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I'm playing through the classic Mana games! Let's all go plant trees!(Now playing Trials of Mana!)

At least regarding the "direction" of the Mana games, all interviews seem to indicate that specifically Secret of Mana grew out of potential Final Fantasy 4 ideas, so it was likely they were following the concept of "Final Fantasy Gaiden" more than the precepts of the game that actually was Final Fantasy Gaiden (Final Fantasy Adventure).

Well, that lines up with my observation about the first non rushed "half" invoking a lot of classic Final Fantasy with its setpieces, mechanics, spell design etc. It makes a lot of sense that these two games were two completely separate projects that just happened to share a name and some assets.
But I think Duke was kinda done and blasting through the game without really grinding at this point so I get it.

Yeah, sorry for that. For whatever it's worth, I did like the flying fortress dungeon, despite my fatigue - it basically felt like a proto Black Omen with its tileset, encounter design, and a general climactic sense of finality. Oh, and the music was pretty good, but I think that goes without saying - most of the OST is pretty good, and adds a lot to the game's vibes.

Anyhow...

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No, intro, now's not your time....

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There we go! Alright, folks, choose my main character and their companions. Do we go with Duran, the fighter from Valsena?

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Or perhaps Kevin, the grappler from Ferolia?

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How about Hawkeye, the thief of Nevarl?

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Or Angela, the magician of Altena?

Also, totally getting an Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen vibe from these character sprites.

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May we be graced enough to see Charlotte, the cleric from Wendel?

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Or perhaps it's Riesz's time, as the amazon boldly ventures out of Laurent?

You get to decide their fates! Vote for them, making sure to bold your candidates, and specify who among them is going to be the main character. Feel free to give your reasoning, just try to avoid untagged spoilers. You have three days, with extensions provided on request. Let us get this show started!
 

Lokii

(He/Him)
Staff member
Moderator
Speaking of SoM's music, yall ever check out Secret of Mana+? It was arranged and performed by Hiroki Kikuta himself and he incorporated a bunch of strange instruments (like phone tones or typewriter keys) into a single 50 minute track. It's very cool.

 

gogglebob

The Goggles Do Nothing
(he/him)
I'll state plainly that the first-main character decides your "game" in a lot of ways, so you may want to designate distinctly who is your chosen leader when voting.

So I'm going to vote for the exact opposite of the party I just used in a run-through:
#1 Riesz
Hawkeye
Duran


Also, as I believe in democracy, and an informed populace is essential: Kevin is a werewolf.
 

gogglebob

The Goggles Do Nothing
(he/him)
Sorry to pull the ol' double post, but to elaborate on a few items from the actual playthrough...

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Soon they faced the emperor and his gang of colorful losers. The emperor lets Gesthar fight a "honorable" duel. He's a reskin of the imperial bike rider, and Kard fries him in about two thunderbolts. Yep. Next!

Okay, so this is one of those things that had a cool concept, but could have been handled better. Geshtar is your opponent going back to the Water Temple, and then the desert. Then he reappears here for a "duel". It is not relayed all that well, but Geshtar chooses to detonate himself and the entire castle to kill the heroes. The heroes escape at the last minute, but Geshtar straight up dies in the explosion. This would theoretically have an impact if you could return to the ruined castle (you can come back, and it's just blocked off like it was before you first visited), the explosion impacted the nearby town (it does not), or if you normally did not kill your opponents in battle (Geshtar goes down just like any other boss). Geshtar was your most persistent opponent of the generals (technically more direct than Thanatos), and then dies in an attempt to take you with him.

But!

As you now know, Thanatos makes a big deal about how he is able to revive Geshtar as an undead "zombie" when you face him again in the Mana Fortress just before it lifts off. And, again, this would be interesting and/or tragic if you had some concept of Geshtar having actually made a sacrifice, or had previously been a headstrong and/or obedient knight, or something. Like, can you imagine if Kefka in Final Fantasy 6 brought General Leo back to life, and had him fighting you while the guy was begging for death? They tried for that here! Just never got anywhere near an emotional climax because he's just another recolor after a dungeon full of recolors.

Anyway, feel like that is vaguely emblematic of a lot of choices in Secret of Mana: neat idea, but implemented so poorly that you barely notice it.


