to lack depth or makes no sense, it truly dose. I also recommend the manga after you finish the game, gives you an interesting perspective on the story. Hope I could help!!
Some advice I can give is that when you choose your area on the large map to play in, make sure you have plenty of land and some water. There are a couple of artifacts that require being on a water spot, but most need land so I find it best to make sure the section of the map you choose has plenty of land. Another piece of advice is to pay attention to the elemental spirits that make up the towns/dungeons you can visit. For example, placing a water spirit place( a place heavy with undine) like a lake will make it to where the next artifact you place down beside it is likely to have water spirits in it from the lake being beside it. However, I believe if you put a desert beside such a place with the conflicting elements it may lower the fire spirit of the desert so it's best to try and place artifacts with similar elements together. You can also manipulate what spirits show up in different areas this way too and the spirits can help you make magic weapons and help you imbue your weapons with elements vis blacksmithing. Last thing I remember about the game as well that may be helpful for newbies is that the closer you put a dungeon to your house, the easier that dungeon is. The farther you place down artifacts from your homebase, the harder that dungeon becomes. I always found it handy to try and keep a couple of spots beside my home open for hard dungeons. I felt it nicer to have the final artifact (the mana tree seed) to be placed beside my home to make the fights easier there because some of the monsters are loaded with HP and take some time to defeat there.
With regards to the story, keep this in mind: In every game, you're the main character who collects party members or NPCs. Here, you ARE the NPC--all the party members have their own problems and stories to tell, and you're just there to help them along, ever watchful and documenting to see what the state of the world is as you give it shape. You're just rebuilding the world and helping people do their things, similar to the city simulation of Act Raiser. The story was always hard to dive into until I realized that I'M not the important one (even if I initiate everything), THEY are. Once I realized that, Legend of Mana stopped being a confusing jumble I was trying to enjoy and moved itself to my #1 RPG of the PS1. Good luck with that crafting mechanic, though. Like half of it was understood pretty quickly by veterans, but it took like 15 years before EVERYTHING was properly figured out.
Also if you didn't know this already but how you learn techniques is highly dependent on what Weapon you are using as well as what Skills you have set. the spin skill with have you learn techniques like Maelstrom and Vortex of Death. There is a guide but you will learn a lot of techniques fast if you just experiment with the different skills (abilities)
I know this is years in the future but I just want to say I LOVE that even back in 2016 people were checking out one of my favorite JRPGs, if not my absolute favorite JRPG. The title that got me into the genre, and has left me hungry for beautiful fantasy worlds like it ever since. It's one of the few games I've bought twice for different systems. The only advice I can give is that it's for the Vita as well so, like me, you can have a copy on the go if you'd like. Also Pearl is precious and perfect, and Niccolo is a bro.
Yeah, this format is very convenient. I like to watch you guys and I try to watch every single video since DPG is my favorite channel on youtube. The livestreams are already difficult to watch in full for my schedule, so a 45 minute first look on top of that each week was just more overload. This is definitely more intriguing and has more rewatch value. Thanks for being more interested in how to improve formats Mike! I think I speak for all of us when I say that we love that you're willing to change and try something new in order to hopefully give us better work! Have a nice day ^-^
Hi, great vid. This is my best friend's and my favourite game ever. we spent countless hours playing on our two save files. We used to play it 12 years ago and we recently took the dust off the PS1 to play it again. My biggest advice is to put the mailbox close to a corner when you begin and and start putting your artefacts in a diagonal. the quality of items in shops is dependent on how far they are from your home. (enemy difficulty too, to an extent, for dungeons)
Its been decades since I first played this game and it would still be listed in my top 5 favorite games ever. It truly was a work of art. I really loved that instead of one big story line you had several smaller ones to do or not do as you wanted. And to this day the Jumi story arc is one of my favorite stories in the world.
the memories! still have a copy of this! from what i remember. each artifact is associated with different levels of mana wich in turn effec the levels of mana in adjacent locations on the map. Due to this, some quests open up only based on the mana levels of their respective land
I have played this game since I was a wee lad and have sunk a silly amount of time in I can tell you this much. First there are three Major arks and then the final ark. These serve as the story. I am sure as you approach the game you will eventually hit one of those three arks. They are beautiful and deep, using the music, artwork, and characters to pull you in. You do not have to complete all three arks to beat the game, only one, however you can beat all three in one play through. I feel this gives the game a lot of replay-ability. Also the story is given to you in each of the story chapters. It may not seem like a major story, but as you get further in you will see characters over and over again until you come to enjoy each of their Quirks and understand their motives. You will also find that the pet system is interesting, though its deep and complex to get into. (I don't even try to maximize my pet, they are more of a mascot for me, though my dragon is strong enough to help). Almost any enemy can become a pet, and then be raised, such as a chocobo or rabite to dragons.You also found the Grove, where you grow produce. You use this produce to feed pets or upgrade weapons or capture pets.The workshop has three workshops in it, The Robot Building Facility, The Forge, The Instrument Facility, each that are intertwined with each other and are fun to play with. The two player system is great if you have siblings as they cannot really ruin your game experience... unless they troll and walk the opposite way and make you wait till they get board and then follow you again after sighing 'oh fine'. If you are playing with somebody who cannot fight well but evade like a king they can revive you after a minute or two of battle *this happens naturally with your pets and NPC's that travel with you as well* you can watch this happen with the grey bar. The battle system is fun but can be broken with fast weapons. You can get nearly infinite (like 10-20 hits) in before they manage a hit. This makes most bosses cakewalk and should be avoided if you want to have the most fun with your run. Also enemies become stronger based on how far you place the Artifact away from your base and in what order it was placed. So if you want to have a bad time with the final boss get all other Artifacts and place them before placing the last one and place it on the far corner. You will find the last boss that much harder. There is a lot of information that the game doesn't teach you but is available. There is a church in Domina, in the church is a priest who will teach you all the information you need about many subjects and offers knowledge about characters and battle. You should check it out. There is also an arena in a different town that you can fight your friends in. Having a second character of similar strength will make the battle a little more fun than just slaughtering them. Also sorry if this is long, I kinda love this game with a passion (first game I actually ever beat at the age of like 7, roughly 16 years ago). I would also recommend you take a look at Legend of Dragoon.
I don't know how far you've been playing, since your video is from 2016. I loved a really specific part in this game that made me pull out pen and paper in order to translate conversations. I enjoyed every second of it. When I played this game I was hooked to the very end, the story is not that impressive but it has a couple of heart felt moments. The game is fairly short, so I would suggest you to play it probably before a long game (like the witcher series). Enjoy!
I like the new format. It feels higher quality. I also like how you have a little time to reflect on your time with the game while writing. I do like the fact that we can also watch your genuine first impressions and reaction live as well via Twitch. I know a lot of people like getting everything in one place but I appreciate keeping the UA-cam channel clean and neat without bogging it down with tons of live streams. It makes it hard to find what you want to watch sometimes. As always superb work guys! P.S. the intro is Great!
Thanks, kbutta! Yeah we don't want people to think this has become a vlog channel or a streaming channel, so we want to migrate as much of that to Twitch as we can!
Great video. It baffles me how popular the Mana games are but this one always seems to get forgotten. So many hours of my teenage years were lost to this game.
Always loved this games artstyle..it's obvious the makers put A LOT of passion and love into this game..from the way characters are animated and the plethora of animations that are just there to be shown off, from background stuff, NPCs doing stuff when you arn't interacting, to you're own various idle animations. Otherwise the storytelling is..interesting. A few in the comments already mentioned some of this...and about getting a guide for artifact placement. Only do this if you want to do everything in your first playthrough..but if you're more akin to the idea of focusing on various builds..and changing it for different playthroughs..and changing things that way then I wouldn't worry too much about the artifact placement guide. Otherwise the fast explination is that where you place artifacts affects your ability to see various quests...so some won't unlock if you don't place the right combination next to the right location. A good guide will just tell you where in the world to start..and where to place artifacts without telling you info about what they unlock.
not sure if you knew this dark pixel gaming but depending on the order and locations you place the artifacts on the map can effect the storyline in certain ways depending on where and what quests you've accomplished before placing the artifacts on the map if i remember correctly.
