I wasn't much entranced by the actual gameplay of
Legend of Mana. It had the feel of a lengthy side-scrolling action type, much like
Final Fight or
King of Dragons, and the battles themselves would only rarely have any sort of difficulty to them. and I wasn't much impressed by the lack of depth in the
plot itself- granted, my own preferences lean towards massive, over-arching
metaplots and intense
character development, but nonetheless...
However, Legend of Mana wasn't designed as a role-playing game in the image of
Squaresoft's
more popular franchises- the player has the ability to direct his attention to whatever pleases her at the moment, to pursue whichever
story arcs are more interesting. If two people have different games they're working from, the first player can load the second and journey together much like in
Phantasy Star Online or
Diablo II, allowing the second player to level while remaining at the same place in the story- this is in addition to any pets or secondary characters that the player totes around as extra firepower.
What really sells this game, in my opinion, is the quality of the graphics and the music. Hand-drawn two-dimensional sprites on a hand-drawn pseudo-3d background gives the game an almost
etherial visual quality. While FMVs are few and far between, the game doesn't need or want them. The music is extraordinarily adept at setting the appropriate mood-
slow and reverant,
quick and snazzy,
paced and stubborn, all of the flavors are excellently scored.
Legend of Mana is not a game for everyone, but those people that are suited to it will play it to
death and beyond.