Print this page. A few years into the PlayStation's life cycle, Square suddenly remembered all the great 16-bit franchises it had lying around the office. Yet despite its obvious mastery of presentation, Legend of Mana never delivers the gameplay to match its predecessors. You begin the game by choosing a male or female player, a starting weapon, and an initial location on the world map of Fa-dil. Towns, dungeons, forests, plains, and more - everything in the world comes from the placement of artifacts.
New artifacts mean new quests, and new quests mean even more new artifacts.
Instead, you get a spattering of disconnected islands, with nothing to unite the different environments. Instead of a continuous narrative, you feel thrust into a stop-go lurching ride of a storyline. Even so, the game unfolds linearly, with completion of early quests a prerequisite for later adventures. Previous titles are renowned for their fabulous three-player mode, yet Legend of Mana inexplicably jettisons this series tradition. Instead, the largest party you can have now consists of two characters and a pet monster.