The polpota harbor event scared me as a kid that I avoided the town for the longest. Everytime i leave a room, i look behind me. This was a thing for a week.

Omg I started watching you because i saw your retrospective on the other mana games

Just caught the fresh upload, just wanted to comment that I'm really glad to see the retrospective continued after so long, I'm sure it was hard work to produce. Thank you for keeping it alive

I've patiently waited for this video for years cause lom is one of my favorite of the series (you can tell from my alias) and i loved your other mana retrospectives. Great job as always!

IF YOU EVEN KNEW. I have been waiting for years to find some retrospective worth anything for this game. It’s my all time favorite game. My brother and I sank COUNTLESS hours into this game dude. I was so stoked to get a physical copy of the Switch release. This game is amazing and I still haven’t seen all of it. It’s amazing what they fit on a single disc. Oh well here goes the next two hours of my life. Another comment to follow!

Gilbert talking about how hard he is cracked me up. I still can't believe they left that in for the re-release.

The game disappointed me as a kid, but this retrospective did not! Thanks for actually putting this fever dream mess of a game into a coherent context. This game seemed more about creating setpieces and vibes more than about having a heroic journey like the previous ones. It's not bad in theory but really needed better and more focused direction. It *could* have been a classic masterpiece if they had tried to do less.

@osurpless

9 ай бұрын

Likewise, it was far too easy as a kid, so aside from the exemplar music, I naturally preferred the multiplayer SNES entries. But in playing it nearly 100% a year or so ago (as well as appreciating Kawazu far more than back in 2000…) its own kind of charm is revealed. Particularly if you find yourself with the wherewithal to create the strongest weapons, instruments, and especially Golems; the game gets even easier with any of those, but they are interesting diversions and an ideal way to give this game an identity all its own. Much like the finest entires of the SaGA series, most of which aren’t exactly user friendly games either…

Legend of Mana is a unique masterpiece ❤

Thank you for making this video. I always wondered why Secret of Mana changed so much on the PS1. I still haven’t completed this game. Love your Mana series videos.

2nd comment. WOW great and thorough retrospective. I’m impressed by your vigor and your humor. Where do I even begin. This is my all time favorite game. My uncle randomly found the disc wrapped in a napkin at a pawn shop for a dollar and bought it for my brother and I. The rest is history. We sank countless hours into this game. I’ve never seen or played anything like it. The music is profound and the hand drawn art is just a delight to the eyes. The characters and lands and monsters and everything are all so unique. The amount of depth and expanse and just all around stuff you can do in this game baffles me. How they fit it on a single disc I will never know. I still haven’t even seen all of it because I have been locked out of certain areas. I’m going to buy a guide and create a new file soon though. Shimomura’s music was so top notch. My favorite is probably Popolta Harbor’s theme. I think it’s my favorite town too. But I have a soft spot for Fieg Snowfields. I think my favorite character design is probably Vadise I’ve gotta say. Never seen a dragon like that and she was beautiful and wise looking on the spot. When they announced the remaster I cried and when I got my physical copy I cried. My brother and I are estranged now and probably will be forever. This game holds such a special and nostalgic place in my heart. I love it more than any other game I’ve ever played. Thank you so much for this video. It was great to relive.

Holy cow, 2 hours. Time to dig in!

Thanks for the video, SC. Great as usual!

perfect review. played it weeks ago.. 120 hours into the new game plus. this game is incredible. greets from germany.

work of art!

Definitely one of my favorite PS1 games! It's funny how many things you found baffling that, to me, have always just been the way the game is, because I played it when it came out when I was 11. There were definitely some things I never understood as a kid, like weapon crafting, but I also think that feeling that there were always so many things to keep discovering was one of the things that I loved about it.

You've absolutely outdone yourself this time, SC. Great work.

