Mana series (Secret/Sword/Legend/Trials of...etc)

[Trurotaketwo]

Over the weekend I've been playing Legend of Mana for the PS1 and I enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting. It can be hard to work out where to go next (unless you use a guide... Don't judge me...) but the combat is some of the best in the series. In older games, like Secret or Trials you'd swing once and your attack sometimes just missed, but in Legend it's more like a beat-em-up.
The music is wonderful. I understand that it was done by the same composer as the Kingdom Hearts games Yoko Shimomura (she also did the music for Final Fight,  Street Fighter II, and Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga). 
Much of the game revolves around doing side-quests, like Majora's Mask. Some people say this makes it like a "Choose your own adventure" book. There's eve a New Game+, letting you carry over your levels, items, collected pets and money over to your next playthrough, so it's definitely got replay value.

So, after I finished my first playthrough last night, I thought it might be a good time to talk about the Mana series in general. Especially with Collection of Mana and the remake of Trials of Mana.

 

[lolin]

i've beaten sword and secret and they're great fun

[Trurotaketwo]

I haven't played Sword all the way through, but I have played the original gameboy version, Final Fantasy Adventure. It's actually one of my top 10 Gameboy games. You could say it's a game so nice, they remade it twice.