Topic: The Mana (Seiken Densetsu) Fan Thread

@BruceCM XC:DE will probably last me closer to two months, though that will partially depend on how soon I'll discontinue working from home. I tend to explore and talk to just about everyone in RPGs, so they last longer for me than some lol.

As for shorter games....I'm leaning towards playing Batman: The Telltale Series to keep me busy on the Switch front until XC drops.

In other news, I've finished Final Fantasy Adventure/Seiken Densetsu! I actually did this Monday night but haven't had much time to do a write-up until now.

Spoilers after the line!

The Tower of Gemma proves to be a tough one for the Hero to conquer. There are a TON of high-level monsters that love bringing on the pain, twisting corridors, and those annoying warp points that the architects of this place thought was a good idea. The building is also full of dragons...a lot of them. Dragons #1 and #2 were both dispatched by ye olde Morning Star. However, their dessicated cousin, the Dragon Zombie, was tougher to handle. The Flame Chain eventually took care of him!

After felling that fell beast, the Hero eventually stumbles across an apparition of the Girl's mother. The Hero has overcome the trials of the tower, so she transforms the Hero's Rusty Sword into its true form, the Excalibur. Now we're ready to thump Julius!

The next thing the Hero knows, he stumbles across the Mana Tree, Julius, and the Girl. The Girl is still under Julius's spell. Julius gloats that he has the power of Mana and intends to revive the Vandole empire, and the Hero vows to stop him.

The fight with Julius then commenced. Stage one was fairly easy; Julius and two clones had to be defeated. (Agahnim vibes, anyone?) Stage two had Julius turn himself into a monster that sort of reminded me of the final boss of Dragon Quest IV. This fight was a little more difficult, but the Hero was victorious! The Cure spell is definitely welcome here.

Once Julius was defeated, the Hero returns to the Girl, who is now free of Julius's mind control. Just as the two are about to leave, Julius attacks again in another shape! Though I don't see how becoming a floating head with hands a la Haunter or Andross is beneficial. This fight was the most difficult (and ASKing the Girl for heals was a waste of time since the HO regained was low), but the Hero beat the baddie down for the final time!

The bad news is, defeating Julius also destroys the current Mana Tree. The apparition of the Girl's mother appears, who reveals that the Mana Tree was destroyed in the previous battle with Vandol many years ago. As their family are seeds of/descended from the Mana Tree, the Girl's mother became the (now dying) Mana Tree to maintain the balance. As she fades, she tells the Girl that she knows what she must do: become the next Mana Tree. The Hero, as a Gemma Knight, has a sworn duty to now protect her. After her mother fades, the Girl says her goodbyes to the Hero, tearfully accepts her destiny as the last Mana Tree (as she is the last of her family) and also fades....

At the end of the credits, a new Mana Tree seedling blooms...

Wow. I've typed this before, but who knew a decent (albeit not perfect) story like this existed on the humble Game Boy? I really enjoyed Final Fantasy Adventure. In many ways, it's a lot like the earlier top-down Zelda entries, but it easily forges its own identity. I'll be doing a write-up in the Games You Recently Beat? thread at some point this coming weekend.

Cool, @Tyranexx .... Glad you enjoyed that! We'll be able to discuss Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive when it comes, then, since I'll be playing it

@Tyranexx Yeah, I was impressed with FFA. I was a disappointed with the final boss, though, because I found having the Girl around to heal whenever I wanted made it too easy (I guess I could have just not used it, but I wanted to beat the game). As for Xenoblade, the original only took me 4 years to beat, so 2 months will be quite quick!

@BruceCM Yep! The main reason I picked up Collection of Mana was to play FFA. I also have Secret of Mana on the SNES Classic and could've just jumped into the remake down the line, but I wanted the full package. ^_^

@Xyphon22 The final boss fight was fairly easy. My character was level 48 though. I didn't use the Girl to heal very often as I found the amount of HP restored each time was kinda dismal compare to Cure, so I opted for the latter.

Only four years for the original XC, eh? Was there a section that gave you trouble? Or were you trying to do all the things?

@Tyranexx I definitely wasn't playing the whole time. I got it at release, didn't get too far and stopped for some reason. Later I started again and decided to start over because I didn't remember much about what was going on/how to play, and made it fairly far before stopping again at some point that I don't remember. Then when X got announced I decided to finally try to beat it before X came out. I have now been playing X about since it came out and still haven't beaten it. I haven't played it for over a year probably, really mean to get back into it but I know I'm at a hard spot that I wasn't able to beat.

@Xyphon22 I wondered if it wasn't a case of starting and stopping the game over time. I probably would have started over after a certain period of time as well.

I've played and beaten XCX; I put nearly 100 hours into it and easily could have spent more than double that time in the game if I'd tried to do everything. I really enjoyed my time with it! It definitely deserves a Switch release.