Nice to see it all come together. Hopefully a mere sword will require less work than a whole Legend, haha. As for the Jumi bit, if I can just pull an excuse out me bum, maybe the armor would make them too obvious? The people who knew about the Jumi cores seem to be fairly limited and maybe not everyone is just willing to wear armor? I mean, meet silly reasoning with silly reasoning.

Thank you for taking so much time talking about the mana series 💚

Yeah! Sword of Mana! My very first Mana game ever! Mine was a used copy.

lol. You really commit to a bit. I respect that

For the summer of adventure i got the music cd with mana and the clock for chrono cross. Seems like yesterday.

These "HD 2D" ps1 games always seem to age so well visually.

Loving the crazy deep dive into all of the Mana games. I sadly gave up playing this game shortly after buying it because it didn't feel the same as the games I loved before it. Definitely on my list of games I might give a shot as a more patient 42 year old!!

after playing SOM on the SNES and then getting Legends of mana I was so confused

I've been SO excited to see your take on Legend of Mana. I have a lot I'd like to say in reference to the series and you're retrospective as a whole, but can't do so now. But I DID notice one minor error in your video. You mentioned the scenario "Seeing Double" only activating before the last event in the game. However I've never finished the game, and I can say with confidence I've managed to trigger it only a few hours in. Given how big the boss's life bar is in that scenario, it might be an unintentional glitch in the programming, as you're probably supposed to be at a higher level, but it definitely happens sometimes. Maybe the configuration of the artifacts can trigger it early?

@scxcr

9 ай бұрын

The requirement for Seeing Double is having level 3 Shade in Domina, and the best way to do that (without screwing up access to other events or items) is placing the Mana Sword right next to Domina, since it boosts all surrounding areas to level 3 everything. Given how early you got it and how only 7 or 8 artifacts have Shade's essence, 2 of which are right near the end of the game, I'm guessing you put either the Underground or Lumina artifact right next to Domina, since either counts for 2 levels of Shade. It's technically possible, but also affects access to other parts of the game.

@Sonicisbadazz

9 ай бұрын

@@scxcr It was probably the Underground artifact, as I managed to trigger it pretty early. Either way that's interesting to know. I wasn't aware that there were specific ways you HAVE to place the artifacts to avoid missing items or scenarios, though I've suspected that for a long time. Maybe it's why I abandoned every playthrough I started, even if it was after I'd finished more than half the game. I'm too OCD and perfectionistic to handle the notion that I might lock myself out of content, and at the time I refused to use walkthroughs to help me. Fortunately I wised up years later and just watching this review makes me wanna boot it back up with a walkthrough next to me. I hope to god there's some way to gain access to everything on a single playthrough, or at least all the scenarios. It's interesting to hear that Koichi Ishii was primarily responsible for the game's structure. Given the preponderance of complaints about the story's nonlinear and disjointed nature, it didn't seem like it fit the Mana mold. Then I later discovered that Kawazu was the producer, the guy who had made the highly criticized SaGa Frontier, a game so nonlinear that it's actually possible to miss every relevant story beat depending on which of the 7 characters you choose and which places you travel to. So I figured this nonlinear, less focused story structure had to be HIS doing. But it sounds more like Ishii was the one pushing for the less linear game structure and Kawazu was actually trying to reign him in! Personally when I first tried it, I was disappointed by those design choices, but the more I played, the more I came to appreciate how much more freedom I had as the player and how much more content there was to sink my teeth into. I'd almost say it feels like a predecessor to sandbox RPG games, albeit one with a level select screen. The only other Mana game I'd played prior to this was Secret, which I loved but also never finished. Anyway, great video. I skipped several parts to avoid spoilers for when I go back to the game, but what I've seen is as good as your other Seiken Densetsu videos.

This was one of my favorite experiences on PS1. It very much helps to have a friend for controlling guests. Crafting in this game is absolutely busted. You definitely need a guide for it, but the things you can make even early in the game flip the difficulty on it's head. The recent remaster is a great way to experience it, IMO.