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The Golden Isle was a recolor of the empire's cities. To its credit, the recolor actually worked decently, and it actually felt like a city made of gold. Unsurprisingly, it was also ruled by King Mammon, I mean, Manmon. It held a palace, but the palace was locked, and the key was stolen by a spy in the empire's capital's southern portion. Ugh, don't make me go fetch questing....

Thankfully, it didn't take much time to collect the key. The palace was a quick affair, being a largely pointless dungeon with recolors of the tiger and the minotaur. Yep, the developers were clearly phoning it in at this point. They acquired the light spirit, Lumina, and its seed. Apparently the king was using it to make gold...somehow.

The 2018 remake (and maybe original script) does make note that Lumina has just been using their power to make everything "like" gold, and theoretically everything was going to fade back to normal in a couple of days after Lumina leaves the tower.

Also, the 2018 script (and distinctly not the original script), has Shade explain that he used to be in charge of "the underworld, Mavolia", but got kicked out by some unnamed forces. Theoretically, this explains the two pieces of dialogue across all scripts where Thanatos and one of the other generals makes reference to "the powers of the underworld".

"Mavolia", whether it was intended to be connected to Thanatos or not, will appear in later Mana titles.

(Okay, Dawn of Mana straight up calls a collection of demons "Thanatos", so there is supposed to be some connection.)

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The Moon Palace was another short affair, with much of it being a starry void. This was kinda cute, but at the same time, my patience was being drained by having to go through so many halfheartedly built dungeons. Thankfully, they had collected their seventh spirit and seed with this temple, so there couldn't be much of this collectathon left.

This area always makes me wonder what the designers of Secret of Mana prioritized. Like, did they already have the eight elemental spirits and their spells worked out, and then they had to find a place to stick everything? Or could they have gotten away with having less Mana Seeds without anyone noticing? Were there supposed to be more mana spirits? Whatever the case, this temple is, like, a screen, and it is haphazardly sewn into the desert area, and you get there through a combination of monster sprite reuse, and desert ship reuse. It has the air of a dungeon that was added to Secret of Mana Advance with clever use of preexisting assets and an available blank on the world map.

Mind you, I am glad Luna did sneak in here, because the Mana franchise has never known what to do with "moon element", and future games get all over the place with that.


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They run into Jema in Tasnica! Man, it's been so long since we last saw him! Of course, he doesn't do anything useful, just tips the team of an imperial spy attempting to assassinate the king. The king almost has them arrested, but Jema catches him. Turns out, he was the spy all along!

Then they have a fight with him, but, well, they have his weakness, and he doesn't have much health. Doesn't take much to deduce the outcome, lol. Jema sends them back to the sage's place, hopefully for the last time, and they stock up on supplies from the Tasnican shop, which is somewhat hidden and has all of the consumables available.

1. If you didn't notice, the "boss" here is a ninja generic enemy that gets reused a lot in the final dungeons (you can see one in your next quoted screenshot). To my memory, this is the only "generic enemy" boss in the game.

2. I am pretty sure the "hidden" shop of Tasnican is a glitch. To be clear, it should not be "hidden": in the 2018 remake, you are allowed to walk directly under that nearby "bridge" area, and you can access the shop without trying to find the wall-based shortcut available in the SNES version. That "bridge" is a solid, impassible object above and below in the SNES version. To my memory, this is the only map change in the 2018 version, so I don't think it was intended.

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Eventually the team reaches some sort of...metro train? Meh, whatever.

That's my favorite part! I love the storyline/design synergy of "the ancients" was basically our modern society, and if you get deep enough in these ruins, you just find a working subway system from the 20th Century. The subway is full of zombies! They are way out of their appropriate monster area, but it gives the impression this subway is haunted with dead commuters! It's like poetry.


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Turns out, it's the dungeon they're supposed to go to! It's filled with exceptionally nasty enemies that punch anyone for three digits of damage, and I was immediately glad to have bought the new set for Revi. Of course, now I needed to grind out the money to get it on everyone. What a pain! Thankfully, Revi was capable of soloing the monsters with the new armor on, so I painstakingly grinded out all of the required money with him. This took him all the way to level 51! Well, at least one of my party memebers would be "on curve", heh.

This is particularly what I was talking about earlier with monster/weapon/armor stats being exponential. There is such a jump between the Mana Temple and the Pure Lands that you basically need Neko's armor to survive. This applies to the Mana Fortress, too, but if you survived the Pure Lands, you are good to go there.