I ADORE this new format. It fits much better with the tone and quality of content produced on this channel, and you sound much more interested in making it this way. My vote is to continue on with the format.
legend of mana is my favorite in the series, i love both the look(to me, hands down the best looking 2d game) ass well as the music. the idea of completing the enciclopedia i see as a good thing, because its basically an enciclopedia that your character is doing, so it tells how he/she feels and understand the world. you could say that its basically where his/her character development comes from, that and the diary entries. mecanically the enciclopedia also works as a way to not overwhelm the player with info, and kinda makes you go back to see whats going on. the story is almost amasingly done, you start not really knowing anyone or anything, but the way it progresses feels alot like an interactive anime, with each episode your character helps adiferent person. and i dont want to spoil anything, but be warned that helping someone before helping another could close some of those large stories prematurely. finally, this game is a completionist dream, so many things to discover, and so much exploration. this is how you make an exploration game.
Yeah, lots of games use a similar mechanic - where information you come across in the world is stored in a database to read - but I guess what seemed weird to me here was that you collect encyclopedias from other characters... and they're just empty. It's like someone telling you, "hey you could use this book full of information," and then every page is blank. Just seemed kind of silly to me. Mechanically, it works perfectly though. I'll probably want to play this game with a guide it looks like. Seems easy to miss out on things and the crafting is apparently ridiculously complex.
well, the crafting is VERY deep, but not really needed. and if you do decide to jump in, be prepared to farm ALOT. you can craft very overpowered wepons... if you know what you are doing, but you could also end up with something almost useless. i dont want to spoil, but this game has alot of diferent "things" you can do. my only problem is, well two things, first he weapons use the same graphic, and for a psx game i was hoping for something more diverse, but alas... the second thing is, like i said, some quests will trully require you to know what you are doing, or be extremely lucky. finally, the game has its main story, but its the "side stories" that make this game.
I love the new format! Really in depth. I like that you don't stay complacent and are constantly looking to improve your work. I enjoyed the old style of first look but this blows it out of the water. And that intro was just beastly as fetch. Keep it up
Ah, I would really love to see what you think of this game after you've played it more, or even after you've finished. Oh, and you might want to look at an artifact placement guide. Certain events can only be triggered if the mana levels for the lands are right, and those levels are dependent on which lands their situated next to. So if you put the artifacts in the wrong place you can lose out. Also, talk to your cactus after every event.
With a lot of remakes this days.. we can dream. But there is any RPG with a deep ability/pet/weapon system as legend of mana? There is so much do dive here.. I played it over and over again.. and still have fun and discover new things.
finished the video and it was great. I really liked clarification of where it stands in the review list. You didn't tell us what the next game to be on first look is going to be. Is it still weekly voting system? I haven't played Legend of Mana yet but it's on my shelf...one day!
At the moment I'm not running a poll because we've had so many games donated and I want to make sure I cover the games we've been sent. We'll see if the polling makes a return eventually.
This is one of the best games I ever played from Square. I like the "collecting of stories" aspect of this game. Trying to unlock all the stories of the game was satisfying for me. Great video Mike! Tip: Always talk to the Cactus in your room whenever you finish a story. It writes down some funny entries on its "leaf diary" which you can read.
I love this game since I´m a child. It's curious because this is the first time I watch reviews about the game, and I find how people, with good arguments, complain about the story, which was my favorite feature! hahaha. Anyways, I played LOM like three times I guess and I always fall in love, once again, with the characters, the script, and the isolated arcs. My Google Plus profile picture is actually a siren I drew inspired by this beautiful videogame.
This was outstanding. You guys need more subs because you provide high quality content. Love the new intro. Yoko is a beast. I've had my eye on this series and game for a while. Nice showing your priorities list ;D. You can honestly knock out golden sun very quickly. It lacks difficulty as long as you never or rarely skip a random battle.
Thank you! I'm glad people like the new format and the intro! I'm pretty excited to cover Golden Sun! One of my favorite rpgs from when I was growing up!
always have at least one magic instrument-like flute, marimba, drum- on your skill set -L1, L2, R1 & R2- because some of it actually grant you immunity for short time just like when you cast your special weapon skill
This game needs way more love. It was one of the best looking 2d games of the psx, and the graphics are still gorgeous if you play it today. The richness of each character story, and the complexicity of the crafting system are the other relevant aspect that make it one of my all time favourite games.
Definitely one of my all time favorite JRPG out there. The story, characters, music and the world are simply amazing. It's one of those games that I play repeatedly and never get tired of it
This is the best mana game ever created. The stories are awesome (specially the jumi story), music and game play. The special technique is super great and its animation specially when you get the last ST of spear, knife, sword, etc and powerful instrument that cast a mana spirit. My favorite is the blue dragon on a spear weapon. When it comes to forging of weapon, i'm so amazed how complex it is when you give your weapon a lot of card when forging a material to your weapon. There are people are so good to make the mana essense reach to 12 or more and the same time immune to any debuff. I like the card art work too and some card affect too to your weapon like petrify, etc. Also pet has abilities that cast magic and also give your anemy a debuf when you are close with your pet. There so many thing to explore and unique story. This is the best game for me because of too much complex and unique.
The new format is slick and impressive. I enjoyed it. That being said, I also greatly enjoyed the longer and more laid-back sessions from the previous first-look videos. I just liked to see you play classics I enjoyed when I was younger, and give a casual, stream-of-consciousness appraisal of the games. Hopefully, there is room for the occasional release of videos like that, even with the new format. Cheers.
Great job putting this together Mike. It totally feels like more of the genuine content people subscribed here to see. I'm really excited to see more episodes of this and holy crap this game looks amazing! How have I not seen more about this game before?
Thanks, NETRO! I was really into SoM and SD3 and I didn't hear about this game when it came out either. Totally missed it when it launched. It's really interesting though!
If you haven't already played through this game: Having a Save File of Final Fantasy 8 in your memory card allows you to find a Chocobo Egg and raise a Chocobo. But you have to have some save file of FF8 in the same card as the save file for this game.
Best game ever for me. Ive spent more than 600 hr playing it when i was at school. Maybe 6 playthrough, i had my beloved memory card with me today and it stills works.
Legend of Mana is easily one of my favorite jrpgs. Every aspect about it was beautifully crafted, from visuals to OST. And if that wasnt enough there was even a multiplayer mode! I think it was the first time I had ever seen multiplayer in a jrpg, and I had an amazing time playing the entire game together with my younger brother. During our childhood we always played jrpgs together but Legend of Mana was the only time we actually played "together" haha.
LoM is my favorite game of all time and I hope you enjoy it. The separate quest paths are all really engaging and the new game plus mode is pretty enjoyable so long as you engage nightmare difficulty. But definitely the thing that makes me keep coming back to it is the music and the artwork. I just want to jump into the world of this game and live there.
I liked the old first look format, but I am loving the new. You guys do such a great job and your passion and love for games show. This is the only channel I can honestly say that I like every video, even before hitting play because I already know it is a quality video. Also I may have to pick this game up on psn now thanks to you. I passed over it when it came out because I saw a friend play it and I didn't like it. (it was different from SOM which might have something to do with it) But the information gave me a better understanding of it and sparked me interest.
Thanks you! That means a lot! Yeah I expected something more like SoM and was pretty surprised, but I think this game has a lot to offer in its own right. It's worth diving into for sure!
