Legend of Mana

About Legend of Mana

Legend of Mana (1999) is Square's hand-painted PlayStation action RPG in which the player builds the world of Fa'Diel by placing artifacts on a map, a beautiful but loosely plotted spin-off of the Mana series.

Legend of Mana in Depth

Fights happen in real time where enemies are met, with the hero helped by a support character tied to the current quest and a companion chosen from pets, monsters and golems, either of which a second player can control. Weapons such as swords and spears each teach a set of Special Techs, used when a meter filled by landing hits is full. Instead of a fixed world, the "Land Make" system has the player place Artifacts on empty plots of a map grid; each creates a Land to enter, usually holding a quest whose reward is another Artifact. Each Land's strength in the spirits of Mana depends on the Artifact, its position and its neighbours, changing the power of magic there. Around the hero's house, players can forge and combine equipment, grow fruit, raise pets and build golems.

Nine centuries after the Mana Tree burned and the lands of Fa'Diel were sealed into artifacts, an unnamed hero sets out to restore the world. The story is told through many quests in three main arcs: the persecuted, jewel-hearted Jumi race; the dragoon siblings Larc and Sierra serving rival dragons; and the tangled love story of the childhood friends Matilda, Irwin, Daena and Escad. Completing any one arc opens the final quest to the Mana Tree.

Making Legend of Mana

Series creator Koichi Ishii directed, with Chrono Trigger director Akihiko Matsui as designer, character art by Shinichi Kameoka and Kawazu, of the SaGa series, as producer; Retro Gamer later noted Kawazu's heavy influence on the design. Kawazu first gave Ishii a relaxed schedule and budget for his many ideas, then tightened it when the project ran out of time, and character sprites and item mechanics were cut to fit on one CD. Shimomura, new to the series, said in 2002 that it was the soundtrack that best expressed herself.

Square released it in Japan in July 1999 with demos of Vagrant Story, Chrono Cross, Front Mission 3 and Threads of Fate. It sold over 400,000 copies in its first week and 700,000 by the end of the year, and topped the PlayStation chart in its North American launch week in June 2000. Critics adored its art, EGM calling it "the most impressive 2D artwork ever seen on a console", and its music, but found it disjointed without a main story; GamePro said its focus was "obscured by the over-abundance of subplots". A remaster followed in 2021.