Together RPG - Secret of Mana - 4/1 --> 6/1

[Ivo]

Started this up recently, I agree with some comments regarding hit detection and out of sync animations.

Also I have some complaints about the AI, had serious trouble with the fight where you meet the girl.

Having fun though.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Also I have some complaints about the AI, had serious trouble with the fight where you meet the girl.

Which fight? There are a couple of ways to get the girl to join up. Do you mean the werewolves?

[Ivo]

Also I have some complaints about the AI, had serious trouble with the fight where you meet the girl.

Which fight? There are a couple of ways to get the girl to join up. Do you mean the werewolves?

Yes, Werewolf pair. I got wiped out 2 or 3 times there and the Girl didn't help much.

Also lost a few times in the following bosses until I figured I just better have max MP for the fights.

[elricorico]

Played some more last night, through the Moon Palace. Felt like there were as many "bosses" in the last several areas as there were regular encounters. Now that I've got MPAbsorb for the Sprite I plan on doing a lot of leveling up my magic.

I hope to push to the finish over the next couple of weeks.

[elricorico]

Played again last night and the sunken continent has surfaced. Did a little grinding there before calling it a night. Sprite's magic levels are going up fast now, just got to spend more time on the girl's magic too.

[Ivo]

I finished. Nice game but the difficulty curve is out of whack (starts hard then gets really easy?) and the late game is...

A Boss rush that is pretty much a Magic Spam contest, which is annoying as the spells are too splashy for that kind of thing (if you are to spam abilities, make it more like Diablo 2 where it doesn't take seconds for the effect - this is a common problem with turn-based JRPGs like Final Fantasy, particularly with the summons).

Props for the actual last battle actually forcing you to use a Sword and for limiting the amount of healing / MP replenish items you can carry, in a futile attempt at preventing abuse, but 4 Faerie Nuts is still plenty. Also the series seems to like some partially downer endings, doesn't it?

It is a good game and I enjoyed it, maybe it is even a classic but it has a large number of flaws I think.

Also I personally dislike the MP system implementation. Early on it is particularly inconvenient as levelling up doesn't replenish them (but does replenish HP?). That is a simple change that I think would significantly increase my enjoyability of the system, particularly in areas with physical-immune monsters. When characters can only "hold" less than 20 MP that is 10 castings of a regular offensive spell.
In the mid game you have more than enough money to keep 4 Faerie Nuts but it is still annoying.
Late game you finally get the MP steal spell (only for one of the characters though), I wonder if you should get that at the start given that one of the characters is apparently meant to be a dedicated offensive spellcaster. On the other hand that essentially makes that particularly character have effectively unlimited MP by then.

I guess slowly auto-replenishing MP works better for action RPGs? It was ok in Diablo 2 at least.

[TheSSNintendo]

Made it to Kakkara this evening.

[SNESdrunk]

I forget if it's been mentioned here yet or not, but if this game were re-released on 3DS, the dual screens would work really well with the ring system. You wouldn't have to pause the game to access magic/items/whatever and keep most everything in real-time.

[TheSSNintendo]

Made it to North Town.

[elricorico]

Into the Pure Land as of last night. Locations are taking much longer to clear at this point in the game. I think I'll have more time tonight to continue. Maybe finish this weekend?