- This article is about the 2003 video game. For the recurring weapon, see Sword of Mana (weapon).
Sword of Mana (新約 聖剣伝説 Shinyaku Seiken Densetsu, lit. "New Testament Holy Sword Legend") is a retelling of Final Fantasy Adventure. the first game in the Mana series, released for the Game Boy Advance.
Gameplay[]
Sword of Mana can be played from the perspective of two characters, a boy and a girl, both of whom are primary protagonists. Whoever's perspective is chosen, the other character will take the role of secondary protagonist. The player will see the story from the point of view of the character they chose, and there are certain scenes, gameplay sections and partner characters that are character exclusive.
Many gameplay features from other games in the series appear in Sword of Mana, including the ring menu system from Secret of Mana, the day-night system from Trials of Mana, and weapon forging and the Hot House from Legend of Mana.
Combat[]
Sword of Mana uses a real-time combat and takes place in the regular movement mode. There are different times of day in which only certain monsters appear. Several weapons, such as swords, axes, spears, etc., are acquired throughout the game by defeating certain monsters. Each weapon has an attack trait of either jabbing, bashing, or slashing. These attack traits help to determine damage done to enemies throughout the game. In addition to this, a deathblow gauge is included which, when full, allows a more powerful strike than normal attacks. A magical attack system is included as well, with elements such as light, fire, earth, etc., each affecting enemies in different ways. The form each spell takes and the area it can hit varies depending on what weapon the player has equipped; for instance, the sword produces a spike directly in front of the character, and the bow produces an arc like that of an arrow.
There are nine weapons, each with one of the three attack traits, and with its own unique look. The female character starts out with a rod, and the male character begins with a sword. The player can accumulate more weapons throughout the whole game. There are also seven Elemental Spirits to use. Each has an attack based on its element, and a support spell as well.
Both characters get a variety of sidekicks who accompany them throughout the game. These characters may be used by the player in battle or allowed to run through somewhat-configurable AI, but they can also be manually controlled by pressing the select button but leaving your original character to the AI. These sidekicks are key characters of the story and often contribute significantly to character development.
Characters[]
Story[]
A young man awakens from a dream of his past to his current life as a gladiator-slave in the city of Granz Realm. Escaping the city alongside his friend and fellow gladiator slave, Willy, the two are confronted by Dark Lord, the ruler of Granz Realm. The boy attacks Dark Lord for the death of his parents, but is easily defeated and thrown from the bridge on which they stand. The boy is fished out of the lake at the bottom of the waterfall by a strange creature named Niccolo who advises him to head for the nearby village of Topple.
Meanwhile, a young woman awakens from a dream of her past in a small lakeside cottage alongside a knight, Bogard. The girl is determined to defeat a Dark Lord and his magic-wielding cohort for the death of her stepmother and the razing of her home village. Bogard advises her to head to Topple for information about the Mana followers while he travels to the city of Wendel.
The girl is the first to reach Topple, where she accepts the request of a young child to find a book he dropped in the village outskirts. While searching she encounters the boy, who helps her find the book and return it to the child. The two decide to team up for the journey to Wendel only to find out that the most direct route, the Marsh Cave, has been sealed by Count Lee who lives at Vinquette Hall. The two travel there to find the Count unavailable, but one of his butlers offers them a room for the night. They meet Isabella, a mysterious woman who has been staying at the Hall for a while and seems to have an interest in Count Lee. The two then retire to their room to rest for a while, but soon are separated and forced to traverse the monster-ridden halls of the manor, eventually reuniting in time to confront Count Lee himself. Following a battle with the count, a ghostly image of Count Lee's friend Granz appears and the two explain the reasons for the kidnapping of Mana women: to protect them from Dark Lord and Julius, his right-hand man. The Count then agrees to unseal the entrance to the Marsh Cave and wishes the two well on their journey.
Eventually, the two reach Wendel where, after meeting with a traveling bard named Lester and a mysterious silver-haired man, Devius, they head for the local cathedral to meet with Bogard and Cibba, a revered sage who assisted the Gemma Knights in defeating Vandole twenty years prior. When the boy tells Cibba and Bogard about his wish the find the legendary Sword of Mana in order to avenge the death of his parents, they laugh at the notion of the blade being used for such a selfish reason. The boy, however, take it as a personal insult and leaves the building upset, only to find that Dark Lord and Julius have arrived to take the girl. The boy attempts to defend her, but it easily defeated again by the knight. In order to stop more people from suffering at the hands of Dark Lord, she agrees to go quietly.
Dark Lord and Julius take the girl captive aboard an airship, and fly west from Wendel back to Castle Granz. The girl is kept in a private room and attended by Marley, Dark Lord's maid. From some books, the girl learns about the room's secret passage, and takes advantages as Marley leaves after hearing noises, she soon located it inside the closet and goes to another room, where she ends up overhearing the Dark Lord and Isabella's conversation. Thus, it's revealed that the Dark Lord is half human, and half Mavole, and besides that, he wants to use the Mana power to save his mother, Medusa.
