Dark Lord rules! Let's play Sword of Mana!

The first part of this LP update is in video form, since we have a ton of walking to do! I'll wait for you to finish. Or you can watch the video now and come to the screenshots later. Your call, man.



While they do that, we'll go over technical details of everything that happened in the video. First, our new weapon, the bow. As you can see, while its power is pretty bad, the accuracy bonus is without compare. Additionally, it's a jabbing weapon, to compare to Gretel's bashing staff and Hansel's slashing sword. This means it can damage the Lime Slimes, which are Amorph-style enemies. Since Batmos and Lime Slimes are the enemies we'll be seeing the most of in the upcoming area, aside from the new additions, the bow is our weapon of choice for the next while.



And yeah, we also found cotton! Like the Animal Bone, you can use cotton to forge new stuff, but rather than weapons, Topple Cotton only works on armor, and only then on armor like Gretel's wearing. But then again, armor, as you can see, is pretty junk. This is our best piece of armor right now.

Also, robes... made of oak wood. Yes.



As for the cactus essence, as you can see, you can plant it in a pot to build a hot house. There's two chief functions to this place.



The first is Li'l Cactus' Diary. He'll write limericks and such about our adventures as we go, and will also register completed sidequests.



The second is in two parts, only one of which we have now, seeing as the handyman is unoccupied right now. The orchard, where Trent resides, is where we can take seeds we gather. We give him two at a time, and then leave and re-enter the hot house to gather the resulting fruit or vegetable, which is then used to temper our weapons and armor. Somehow.

Like many things in Sword of Mana, this system is extremely unintuitive and not worth the effort. Depending on the day of the week and what seeds you supply, you might get a new type of fruit (to temper armor) or veggie (to temper weapons). Each kind of fruit or veggie boosts a different stat on the armor, at the cost of one of its Limit points. There's more to it than that, but as before, I'll burn that bridge when we get to it.



Anyway, on to Vinquette Hall! No, Hansel, you're not the only one who has a bad feeling about this. because you promptly abandon that mentality like a minute later



Gretel mocks your cowardice.



Only to be scared of something else.

Not gonna lie, this whole bit here annoys the hell out of me.



You could BOTH be scared.



Gretel heads over to the trees to examine what it was.



It is a bat that is also a ghost!



It might suck your blood and also possess you! Run!



The count? Oh, this sounds like it's going to go well.



Anyway, we run back over to Hansel, who looks like he saw someone heading off somewhere.



Anyway, he makes fun of Gretel for freaking out.

Sure was!



How do you even confuse a tree branch for the ghost of a sad-looking man?



Oh whatever, let's go to the mansion.



Cozy-looking place. Can't say I care for the weather around here. Thunderstorms and no rain? I call shenanigans, or I would if I didn't live in Utah.



Anyway, we head in, and a dark-clothed butler walks up and bows cordially, greeting us.



Well, we would have shown up earlier, if we could get in during the day.



This guy is just known as the Ebony Butler.



Gretel doesn't want the message getting lost in a sea of bureaucracy, after all.



So, the master only allows entry into the mansion... when he's sleeping?



Yeah, maybe we should just come back another t--



...Or not. Blaugh.



The Ebony Butler offers an alternative... in the form of staying the night here.



Which is a bit unsettling considering we met a ghost earlier.



On the other hand, there appears to be precedence for this!



Apparently, Isabella here is also an overnight guest.

She warns us not to disturb the count, though. Which is the exact opposite of what we're going to do here.



Anyway, Hansel speaks up on the behalf of both of them and accepts the offer. Which, from our perspective, seems quite reasonable, ghost sightings aside.

What you don't know is that while Gretel was in the forest, Julius walked by Hansel and bumped rudely into him, saying that the master of the mansion was a vampire that kidnapped young women, and telling him to just go home. So rather than just being pragmatic, Hansel is now being immensely stupid.

YEAH!



Gretel just knows that he accepted an invite on her behalf to stay in a haunted mansion without asking her, though.



And takes offense, rightly so.

Also, check out them thar lightning effects.



...Hansel, there is no way you could reasonably say something like that and not get punched. You're damn lucky we don't have the knuckle weapon yet.



And because of that, Gretel is now heavily suspicious of Hansel once again. She even declares that if he's trying to set a trap for her, she'll take him down first.



To be perfectly fair, Hansel is right. They need to be here in order to continue. He's just being a tremendous jackass about it.



Anyway, in the face of such blatant dickery, Gretel can only admit defeat, with a warning.



aaaaaaaaaaaaaaasfdfdfdfdfdfd



And then the butler walks in on them facing away, most likely both with their arms crossed, and bows. Because what else does a guy do in that situation, really?



