Post by omicron27 on Dec 4, 2008 12:23:22 GMT -6
Overview:
SoM is the second game in the mana series, preceded by Final Fantasy Adventures(Sword of Mana) and followed by SoM2.
It's something of a spinoff to the Final Fantasy series, being more action-oriented. The producer of the series also likes to think of the games being based on the world, not the other way around.
Visuals:7
I love snes graphics, truly I do. This game however.... doesn't cut it. The sprites are nice, I'll give you that, but they don't all work together very well. Some sprites are significantly different than their object's impact data, which means you have to memorize the faults in their animation to prevent cheap shots. The biggest error, however, is the general lack of original sprites. 60% of enemies and bosses are pallette-swaps of already fought ones. Not cool.
Audio:5
There is absolutely NO music I remember from this game. None. At all. Some games, (Disgaea, Phantom Brave, TWEWY,) I can remember almost the entire soundtrack because the music is just so damn addicting. I can't remember ONE song from SoM. That tells you something. SE-wise, this game sucks. It's almost as abstract as FF in some cases. Not only are the noises totally out of place, (spear noise kills me) but they also sound gritty and unpolished.
Story:4
This story is like, omg, the world is in danger, go save it. And, well, yeah, that's just about it. Oh yeah, the main character's mom is a tree, and Popoie dies. Deal with it. Originally this game was meant for the snes's cd expansion, (later the ps1,) but when it was cancelled SoM had to be reshaped into a normal cartridge.
This means they had to take out a whole lot of story, making it significantly more bland than originally intended. Now, that's the japanese version. In translation, much more text had to be wiped to fit into the even smaller english snes cartridge. That's right, SoM's story was butchered not once, but twice. You should look up the original story, it was actually pretty good before they made a mockery of it.
Gameplay:6
This game made me want to bite my head off. Here's a synopsis of the battle system: WAIT! That's right, the entire battle system is waiting. First of all, you have to wait to attack, and after you attack you have to wait again. If this wasn't bad enough, the game gives you charge attacks that force you to wait even longer for uncreative and mediocre looking special of which the only advantage is more damage. Oh yeah, and then there are spells. These are what killed me. There's this thing called "Spell Chaining", (read:waiting) that works like this: You cast a spell, WAIT til' the animation is mid-way through, and then cast it again.
Rinse, rather, wait. For almost every boss battle in the game, this is going to be your strategy. That's right, because the bosses are so uncreative and badly designed, you beat them all the same way. It's like beating the same exact boss over and over again. Through the entire game. And what do you have to do to beat this boss? Well wait, of course. What else? Do you think there would be some fun game mechanic or interesting strategies for you to use to beat the bosses? No, you just have to cast spell, wait, cast spell, wait, cast spell, wait. BTW, the final boss, (Mana Beast or God Beast in SoM2,) is the worst final boss I've seen since Vegnagun.
Overall:5 1/2
This game is mediocre. It entertains to the point where you don't throw the controller, but it's not actually much better than, say, twiddling you thumbs. It gets something of a bonus for being multiplayer, but when you really think about it, is it really the game that's fun, or is it actually the conversation your having with your friends?
SoM is the second game in the mana series, preceded by Final Fantasy Adventures(Sword of Mana) and followed by SoM2.
It's something of a spinoff to the Final Fantasy series, being more action-oriented. The producer of the series also likes to think of the games being based on the world, not the other way around.
Visuals:7
I love snes graphics, truly I do. This game however.... doesn't cut it. The sprites are nice, I'll give you that, but they don't all work together very well. Some sprites are significantly different than their object's impact data, which means you have to memorize the faults in their animation to prevent cheap shots. The biggest error, however, is the general lack of original sprites. 60% of enemies and bosses are pallette-swaps of already fought ones. Not cool.
Audio:5
There is absolutely NO music I remember from this game. None. At all. Some games, (Disgaea, Phantom Brave, TWEWY,) I can remember almost the entire soundtrack because the music is just so damn addicting. I can't remember ONE song from SoM. That tells you something. SE-wise, this game sucks. It's almost as abstract as FF in some cases. Not only are the noises totally out of place, (spear noise kills me) but they also sound gritty and unpolished.
Story:4
This story is like, omg, the world is in danger, go save it. And, well, yeah, that's just about it. Oh yeah, the main character's mom is a tree, and Popoie dies. Deal with it. Originally this game was meant for the snes's cd expansion, (later the ps1,) but when it was cancelled SoM had to be reshaped into a normal cartridge.
This means they had to take out a whole lot of story, making it significantly more bland than originally intended. Now, that's the japanese version. In translation, much more text had to be wiped to fit into the even smaller english snes cartridge. That's right, SoM's story was butchered not once, but twice. You should look up the original story, it was actually pretty good before they made a mockery of it.
Gameplay:6
This game made me want to bite my head off. Here's a synopsis of the battle system: WAIT! That's right, the entire battle system is waiting. First of all, you have to wait to attack, and after you attack you have to wait again. If this wasn't bad enough, the game gives you charge attacks that force you to wait even longer for uncreative and mediocre looking special of which the only advantage is more damage. Oh yeah, and then there are spells. These are what killed me. There's this thing called "Spell Chaining", (read:waiting) that works like this: You cast a spell, WAIT til' the animation is mid-way through, and then cast it again.
Rinse, rather, wait. For almost every boss battle in the game, this is going to be your strategy. That's right, because the bosses are so uncreative and badly designed, you beat them all the same way. It's like beating the same exact boss over and over again. Through the entire game. And what do you have to do to beat this boss? Well wait, of course. What else? Do you think there would be some fun game mechanic or interesting strategies for you to use to beat the bosses? No, you just have to cast spell, wait, cast spell, wait, cast spell, wait. BTW, the final boss, (Mana Beast or God Beast in SoM2,) is the worst final boss I've seen since Vegnagun.
Overall:5 1/2
This game is mediocre. It entertains to the point where you don't throw the controller, but it's not actually much better than, say, twiddling you thumbs. It gets something of a bonus for being multiplayer, but when you really think about it, is it really the game that's fun, or is it actually the conversation your having with your friends?