Also, weirdly enough, some of that "monster table" appears in Sage Jecht's cave before the Mana Temple, which is why practically everyone runs through that "trial" as quickly as possible.

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Uhh...once I figured out how to damage it, that is! 😅 I tried fighting it for a while, without any success. I didn't understand why Revi's strikes were doing 0, he had fixed the Excalibur and got his party members to buff it with the mana spell. After a few failed bouts, I figured out why...he hadn't practised enough with his sword, so he simply couldn't charge his swings enough to do damage! Arggh!

The Mana Beast is garbage. I can 100% see the theory here: with Sprite and Girl using their magic together, Boy can save the day. It is a great concept for a "puzzle boss" finale that sees your entire party working together. However, it goes on way too long even when it works correctly, and can completely go to crap immediately if you are not prepared. This is a dungeon with multiple bosses and no save/restoration points. It would not be unusual to get to the final-final boss without a lot of resources. And what happens if Girl, the one character with revive magic, dies while you do not have a Cup of Wishes available? Good luck with that.

Also, that whole debacle made me think of one thing...the only reason the beast was there was because the flying fortress was provoking it, right? And according to the legend, the hero of the sword took it down with his...sword. So...why didn't they just take the fortress down and call it a day? Why this last minute drama with a fight they clearly didn't need to fight?!

Legitimately, this is supposed to be the "tragedy" of the finale. Your team has stopped the Mana Fortress/Thanatos, and everything is going to be all right. Unfortunately, the Mana Beast was summoned, and there is no way to safely "land" the Mana Fortress, so you have the horrible choice of "kill Mana" or let the Mana Fortress get wrecked and crash into the planet. And that didn't work out well last time! So you slay Mana in its purest form, and basically banish your Sprite buddy to who knows where. If only you could have beaten Thanatos faster! Or something!

Also, to now tie this to the future: in the original script, the Mana Beast is identified as the "Benevodon".
 

Lokii

(He/Him)
Staff member
Moderator
Since it opens with a dire prophesy that anyone who yanks up the mana sword will cause big problems its appropriate the game ends with no good choices. Maybe if a hero other than a kid named _Randy_ had come along they would have thrashed Thanatos all the faster.
 

gogglebob

The Goggles Do Nothing
(he/him)
Complete with the finale, there is heavy evidence that Randy really messed up Dyluck's destiny of being the chosen one. If the Captain of the Guard had stormed into Elinee's Castle with the Mana Sword in tow, we'd all be sipping Mana drinks right now.
 
I'm voting for the party I'd pick now for myself if I were to start a game today.
  1. Riesz
  2. Hawkeye - dual knives are badass.
  3. Kevin - transforming character is so fun, but his motivation is so silly it almost so bad it's good. Probably better to save for subsequent playthroughs.
I did not vote for
  • Duran - I used to pick him to start as he's the generic sword fighter type. I'm ready for variety
  • Angelica - I just can't get over her outfit. Fun fact, I picked Riesz in early playthroughs because her sprite made her look armored and giant armored spear chick seemed badass to me. In the 3d remake I disliked how skimpy her outfit was.
  • Charlotte - I picked her my first playthrough as she gives vibes similar to the Sprite from Secret of Mana. Her childlike demeanor was a huge turnoff for me so I don't pick her when I play anymore.
 
As you now know, Thanatos makes a big deal about how he is able to revive Geshtar as an undead "zombie" when you face him again in the Mana Fortress just before it lifts off. And, again, this would be interesting and/or tragic if you had some concept of Geshtar having actually made a sacrifice, or had previously been a headstrong and/or obedient knight, or something. Like, can you imagine if Kefka in Final Fantasy 6 brought General Leo back to life, and had him fighting you while the guy was begging for death? They tried for that here! Just never got anywhere near an emotional climax because he's just another recolor after a dungeon full of recolors.

Ah, so they were trying to make Geshtar a "noble knight on the wrong side" kind of guy? That would certainly explain a few plot elements, especially the team's disgust at Thanatos zombifying him. One has to wonder if this was a case of poor translation cutting it out, or just another general casualty of the second "half" being rushed as hell.
This area always makes me wonder what the designers of Secret of Mana prioritized. Like, did they already have the eight elemental spirits and their spells worked out, and then they had to find a place to stick everything? Or could they have gotten away with having less Mana Seeds without anyone noticing? Were there supposed to be more mana spirits?

