Final Fantasy is Square-Enix’s most popular RPG franchise, but they have another RPG staple that’s pretty well-known as well, called the “Mana” series.  These are generally action-RPG titles, similar to Zelda.  While most people in the US may be familiar with the Mana games because of Secret of Mana on the Super Nintendo, that wasn’t actually the first game in the Mana series.  The first was actually on the old black and white Game Boy, and in the US it was called Final Fantasy Adventure.  They probably called it that because of name recognition to help it sell (and it also had moogles and chocobos in it). 

What’s interesting is that Final Fantasy Adventure has had TWO remakes of it now.  The first was on the Game Boy Advance, titled Sword of Mana.  But that was really more of a reimaging of the game, as it had two playable characters and a more convoluted storyline.  But if you would rather have a remake that’s closer to the original source material, you’re in luck, as Adventures of Mana is so similar to the first game that you can probably use an old strategy guide for it here and be just fine.  Adventures of Mana was originally for mobile devices, but now you can download it on the PS Vita, and it works great on the handheld (played on Vita for this review).

In the game there is a giant Mana Tree that provides the world with life force.  But an evil king and his cohort want the power of the Mana Tree all for themselves.  You play as a warrior who is forced to fight in the evil king’s gladiatorial arena.  But one day you escape and decide to go on a quest to stop the evil king from using the Mana Tree.  Along the way you’ll meet friends, explore a vast overworld and dungeons, and fight all sorts of monsters and bosses in order to save the day!

As an action-RPG, you’ll explore the world in top-down perspective, Zelda style.  Defeat roving monsters with all manner of weapons, including swords, axes, whips, and more!  Some weapons even have functions outside of battle.  You can use an axe to cut down trees, a sickle to trim plants that block your path, and whips can attach to poles for you to reach previously unattainable areas.  You’ll find towns where you can gather clues and buy goods and armor, and venture into dungeon mazes and caves to fight large fearsome bosses.  You’ll even use magic spells to help you out, and sometimes other characters will join you and give you aid as well.  Play control is easy with the PS Vita buttons, but since it was originally a mobile title, you can use the touch screen, too, if you wish.

Adventures of Mana does have some problems, but most of them stem from the fact that this is closely based on a game that’s over 20 years old, and some of the gameplay aspects may not have aged as well.  Sometimes goals and objectives are a little unclear, and you may not immediately know what to do or where to go next.  Dungeon mazes can be very obtuse and harder to navigate.  And if you don’t go in prepared, you may have to do a lot of backtracking.  For instance, most dungeons have locked doors that need keys, and hidden walls that can be broken with pickaxes.  You can buy these items in town, but if you run out in a dungeon, you may have to go back outside and into town to buy more.  Enemies will sometimes drop these items as treasures, but it very rarely happens.  Another problem I had with the game is that while the 3-D graphics are clean and colorful, they lack the personality and detail that older sprite-based Mana games had.

Luckily this remake adds a few new modern amenities to help things from being too dated.  There is an in-game map for the overworld and dungeons, which is pretty handy.  There is also a quicksave feature, so if you run into an unexpected boss and die, you’ll start out close to where you first entered the boss’ room.  But sometimes this feature can backfire.  One time I died because I got poisoned, and the game’s quicksave started me out right before I died, so I had to use my last manual save and start again.  So the quicksave feature is not always a failsafe.  Luckily you can save at any time, so make sure to do it often.  One other cool feature is you can switch the music to be modern or the original 8-bit tunes.  So if you like old-school action-RPGs, or have fond memories of Final Fantasy Adventure, you’ll definitely want to download this.

Kid Factor:

Adventures of Mana is rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Fantasy Violence and Alcohol Reference.  While you do smack enemies around with weapons and magic spells, they just fall over and disappear when defeated, so violence is only cartoony and minimal.  One of the items you can get is called “Bacchus’ Wine,” but that’s the only alcohol reference I could find.  Reading skill is a must for the text, and because of the retro-styled challenge, it’s best for older kid gamers.

Tags: Game Reviews