Nintendo's "Ultimate Fantasy"

Sword of Mana was demoed in a fairly limited scope, since Nintendo of America was just now receiving an English copy of the game. I managed to play it for a sizable chunk of time after the demonstration, though, and came away quite pleased. The gameplay mechanics are nothing especially new, but the familiarity and action emphasis made it a very nice complement to the other more strategy-based titles being shown off.

Sword of Mana is actually a remake of what was originally released on the Game Boy in America as Final Fantasy Adventure. The title actually had nothing whatsoever to do with the Final Fantasy series of games, and was known in Japan as Seiken Densetsu. The game received two sequels in Japan, the first of which was released in America on the SNES as Secret of Mana. Developer Brownie Brown, responsible for Sword of Mana, is actually comprised of many of the individuals who created Secret of Mana while still at Squaresoft. As a result, Sword of Mana feels and looks a lot like the SNES title. The storyline and series of events are more or less intact from the original title, but the rest has been seriously revamped.

At the start of the game, you can choose to play as either a hero or heroine. Depending upon your choice, the storyline will be significantly different, with each character having different motives throughout the entire quest. As you go, though, you'll actually end up meeting with the other character at certain points and battling with them cooperatively. You can control what kind of AI the other character has to an extent, though they usually just get easily stuck and killed.

Sword of Mana can probably be easily compared to a 2D Zelda title when it comes to combat. You do a lot of running around enemies and slashing at them with your sword. A attacks with your current weapon, and holding B makes you run. As you slash at enemies, a bar builds at the bottom of the screen that can be used to perform a power strike by hitting both A and B together. It's definitely still an RPG, though, with specific numbers of hit points dealt and experience points gained and what have you. The "ring" menu system from the previous iterations of the series is alive and well in Sword of Mana, and a simple press of the start button will cause various menu commands to spiral out of your character and pause the action.

The weapon, item, and armor menu items are fairly self explanatory, but an interesting item is Popoi's Notebook. It's a book that this rabbit-man gives you early on in your quest (for the hero, at least), that contains a map, a monster album of all the enemies you've fought, Popoi's notes — various bits of data about the game universe, and an amigo list. The amigo system is interesting, as it's a list of other people who own Sword of Mana that you've connected to with the GBA link cable. By connecting to another person's copy of the game, their hero or heroine is added to your list. Then, at any point during the single player game, you can call that character from the list to perform a one-shot attack. Depending upon their level, the attack can be pretty assy, or presumably pretty great. You can also theoretically play the main quest cooperatively with another human being, but no one at the press event could figure it out. So... that'll remain a mystery for now.

As you go through screens in the overworld, a day-night cycle kicks into play. Certain enemies will only appear during the day, and likewise others will only appear at night. Bats are especially tricky, as they avoid most sword strikes. It's best to take them out with your trusty bow. As you use a weapon more and more, it will gain experience and eventually level-up - becoming more powerful. Character level-ups are a bit different, though, as you can choose when and how to level yourself up. If you're fighting some enemies in the field and you gain enough experience to hit the next level, a little "Level Up!" text appears above your head. At that point, you go into the main menu and choose the new "Level Up" command. You're presented with a screen displaying the class you'd like to level up in, and which stats will be upgraded if you choose to upgrade that class category. The categories were warrior, monk, magician, sage, thief, and random. For example, leveling up in "warrior" would give you higher attack stats, while upgrading "magician" would up your magic stats. Choosing "random" ups completely random statistics.

Sword of Mana certainly wasn't as complicated as the other more strategy-oriented games at the summit, but its action-oriented gameplay style was a refreshing change of pace. It's already out in Japan, so hopefully it'll make its November release date in the states. Good times will be had by all.