This game is amazing and a favorite from childhood. I can't remember the details but i do know you should pay close attention to the elemental affinity bonuses that you establish by placing locations near to each other. I think you get some useful bonuses for maximizing certain ones in certain places.
A little insight on the storytelling mechanics of Legend of Mana: Stories unfold chapter by chapter as you build the world through artifacts, and meet new characters. Most characters you'll meet throughout the game have further quests that may or may not require specific prerequisites to embark on. Some of these characters and questlines are considered "Main" quests. There are 3 different "Main" quests available, which are lengthier than the other sidequest arcs, and will culminate in final quests that wrap up their individual storylines. In a given playthrough, it may be difficult to experience all 3 of these in a single run, (though it is possible). This is a pretty big part of the massive replayability Legend of Mana offers, as each run feels unique and exciting, as you experiment to complete questlines you hadn't before, or meet new characters. The final boss can actually be beaten without securing all of the artifacts to complete the world, so replaying the game (with your character, abilities, and equipment carrying over!!) is an important part of experiencing all of the branching paths.
the one advice I'd give you about this game is, don't be too generous when opening up new areas. Sometimes, you can get locked out of quests because you've opened up new areas. Also, the story telling in this game is a bit tricky as you've said, but if you follow the questlines all the way through they start to jel quite nicely together.
Years late to this video, but I really wish they'd remake this game or even moreso just give us an updated HD port similar to what we got with Odin Sphere when they updated that one for modern consoles. The battle system could use a bit of an upgrade. I'd love to see it with smoother movement because it feels like characters do this sort of laggy shuffle around the battle field that I notice far more now than I did back when it was released. I'd also love it if they got rid of those EXP gems and just tallied EXP as usual to A.) speed up the battles in general and B.) because the NPCs had a tendency to grab gems when they didn't need them.
This format suits you a lot better. I had no problem with how it was before, but I think your strength lies in video essay type videos. And like you said, you were doing less and less of these kinds and more of the vlog style. Yeah I like it. Look forward to the next.
I have played this as a child, and rediscovering this game after a long long time. I love the world and presentation as you said, and combat flows relatively well, but boss AIs don't seem too good so far. I read some advice from the Onion guy and he said that mashing attack button would leave me open so I decided to short burst the fast attacks. All of the early bosses I fought so far were beaten by only doing this at a constant rhythm. I hope rest of the bosses aren't beatable by this strategy.
I really loved this new format for your first look! I get a more broad look at the game ,and your general thoughts on it as well! Hope they aren't too time consuming to put together. I look forward to the next one!
Thanks, Chris! After completing the intro animation, which took about two weeks, it took about the same amount of time to produce this as the old format - which is great because this feels way more polished to me. I'm really happy with how it turned out, and I'm glad you guys like it too!
I agree with you about how magic is used in Secret of Mana and Seiken Densetsu 3. I played Seiken Densetsu 3 with a friend of mine, and I got bored playing with them because they kept on pausing the screen to use spells. They played as Angela.
Legend of Mana is one of the most impressive RPGs ever made, so ahead of its time. They don't quite stick the landing on the narrative side to put it on the same level as games like Seiken Densetsu 3 and Chrono Trigger, but it's still one of the best of the genre.
This format seems more in line with your style Mike glad you were able to re work it into something that you can develop further into something new. I also like that you don't have a hour time limit anymore, and you can play more
Heads up. Where you place the new towns makes all the difference. It dictates what story missions you can unlock on that play thru, the power of your magic, the local enemies, the items you can or cant find, and they all relate to each other. It's very complicated. When I was a kid it killed me bc I couldn't unlock alot of story missions and I couldn't finish some of the ones I started all bc of where I placed each area. The blacksmith is also super deep and the monster farm is too. And they don't tell you any of it lol. Even the official strat book misses many many important things. Google will be much more of a help. It's still in my top 5 all time rpgs with the grandia series, star ocean, ff7, and the tales series. Wish I could help more but the best I can do is tell you there's much more and go find real pro help cuz this is one of those games where you can only learn the real stuff about it from other people and in bits and pieces. It's all well worth it. WELL worth it. Plz enjoy good sir and I'm glad I found your channel again. Apparently I've been subbed to you but it must've been years ago bc I don't remember and I keep up w all my UA-cam people so I'm glad I'm back and will be awaiting new content good sir. Cheers.
For this game you actually need a guide for artifacts placement, there is indeed a main story, and some other stories even bigger than the main (Jumi hunter arc, The dragon arc with sierra, the seven wonders, the 3 old friends) people ho say this game is unfinished are the one who played this game with out artifact placement, this is very important because it triggers some quest, overall i really recomend you to play this game with a guide (there is a page created for this game with contains the map placement ),
my advice, go to the junkyards boss room, find an egg, hatch till you get polterbox best synchro in game besides ?????????? hahaha no spoilers :P . polterbox's synchro guarantees item drop from enemies which you can then use to either sell, or even better make/improve things in your smithy. Definitely my fav game of all time growing up, way too much time put in this, if you ever have any question feel free to ask tho im sure nowadays google can help ya wit anything ur curious about. yes the weapon and armor crafting is insanely complex but experimentation is a good thing. There are many side stories and three major plots, i hope you find discovering them all as enticing as i did as a kid and still do today.
Advice for this game: Let the characters guide you. Lots of people didn't like the story. I fell in love with the side characters, and progressed the game based on who I liked. This made the game rather relaxing. No dying world, just helping my boy Gilbert.
just to let you know there are some Japanese guides that have not being translated specially referring on how to build your world map I don remember where I read that
I love love love this game! Like you mentioned, the art style and music are so brilliantly done that whenever I switched it on I just let myself be absorbed into this beautiful magical world. My problem (or advice) was that I was too eager to do well in the gameplay that I ended up reading walkthroughs about the levelling/training/skill obtaining mechanics too early. By the time I got to the last third of the story, my character just became too strong and the battles were just not challenging anymore. So actually, maybe it's a better idea to fully explore by yourself first, so the excitement of discovery could be preserved?
This is mymost favourite game of all time. Literally. I even read the manga and still plan to cosplay as Elazul one day. The cosplay must be perfect tho and I'm going to use coral for his ivory bracelet on his arm. I have a ton of LoM OCs too.
This game is unique. Although I remember myself as a kid having a hard time understanding the flow of the of the game's plot, but it had t all. Ost that I still remember even 15 years later, amazing text and storyline and the way the game is creative in almost every way. This hame must be remastered.
I played through this game a TON as a kid. The best advice I can give, though it may already be too late, is to look up a guide on 100% completion. I know that sounds kind of taboo, but there's a lot of events and even artifacts that can be totally missed if you do things in the wrong order or place them in the wrong spots on the world map. It's very frustrating. As far as the actual game, I've got a few minor problems with it. My biggest gripe is that there's no real resource management in it. No MP to speak of, you're healed to full between battles, and you can't even use items or spells to heal yourself, buff yourself, or anything of that nature during fights. It feels like the actual gameplay got a lot cheaper compares to SD3. The abilities system is nice, but I find most of them are kind of useless. The other issue I personally have with the combat, and this is a pretty bad one, is that it's possible to stunlock literally every enemy in the game with certain weapons. I think Spear, 2h-Sword, and 2h-Axe if I remember correctly. If you do a series of weak attacks, but stagger them ever so slightly, you can just keep starting the chain over and over and the enemy has no way of escaping. I managed to beat every boss in the game, including the final boss like this. It was incredibly disappointing.
Yeah, I think I'll use a guide with this game for sure. I was wondering about healing and buffs, considering you automatically heal between battles, but I thought it might be too early to say for sure how the game would handle that. From what your describing I'm also really disappointed in that. That's a shame.
To alleviate confusion, there are 3 main plots in this game that are amazing! The problem with the game is... you can beat the game without even seeing any of them. So a guide might be required, so good luck and have fun!