Well, let's check our room out, at least.



Sweet, a complimentary Angel Grail! Not that it does us much good, since there's no way in hell we're traveling with him after we get out of here.



Since we're not going right to bed in this kind of place, let's go chat with Isabella for a bit.



Also, why?



Isabella notes Gretel's tone and asks what's up.

Not just any ghost. A BATGHOST.



Anyway, she has a reasonable explanation for this.



It was just the master's bat servant because he's a vampire! See, totally safe.

Oh wait.



This doesn't initially bother Gretel too much, since this means they might be able to get him to unseal the caves.



Very likely, actually.



Yes, are you dating the vampire? Be honest, we won't judge.



She just comments "that'd be nice" and then correctly guesses our intentions. SHE'S A VAMPIRE TOO, DON'T LOOK INTO HER EYES



Well, that's nice, ambiguous wording about your relationship aside.



This is all Hansel says in that scene.



Oh really? Well, I have no clue how you know this, but I'll make sure to visit once we're allowed to leave the mansion.



Anyway, having talked to Isabella, Hansel seems eager to take an actual rest in a bed.

More "things the game won't explain because it expects you to play as Hansel first": Hansel was captured by Dark Lord and forced to fight as a gladiator, as well as a few other characters we'll meet eventually. So he hasn't slept in a bed since he was a kid.



Why are you only NOW worried about him being a vampire? WHY IS EVERYONE SO RANDOMLY INDECISIVE



OR JUST PLAIN STUPID



Yeah, just give it up. Sleep for a bit, wake up early so he doesn't turn you into zombie slaves, and then go get that water spirit. Leave Hansel behind as bait.



I like how she goes to bed right after Hansel does, despite having just yelled at him for going to sleep.

Anyway, more flashback dreams!



Gretel is insistent that Hansel stay with her.



He says he twisted his ankle and that he and his parents will catch up later.



And you all know how this went.



Gretel escapes, soldiers run up and beat Hansel into unconsciousness...



And Gretel magically ages a few years during this. Or they used a different sprite here for some reason, whatever.



Bogard escaped, but he can't take on a whole squadron of soldiers himself.



Plus, his number one priority, as with Hansel's, is Gretel's safety.



Okay. The Mana Goddess does save our game, so maybe she can save Hansel.



And then he was saved, and got into a disagreement with Gretel a year later and they're staying in a haunted mansion.



Good, don't sleep. Pull an all-nighter.



OH HEY SLEEP-TALKING REVEALS THE TRUTH AFTER ALL



And thus, Gretel learned what became of the boy she knew all those years ago!



She does blame herself for the death of his parents, though, so she won't be openly telling him right now, probably.



Anyway, a noise outside!

A different Ivory Butler shows up talking about their "catch".



I'll take your word for it.



He crosses over to the other side of the hall, muttering about finally being able to return to the underworld of Mavolia.

If you're not familiar with the Mana series, just pretend Mavoles are demons and Mavolia is the Schwarzwelt or something. There's probably a better analogy, but hell if I know it.



Anyway, Gretel's worried about Isabella, so she's going to tail the butler by herself!

Next Time: Achievement Unlocked: If All Else Fails, Use Fire

X(

And out of nowhere SD3 characters!

Okeydokey! Today, we tackle Vinquette Hall, to discover what the count has in store for Isabella! Vinquette Hall is unique for a number of reasons, particularly that Hansel and Gretel each explore an entirely different half of the mansion, but still get basically the same things throughout.



Before we get right into video, I want to talk about the enemy types, because Vinquette Hall introduces two new enemies, both Undead in nature. This guy here, the Skull Drake, is the only Undead enemy that isn't flat-out immune to weapons, and as it resists every kind of physical attack anyway, it may as well be.



We also find a few goodies around the area, but this here, the Light Coin, is important. I mean, the effect of the Light Coin, and any coin when used, is to instantly cast the support magic for that type at no cost. But if you do this, you're foolish! Why? Because the coins are used for sidequests later. Didn't know this beforehand? Oh man is there egg on your face now!

And there IS a sidequest I'll be doing that involves the coins.



More stuff: the Skull Drakes also have the ability to generate a kind of life force shield link thingy. When hit in this phase, all the damage is redirected towards the player. So if you're using indiscriminate high-powered modes of attack (like later spell trajectories), you take the damage instead, and perhaps multiple times at once. This can easily kill you, so be cautious around these enemies.



Anyway, before long, we come across a jab-type metaball lodged in a fireplace. It's not in our way or anything, but it is there, therefore we will shoot it.



Oh hey, little guy! Hope we didn't hit you, too.



