Welcome to our review of Legend of Mana, a classic given a new lease on life! Out now on Nintendo Switch!
The HD Remaster of Legend of Mana is coming to Nintendo Switch™.
Set off on a journey to find the mystical Mana Tree seen in a dream, before discovering… the world map is empty! During your travels, you’ll acquire special artifacts; place these wherever you’d like on the map to bring towns and dungeons to life and advance the story.
Meet a colorful cast of characters, square off against fearsome monsters, and complete quests in the vast world of Fa’Diel. Not only has the music been rearranged for this remaster, but you can also alternate between the new and original soundtrack. Other features have also been added, including the ability to turn off enemy encounters, and the never-before-released mini-game “Ring Ring Land”.
Legend of Mana is a classic that cherishes a reputation of being among the better RPG titles out there, great story, and a special way to battle. Battling is more or less real-time, but what this remaster did wrong, is how you still miss a lot of hits. I do feel it is all part of the appeal of the game, but it can get tedious when fighting a massive boss and being next to it while still somehow missing your strike?
I do like how you need to build your own world. Each section of the world being its own empty spot at first and after a “level”, you usually get a new piece to place and create more of the world. You actually play god in a certain way, though you should not think too much about what goes where. I did not and never ran into any issues so far.
I do love how every place on the map is basically its own story, from wacky penguins following a walrus into battle to a guy looking to protect someone close to him. A ton of storylines will divulge around you and I enjoyed pretty much all of them so far. I am amused by the gameplay, I love how if you exceed your stamina, that you literally get a time out that can be deadly due to the time needed to reclaim your energy.
Legend of Mana remastered is a very pretty game, though I have to say that on a 4K TV, I was not so impressed by the contrasting characters and amazing backgrounds. The difference was too big and I wish somehow there was less of a feeling that the characters did not belong. Like they had been pixelated but needed to be crisper. Maybe this is the limit of the current-gen of Nintendo Switch showing?
In conclusion, Legend of Mana Remastered is a successful remaster, but with some minor caveats. I have no problems saying I thoroughly enjoyed this game, maybe even more than I let on during my descriptions. I do wish they’d given us a more crisp depiction of the characters because that really hurt the eyes.
