Legend of Mana
- June 07, 2000 00:00 AM PST
The world is in a bottle - actually, it's in a number of bottles and artifacts - waiting to be poured like life, sweet life, onto an earth turned barren and dry. It's Legend of Mana for the PlayStation, and it's waiting to be explored.
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Whose World is This?
There was a time when RPGs were nothing but text. There was a time when "RPG" meant dig your dice out of the cushions and throw on some Led Zeppelin. For that matter, there was a time when you dumped your waste out the window and prayed that a closed door would keep the plague out. To put it simply, Legend of Mana conjures none of these images. And it isn't supposed to, considering the spirit of what console RPGs represent today.
As convoluted as it may seem at first, the game starts to grow on you. The world needs to be reformed from memories trapped in artifacts long ago by Sages. In order to unlock these memories, you must take on the role of a hero, male or female, and hack your way through hordes of creatures that look so cute you can't help wanting to kill them. From fruit-clad fortune tellers whose mantras list vegetables and�polyphenol(?) to sorceresses bent on destroying you with showers of Hello Kitty hearts, Legend of Mana mixes its metaphors like your grandma mixes medication.
There are missions that defy comprehension - missions that pop up out of nowhere. One moment you're racing through screens inspired by the collaborative influence of Bath and Body Works and a gumball machine, the next moment you're face-to-face with a Boss. You know it's a boss because the music turns a happy sort of ominous and the creature is BIG, with a life bar the length of a baby's arm. Why are you fighting him? There's a chance you don't know; but fight on warrior�fight on. Battle is real-time but the difficulty is negligible. The Bosses bite it far too easily and the Special Techniques and Magic serve only to divert your attention from the fact that you could just as easily pummel the beast with a club.
The Rainbow Starts Here - Who Knows Where it Ends.
The superficial simplicity of Legend of Mana belies the complex system of creation that makes up the meat of the game. Artifacts are given as booty for many completed missions, and these artifacts, placed upon your allotted territory, morph into destinations that serve to shape the geography of the burgeoning world of Fa'Diel. Placement determines "mana," the source of all life, with dynamics between locales creating wells or droughts of power. That power in turn is separated into eight elements, each ruled by a spirit, and it is mastery of these elements you seek. That's the Big Picture.
Your "Home" quickly becomes a hub for creation on a more personal level. You gain access to an Equipment Smithy, a Golem Laboratory, and a Monster Corral (there are others) through completed missions. Here you combine various items to invent weapons, armor, instruments, and even companions. The number of items found or purchased in the game is staggering, and each of these has the potential to augment your personalized creations.
Aside from revitalizing a dying world, the focus of Legend of Mana is obscured by the over-abundance of subplots, many of which are made silly or even disturbing by the stilted dialogue between characters. Playing the role of a woman will have you suffering identity crisis since she is often referred to insensitively as he. Some may find themselves playing this game for the same reason they find themselves watching The Brady Bunch; there are those who enjoy feeling the life being sucked out of them. Of course, there are people who will enjoy the game simply because it suits their demeanor.
Candy Pants and a Muffin for You
Legend of Mana comes at you like a clown with his pants down. It's crazy, it's funny, but it's frightening as well, and you have to ask yourself, why did the clown do that? Therein lies the secret, my friend.