Wow. This really was one of those all time games huh...Just...A wild ride from start to finish. Glad I got to help with the Swedish as well :P

I wonder is Esmerelda is a throw back or a prelude to Esmerelda in xeno gears

8:35 i actually learned today that there is at least one difference in gameplay for the male/female characters; when playing as the male lead, he will play the organ in the church in Domina without mistake, While the female lead has to hop around the keys to figure out the melody.

@ethancrites6994

7 ай бұрын

i know it's not exactly gameplay, but i was wondering if there were any other instances of this throughout the game

Okay, I said I wanted to write a more detailed comment about the series and your retrospective about it. So here goes: I have a theory that the theme behind the series is about "balance." Admittedly this isn't a theory I developed after playing any of the games through to completion. In fact, I've only played about half to two thirds of Legend, maybe half of Secret, and about half of Sword. Heroes and Trials I haven't played, Children I've only played the first couple levels, and Dawn I've only played the first three stages. So my ideas are probably going to sound misguided or lacking in proper research. I'm okay with that though. To me, ideas are what I find fascinating, not necessarily whether they stand up to scrutiny. When I think of Mana, the first image that comes to mind is the Tree and the goddess associated with it. Symbolically this suggests that the series is about protecting nature from the corrupting influence of humans and industrialization. There's certainly many nods to this well-worn theme in the games. But when I look at how the Mana stories are told, I feel like there's something a little off about that interpretation. They tend to have clearly distinguished protagonists and antagonists and the storylines might reflect that more two-dimensional nature much of the time, but they're interlaced with these tiny pieces that just don't quite add up to a "nature is good and humanity is bad for exploiting it" vibe. Consider Secret of Mana for a minute. The whole premise of the game is that humanity built a technological fortress with the power of Mana, which in turn "angered the gods" and led to a war that destroyed the civilization and restored peace. Then we start the game and history essentially repeats itself. We even see the Mana tree getting destroyed. So yeah, it seems pretty cut and dry, right? Well apparently not. Because even though the opening explicitly states that a hero yielded the sword of mana to destroy the fortress, the final boss in the game is....NOT the Mana fortress. It's the dragon trying to DESTROY the Mana fortress. Why? Okay maybe it's because the translation was off and the cut content forced them to stitch something together that didn't make complete sense. But it still strikes me as odd. Next consider how the story of Legend of Mana opens. We hear about the Mana tree burning down and humanity warring with each other over the powerful artifacts left in its wake. In a more traditional story, this would be followed by a band of heroes stepping up and defeating all the power mongering idiots to restore peace, but in THIS story, people just get tired of fighting each other until they walk away from the power and live their own kind of unfulfilled peaceful lives. If that were the opening to another RPG, that'd be where we get to the "history repeats itself" moniker, but here, we see the Mana Tree PLEADING for human beings to remember her and seek her power, that she can provide them with everything. Why would you do that given those very people destroyed you and proceeded to destroy themselves seeking that power? I know this doesn't completely gel with your interpretation of the opening SCXCR, but then I'm not sure your interpretation is correct either. It never really sounded to me like humanity turned into lifeless shells; instead it sounded more like they just consciously chose to stop seeking the power to grow until they accepted things could never really change. So again, if the power of Mana led to so much conflict, why would you encourage people to seek it as the goddess? (As a side note, I've wondered whether the storylines we experience in the game aren't actually new ones we're creating or participating in as the protagonist, but actually the MEMORIES of past conflicts locked up in the artifacts that we're supposed to rediscover in order to grow back the Mana tree and regain its power. I know it doesn't make complete sense, but considering how often the player feels like a passive observer of the storylines, I think it makes more sense than it initially appears.) Then we get to Sword of Mana. The opening is pretty standard fare where Vandole finds the Mana tree, harnesses its power for prosperity, but turns to evil and has to be stopped by heroes to restore peace and freedom, then everyone forgets about the Mana goddess again, implying that history