I had played the original game on PS3 (PS1 Classics) about 10 years ago, and when I did there's a few things...I don't remember if I ever finished it, in fact I'm 100% sure now that I didn't, and when I played that time I didn't have a guide or anything.
This time I followed a guide, because I was curious of what I had missed. I was aware because you place the stages where you want and you select where the game even starts, that some things were missable, and add to the fact I thought I had beat the game years ago.
I also had played this solo, the game does have a local 2-player co-op option that honestly looks like it would have been fun, but I can't speak on it because I played solo and have no one to co-op with.
For starters I don't believe the Remaster really added anything new, it just fixed up dialogue, names, made Ring Ring Land available without an outside device, reanimated the cutscenes, and gave the option to have the music original or orchestrated, on top of the usual SquareEnix additions of turning on or off encounters. Other than those things, I believe the game is mostly the same aside being upscaled and upped the definition.
I'll say this game is much better than I gave it credit for in the past. I already thought it was a good game, but once I played this version I decided it was a great game. The graphics still hold up, the areas are beautiful, the character sprites look good although I do wish they had updated them to match the art they redesigned in the intro. The music was better than I remembered, but that may have been from me turning on the orchestral version of the songs (though some are better with the classic sound.)
I do have something that bugs me that I didn't notice until halfway through the game, but when it comes to the adventure, I realized it's not far off from the style Children of Mana would use later. It doesn't have the mission based structure of going to pick up a quest then go, but it still has that same short quest feel of going to an NPC and starting the quest and going to places you've been too for a very short time and then being done...some quests lasting between 5 mins to maybe 45 mins...so it made me wonder why people had such an issue when Children of Mana did it, but they tout Legend of Mana for it's greatness.
While it was a super fun adventure with awesome and fun combat, I think the story is what takes a hit. The story is actually good if not a bit scattered and damn near requires you to have a guide to find some of them (especially later ones), but also...your character doesn't seem to have any agency during most of the quests or even the story overall...you just do stuff and help people and like maybe for 1 or 2 late quests you have actual story involvement, but most of the time you're kinda standing there watching stuff unfold and asked stuff that inconsistently effects the story or doesn't at times. That's really my only gripe.
Like the game, this review is kinda scattered because it's hard to talk directly about this game without giving examples because it's very combat fun if the story doesn't grip you, but your options of weapons, gear, crafting, pet raising and such gives you more stuff to do, so definitely play it if you can, it's super fun, just don't expect a super detailed story.
This time I followed a guide, because I was curious of what I had missed. I was aware because you place the stages where you want and you select where the game even starts, that some things were missable, and add to the fact I thought I had beat the game years ago.
I also had played this solo, the game does have a local 2-player co-op option that honestly looks like it would have been fun, but I can't speak on it because I played solo and have no one to co-op with.
For starters I don't believe the Remaster really added anything new, it just fixed up dialogue, names, made Ring Ring Land available without an outside device, reanimated the cutscenes, and gave the option to have the music original or orchestrated, on top of the usual SquareEnix additions of turning on or off encounters. Other than those things, I believe the game is mostly the same aside being upscaled and upped the definition.
I'll say this game is much better than I gave it credit for in the past. I already thought it was a good game, but once I played this version I decided it was a great game. The graphics still hold up, the areas are beautiful, the character sprites look good although I do wish they had updated them to match the art they redesigned in the intro. The music was better than I remembered, but that may have been from me turning on the orchestral version of the songs (though some are better with the classic sound.)
I do have something that bugs me that I didn't notice until halfway through the game, but when it comes to the adventure, I realized it's not far off from the style Children of Mana would use later. It doesn't have the mission based structure of going to pick up a quest then go, but it still has that same short quest feel of going to an NPC and starting the quest and going to places you've been too for a very short time and then being done...some quests lasting between 5 mins to maybe 45 mins...so it made me wonder why people had such an issue when Children of Mana did it, but they tout Legend of Mana for it's greatness.
While it was a super fun adventure with awesome and fun combat, I think the story is what takes a hit. The story is actually good if not a bit scattered and damn near requires you to have a guide to find some of them (especially later ones), but also...your character doesn't seem to have any agency during most of the quests or even the story overall...you just do stuff and help people and like maybe for 1 or 2 late quests you have actual story involvement, but most of the time you're kinda standing there watching stuff unfold and asked stuff that inconsistently effects the story or doesn't at times. That's really my only gripe.
Like the game, this review is kinda scattered because it's hard to talk directly about this game without giving examples because it's very combat fun if the story doesn't grip you, but your options of weapons, gear, crafting, pet raising and such gives you more stuff to do, so definitely play it if you can, it's super fun, just don't expect a super detailed story.