Hunter's Arena: Legends launches with three different game modes. Once the combat clicks, it's an incredibly satisfying experience, with each battle becoming a Mortal Kombat-like dance of attacks and defense that is truly skill-testing in nature. Mantisco thankfully provides resources like a Game Guide that goes more in-depth about the combat system, as well as a Training Ground that allows players to choose each hunter and practice combos against AI Hunters. It's not very deep, but there are some techniques I picked up along the way that increased my lethality, such as canceling certain enemy attacks by slamming them with a power attack at just the right moment.It's all a bit overwhelming at first, especially in the first few matches when trying to learn all of the combat's nuances.
There's a rhythm to each encounter, and if you're hacking and slashing just right, you can blow through them with ease while still feeling satisfied with your performance. It took me a bit to reacquaint myself with the Mana battle system, but once it "clicked" again, I found it quite fun. You set your attacks to whatever buttons you like in the menu, with different attacks available either through leveling up or depending on which weapon you're wielding. You come across some enemies, the action switches to battle mode, and you do battle in action-RPG style. The battle system is similar to the previous Mana games, minus the in-battle circle menus. In spite of the obtuse and nonsensical quest structure in Legend of Mana, which makes it feel like a PS1 game more than anything else, I still had a lot of fun playing it. If you know what you’re doing it's entirely possible to beat the story in just a couple hours (the world-record speedrun for the original is about 90 minutes, although the shortened loading times of the remake will make it possible to do it even faster). Going in blind, I spent close to 20 hours going from quest to quest, without any clues as to where or what I should do next, before I finally got frustrated and consulted a guide and burned through the Dragon Run path to the end in under three hours. As far as cohesiveness between individual stories, there's not much and man oh man does The Legend of Mana provide you with absolutely zero guidance. I did like how some characters' stories play out over the course of several different quests, while others are single-serving, opening and closing in a quest. The individual stories connecting to the secondary characters have a little more in the way of creativity, but not much. There's a great peril, the world is in danger, and it's up to YOU to make things right. It's fun, with a huge cast of characters, but the overall story isn't particularly engaging or novel. Since this was my first time playing I can't speak from personal experience, but I can say if you go and watch any part of any playthrough of Legend on original hardware, it sure looks functionally identical.
It's a nice touch for nostalgia’s sake, but since I have no connection to the original I left it on the modern arrangements instead.Īs far as story and gameplay are concerned, the Legend of Mana on Switch or PlayStation 4 is pretty much the same as it is on the PS1. You can enter into the in-game menu and listen to any favorite tracks at will, and you also have the option to switch from the remade soundtrack to the original version during gameplay.
#Black legend game review series
The music, something the Mana series is famous for, has also been remade with orchestral arrangements of its original soundtrack. The balance it strikes between hand-drawn and sprite work is just perfection. It's so charming and evokes feelings of nostalgia while moving Legend of Mana forward. The overworld map, too, keeps its original PS1 sprite look but is now in 16:9. It was the right artistic choice because the sprites – particularly the screen-filling bosses – are some of the most beautiful around and it would’ve been all but impossible to improve upon them. The juxtaposition of such gorgeous sprite work with the smooth, clean lines of the anime-style backgrounds works incredibly well. The character and enemy sprites retain their original, chunky and pixelated looks and honestly I wouldn’t have it any other way.
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