I loved Legend of Mana back in my PS1 days and love it just as much on my Vita. My favorite music track in this game is "City of Flickering Destruction" it's a very moving piece and one of my favorites in the Mana series. I wish i could give you so much advice but I don't want to spoil anything. I will say however the Jumi Story arc is my favorite in the game. Can't wait to see your full review
![What is Seiken Densetsu 3? [Trials of Mana] - SNESdrunk](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vSTwjVnlNss/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm a year late, but all I can say is that Legend of Mana is the dragon that I am forever chasing in video games.
Nothing has ever been as good at delivering the feeling of an open world that you shape and explore where everything matters.
so true
While I can't say its a world where everything matters, DragonView on SNES/Steam has a great world, fun characters, and lovely exploration and combat.
Legend of Mana is one of my all time favorite RPG's. I have spent more than 500 hours on my current save of the game, and this is after having lost a prior save that had over 300 hours of content on it. This game is phenomenal and the Golem and Weapon and Armor crafting is INCREDIBLY deep in the game.
Things I would suggest would be to not worry about trying to get every single mission or encyclopedia item in one play through, as that is incredibly difficult. It took my several a play through before I was able to find the most efficient way of placing every single map item and order each individual mission in order to be able to get every single one in one go. Play the game as if you are exploring each individual aspect and fall in love with the characters and the worlds.
When you do want to go much further into the deep aspects of the game, there are still amazing online communities for crafting and map placement. I have my own order and map place that I have boiled down to a science after over a decade of playing this game, so if you want any suggestions for recommended play order, I would be more than happy to do so. Don't feel as if you HAVE to do that though. Part of the games charm is in playing it over and over again and getting different experiences every time.
Enjoy, this game is a true gem.
I lost my childhood in it ... Played too much , I can finish Legend of Mana within 12 hours ...
Yea man. I love that the game can either be beaten very quickly or mastered by pouring hours into it. I wrote down my own personally perfect playthrough that allowed me to get all of the demi human monsters, all of the missions, and some of the best crafting materials. I dont think i will ever be as involved in playing a video game as I was with Legend of Mana.
Bro , I love also it so much ...
I played again and again ...
Somehow I hope I can find a game that as great as Legend of Mana ...
Victor Contreras hey I know that post was over a year ago but if it's still possible to get that 100% play through guide I would suuuuuuper appreciate it. I was always told and read that some quests such as the wimpy thugling and Rachel are impossible to trigger do to glitches. It would be crazy awesome to finally see all the events of the game.
Victor Contreras There's a reason Square pretended this game didn't exist and apologized to the public after this game came out. It's one of the worst games ever made, hands down.
First Look is back! Let me know what you guys think of the format. I really enjoyed making this, and I feel like it fits better with the kind of content most of you subscribed for. For those of you who still miss the raw, off the cuff thoughts of the old format, I'll be streaming on twitch when I capture the footage for these first look episodes, so follow me there if you'd like to see my genuine first reactions to these games.
Here's the link to my twitch channel: www.twitch.tv/mike_darkpixel
I'll be announcing these streams on my twitter account, so follow me there if you want to stay in the loop: @mcbreest
Thanks for watching and supporting! We have the beastliest community of all time!
I think most of us are in agreement that the new format is working well and that you seem to take well to it. The only suggestion I would have, to take or leave, isn't even First Look related - it's that the review priority list is currently a little Final Fantasy top-heavy. Don't get me wrong, I love Final Fantasy as much as the next guy, but a little bit of spacing goes a long way to avoiding burnout. Stay beastly my friends.
This format is SO much better. Taking your time to put your thoughts together and speak about the game without the rush of real time critique is great. Good job!
Thanks, Inanis! I feel you, I'd like to space out Final Fantasy more, which I have done for the last few months, but I get people every day asking about whether I ever plan on finishing the FF review series. People really seem to be subscribing because they want more of that, and aren't as interested in the other stuff. I need to finish the FF review series, and then get started on phasing in some story analysis and other kinds of videos for FF. I'll still do a variety of games, but it's clear people really want more FF videos.
Thanks, Guillermo! I really appreciate it!
Forgive me, I'm twitch-illiterate. Are those recordings kept, can they be viewed after the fact?
The stories of Legend of Mana are brutal and cathartic. Just so wonderful.
Coming back to this video now, who is looking forward to the remaster?
Or do you have some worries about it?
This game looks absolutely gorgeous, can't believe it's slipped my radar
It's just too crazy, if I remember right literally everything you do affects the next world and because of my OCD and needing to see every outcome it was too much for my autistic mind
Looks great though
This game blew my mind as a kid, it's literally an open world rpg from the ps1 era
It's my #1 RPG, even when I also spent so much time (400+ each) on many Zelda games, Dark Souls 1, Morrowind and others.
Legend of Mana is my all time favorite game ever made. Everything about it filled me with emotions I hadn't known yet when I was a kid; and to this day I feel just as strongly about it. Even considering all its flaws (the combat is honestly kind of shallow) I still love it.
I really hope one day I'll be able to make a long, proper video to sing my praises, but for now, thank you for helping keep this game in modern memory.
Cajun J shallow? F*** U
Every story was so emotional! Eapecially the Irwin and Matilda story! I was so devastated that I had to pick between Escad and Daena.
Legend of Mana is excellent, and especially unique. I can say I've never played a game quite like it. The story is all very loosely connected, which left me wanting more. I was actually shocked when the game was over, but since it was my first playthrough I really had no idea there were so many extra quests that remained untouched. It has a very prominent new game + feature that encourages the player to put more time into the game, and I personally lost count of how many times I actually played through it.
The world map constructing is an interesting mechanic that actually does play a role in how the game plays out. For instance, some missions are not accessible unless the elemental strength of a map location is full (one in particular only triggers if the Shade element on Domina is 3/3). This is programmed in such a way so that multiple playthroughs are required to experience every missions.
The crafting mechanics are extremely complex, far too complex in my opinion. It's almost as if the developers had these great ideas they were working on, much of which made it into the game, but were unable to finish everything in order to integrate it into the overall experience as originally intended. There are so many random items that really have little to no use. Most of them can be used in crafting to some degree, however there's nothing in the game to provide clues on the attributes and properties of each. The pet raising was fun for a while, but pets often need combat experience to continue getting stronger, so you find yourself avoiding exp drops so your pet can get them, but the pet is not programmed to collect them, so they only end up being accidentally collected by the pet. It would have been great if there were more reliable ways to do this. After a while, I lost interest in much of the magic and golem crafting, as well as pet rearing. Much of it ends up being extremely frustrating and relatively futile in the grand scheme of the game. Many of these mechanics are exciting initially, but offer little incentive to delve into as the playing hours compile. The exception is the weapons crafting. Every now and then I would get lucky and temper a weapon with 100+ power, the highest of which I got to 240.
After your first completion of the game, an option is unlocked to change the game's difficulty. It basically raises the levels of all the monsters in the game. One increases monsters' levels by 30, the second levels all monsters to 99. I found the key to being successful at these modes is to have super strong gear, even when your own level is maxed out at 99. The problem is, the overly complex crafting system must be utilized to achieve this if you're going to avoid impossibly difficult and infinitely long boss battles.
There are three main sub-stories that can be played in the game. One is very easily accessed and progressed through, the other two require some more work and it is not always apparent what needs to be done in order to progress their quest lines. Sometimes you just happen to stumble across triggering scenes that provide clues and advance the story, unless you're following a guide or you've done it once before.
All that being said, I LOVE this game. Every playthrough ends up being different, largely based on how you arrange world map locations, which is something few games can claim. I only wish some of the mechanics in the game were more fleshed out and more readily advanced at end-game levels. The game had so many good ideas shoved into it but it didn't seem that they all got to be implemented to their potential. Even still, the gameplay is solid, the music is unforgettable, and the art design is unlike any other game ever made. It's far from perfect, but this game offers hundreds of hours of quality entertainment.
