Developer: Brownie Brown
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: 12-1-03
I have a confession to make. I have never been able to get into Secret of Mana. It’s a game I loved in limited play as a kid, but as an adult I keep starting it and abandoning it a few hours in. It feels like an action RPGs that wants to be a turn-based game. I guess waiting between attacks really annoys me. If you’re going to go for action you should make the battles fast paced. Hopefully someday I will be able to power through it and maybe will end up really enjoying it. However, what I am a big fan of is practically every other Mana game. They are usually able to get the action part right while still managing to feel like RPGs. It is once again a case where the famous game is my least favorite in the series. I actually didn’t know there were so many Mana games. It feels like the games come out several years apart on all different consoles. They also have a bit of branding trouble where the second most famous American release is Final Fantasy Adventure. Most of the Mana games feel like scrappy underdogs in America, and this just adds to the charm. Did anyone play Sword of Mana back in the day? Did anyone play anything on GBA besides Pokémon and WarioWare? Is this all a simulation and the GBA is actually playing us? I suppose that’s a discussion for another day. Let’s talk about the actual game now.
Sword of Mana is a very good RPG for a handheld. It’s fairly fast paced, not overly long, and easy to pick up and play. The nature of handhelds would change significantly in the DS era, but in 2003 portability was definitely still a concern. It’s very much an action RPG where the enemies are always on screen, and you mostly attack them head-on. There are no random battles in this one. It’s a mostly linear quest with obvious trails leading to obvious towns. It’s not even possible to backtrack very much until almost the end of the game. Every new town has a set of side quests, and I don’t think I finished a single one of them. Still, it’s nice to know they are there. It’s all pretty standard, but definitely fun.
Like many of the Mana games the real fun comes in the details. Sure it’s mostly running and attacking, but everything is customizable. There is a wide array of weapons that level up independently of your character’s level. There are items along the way that help you upgrade weapons and armor. Spells will similarly level up as you use them. There are also class-changing skill points that are earned on level up. If you wanted to, however, you could skip all the upgrading and grinding and just run through the game. It’s not that difficult, and you certainly earn enough levels by just exploring the complicated dungeons. Much like its console cousin Legend of Mana, it’s a game that’s only as complicated as you want to make it. I, of course, like to take the slow route and level everything up as much as I can. It still only took me about 20 hours, so it never gets tedious.
Sword of Mana does suffer from the same problem experienced by so many GBA games. It really needs more buttons. I have no idea why Nintendo didn’t go with a 4-button setup, especially since the GBA was such a haven for Super Nintendo re-releases. The most glaring example in Sword of Mana is the magic system. You collect spirits throughout the game who each come with two spells. To cast them you tap R for the status spell and hold R for the attack spell. This is cumbersome because some monsters are only hurt by magic, and waiting for the attack spells is both slow and dangerous. I wish I could toggle spells and cast either one instantly. I also wish I could equip two weapons at once since different monsters have different weaknesses, and I frequently found myself back on the inventory screen switching weapons. This was a real problem with pre-DS handheld games. Action-RPG and adventure games would often have large inventories and required constant item switching. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about if you’ve ever played Link’s Awakening or Final Fantasy Adventure. At least the Mana team had refined it a bit by not having most enemies completely immune to certain types of weapons. Still, I can’t be too hard on Sword of Mana for being overly ambitious when it mostly comes together into a complete package.
It was nice getting back to GBA again and playing something more significant than my usual games. I haven’t reviewed one since February of 2022, and those were all games aimed at little kids. There really are a lot of kids games for GBA, but it’s nice to find something with more depth every once in a while. It easily slides into the good section at #23. I need to play some more good games because while I did enjoy it, I was surprised it ranked so high. Actually, it’s my first good GBA game. Hopefully it’s a sign of better games to come. Hey maybe I should play WarioWare or Pokémon. I’ve heard they’re good.
Game Boy Advance Quality Percentage: 1/4
Game Boy Advance
1. Sword of Mana
2. Cabbage Patch Kids: The Patch Puppy Rescue
3. Care Bears: Care Quest
4. Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots
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