Turns out that metaball was keeping him trapped inside the mansion.



As a reward for saving him, he decides to lend us his assistance!



And with that, we have access to Salamander magic, also known as fire magic! This is the first type of magic PC Hansel gains access to, and since NPC Hansel will also conveniently discover a Salamander in his half of the mansion, once we reunite he'll be able to cast fire magic as well. Light magic is still better, especially here, but fire magic is pretty damn good too. It has a chance of burning enemies it hits, causing them to flee and dealing additional damage, although enemies killed by burning grant no XP or lucre. And the support spell? That doubles the physical attack power of the recipient, meaning we'll be getting a lot of use out of Salamander.

Anyway, now that we have that, let's cut to video for the rest of the main mansion.



Also, yes, Undead. It bears repeating that they are completely immune to physical attacks. Meaning you have to use magic on them. Magic you may not have any training in this early. Not that the alternative is much better, since you'd be severely lacking in physical defense and HP, making physical confrontations with ANY enemies quite tedious and dangerous.



Oh, and also we have finally attained the title of grappler! As you can see, all it takes for your initial class is five levels in whatever single type you want. Fair enough. The exception is barbarian, which, rather than random levels, requires two each of warrior and monk, and one of thief. How are you supposed to guess this? Be psychic or read a guide, that's how.

Anyway, more relevantly, we need to choose what the next class path we want to take is! We have two choices, as follows:

• A true monk follows the teachings of a monastery, which, while it does teach them the ways of unarmed combat, also teaches them mercy and pacifism. The healing skills of a well-trained monk are, to many, both comparable to those of a cleric and more welcome than their physical skill.
• There are those who pursue martial arts for their own sake, rather than to help others, of course. Although such styles can vary significantly, such martial artists, known collectively as bashkar, have a mastery of the way of the fist that can equal even the most powerful of monks, and in some cases, surpass it.

Anyway, just ahead is both Isabella and a bespectacled-looking noble sort.



Evidently, this is Count Lee, the vampiric master of the mansion.



Gretel is good at learning. Especially learning how to punch dudes.



You mean your werewolf butler? Yes, we did.

At least the butler wasn't as big of a jerk as that THING earlier.



Vampires. I think we established this.



Oh, more of this Mavolia stuff. Which, as with most of the game, is never really explained, but since Mavoles tend to be like Lee here, i.e. humanoids with the traits and powers of supernatural whatevers, I will stick with my original assumption, that eventually a team of soldiers from across the globe will invade Mavolia in their space tanks.



More relevantly, Lee and Isabella have been friends for like a hundred billion million years.



I wouldn't mind. I'm just making stuff up.



Isabella does mind, though.



Apparently they're having a disagreement about what Lee's up to.



Man, it sure would be nice if we knew ANYTHING about what was going on.



All I know is he's made a promise to someone who might be dead and also he's a Mavole. Really though, the big thing is that he abducts Mana Women and shoves them into coffins. Can we focus on that?



No, we cannot. We're going to talk about the prince of Mavolia some more.



Out of nowhere, Isabella drops to her knees.



Oh right, Lee is a vampire, he can subdue the will of mortals or whatever.



Isabella immediately falls unconscious.



And then Lee levitates her into the air... for no adequately explained reason at all.



Are you going to actually explain now?

Okay, a simple "no" would've done just fine. Anyway, I've got money on him trying the same trick on Gretel and stuffing her in a coffin.



Fortunately, King Moron shows up on the scene! No, wait, it's just Hansel, not a jackass teacher with bad teeth.



Anyway, Hansel decides to get right to the point.



Apparently, "prognosticator" means something like "seer" or "fortune teller". Which... I don't think that was the best word choice.



Anyway, Lee's actual argument is that if he keeps the Mana Women sleeping in coffins in his mansion, they'll be protected from Dark Lord or whatever.



Vampires aren't know for being good about asking permission.



And more Mavole garbage. Whatever.



Yeah, cut that out, man.



See? He didn't even say "please".

Anyway, this is a boss fight!

Count Lee, aka the Vampire, is normally kind of boring, since he just randomly flies around and does a sweeping kick. As you can see, a Salamander-buffed Staff is our best weapon, and it helps out Hansel too. However, the Vampire has two highly dangerous attacks if you're not prepared. The one you saw, the bat swarm, is incredibly tough to avoid if you don't run from it immediately. Fortunately, Hansel's got pretty solid defenses and HP, so he can just eat the hits without caring. If the bats chased us, though, we could be stunlocked to death. His other deadly move is a series of energy balls that do magical damage and drain our health, replenishing his. Thankfully, he didn't use it.