There are some AMAZING & very in depth crafting faqs you can find online. Like how to make a Dior wood blunt weapon with attack over 6-800.
As for the monsters, you have to give them the right personality if you want them to pick up experience crystals. there are many facts on that as well online, especially on gamefaqs by a poster named tricky. If you feed them the wrong foods, you can sabotage the pet and have to start all over!.. I was very sad about my sky dragon when that happened. The link abilities with the person can be phenomenal as well.
Have fun everyone!
Gamefaqs my brother, guys made the most in depth faq on earth there for all the weapons and max upgrades and tutorials how to do it
A remaster of Legend of Mana is coming!
@@Dracobyte I definitely remember thinking a Legend of Mana remaster should be in the works when they announced the Trials of Mana remake. I'll be very interested to see how they modernize it and make various quality of life improvements.
Words cant describe my love for Legend of Mana. When I first played it, it was like opening a book and being sucked inside for a journey that took me through the highs and lows of my emotions. I smiled with the addition of Bud and Lisa to my family, I was sad upon learning about the forbidden love story of Darwin and Matilda and I was absolutely devastated when I had to choose between Escad and Daena. I love this game and only a handful of games have made me as immersed as Legend of Mana. Also the art style of LoM is absolutely breathtaking. One of the loves of my life. I would argue this videogame as a genuine piece of art.
When I first played this game, I picked the male character thinking he was a girl! Like a Red Riding Hood or something.
And gave him my name lol
It was my brother who pointed it out to me: "Why does your guy have your name?"
lmao
And I did the opposite.. I took the female character thinking she was a boy.. but the game is good anyway =}
And here i thought i was a girl ! It was my bro pointed it out to me: "why theres a dick at your crotch ?" LOL just trolling
@@FacilitaFisica Are you blind? The female is pink, purple with long blonde hair. Ie VERY FEMALE looking.
@@georgielockhart6686 Yes, I am, my friend described her to me, and I thought she was a he =/
I hope one day they could remake this game in a new light
one of the best so many hours spent with friends playing this as a kid
This new First Look format is superb. You're a talented team Dark Pixel.
Thanks, Christopher!
this is what i thought heavens looks like, ah my childhood..
Hi,so I have some advice regarding legend of mana, I've played this game in and out and know all its little lerning cerves from the land placing, craft system, meanings for things, pets, goloms, ext. one of the first things you probably want to know is you can cancel heavy attacks by pushing a shoulder button at the end of the animation. The farther you place land from your home, the stronger monsters and more rare items you'll obtain. The monsters arnt just higher level they actually perform in battle more. Every 4 levels depending on the weapon you hold you'll aquier stats that act as a class system. Ex. Gloves increase hp more. If you change weapons say after 3 levels, you don't get the maximum bonus of that weapon. Also if you want a rare monster like a chimaera, you have to make sure the land that has the demon egg is far enough away from your house. Game FAQs is loaded on in depth guides for the systems in this game. It is quiet amazing and customizable. One thing I've done once and other people say happens rarely is you can cancel the long yellow charging animation for special by pressing the button FRAME PERFECT while an enemy attacks you and it will be a defend animation instead and the special will come out instintaniously. I did this once and I'm pritty sure that's how it works. Only once though it is rare, like a crit in seiken densetsu 3. But while everyone complains that this game seems to lack depth or makes no sense, it truly dose. I also recommend the manga after you finish the game, gives you an interesting perspective on the story. Hope I could help!!
That first song when the game boots up is a wrapped up gift of nostalgia for me. Such great memories with this game.
Some advice I can give is that when you choose your area on the large map to play in, make sure you have plenty of land and some water. There are a couple of artifacts that require being on a water spot, but most need land so I find it best to make sure the section of the map you choose has plenty of land.
Another piece of advice is to pay attention to the elemental spirits that make up the towns/dungeons you can visit. For example, placing a water spirit place( a place heavy with undine) like a lake will make it to where the next artifact you place down beside it is likely to have water spirits in it from the lake being beside it. However, I believe if you put a desert beside such a place with the conflicting elements it may lower the fire spirit of the desert so it's best to try and place artifacts with similar elements together. You can also manipulate what spirits show up in different areas this way too and the spirits can help you make magic weapons and help you imbue your weapons with elements vis blacksmithing.
Last thing I remember about the game as well that may be helpful for newbies is that the closer you put a dungeon to your house, the easier that dungeon is. The farther you place down artifacts from your homebase, the harder that dungeon becomes. I always found it handy to try and keep a couple of spots beside my home open for hard dungeons. I felt it nicer to have the final artifact (the mana tree seed) to be placed beside my home to make the fights easier there because some of the monsters are loaded with HP and take some time to defeat there.
With regards to the story, keep this in mind:
In every game, you're the main character who collects party members or NPCs. Here, you ARE the NPC--all the party members have their own problems and stories to tell, and you're just there to help them along, ever watchful and documenting to see what the state of the world is as you give it shape. You're just rebuilding the world and helping people do their things, similar to the city simulation of Act Raiser.
The story was always hard to dive into until I realized that I'M not the important one (even if I initiate everything), THEY are. Once I realized that, Legend of Mana stopped being a confusing jumble I was trying to enjoy and moved itself to my #1 RPG of the PS1.
Good luck with that crafting mechanic, though. Like half of it was understood pretty quickly by veterans, but it took like 15 years before EVERYTHING was properly figured out.
That's a very interesting perspective! That definitely makes sense though!
I think I'll use a guide when it comes to crafting, haha.
Also if you didn't know this already but how you learn techniques is highly dependent on what Weapon you are using as well as what Skills you have set. the spin skill with have you learn techniques like Maelstrom and Vortex of Death. There is a guide but you will learn a lot of techniques fast if you just experiment with the different skills (abilities)
I know this is years in the future but I just want to say I LOVE that even back in 2016 people were checking out one of my favorite JRPGs, if not my absolute favorite JRPG. The title that got me into the genre, and has left me hungry for beautiful fantasy worlds like it ever since. It's one of the few games I've bought twice for different systems. The only advice I can give is that it's for the Vita as well so, like me, you can have a copy on the go if you'd like.
Also Pearl is precious and perfect, and Niccolo is a bro.
Unclaimed Username I’m hoping it’ll come to Switch like Trials of Mana
to experience the full capacity of Legend of Mana.
guide book is necessary there are a lot of hidden stories just by placing the artifacts.
Yeah, this format is very convenient. I like to watch you guys and I try to watch every single video since DPG is my favorite channel on youtube. The livestreams are already difficult to watch in full for my schedule, so a 45 minute first look on top of that each week was just more overload. This is definitely more intriguing and has more rewatch value. Thanks for being more interested in how to improve formats Mike! I think I speak for all of us when I say that we love that you're willing to change and try something new in order to hopefully give us better work! Have a nice day ^-^
Hi, great vid. This is my best friend's and my favourite game ever. we spent countless hours playing on our two save files. We used to play it 12 years ago and we recently took the dust off the PS1 to play it again.
My biggest advice is to put the mailbox close to a corner when you begin and and start putting your artefacts in a diagonal. the quality of items in shops is dependent on how far they are from your home. (enemy difficulty too, to an extent, for dungeons)
This was a cool little review of one of my favorite video games..I enjoyed it.. I can't wait to see another video from you on it.
Its been decades since I first played this game and it would still be listed in my top 5 favorite games ever. It truly was a work of art. I really loved that instead of one big story line you had several smaller ones to do or not do as you wanted. And to this day the Jumi story arc is one of my favorite stories in the world.