will repeat itself...again. However, there's a problem with this base level interpretation of the story, and that's the character of Dark Lord. Though he has the most generic villain name in the world, his intentions are less two-dimensionally evil than they seem. He actively hunts down the Mana clan because they couldn't save his mother -- or maybe it's both his parents -- from a terrible fate. Furthermore, he actively tries to AVOiD the use of Mana power because it led to the downfall of the Vandole empire. So even though he's kind of a political power monger himself, he also seems to be trying to prevent the Mana clan -- who he seems to identify as responsible for the original conflict -- from doing what he believes they did before: enslave humanity. Of course, if anyone has played the game, they'll know it's not how things turn out, but I won't spoil that here. So what we get is a story where history seems to repeat itself, but it indirectly happens while the villain is attempting to PREVENT history from repeating itself! Odd, isn't it? My final exhibit in my theory is Children of Mana. As I said before, I haven't played most of it, but I've watched the opening, and it throws up a huge flag that things aren't quite as simple as they appear. The proof? "The story you're about to hear tells of the only time the holy sword dared to defy Mana." Can any fans even name another time the Sword and the Tree didn't work in tandem? They're the two most important symbols in the game, and they're at odds with each other! When you put this all together, you get a picture of how taking things to extremes, no matter how well meaning, leads to disaster, and therefore "balance" is the correct course. Abuse the Mana power to build a fortress and ravage the land and you'll ruin your world, but destroy the civilization that constructed it -- as symbolized by the fortress at the end of Secret -- and you'll kill a lot of innocent people. Lust for the power of Mana too heavily and you'll destroy its source and each other, but turn away from it completely and you'll stagnate into nothingness. Allow a race of Mana people to suppress the rest of humanity and freedom dies, but hunt down that race to extinction and you're no better than they are. Heck, even the two symbols -- the sword and the tree -- have purposes that contradict each other: the tree's to grow and nurture and the sword's to kill and destroy. Both are necessary, and both can be destructive if favored too highly. Contrast this with something like FF7, where the final cutscene is one where we see Midgar overrun with the planet's vegetation. We take this as a sign that everything is well, that the planet has survived. But what gets glossed over is how human civilization has likely vanished to make way for this growth. Turn that image around and nature actually looks like the invading force against humanity. It's easy to forget that living in symbiosis with nature requires nature to keep itself in check as much as humanity needs to keep itself in check. It's just interesting to me that the Mana series seems to have this subtle through-line suggesting the need for balance in a world where it's too easy to fall into extreme environmentalism or extreme industrialism. But that's my largely uninformed theory about the series. A lot of what I see as hints to something deeper could just be rushed storytelling or translation errors. And given that Dawn of Mana doesn't fit very well into this theory -- from what I can see it's a pretty generic nature people versus empire oppressors narrative -- I could be completely off base here. Still, does anyone agree with me? SCXCR, do you have any opinion? Regardless thanks to anyone who managed to read this entire comment. Peace.

I swear Gaius looks like a deformed cousin of Rock biter from The Neverending Story. Or the CGI stone ogre from Quest For Camelot.

My biggest pet peeve with designing a level up system is turning the exp points into a pickup or drop item. This is especially stupid when you like to pick up every drop item out of habit, keeping player 2 from getting any levels.

18:20 Guy with Onion on his head… yes Spanish viewers, his name is “The Blue Guy”😂

I'm 36 and BARELY get the Gem and the Holograms reference.

Remember when YT was fun and you didnt have to really worry about this strike shit?

One of the biggest problems I had with Legend of Mana was the utter crap load times. Parasite Eve had the same problem as did Xenogears. Ruined the games for me. The PS1 would pretty much be the end of gaming for me as crap graphics and crap load times ruined the fun. It's nice to see we've found ways to make blatant loading screens a thing of the past.

ASMR

Calling this series by its Japanese name always comes off so weebingly pretentious….. Secret of Mana is one of the great beloved classic RPGs that built the genre. It is very well known in the west. We don’t need to call it by its Japanese name for authenticity clout….

The jokes are unbearable