Who knows, really. A pity they never could finish their game, I imagine the final product would've been a lot greater, grander, and more enjoyable.
1. If you didn't notice, the "boss" here is a ninja generic enemy that gets reused a lot in the final dungeons (you can see one in your next quoted screenshot). To my memory, this is the only "generic enemy" boss in the game.

I did notice that, the boss just wasn't good enough to warrant any imagery or commentary. :p
The Mana Beast is garbage. I can 100% see the theory here: with Sprite and Girl using their magic together, Boy can save the day. It is a great concept for a "puzzle boss" finale that sees your entire party working together. However, it goes on way too long even when it works correctly, and can completely go to crap immediately if you are not prepared. This is a dungeon with multiple bosses and no save/restoration points. It would not be unusual to get to the final-final boss without a lot of resources. And what happens if Girl, the one character with revive magic, dies while you do not have a Cup of Wishes available? Good luck with that.

Yeah. Like, I appreciate what they were trying to do here narratively, but from a mechanical perspective it's an absolute disaster of a fight. At the very least, they should've put one full restore and save before the Mana Beast. Or snuck in Neko into the fortress, lol.
Legitimately, this is supposed to be the "tragedy" of the finale. Your team has stopped the Mana Fortress/Thanatos, and everything is going to be all right. Unfortunately, the Mana Beast was summoned, and there is no way to safely "land" the Mana Fortress, so you have the horrible choice of "kill Mana" or let the Mana Fortress get wrecked and crash into the planet. And that didn't work out well last time! So you slay Mana in its purest form, and basically banish your Sprite buddy to who knows where. If only you could have beaten Thanatos faster! Or something!

Huh, I never picked up on the destruction of the fortress itself causing calamities for the world. It was the clash between the gods' beasts and the empire's weapons, including the flying fortress, that ravaged it, per the introductory legend. Maybe I missed something, or maybe the translation cut it out? Ah well.

Also, keep those votes coming in, everyone!
 
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q 3

here to eat fish and erase the universe
(they/them)
I would suggest to have your first two characters be any combination of Angela/Duran, Kevin/Charlotte, or Riesz/Hawkeye, as their respective stories are more linked (while the third character always gets the least focus). Riesz/Hawkeye would be my vote, with Charlotte if you want a relatively smoother time or Angela if you want to play with offensive magic.
 

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
I like Kevin, Riesz or Hawkeye as the main character. Riesz starts out as a bit slow and tough to use while her attacks recharge so you might prefer Hawkeye? Yeah let's go with Hawkeye as main, then Riesz then Kevin as third.
 
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Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
Kevin is stout. Strongest melee attacker, and depending on the route you choose, also gets some healing ability. You might be able to get away with not bringing along Carlie/Charlotte in that case.

Basically, my run through the game many years ago was a Duran/Angela/Carlie triad, so yeah, I think I'll vote for the opposite of that.

Hawkeye main, then Kevin and Riesz.
 

FelixSH

(He/Him)
I like Kevin, Riesz or Hawkeye as the main character. Riesz starts out as a bit slow and tough to use while her attacks recharge so you might prefer Hawkeye? Yeah let's go with Hawkeye as main, then Riesz then Kevin as third.
I'll just go with that.

From 20 year old memory, Duran is just the standard Mana hero. Just dude with a sword. And I remember really disliking Charlotte, because she is (at least in my memory) an annoyingly written child character.

I always liked Angela, but she is the standard mage, iirc. Why not use the less basic classes instead?

That said, Charlotte is, I think, a really good healer. No idea, how much harder the game gets without her.
 

spines

cyber true color
(she/her, or something)
assuming you're playing the some form of the original game (as opposed to the remake or a more broad romhack patch) without a guide my personal opinion is that charlotte and kevin will make your life a lot easier and angela and duran won't. and hawk and riesz are both fine but the former's niche overlaps a lot more with kevin

in other words my vote is for
1 kevin
2 charlotte
3 riesz
 

Sarge

hardcore retro gamin'
Yeah, there is certainly some value in bringing Charlotte along - my playthrough definitely utilized her healing a lot. I think without her, the only healing you get is either with Kevin or Duran, if you follow their light path upgrades.
 

