Videogame, Gameboy Advance
reviewed by Kevin
Sword of Mana makes me very angry. Normally I am a big Square-Enix fan (Final Fantasy Tactics Advance grabbed my soul from the moment I put it in my Gameboy Advance SP and still hasn’t let it go) but I am just having a really hard time getting into this game. First of all, and this may just be because I’m playing too many games at the same time, but I can’t follow the story or keep the characters straight. That’s probably my fault. The game certainly has many irritating traits about it that definitely are its fault, however; the most obvious is the way it utilizes the buddy system. At many points in the game a second character joins you in your wanderings to help you out against your enemies. This is a cool concept, but holy crap, the A.I. is terrible! Here are a couple of examples:
Adventure #1
Me: Come along Lester and bring your bow. We’ve got some bunny monsters to slay!
Lester: George, tell me again about the bunnies.
We start to walk through a very mountainous area now and Lester shows me that he is incapable of walking around walls. So I switch control of my character over to the computer for a moment so I can make Lester actually walk. In the meantime, the computer starts causing my character to shoot off magic attacks that quickly drain my power at absolutely nothing. And as long as he’s shooting magic attacks I can’t take control back to stop him. There go all my MP.
Adventure #2
Lester and I finally got out of those stupid mountains and got to the dungeon. And it only took me a couple hours. But oh crap, now we’ve been attacked by these demon beasts and they’re impervious to physical weapons. That means I need to use… MAGIC!
I start by sitting down to recharge my magic power since SOMEONE burned up all my MP for no reason in the desert. Lester makes himself useful by shooting totally ineffective arrows at the creatures to hold them back while I charge up. Finally I’m charged and ready to go. I’ll blast these evil things with my light spirit. Afterall, what better way to reverse absolute dark than light?
I fire off my light blast and Lester shoots an arrow… his arrow connects right before my magic blast… and knocks the enemy out of the way of my perfectly aimed attack! So I charge it up again and fire again. And Lester does the same thing again! And there’s no way to tell him "Hey, moron, your arrows do nothing. Stop shooting!"
Adventure #3
Lester and I are now wandering around inside a live volcano, of all the completely asinine things to do but they say this is where the Sword of Mana is kept. Oh no, a part of the floor has crumbled away and there’s nothing but lava where that part of the floor used to be. Guess I’ll have to walk around it. I have no desire to be burned alive. Oh wait, there’s a monster. I’ll hack it apart with my sword!
Me: Lester!
Lester: Yeah, George?
Me: … … … uhm… Stay put!
Lester: ‘Kay, George. I’ll stand here. It’s nice and warm George, just like those bunnies.
Me: Wha- Lester, you idiot! You’re standing IN the magma! Move!
Lester doesn’t move, but he pulls out his bow and starts shooting arrows from the magma. Around this time I decide that I’ve spent way too many magic points trying to heal the idiot, there’s no way I’m going in the magma after him to heal him so I let the idiot die. I’m a much more effective fighter without his help anyway.
There are a couple of good things about the game. The puzzles are innovative and there are a variety of weapons and elemental magic attacks to keep fights cool unless you’ve been cursed with a partner for that mission. Which is unfortunately most of the time… But mostly the buddy combat system just makes the game nearly impossible to enjoy because of the A.I.’s frustrating and irreparable idiocy. Most Square-Enix stuff is very good, but I just cannot show support for a game this irritating.