Funny thing is, you'd think he'd be weak to arrows, being a flying enemy. Oh well! Anyway, the ghost from before turns up and tells us to not blame him!



Hansel recognizes the ghost as Lord Granz immediately, being a citizen of Granz Realm and a student of Lord Granz to boot.



In fact, during Hansel's intro, the song that Gretel heard from her mother is instead sung by a very much alive Lord Granz.



Gretel knows none of this and is a professed hater of Granz Realm, so she should not be receptive to Lord Granz at all. Keyword there being "should".



Anyway, turns out Lee easily recognizes Lord Granz.



Apparently. I mean, Vinquette Hall is pretty far removed from Granz Castle, but eh.

Oh, so you're abducting women without their permission, putting them magically to sleep, and locking them in coffins because your friend said so. Yeeeeah sure you are buddy.



Hansel takes Lee at face value, because I don't know. And so does Gretel, only rather than going "take that, you tyrant" and staff-smiting him, she takes the exact same tone as Hansel.



Anyway, turns out Granz actually did ask Lee to do this.



He really is just trying to do his best to protect the few surviving Mana Women. His methods are unpolished and he's got the creepiest guy ever doing it for him, but still.



Anyway, since we don't want to spend the rest of the game in a coffin, Lee tells us to get moving, since Realm soldiers could be all over the place.



Yeah, last I checked, she was your girlfriend and possibly a Mavole, not a Mana Woman at all.



She'll probably be pissed as hell at you, though.



Anyway, since Hansel hasn't seen Lord Granz since the day he was captured, he wants to know more about his condition.



Granz ain't talking, though.



Lee gives us some advice about the Marsh Cave. The entrance is sealed with a water sealstone, and the area the water spirit is trapped in is sealed with a fire sealstone.



Thanks, you creepy abductors that tried to kill us!



Well, Hansel should take care of us. I don't recall him being vital to any plots or anything, though.



Anyway, after they leave, Lee offers another alternative... which he didn't even consider for the Mana Women.



And Granz dismisses it in favor of making this a learning experience in surviving Heretic Hunters.



Anyway, Lee lets Isabella down from midair and wakes her up. She then brushes her hair aside, apparently not bothered in the slightest by her predicament.

D'you know what this means? No? ME NEITHER.



Anyway, Gretel and Hansel book it through a side forest near the hall.



Once they hit the clearing, Hansel stumbles on the ground.



A brief flashback later, and...



Hansel figures it out too! He seems relieved!



We apologize profusely for being indirectly responsible for the death of his whole family.



Hansel doesn't hold a grudge against us, though. Which is good.



Well... you did! It just resulted in a life of imprisonment and bloody gladiatorial matches!



No, but YOU would have.



"Throw away my painful past"? Really?



Okay, no, we're done here. DONE! Let's just go back and check up on Li'l Cactus' Diary.

Also, don't forget, we need votes on whether we branch from here into monk or bashkar!

Next Time: Achievement Unlocked: Mephitic Cloud is for Losers

Make her a newslady, although it would have been nice if you could have beat up Wolfpire with a rolled-up newspaper.

On a related note: to hell with this bullshit crying sack of vampire mama's boy.

Hm, they both sound pretty awesome... uh, monk, I guess, though it's cool if bashkar wins.

Bashkar. Do it for the bashking.

Monk, because all the cool kids are healing nowadays.

I like the bashkar, but then what do you do in case of more undead?

I say Monk.

There is never enough healing in any game. Ever. c:

Especially in this game; later on there'll be threats that do proportional damage based on maximum HP, as well as enemies that can put up a 100% damage-reflecting barrier. Since we're not going for Black enemies (which are fantastic for grinding weapon and magic skills), I agree with this sentiment and endorse Monk as well.

The stupidity/silliness of the other class name forces me to choose Monk.

Also, I love how you open treasure chests in this game: pick them up, slam them against the ground to smash them to bits, then grab the loot and run. I think more games should do that.

Monk! Because she's a girl and girls heal.

I think he meant "protagonist".

That's pretty much a staple of the series, actually. And the two SNES games did it better since (unlike this game) trap roulette chests have a probability of appearing based on your level vs. enemy level instead of ALWAYS being trap-rouletted or not based on what enemy you're killing. ProTip: 90% of the enemies in Sword of Mana drop trap-roulette chests.

You can at least negate some of the threat of traps if you're playing a Thief class, since they turn one slot on the roulette OK per tier. But then, that just means non-thieves (like us) have to suck it up and take the "it won't kill you but it sure as hell will take you close" damage some trap types have.