FelixSH

(He/Him)
I want add that the game can get quite challenging. Might be frustrating without Charlotte. At least one boss battle sticks in my mind as pretty hard.
 

Peklo

Oh! Create!
(they/them, she/her)
Bring Charlotte because she's the most fun character in the cast. I'll concur with Kevin and Riesz for the narrative and mechanical synergy, too.
 
The vote is over!

Here's how the numbers shook up:
1. Riesz - 9 votes
2. Kevin
- 7 votes
3. Hawkeye - 6 votes
4. Charlotte - 4 votes
5. Angela - 2 votes
6. Duran - 1 vote

It is pretty clear that Riesz, Kevin and Hawkeye is my team. But now I have to decide my party lead, and unfortunately, the voters weren't so clear on this point. I decided to beseech the gods(read: roll a die)....and ended up with Hawkeye! Therefore, he shall lead the team, with Riesz and Kevin accompanying him!

Thank you all for voting! The playthrough shall begin soon.
 

gogglebob

The Goggles Do Nothing
(he/him)
To my knowledge, they did not fix any of those issues for the recent console collection. One will not impact this playthrough (it is based on Duran's shields), but the agility bug would theoretically be a factor here. If you want a mechanical spoiler: Agility does not work in Seiken Densetsu 3/Trials of Mana at all, except as a way to enhance Hawkeye's "magic" abilities. Since you have your choice of what stats to level up with every level, this means agility can be completely ignored for everyone but Hawkeye.

If you are just playing on an emulator, go ahead and get the patch.

Additionally, the other big glitches are (to my recall): the elemental-based shield abilities don't actually do anything, and the elemental sword abilities inexplicably cause you to take more damage if you use them on their elemental-day. Maybe these glitches are related? Who knows. Also, your characters cannot inflict critical hits, so anything that proports to increase the chance of a crit is lying.
 
I don't know what version you're playing, but did they fix the bug where the dexterity stat does nothing except unlock some spells?
I'm playing the official translation released as part of the Mana Collection. And while I didn't know about the bug, gogglebob and Sarge filled me in here. Thanks! I'll apply that patch, and hopefully it doesn't mess up anything bad.
 
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The intro begins with a creation story detailing how the Goddess herself beat eight mighty monsters and sealed them to defend her world. However, that fight, and the corresponding rebuilding, left her exhausted, so she turned into a big tree to rest and recover her energies. Unfortunately, evil forces took this opportunity to try and unseal the monsters, resulting in big, horrible wars.

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These wars threatened to make Mana itself dissipate, leaving the world in a precarious state. We then see a bunch of birds fly away from the Mana tree, and four glowing orbs of light head eastward at high speed, though only one of them manages to stay up...

Phew, that was perhaps the most involved intro yet. It definitely did its job, and gave me a nice, compelling premise to hook into and get me invested into playing the game. Speaking of!

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The game proper begins with Hawkeye carrying out a heist. Neko, the catman, is apparently a thief now. He steals from someone who's apparently a greedy merchant, and then they flee to their fortress.

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The narration continues, painting Hawkeye's group as a Robin Hood-esque gang of noble thieves, stealing from rich unscrupulous people. It doesn't say anything about them redistributing the wealth though. Damnit, Flamekhan, you were so close!

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Instead he plans on invading Laurent and carving up territory for themselves. WTF?

Hawkeye mopes about Flamekhan's plans in his bedroom, sharing them with his girlfriend, Jessica. He hates that they're going to stop being noble thieves and become a crappy kingdom that extorts its members for gold. I'm sure there's a fun political discussion to be had here, and I'm pretty sure he hasn't reflected on how his own group runs.

Anyway, Jessica doesn't take kindly to his musings, as Flamekhan is her father. When he taunts her a little about it, she gets extremely pissed, slaps him in the face, and leaves! Whoa.

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I then get control of him, and get to explore the fortress and talk to its inhabitants. They mostly speak of the upcoming invasion, and this one mentions Jessica looking upset. Welp. The fortress seems like quite the nice place though, with many spacious rooms and pleasing furnishings. I would like to live here! So long as I wasn't forced to be a thief, that is...

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I find Jessica's chambers, but ofc she's not exactly willing to converse with Hawk. I also find people directing him to talk with an Eagle, whoever that is.