I love this game along with another non-traditional story and art like Saga Frontier 2 they're absolutely beautiful.
the memories! still have a copy of this! from what i remember. each artifact is associated with different levels of mana wich in turn effec the levels of mana in adjacent locations on the map. Due to this, some quests open up only based on the mana levels of their respective land
I have played this game since I was a wee lad and have sunk a silly amount of time in I can tell you this much. First there are three Major arks and then the final ark. These serve as the story. I am sure as you approach the game you will eventually hit one of those three arks. They are beautiful and deep, using the music, artwork, and characters to pull you in. You do not have to complete all three arks to beat the game, only one, however you can beat all three in one play through. I feel this gives the game a lot of replay-ability. Also the story is given to you in each of the story chapters. It may not seem like a major story, but as you get further in you will see characters over and over again until you come to enjoy each of their Quirks and understand their motives.
You will also find that the pet system is interesting, though its deep and complex to get into. (I don't even try to maximize my pet, they are more of a mascot for me, though my dragon is strong enough to help). Almost any enemy can become a pet, and then be raised, such as a chocobo or rabite to dragons.You also found the Grove, where you grow produce. You use this produce to feed pets or upgrade weapons or capture pets.The workshop has three workshops in it, The Robot Building Facility, The Forge, The Instrument Facility, each that are intertwined with each other and are fun to play with.
The two player system is great if you have siblings as they cannot really ruin your game experience... unless they troll and walk the opposite way and make you wait till they get board and then follow you again after sighing 'oh fine'. If you are playing with somebody who cannot fight well but evade like a king they can revive you after a minute or two of battle *this happens naturally with your pets and NPC's that travel with you as well* you can watch this happen with the grey bar.
The battle system is fun but can be broken with fast weapons. You can get nearly infinite (like 10-20 hits) in before they manage a hit. This makes most bosses cakewalk and should be avoided if you want to have the most fun with your run. Also enemies become stronger based on how far you place the Artifact away from your base and in what order it was placed. So if you want to have a bad time with the final boss get all other Artifacts and place them before placing the last one and place it on the far corner. You will find the last boss that much harder.
There is a lot of information that the game doesn't teach you but is available. There is a church in Domina, in the church is a priest who will teach you all the information you need about many subjects and offers knowledge about characters and battle. You should check it out. There is also an arena in a different town that you can fight your friends in. Having a second character of similar strength will make the battle a little more fun than just slaughtering them.
Also sorry if this is long, I kinda love this game with a passion (first game I actually ever beat at the age of like 7, roughly 16 years ago). I would also recommend you take a look at Legend of Dragoon.
I don't know how far you've been playing, since your video is from 2016. I loved a really specific part in this game that made me pull out pen and paper in order to translate conversations. I enjoyed every second of it. When I played this game I was hooked to the very end, the story is not that impressive but it has a couple of heart felt moments. The game is fairly short, so I would suggest you to play it probably before a long game (like the witcher series). Enjoy!
Duba Dubababa Ba Da! Dub? Dada Dadda
I like the new format. It feels higher quality. I also like how you have a little time to reflect on your time with the game while writing. I do like the fact that we can also watch your genuine first impressions and reaction live as well via Twitch. I know a lot of people like getting everything in one place but I appreciate keeping the UA-cam channel clean and neat without bogging it down with tons of live streams. It makes it hard to find what you want to watch sometimes. As always superb work guys!
P.S. the intro is Great!
Thanks, kbutta! Yeah we don't want people to think this has become a vlog channel or a streaming channel, so we want to migrate as much of that to Twitch as we can!
Great video. It baffles me how popular the Mana games are but this one always seems to get forgotten. So many hours of my teenage years were lost to this game.
Always loved this games artstyle..it's obvious the makers put A LOT of passion and love into this game..from the way characters are animated and the plethora of animations that are just there to be shown off, from background stuff, NPCs doing stuff when you arn't interacting, to you're own various idle animations.
Otherwise the storytelling is..interesting. A few in the comments already mentioned some of this...and about getting a guide for artifact placement. Only do this if you want to do everything in your first playthrough..but if you're more akin to the idea of focusing on various builds..and changing it for different playthroughs..and changing things that way then I wouldn't worry too much about the artifact placement guide.
Otherwise the fast explination is that where you place artifacts affects your ability to see various quests...so some won't unlock if you don't place the right combination next to the right location. A good guide will just tell you where in the world to start..and where to place artifacts without telling you info about what they unlock.
not sure if you knew this dark pixel gaming but depending on the order and locations you place the artifacts on the map can effect the storyline in certain ways depending on where and what quests you've accomplished before placing the artifacts on the map if i remember correctly.
Is that Mike’s voice????
Wow his voice used to be so high pitch 😂
LEGEND OF MANA REMASTERED announced
Oh my god a LoM review with praise to Yoko Shimomura! Faved, Liked, Shared.
This is one of my all time favorite games. It was truly unique and i still enjoy it to this day. The art and music was simply amazing.
I ADORE this new format. It fits much better with the tone and quality of content produced on this channel, and you sound much more interested in making it this way. My vote is to continue on with the format.
Thanks, laserwolf! I personally like it a lot better as well :)
oh man the format really works well! this really suits you! great job mike!
Thanks, Toby!
Its no problem! judging from the tone of voice in the video it really sounds like you enjoyed making the video!
legend of mana is my favorite in the series, i love both the look(to me, hands down the best looking 2d game) ass well as the music.
the idea of completing the enciclopedia i see as a good thing, because its basically an enciclopedia that your character is doing, so it tells how he/she feels and understand the world. you could say that its basically where his/her character development comes from, that and the diary entries.
mecanically the enciclopedia also works as a way to not overwhelm the player with info, and kinda makes you go back to see whats going on.
the story is almost amasingly done, you start not really knowing anyone or anything, but the way it progresses feels alot like an interactive anime, with each episode your character helps adiferent person. and i dont want to spoil anything, but be warned that helping someone before helping another could close some of those large stories prematurely.
finally, this game is a completionist dream, so many things to discover, and so much exploration. this is how you make an exploration game.
Yeah, lots of games use a similar mechanic - where information you come across in the world is stored in a database to read - but I guess what seemed weird to me here was that you collect encyclopedias from other characters... and they're just empty. It's like someone telling you, "hey you could use this book full of information," and then every page is blank. Just seemed kind of silly to me. Mechanically, it works perfectly though.
I'll probably want to play this game with a guide it looks like. Seems easy to miss out on things and the crafting is apparently ridiculously complex.
well, the crafting is VERY deep, but not really needed. and if you do decide to jump in, be prepared to farm ALOT. you can craft very overpowered wepons... if you know what you are doing, but you could also end up with something almost useless. i dont want to spoil, but this game has alot of diferent "things" you can do.
my only problem is, well two things, first he weapons use the same graphic, and for a psx game i was hoping for something more diverse, but alas... the second thing is, like i said, some quests will trully require you to know what you are doing, or be extremely lucky.
finally, the game has its main story, but its the "side stories" that make this game.
I love the new format! Really in depth. I like that you don't stay complacent and are constantly looking to improve your work. I enjoyed the old style of first look but this blows it out of the water. And that intro was just beastly as fetch. Keep it up
Thanks, Daniel! I'm glad you guys like the intro!
This format really suits your channel, love it!
Thanks, Andreas!
This is still the best looking and sounding game I've ever played.
I can't describe the way this game makes me feel. The music and artwork as well as the story are beautiful.
Ah, I would really love to see what you think of this game after you've played it more, or even after you've finished. Oh, and you might want to look at an artifact placement guide. Certain events can only be triggered if the mana levels for the lands are right, and those levels are dependent on which lands their situated next to. So if you put the artifacts in the wrong place you can lose out. Also, talk to your cactus after every event.
With a lot of remakes this days.. we can dream.
But there is any RPG with a deep ability/pet/weapon system as legend of mana? There is so much do dive here.. I played it over and over again.. and still have fun and discover new things.
