Sword of Mana (Game Boy Advance) Playthrough
199A playthrough of Nintendo's 2003 action-RPG for the Game Boy Advance, Sword of Mana.
Played as the hero. Neither he nor the heroine have preset names, so I used the names they were given in Adventures of Mana.
Sword of Mana is a reimagining of Final Fantasy Adventure ( • Final Fantasy Adventure (Game Boy) Pl... ), the first game in the Seiken Densetsu series that originally released for the Game Boy in 1991.
It was created by Brownie Brown, a studio largely staffed by ex-Square employees who had previously worked on Legend of Mana ( • Legend of Mana (PlayStation) Playthro... ), and it incorporates several elements from that game, along with various mechanics first seen in Secret of Mana ( • Secret of Mana (SNES) Playthrough [1 ... ) and Trials of Mana ( • Trials of Mana (SNES) Playthrough [1 ... ).
In Sword of Mana, a mysterious and cruel figure known as Dark Lord is hunting down members of the Mana tribe in hopes of exploiting the power of the fabled Mana Tree.
Unlike Final Fantasy Adventure, Sword of Mana begins by asking whether you'd like to play as "the hero," a slave who is forced to fight in gladtorial arena battles for Dark Lord's entertainment, or "the heroine," one of the last surviving members of the Mana tribe. Your choice determines how you'll experience certain specific story events, and it influences how battles play out. The boy is primarily a brawler, while the girl is more adept at magic.
The game follows the basic blueprint set down by FFA, but it goes to great lengths to expand on every facet of the original's gameplay. Nameless NPCs have been fleshed out with dramatic backstories that come to light as you complete multi-step sidequests. Weapons now carry elemental affinities and can be forged and upgraded through an intricate crafting system. Magic spells and weapon types can all be leveled up individually. Different enemies types and quest-specific characters can be encountered at different times of day.
If you've played Final Fantasy VII Remake, you'll notice a lot of the same ideas at play in Sword of Mana. It tortuously wrings dry every element of the source material, it shoehorns in checklists of grind-heavy objectives, and it overcomplicates the bejezus out of simple gameplay mechanics, all while giving the visuals a welcome overhaul.
That list doesn't paint the game in a flattering light, I know, but I didn't think it was a bad game. It wants to remain faithful to the original while also trying to be something new, and though it ends up being neither, I could easily imagine someone who is new to the series enjoying it. But to me, someone who was already very familiar with FFA, it felt like the butter had been scraped bit too thin across the toast.
The remixed soundtrack is also uncharacteristically weak for a Mana game, but man, this sure does look amazing for a Game Boy Advance game.
*Recorded with a Retroarch shader to mimic the look of the original hardware.
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