Since I don't have any other way to play XCX, @Tyranexx .... I also hope they Switch it! That's often the problem if you take too long a break from a game with lots of story, @Xyphon22. You getting the Definitive Edition, then?

Ok so I started FFA today and it's been years since I played this game I forgot how charming this game is. I just got to the town of Wendal and I have a few questions that honestly I don't remember the answers too.

The big one is do I have to equip the girl with weapons and armor?

Also is there I way to tell what the items do before I use them??

@Tasuki It's been a bit since I've played so I might be wrong, but I don't think you equip your party members with anything. They never get attacked or anything, they're just there for support. As for the items, I don't think so. Before I played, I found scans of the original instruction manual online and read that for all the information. I always do that when I play these old games that don't come with virtual manuals anymore like they did on the Wii. They're priceless, especially with RPGs. And although I really try not to use a guide I think these are fine because they originally came with the game and were intended to be read first.

@Xyphon22 I am playing FFA on the Mana Collection so not does have a virtual manual but I found a list online as well. I am trying not to use a guide either which so far is going pretty good. I almost had to in the Silver man because of the switches but I eventually figured it out.

@Tasuki your opinion about FFA so far?

@Tasuki Beat FFA a few weeks ago and, as far as I’m concerned, all the items are useless apart from keys, mattocks and one or two key items for the story. And even the mattocks are pointless after a certain point. All items do is take up inventory space - the limited inventory is my only real hangup, which is pretty impressive for such an old game. Have fun!

@Tasuki Yeah, besides Mattocks and Keys, most of the other items are pretty pointless once you get certain spells. Elixers in the latter half of the game still have some use, however. And as mentioned above, there's a point where even Mattocks aren't needed.

Keep about three Keys on your character at all times.

@DenDen I am really enjoying it. If you like early 2D Zelda games like A Link to the Past or Links Awakening or even The Secret of Mana then you will enjoy it. Don't go in thinking it's a Final Fantasy game cause it isn't (of course that's kinda hard if you get it in the Mana Collection). If the old Gameboy graphics aren't too your liking then there is a remake called Adventures of Mana on the Vita if you have a Vita. I am only about an hour or two into the game but as I said I am enjoying it. Especially if you are a fan of Secret or Trials of Mana then it's interesting to see where it all started.

@Krull Yeah the limited inventory bugs the heck out of me although that's good to know now on what items to keep.

@Tyranexx Yeah I keep about 4 keys and 4 Mattrocks on me at all times the rest is freaking cure potions which to be honest I haven't been using since I got my Wisdom up.

Put a few more hours into the game tonight. Just a warning spoilers are coming up

So I ended up getting a Chocobo which makes traveling a bit easier although I feel like I am missing XP and gold when I just skip the monsters so with that said I use the Chocobo sparingly.

Story wise, I got to the airship met the girl again although it was short lived as Julian threw the hero off the airship. I ended up meeting Amanda and went through the Medusa cave to get a Medusa Tear to save Lester. I thought it was odd that when Amanda got bit she said she was turning into a Medusa. Technically it should have been turning into a Gorgon since Medusa is the creatures name not species. That would be like calling every vampire a Dracula, but I digress. Anyway I was able to free Lester and defeat Davias. That was it for now.

Really getting into the game now and I can't wait to see what happens next. I have a nice collection of weapons too. One question should I sell older weapons? Like for example I have a broad axe and a Were Axe both seem to do the same thing but the broad axe is weaker I am not sure if I need to keep the older weapons like in Secret of Mana to forge or something.

I did find an annoying puzzle type, a few times I had to freeze enemies into snowman and push them on switches but the stupid NPC would always destroy them before I could push them into their right places. Then it would take a while before the enemy would respawn. So annoying. Anyone know how long it takes for enemies to respawn??

Anyway that's it for now hopefully I will get a chance to play some more tomorrow!!

So does anyone know. Should I sell my old weapons or do I keep them through out the game.

@Tasuki I held onto mine up until I ran out of equipment space, then I sold (or in one case, junked) the weaker weapons that had more powerful replacements, such as Chain > Flame Chain. This didn't start happening until late in the game though.

@Tyranexx Yeah that's my problem I am starting to run out of room for them. I wasn't sure. In Secret of Mana you forge them into more powerful weapons so I wasn't sure if that was the case here.

@Tasuki I don't think so. I'm pretty sure I sold mine whenever I got a new one. There are a few that for whatever reason can't be sold, but other than that I just got rid of them.

Played a few more hours today and I am still enjoying this game. Granted there are some things that irk me like the overworld map is complete garbage and I don't like how when you go into towns you don't see a town name or the very least have an NPC say the town's name.

I feel like I am nearing the end of the game as I managed to find the last spell and now I need to go get the final sword.