When I first started drafting this review I realized that it
wasn’t just the colors that made this game beautiful, but the fine detail that
is every where and on every thing. Nothing was left untouched, from the
background to the sprites everything is done in a way that it looks organic; it
looks like a complete world. The touches I like the most are the small things,
the glittering sands in Jadd, waving leaves and flickering candle light. These
small touches, once again, make the world feel organic. The sprites are also
beautiful, of course, but not just the main characters but the enemies as well.

    Now on to the negative, the character portraits, I hate
them. It’s not because they are poorly done in anyway, they’re not, it’s
because they’re static. Let me explain, the point of character portraits in
games are not only to show use how the characters look, but to further carry
the emotions of the provided text. Likewise the sprites interaction in cinematic scenes
is really rigid; some very moving moments were spoiled because the portraits
never change and the sprites stand around like lead blocks. When the text and
music is emotionally charged and the physically personification of this emotion
is passive at best, it’s visually off putting.

Also most of the faces of the characters portraits all look
very similar, feminine and childish across genders except for maybe three. The
uniformity of the faces seems so lazy in comparison to the rest of the visuals.

 Sound-8/10

    I went and listened through the Sword of Mana soundtrack and
I have to say it was pretty amazing. Going through song by song memories of
specific portions of the game started playing in my head. Endless Battle, Believe in
Victory, Village and Pleasing Scenery, A Girl’s Longing, Rising Sun and Awaking
Tale are the most frequently played tracks. And when I say frequently I mean
the majority of the game. There are more tracks but they are used much more
infrequently, which is a shame because there are many places where they could
have been used. Over use of tracks causes two things to happen. 1) I get
annoyed and turn it off or 2) I tune it out. Originally I was going to rate the
sound are 6/6.5, but I couldn’t. I had to take into account the way the music
was used, and during the cinematic scenes it was spot on, always. It was
emotional were it was emotional, hectic during battles. You knew what was
happening because of the music, once again it carried the brunt of the
emotional tone. As for the physical attack noises they were ok, nothing special,
although the noise that alerted you of your special attack was annoying.

 Story/Depth/Characters-8/10

   As this is a review and not a synopsis I’m going to stay
away from the plot as much as I can. I feel it’s only fair for people to
experience the storyline of a game for themselves, no matter how old it may be.
Having said that, the themes of this game are very bitter-sweet. From forging friendships
and love, to loss, death, betrayal, sacrifices, self sacrifice and the age old
“revenge will destroy you”. I did fall in love with the main characters, who
they are and their pasts are well defined. Secondary characters not so much.
There are some truly tender moments, but some thing about the story and the
characters seemed rushed at times, the pacing is odd. Some parts where
slightly confusing, like the translation was off. Poor pacing paired poor
choreographed cinematic scenes makes it less immersive then it could have been.
But having said that, I didn’t think the story was bad, just the progression.

    Some things that I did like about the story is that there is
character development, which I wasn’t expecting because of the platform it’s
on. The main thing I like about the story is that at the beginning the
Hero/Heroin both seem overly confident at times. They’re trying to save
everyone, rectify every problem, only in the end to realize that life isn’t
like that. People die, some killed, every problem won’t have a happy ending and
in the end sacrifices have to be made, in short life isn’t fair. Some times
things are out of your control and situations are larger than you or your
feelings. 

 Gameplay-8/10

    Nothing
really special, the battle system is similar to Zelda games, as in
freely moving around the screen while fighting. Though there are wonky
bits. Spears and bow attacks are off especially with the bow. Magic can
be a bit off too when it comes to hitting targets. Flying enemies are
hard to hit as well. While I won’t get into the forging aspects of the
game, what I will say is I don’t like the class system setup. There’s no
explanation for it, in fact there’s really no explanation for forging
or tempering weapons. I can only assume they talk about it in the
manual, though I can’t find it anywhere on the internet. But if you’re
like me you pick one class and spam it. Poor choice, because Warrior,
Monk, Magician, Sage, Thief and Random are the basic classes. There are
36, 6 for each class, other types with their own advantages and
disadvantages, so read a class guide before to allocate your points.

Addictiveness-5

   Please take this portion with a grain of salt.Because level grinding varies form person to person I can’t really give this a score. 
That’s what the vast majority of RPGs are. Some people can do it for hours some only a half and hour, I fall somewhere in between.
 I will say the story did make me push onward even when I wanted to stop.

 Difficulty-4*/10

    It’s not hard, which is fine. But you can make it harder if
you have the time. By killing 999 specific enemies you get the dark version for
that enemy. I’ve never done it I don’t have the time nor dedication for that.
Mind you there are around 120 non boss enemies. But that’s not the problem. The
problem is it’s pretty much impossible to beat the game without getting the
Niccolo’s special menu, which you have to buy 255 items to get. The special
items are stronger accessories and better forging material. Why they hid this I
couldn't even begin to explain, especially given the fact that Niccolo’s
appearances are sporadic.

Replayability-4/10 

   Personal feelings aside, you can play this game twice and get everything there is to get out of it. 
Once for the Hero story line and once for the Heroin. 

Pros: Beautiful visuals, good use of sound, ok story.
Cons: Vital items hidden, stiff cinematics, poor pacing. 

Overall-8

   While I love this game to death and have played it multiple times, this game has problems.The most glaring problem is the secret menu. 
Hiding such an important part of the game really soils the experience.

 *Side note I don’t even know how many times I tried to beat the final boss only to find out what I had to do. 
Then I had no money to buy the special items after I spent all of it on getting the menu. 
And even if I did have money there was no where to forge and no way to go back, so guess who had to start over?