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It's this knightly guy! Who promptly gets to the point: why the fuck are the noble thieves planning to invade kingdoms now? Isn't that more than a little strange? But then he decides Isabella must be responsible because she's the newest member of the guild, and I get a lot less enthusiastic about his proposal.

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Then he storms Flamekhan's chambers, and gets Hawkeye to eavesdrop on and assault them. Uh oh. No way this is going to end well.

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Predictably, Isabella zombifies Eagle, and Hawkeye is forced to fight him! Thankfully, this is a scripted encounter, so Hawkeye can't actually die. But Eagle can, and does, and Isabella frames Hawkeye for the job. Welp.

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Things go from bad to worse as he's thrown in jail, and Isabella taunts him by telling him she slipped a cursed pendant onto Jessica that would kill her if she knew the truth about the incident. As if to rub it in, Jessica comes visiting afterwards and asking for that exact topic. Boy has Hawkeye's life gone down the drain.

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But thankfully, someone's out here to help! Thanks, Neko!

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Once they're clear, Neko spills the beans on Jessica's cursed amulet - it actually links her life force to Isabella's, meaning if either of them die, the other dies too! Welp, there goes the plan to take revenge on her. Thankfully, not all hope is lost - the priest at Wendel can help break the amulet's curse. So that's where he's headed!

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After a few inconsequential scrapes with his former comrades, Hawkeye escapes, and hightails it to Wendel in black and white! One long voyage across the world map later, he ends up at Jadd, which is presumably en route.

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Which has been captured by the beastmen of Ferolia! Looks like the world is about to be embroiled in war alright.

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But we shall deal with that later, as my session ends here. See you next time!
 
^^A very dramatic depiction indeed! If only video games could match their concept art more often. 😔

Anyhow....

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The town is host to a wide cast of colorful people, like this perpetually sleepy lady...

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...this fierce armored man...

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...and this lady in green restlessly circling around.

The townsfolk are, generally speaking, pretty upset about the whole situation. Especially since the beastmen are rude enough to rebuke anyone who so much as looks at them funny:

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I, of course, knew that fighting them would be unwise, and so desisted from provoking them any further.

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The beastmen had confiscated all of the weapons and armor around, but thankfully the general store was spared. All of the stores and the inn are run by Mr Moti and co, now looking a lot pinker. Also, the magic rope is a consumable item now. Huh.

The most notable change, however, is consumable items being able to be stacked beyond four! This is a very welcome change indeed, and it should make resource management much less of a pain. It's hard to forget the inconvenience of being stuck with four whole mana restores!

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The beastmen hold a tight grip over the city, forbidding entry or exit.

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Fortunately, the bartender spills out the one weakness in their security - they get more lackadaisical/feral in the night, letting people slip past them more easily.

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And, sure enough, they turn into rabid wolves that night, letting Hawkeye leave with naught but minor injuries.

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The area ahead is inhabited by pathetically easy enemies, making his path a breeze! It was kinda funny to run into the equivalent of FFA's introductory area an hour into the game, heh. Well, I can't fault them for getting more ambitious, and his story was, at the very least, decently interesting so far, but it's certainly still something worth pondering.

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The path led to Astoria, the lakeside town. Astoria is fairly spacious by RPG settlement standards, and delivers a fair few nuggets of information: the road ahead to Wendel is closed because they want to protect themselves, a strange light has been seen floating above their lake recently, Hawkeye's former gang have been acting really aggressive and stealing from rich and poor people alike, and they are aware of the beastmen's recent invasion and worried they will be their next target.

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That night, a bright light travels around the town.

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It is so bright, it stirs our hero out of his slumber, and gets him to investigate!

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The light's path leads him to a golden statue, which is essentially a much less cuter version of Neko from Secret of Mana. Or, to put it more plainly, it's a save point that's not tied to a town. I still miss the free saving of the first game, but I'm willing to respect the game's rules enough to adhere to its save points and not break out savestates. The tiny eyed bulb there just sends Hawkeye flying high upward, without letting him move in any meaningful way. I guess they wanted to show his current position on the world map, without actually providing a map? Weird.

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The light turns out to be a fairy, who abruptly collapses! He rushes to her aid, and she picks herself back up. She quizzes him on himself, and then beseeches him to carry her to Wendel. Hmm, definitely getting some strong FFA parallels here! Hawkeye explains to her that there's a barrier around the place, but she reassures him that she can take care of it, and then informs him of the Sanctuary of Mana being weakened.