Also, seems like we're pretty much set for being a monk. I'm getting the next update finished up right now, and will start investing levels in what we need for that.

I don't think I caught this when I played through this game. Interesting.

This update is almost entriely video this time. In it, we tackle the Scaly Lair and Marsh Cave. However, I will put a bit of the update in screenshots. But watch the video first.



First up, we earned a flail from the Duck G.I. squad. As you can see, its attack power is the highest of our three weapons, and it has passable to-hit bonuses as well. It's even fast and has good range as well! And most importantly, the flail can be used to grab onto certain things, pulling Gretel to them. However, the flail has a number of weaknesses, chief among them that it's a jab-type weapon like our bow (for some reason). The weapon itself isn't bad, but most players will almost certainly stick with the bow. To add to the disappointment, the flail's magic type is only slightly better than that of the sword, launching a series of four blasts from the ground in front of us that covers roughly the same area as a vanilla flail, but being slower.



But really, the biggest hugest problem is that the area we're in is SO MUCH EASIER with a slashing weapon, and we have three weapons, none of which are slashing. Most of the enemies here are weak to fire, mind you, and our sage levels we need to be a proper monk help us cast more reliably. But even with nearly as much magical skill as we have physical skill, our MP depletes far too fast to make magic a viable weapon at this stage in the game. So instead we just make Hansel kill everything.



We also picked up a spirit from fighting the Hydra. The spirit was poisoned by the Hydra, and it can do the same to you with its breath weapon or bite. It can also spit globes of water that can turn you into snowmen, but that isn't a big deal. The biggest problem is the Hydra fights at range, meaning we pretty much need the bow or magic to fight it. Which makes Hansel dead weight. Not a huge deal for us, though, as we just use Salamander support magic followed by a hellstorm of arrows.



Anyway, Undine is very much grateful for saving us!



Good for you!



Aaand more puns. But this is Talking Time, you guys are soaked in puns as is.

Undine, naturally, governs water magic. Now, unlike Wisp and Salamander, which provided powerful attack and support magic and were immediately effective in the area following our acquisition of them, Undine... not so much. Water magic is one of the weaker types in the game. I tend to rate magic effectiveness by what enemies are affected by it, and of the kinds we've encountered, only Amorphs are weak to water magic, and pretty much everything else resists or is immune to it. The status effect water magic causes, Snowman, will immobilize whatever is affected by it completely, but it also renders them invincible for the duration of the status effect, making it almost totally pointless.

But the worst part about Undine is the support magic. There's three types of support magic in the game: Wisp's healing, buffs like what Salamander does, and stealth/transforming spells. While under the influence of one of those support spells, you cannot run or attack, but only enemies with a specific sensory type can notice you. In the case of Undine's Bubbleboat, we can only be attacked by enemies that use sight. Which... is about the most pointless thing ever. And you can't cancel out of it. Screw water magic.



On the way back, I run into Niccolo again.

As mentioned earlier, he sells consumables and accessories, like a general store, although his accessories boost XP/lucre gain rather than stats. However, he is also host to a special kind of dick move. I don't know the exact number, but if you buy from him a certain number of times (go into the shop menu, purchase stuff, go out, not multiple purchases at once) he opens up a secret menu full of high-tier materials for making new gear.

The best part of that is that Niccolo's appearances are pretty much totally random. I'd wager that on average, you'll get him in about 15 locations, tops, if you just play through straight without bothering with grinding or anything. And he can appear on the very day you need to go to a very specific room where a very specific enemy spawns for a very specific rare drop. The only concession Niccolo makes is that he won't appear in a room where you need to use weapons to progress, since you don't draw your weapon until you're fighting.



Anyway, Gretel thought we should take the Moon Mirror back to Isabella for some reason. Okay.



And it was apparently part of the dowry of a Mavole princess. Not that anyone cares because we still don't know what Mavoles are hnnnnngh



Sure? I mean, we won't need it.



But then Isabella changes her mind and says something about relying on humans whatever don't care. I'll just put it next to the Poleshaft. Oh well, done for now.

Next Time: Achievement Unlocked: We Built This City on Side and Quest

Man. I'm glad that I stopped playing this game and just replayed Final Fantasy Adventure back in the day.

It's certainly pretty, though.

I definitely prefer to play Final Fantasy Adventure as well.

i don't think the mana series has been worth anything beyond Seiken Densetsu 3. They keep trying to rebottle that lightning and failing miserably, but the games always look so gorgeous.

Legend of Mana was great because it fostered my love for needlessly obtuse RPG subsystems. I doubt any game will ever come close to the level of insanity of tempering equipment in LoM.

But yeah, I could definitely do without anything other than LoM, SD3, and FFA.