As someone deployed in Iraq in an area where the action has pretty much died down, one seeks a way to pretty much kill the time. That's where the Gameboy comes in. Normally games don't really catch the attention span of a Marine long enough but after beating the game I have to fight to get it back from everyone else.Now the game. As with the Mana series, it beats the walk around and fight turn based style by far. Yiu actually have to try and time your attacks on the enemies(especially bosses) which adds a good level of challenge. The character building is also a plus as you can put points into eventually changing classes that provide you with better abilities. Best of all in my opinion is the storyline. As you progress, many things unfold which make your character think and even question what he's doing all along. Much better than the standard go here and defeat whomever(a-la Zelda style)
My unit has just 2 complaints.The character building. It is difficult to discern what you'll turn into. The most I've gotten was going Fighter-Knight-Warlord. That I did with some guessing. I suggest going online for a guide if you wish to end up like lets say a Paladin or something.
The other one is the improvement of weapons. The "temper" system where you get a certain fruit or a vegetable and have it added to your weapon. It's benefits weren't real significant, adding only +1 to attack or such. What's the point of just a +1? And fruit? Last time I tried that, I got yelled at by the armorer for trying to add a banana to an M16. Damn game, putting ideas in my head. Anyway, this game is still a great, great must buy.
I've played this game quite a bit, almost to the finish, and while it does indeed have some shortcomings, its appealing qualities might, depending on your gaming tastes, more than make up for it. If you like being able to customize your character in an RPG video game, you'll love the way the class system works. there are eight different classes, each offering it's own special bonuses and you place each level's worth of experience into whichever class you like. it takes five levels in any particular category to be considered a member of that class, and there are combinations that unlock hidden classes offering additional bonuses (a blend of Thief, Mage, and Random gets you to Ninja Master, for example).
The weapons system is also the finest i've seen in any handheld RPG, as, rather than merely finding or buying the latest upgrades to suit your level, you have found weapons (mace, knucks, staff, sword, axe, sickle, bow, flail, and spear) that may be reforged with new, different materials to create more powerful weapons. They may also be "tempered," using a combination of the same material the weapon was last forged from and a vegetable (grown from the seeds you find out adventuring) to enhance their stats and imbue them with magical qualities such as Petrify (whee! Fossil Knucks!) or Confusion. Armor works the same way, but is tempered with fruits instead of vegetables.
The magic system is what you'd expect from a Mana title - you summon elemental spirits (yes, plural, as you can have up to two of each type of spirit) to cast an offensive or defensive effect. the offensive spells vary more by what weapon you are using when you cast them than by what spirit you summon, but the defensive spells range from the silly (turning into a moogle so monsters won't attack you) to the really useful (floating over spikes/lava/any-damaging-floor inside a bubble).
The graphics, which some reviewers didn't like, are very good for a handheld game of any kind. you can move your sprites around and see your characters from all angles, the closeups when they talk (in text, of course) look like something from a decent manga. a GBA is essentially a handheld SNES, yet the graphics in Sword of Mana far exceed its SNES predecessor "Secret of Mana."
As for the shortcomings: Most of the sidekicks are nearly useless, as they wind up walking on lava or attacking things they can't hurt and dying a dozen or so times before you ever get to a boss with the exception of the girl you meet early on in the game - she can heal the whole party and cast attack spells that do decent damage more often than not.
Also, the ring menus get annoying in boss fights. You have to go through three menus to get to anything in particular, including healing items and weapons. The only reprieve from this is that most of the things you collect, like seeds, fruits, vegetables, and raw materials, don't need to be selected from the ring-menu because they'll be highlighted on lists when you visit the appropriate helper-character (the dwarf who does the forging/tempering, or the talking tree who turns seeds into fruits/veggies). And the cutscenes, generally text and animation with some sort of melodramatic musical background, tend to run a teensy bit too long when you just want to bop monsters and save the day.
Despite these nuisances, the game passes the most important test: it's lots of fun to play. Outside of most towns, there's a little flower-pot, and you plant a cactus there and it animatedly grows into a sort of cactus-shaped house with a chimney where the dward and talking tree live. you hand out flyers for stores in busy towns and stop pickpockets and get shot out of cannons.
The head villain even insists that people call him Dark Lord - there's enough storyline and adventure to keep you playing, and enough sillyness, strange visuals (why is the world's greatest sage wearing a hawaiian shirt and tiki mask?) and side-quests to keep all that playing fun, so it gets four stars.