I'm 3:52 in and this is already a fantastic improvement over the old first look format. great job
finished the video and it was great. I really liked clarification of where it stands in the review list. You didn't tell us what the next game to be on first look is going to be. Is it still weekly voting system? I haven't played Legend of Mana yet but it's on my shelf...one day!
At the moment I'm not running a poll because we've had so many games donated and I want to make sure I cover the games we've been sent. We'll see if the polling makes a return eventually.
that makes sense!
This is one of the best games I ever played from Square. I like the "collecting of stories" aspect of this game. Trying to unlock all the stories of the game was satisfying for me. Great video Mike!
Tip: Always talk to the Cactus in your room whenever you finish a story. It writes down some funny entries on its "leaf diary" which you can read.
Thanks, Septimus! I didn't show it in the video, but I did talk to lil cactus after completing each quest.
I love this game since I´m a child. It's curious because this is the first time I watch reviews about the game, and I find how people, with good arguments, complain about the story, which was my favorite feature! hahaha. Anyways, I played LOM like three times I guess and I always fall in love, once again, with the characters, the script, and the isolated arcs. My Google Plus profile picture is actually a siren I drew inspired by this beautiful videogame.
Legend of Mana is the best game I ever play in childhood , I been playing it about more than a 100 times ...
This was outstanding. You guys need more subs because you provide high quality content. Love the new intro. Yoko is a beast. I've had my eye on this series and game for a while. Nice showing your priorities list ;D. You can honestly knock out golden sun very quickly. It lacks difficulty as long as you never or rarely skip a random battle.
Thank you! I'm glad people like the new format and the intro! I'm pretty excited to cover Golden Sun! One of my favorite rpgs from when I was growing up!
we need pc version of this game!
Legend Of Mana!!
Taking the secret of mana port as an example I'll say no thanks
the remake is great
epsxe Awaits you as a "PC" version that can give you a 1 to 1 experience from the PS1.
If they remade this game for PC and made the multiplayer and item sharing/selling work with online features, I would buy it instantly.
@@SatiZakito trials of mana tho.
always have at least one magic instrument-like flute, marimba, drum- on your skill set -L1, L2, R1 & R2- because some of it actually grant you immunity for short time just like when you cast your special weapon skill
This game needs way more love.
It was one of the best looking 2d games of the psx, and the graphics are still gorgeous if you play it today.
The richness of each character story, and the complexicity of the crafting system are the other relevant aspect that make it one of my all time favourite games.
And also this game has a ton of content that is not visible at first.Good review.This game was one of my favorites as a teenager.
Definitely one of my all time favorite JRPG out there. The story, characters, music and the world are simply amazing. It's one of those games that I play repeatedly and never get tired of it
This is the best mana game ever created. The stories are awesome (specially the jumi story), music and game play. The special technique is super great and its animation specially when you get the last ST of spear, knife, sword, etc and powerful instrument that cast a mana spirit. My favorite is the blue dragon on a spear weapon. When it comes to forging of weapon, i'm so amazed how complex it is when you give your weapon a lot of card when forging a material to your weapon. There are people are so good to make the mana essense reach to 12 or more and the same time immune to any debuff. I like the card art work too and some card affect too to your weapon like petrify, etc. Also pet has abilities that cast magic and also give your anemy a debuf when you are close with your pet. There so many thing to explore and unique story. This is the best game for me because of too much complex and unique.
My favorite game of all time. So glad people are noticing it!!!
The new format is slick and impressive. I enjoyed it.
That being said, I also greatly enjoyed the longer and more laid-back sessions from the previous first-look videos.
I just liked to see you play classics I enjoyed when I was younger, and give a casual, stream-of-consciousness appraisal of the games.
Hopefully, there is room for the occasional release of videos like that, even with the new format.
Cheers.
Great job putting this together Mike. It totally feels like more of the genuine content people subscribed here to see. I'm really excited to see more episodes of this and holy crap this game looks amazing! How have I not seen more about this game before?
Thanks, NETRO! I was really into SoM and SD3 and I didn't hear about this game when it came out either. Totally missed it when it launched. It's really interesting though!
If you haven't already played through this game: Having a Save File of Final Fantasy 8 in your memory card allows you to find a Chocobo Egg and raise a Chocobo. But you have to have some save file of FF8 in the same card as the save file for this game.
Best game ever for me. Ive spent more than 600 hr playing it when i was at school. Maybe 6 playthrough, i had my beloved memory card with me today and it stills works.
Legend of Mana is easily one of my favorite jrpgs. Every aspect about it was beautifully crafted, from visuals to OST.
And if that wasnt enough there was even a multiplayer mode! I think it was the first time I had ever seen multiplayer in a jrpg, and I had an amazing time playing the entire game
together with my younger brother. During our childhood we always played jrpgs together but Legend of Mana was the only time we actually played "together" haha.
I first played this game when I was 12 and it's my fave game along with Bof3. Now im 32 and ahhhh the nostalgia.
I loved the idea of combining the fruits and things
LoM is my favorite game of all time and I hope you enjoy it. The separate quest paths are all really engaging and the new game plus mode is pretty enjoyable so long as you engage nightmare difficulty. But definitely the thing that makes me keep coming back to it is the music and the artwork. I just want to jump into the world of this game and live there.
I've always had a crush on the Lapiz Lazuli guy. Damn nostalgia is real!
I liked the old first look format, but I am loving the new. You guys do such a great job and your passion and love for games show. This is the only channel I can honestly say that I like every video, even before hitting play because I already know it is a quality video. Also I may have to pick this game up on psn now thanks to you. I passed over it when it came out because I saw a friend play it and I didn't like it. (it was different from SOM which might have something to do with it) But the information gave me a better understanding of it and sparked me interest.
Thanks you! That means a lot! Yeah I expected something more like SoM and was pretty surprised, but I think this game has a lot to offer in its own right. It's worth diving into for sure!
This game is amazing and a favorite from childhood. I can't remember the details but i do know you should pay close attention to the elemental affinity bonuses that you establish by placing locations near to each other. I think you get some useful bonuses for maximizing certain ones in certain places.
God I love Legend of Mana. When I bought this game in 2000 I think? It made such a big impact in my life.
A little insight on the storytelling mechanics of Legend of Mana: Stories unfold chapter by chapter as you build the world through artifacts, and meet new characters. Most characters you'll meet throughout the game have further quests that may or may not require specific prerequisites to embark on. Some of these characters and questlines are considered "Main" quests.
There are 3 different "Main" quests available, which are lengthier than the other sidequest arcs, and will culminate in final quests that wrap up their individual storylines. In a given playthrough, it may be difficult to experience all 3 of these in a single run, (though it is possible). This is a pretty big part of the massive replayability Legend of Mana offers, as each run feels unique and exciting, as you experiment to complete questlines you hadn't before, or meet new characters.
The final boss can actually be beaten without securing all of the artifacts to complete the world, so replaying the game (with your character, abilities, and equipment carrying over!!) is an important part of experiencing all of the branching paths.
Oh so it has new game+? That's good to know! This game definitely seems like a totally unique experience. I'm really excited to dive into it further!
the one advice I'd give you about this game is, don't be too generous when opening up new areas. Sometimes, you can get locked out of quests because you've opened up new areas. Also, the story telling in this game is a bit tricky as you've said, but if you follow the questlines all the way through they start to jel quite nicely together.
One of the best RPG I've ever played. This does bring back my childhood memory
Years late to this video, but I really wish they'd remake this game or even moreso just give us an updated HD port similar to what we got with Odin Sphere when they updated that one for modern consoles. The battle system could use a bit of an upgrade. I'd love to see it with smoother movement because it feels like characters do this sort of laggy shuffle around the battle field that I notice far more now than I did back when it was released. I'd also love it if they got rid of those EXP gems and just tallied EXP as usual to A.) speed up the battles in general and B.) because the NPCs had a tendency to grab gems when they didn't need them.