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Before she can elaborate any further, they see a red flash, and hear horrible sounds from Astoria's direction! Hawkeye panics, and decides to hurry back, but the fairy stops him and....enters his head. Alrighty then. She tells him to hurry to Wendel, and their scene ends.

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On the way back, Hawkeye gains his first level, prompting me to choose one among many stats to level up! I don't know what all the stats stand for, but, from experience with RPGs, I can surmise that Strength raises physical strength, Dexterity raises hitrate and evasion, Stamina raises defense and HP, Intellect and Spirit raise spellcasting potency of some sort, and Luck raises some mystery factor that probably figures into combat. The level up only raises a stat by one point, and at this point the game hasn't been exactly hard, so I just decide to work the list from the top, investing into Strength first.

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Alas, by the time Hawkeye reaches Astoria, it's already too late; the place has been thoroughly ransacked! The fairy deduces that the beastmen must've invaded this place, and then urges Hawkeye to get to Wendel before it falls to them. On it!

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At the caves leading to Wendel, Hawkeye runs into the lady in green again! She wants to find a way through the barrier, and reveals that she herself had seen its light the night before. As both of them are headed to the same destination, she asks him to permit her acquaintance.

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And also narrates her backstory. Apparently, she was the princess of Laurent, and the captain of their guard. Hawk's old buddies tricked her brother into stopping the wind that protected her kingdom, then knocked out its garrison with sleeping spores and successfully annexed it. Welp. This isn't going to be awkward at all. Anyway, she's going to Wendel because she's fallen in troubled times, and believes that its high priest can offer her some guidance. She finally introduces herself - she's Reisz, our second party member!

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Reisz promptly joins, and, one brief unlocking scene later, they enter the cave! Which is full of monsters from the area before, and thus even more trivial. I switch to Riesz as she has better stats, and longer reach with her spear. Nothing of note happens for a while.

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Eventually, they run into this tiny girl hanging for her life, and rescue her. She introduces herself as Charlotte, and then dumps her backstory.

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She was following her foster father, Heath, as he had been sent to Astoria, and she had a bad feeling about him. He got kidnapped en route, and she followed Hawkeye and Riesz, as the barrier had sealed her out of her own city! Hawkeye offers to let her follow them, and she reveals herself to be the granddaughter of the high priest! Then she turns the offer down because Wendel isn't that far, and leaves!

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Well, she's certainly right on that matter, as they soon run into Wendel itself. However, I shall leave exploring it and meeting its priest for next session, as this is where my current session ends! Until next time.
 

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
I don't know what version you're playing, but did they fix the bug where the dexterity stat does nothing except unlock some spells?

To my knowledge, they did not fix any of those issues for the recent console collection. One will not impact this playthrough (it is based on Duran's shields), but the agility bug would theoretically be a factor here. If you want a mechanical spoiler:Agility does not work in Seiken Densetsu 3/Trials of Mana at all, except as a way to enhance Hawkeye's "magic" abilities. Since you have your choice of what stats to level up with every level, this means agility can be completely ignored for everyone but Hawkeye.

If you are just playing on an emulator, go ahead and get the patch.

I'm playing the official translation released as part of the Mana Collection. And while I didn't know about the bug, gogglebob and Sarge filled me in here. Thanks! I'll apply that patch, and hopefully it doesn't mess up anything bad.

I'm curious what changes in the game with this patch, I hadn't heard of it until now. Just ignored the stats that I didn't need to level up magic.

I thought all the status were explained in the menus where you see party status? I haven't seen any of those stat/option screens in your screenshots yet so curious if you've explored them @Second Duke Revier? They have the same background as the character select screen and it's a 3x3 grid with a little legend which I always thought was cute.
 

FelixSH

(He/Him)
Man, this game is beautiful. And I really like the multiple storylines, how so many different nations suddenly experience problems of some sort. Don't remember any more details than you showed up to now, but it's nice what you already got.

Completely forgot, that you have to assign stat ups yourself. This always makes me paranoid, and I look at guides to tell me what to actually do, at least vaguely. Which isn't the intended solution, but with no redo option, the danger of ruining my build is just too big. No idea, if you can really do that here.

Also, I guess it was my age, because at least the one screenshot of Charlotte talking was kinda hilarious.
 
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