Yeah even though I had no problem with how you were doing your past 1st look videos,I really liked this format and I see it worked for you better.
Thanks, Chris!
This format suits you a lot better. I had no problem with how it was before, but I think your strength lies in video essay type videos. And like you said, you were doing less and less of these kinds and more of the vlog style. Yeah I like it. Look forward to the next.
Thanks, man! Yeah, it felt really good to get back to making this kind of video. I really enjoyed the process. I'm glad you guys like it as well!
I have played this as a child, and rediscovering this game after a long long time. I love the world and presentation as you said, and combat flows relatively well, but boss AIs don't seem too good so far. I read some advice from the Onion guy and he said that mashing attack button would leave me open so I decided to short burst the fast attacks. All of the early bosses I fought so far were beaten by only doing this at a constant rhythm. I hope rest of the bosses aren't beatable by this strategy.
I really loved this new format for your first look! I get a more broad look at the game ,and your general thoughts on it as well! Hope they aren't too time consuming to put together. I look forward to the next one!
Thanks, Chris! After completing the intro animation, which took about two weeks, it took about the same amount of time to produce this as the old format - which is great because this feels way more polished to me. I'm really happy with how it turned out, and I'm glad you guys like it too!
I agree with you about how magic is used in Secret of Mana and Seiken Densetsu 3. I played Seiken Densetsu 3 with a friend of mine, and I got bored playing with them because they kept on pausing the screen to use spells. They played as Angela.
Legend of Mana is one of the most impressive RPGs ever made, so ahead of its time. They don't quite stick the landing on the narrative side to put it on the same level as games like Seiken Densetsu 3 and Chrono Trigger, but it's still one of the best of the genre.
This format seems more in line with your style Mike glad you were able to re work it into something that you can develop further into something new. I also like that you don't have a hour time limit anymore, and you can play more
Thanks, Joshua! I think this will work a lot better!
i've been playing the game every summer clocked in at 91hrs. its one of the best rpgs for the ps1
Heads up. Where you place the new towns makes all the difference. It dictates what story missions you can unlock on that play thru, the power of your magic, the local enemies, the items you can or cant find, and they all relate to each other. It's very complicated. When I was a kid it killed me bc I couldn't unlock alot of story missions and I couldn't finish some of the ones I started all bc of where I placed each area. The blacksmith is also super deep and the monster farm is too. And they don't tell you any of it lol. Even the official strat book misses many many important things. Google will be much more of a help. It's still in my top 5 all time rpgs with the grandia series, star ocean, ff7, and the tales series. Wish I could help more but the best I can do is tell you there's much more and go find real pro help cuz this is one of those games where you can only learn the real stuff about it from other people and in bits and pieces. It's all well worth it. WELL worth it. Plz enjoy good sir and I'm glad I found your channel again. Apparently I've been subbed to you but it must've been years ago bc I don't remember and I keep up w all my UA-cam people so I'm glad I'm back and will be awaiting new content good sir. Cheers.
For this game you actually need a guide for artifacts placement, there is indeed a main story, and some other stories even bigger than the main (Jumi hunter arc, The dragon arc with sierra, the seven wonders, the 3 old friends) people ho say this game is unfinished are the one who played this game with out artifact placement, this is very important because it triggers some quest, overall i really recomend you to play this game with a guide (there is a page created for this game with contains the map placement ),
my advice, go to the junkyards boss room, find an egg, hatch till you get polterbox best synchro in game besides ?????????? hahaha no spoilers :P . polterbox's synchro guarantees item drop from enemies which you can then use to either sell, or even better make/improve things in your smithy.
Definitely my fav game of all time growing up, way too much time put in this, if you ever have any question feel free to ask tho im sure nowadays google can help ya wit anything ur curious about. yes the weapon and armor crafting is insanely complex but experimentation is a good thing.
There are many side stories and three major plots, i hope you find discovering them all as enticing as i did as a kid and still do today.
Advice for this game: Let the characters guide you.
Lots of people didn't like the story. I fell in love with the side characters, and progressed the game based on who I liked.
This made the game rather relaxing. No dying world, just helping my boy Gilbert.
just to let you know there are some Japanese guides that have not being translated specially referring on how to build your world map I don remember where I read that
I love love love this game! Like you mentioned, the art style and music are so brilliantly done that whenever I switched it on I just let myself be absorbed into this beautiful magical world. My problem (or advice) was that I was too eager to do well in the gameplay that I ended up reading walkthroughs about the levelling/training/skill obtaining mechanics too early. By the time I got to the last third of the story, my character just became too strong and the battles were just not challenging anymore. So actually, maybe it's a better idea to fully explore by yourself first, so the excitement of discovery could be preserved?
Here's a tip:
After finishing a Quest.
Talk to your Cactus, the one near your bed.
I noticed suikoden is on your list. the Wild arrow and master pupil combination attacks are the best in the game. Hands down.
Doing some research and getting hyped for the remaster release on 24/07/21!!
Great intro, really liked the song and animation. Solid way to start the episode.
Thanks, man!
This is mymost favourite game of all time. Literally. I even read the manga and still plan to cosplay as Elazul one day. The cosplay must be perfect tho and I'm going to use coral for his ivory bracelet on his arm. I have a ton of LoM OCs too.
This game is unique. Although I remember myself as a kid having a hard time understanding the flow of the of the game's plot, but it had t all. Ost that I still remember even 15 years later, amazing text and storyline and the way the game is creative in almost every way.
This hame must be remastered.
I played through this game a TON as a kid. The best advice I can give, though it may already be too late, is to look up a guide on 100% completion. I know that sounds kind of taboo, but there's a lot of events and even artifacts that can be totally missed if you do things in the wrong order or place them in the wrong spots on the world map. It's very frustrating.
As far as the actual game, I've got a few minor problems with it. My biggest gripe is that there's no real resource management in it. No MP to speak of, you're healed to full between battles, and you can't even use items or spells to heal yourself, buff yourself, or anything of that nature during fights. It feels like the actual gameplay got a lot cheaper compares to SD3. The abilities system is nice, but I find most of them are kind of useless. The other issue I personally have with the combat, and this is a pretty bad one, is that it's possible to stunlock literally every enemy in the game with certain weapons. I think Spear, 2h-Sword, and 2h-Axe if I remember correctly. If you do a series of weak attacks, but stagger them ever so slightly, you can just keep starting the chain over and over and the enemy has no way of escaping. I managed to beat every boss in the game, including the final boss like this. It was incredibly disappointing.
Yeah, I think I'll use a guide with this game for sure.
I was wondering about healing and buffs, considering you automatically heal between battles, but I thought it might be too early to say for sure how the game would handle that. From what your describing I'm also really disappointed in that. That's a shame.
Definitely diggin this new format guys, keep doing what your doing!
Thanks, Gabriel! We will!
To alleviate confusion, there are 3 main plots in this game that are amazing! The problem with the game is... you can beat the game without even seeing any of them. So a guide might be required, so good luck and have fun!
I loved Legend of Mana back in my PS1 days and love it just as much on my Vita. My favorite music track in this game is "City of Flickering Destruction" it's a very moving piece and one of my favorites in the Mana series. I wish i could give you so much advice but I don't want to spoil anything. I will say however the Jumi Story arc is my favorite in the game. Can't wait to see your full review
Oh man! What a great song! I hadn't heard that one yet in the game, thanks for sharing!
try listening to it in the Yoko Shimamura Drammatic CD you can find it on youtube easily
I really enjoy this format DPG! As long as you still do the livestreams we get the old type of content as well!
Thanks! I'll make sure to announce the livestreams for the First Look games ahead of time on twitter!
Dark Pixel Gaming Awesome! Can't wait!