Successively, intending to save Marley, the girl lets herself be caught and demands to see Julius, soon after a tense conversation, Julius revealed that the Dark Lord's plan is find the key to the Mana Sanctuary, which the girl realizes to be the pendant given to her by her stepmother. After that, Julius begins to torture her demanding to know where the key is.
In the meantime, during the Hero's sidestory, the boy follows the airship on foot, having bumps into the dwarf Watts on the way. After making a brief detour to help Watts with his own quest in abandoned mine, the boy catches up to the airship, which had docked near a lake, with Cibba.
Aboard the airship, they find the girl been tortured by Julius, and after Cibba is knocked down by Julius, the boy tries to save her. She gives him the pendant and asks him to run away, but the boy end up been blown off the side of the ship in a tense encounter with Julius. He falls and lands unconscious on the outskirts of Menos, but is found by Amanda, another former arena gladiator-slave, who nurses him back to health.
Parallelly, Cibba wakes up and tries to reason with the Dark Lord, but he is consumed by hatred for his father's abandonment, revealing that he is the son of Lord Granz; and his hatred of the Mana Clan for not helping curing his mother, so Cibba soon leaves. The girl is then rescued by Bogard, who was disguised as a soldier, and they eventually destroy the guardian of the ship's control room, forcing it to land near Menos.
In Menos, the boy and the girl meet each other again, but when questioned, the boy sees that the pendant that was given to him was taken by Amanda, therefore, they head to Jadd after her separately.
In their search for Amanda, they make way to Devius Manor. The boy enters first and finds Amanda with Lady Medusa. Amanda explains that she only exchanged the pendant with Devius to save the boy's life, and they make peace. Suddenly, a bird begins to sing a familiar song in a cage, and both identify it as Lester, Amanda's brother, who was transformed by Medusa, like other minstrels, into a bird.
Soon, Medusa claims to hear a voice calling her and leaves to the Altar of Time, transforming in her way out almost all the servants in the manor into birds, thereup, the boy and Amanda free the bird and follow Lester after her to reverse the spell.
Later, as the girl enters the manor with Boggard, she find it into chaos. A servant explained what happened inside, successively, Boggard tells the girl the tragic story of Medusa, then, they leaves search for her through Dune Maze.
Crossing the desert, the boy and Amanda arrives first at the Altar of Time and confront Medusa asking her to undo the spell, however, been in a state of delirium an despair, she ends up turning into a monster and they have to battle against her. Soon, the girl and Boggard arrives after the battle is over and try to save Medusa but it is too late. In a weak state, Medusa explain that they will need her blood to undo the spell, also gives the boy Lord Granz's lute, and soon after talking with Boggard, she dies.
Unexpectedly, the Dark Lord and Devius arrives and see their mother dead. In anger and grief, Devius gives the key to the sanctuary to the Dark Lord, they both leave, and promising to revenge, Devius takes Medusa's body and Boggard as a hostage. Amanda ending up being bitten by Medusa during the battle, so in order to not turn into a Medusa monster, the boy mercifully kills her to end her suffering, but before that, she give her blood to Lester undoing his curse.
Returning to the manor, they both search for Boggard in the inner parts of the estate, and eventually find him trapped inside a cage with a powerful magic only undone by defeating Devius. Climbing to the top, they find and battle against Devius monster form, but they stop before kill him. Abruptly, Julius's voice echoes telling them to finish him off, but they refuse. Goremand, a Mavole in the service of the Dark Lord, appears and steals Devius's soul.
In front of the manor, after they mourned all the deaths that occurred, they now head to Granz's castle, through the open passage in Miasma Glen by the sound of Lord Granz's lute.
After walking a long way, they reach in the castle and make their way through it, the boy finally finds Willy alive in the dungeons, who joins forces with him. Soon arriving at the top and after battling a boss, they face the Dark Lord himself. Upon defeating him, Goremand reappears, betrays him by joining Julius, and steals his soul. While the protagonists are paralyzed, Isabella transforms into a monster and battles Goremand. The protagonist faints, and wakes up in Ishe surrounded by his companions.
The group reunites and decides to go in search of the Sword of Mana, Cibba reveals that the sword lies deep within the Subsea Volcano beyond the kingdom of Lorimar, and asks the protagonist to bring it to him.
Making their way through Professor Bomb's cannons to the north, they arrive at the castle only to find nearly all of its inhabitants frozen by Malyris' curse, since the king sold his subjects to the Vandole Empire in exchange for the power of Mana as revealed by Marley. Upon having defeated the demon, all people turn back to normal, the king is succeeded by his son and the protagonist gains access to a path to the volcano.
Traveling further and going deep inside the volcano, they finally find the sword all rusty and worn, after that, they travel back to Ishe. Cibba confirms that this is indeed the legendary sword, he also tell them that Julius is the incarnation of Emperor Vandole himself, who once again seeks to obtain control of the mana power.
In search of a way to the sanctuary without the key, Cibba presents the idea of re-erecting the Dime Tower, a bridge to the sanctuary created by the Vandole Empire's technology, sealed in the Glass Desert by himself.
Therefore, the protagonists travel north through the desert but find their way blocked by a strong magical barrier. With the unexpected help of Goremand, they use the magic of the darkness spirit, rescued from a remote island, united with the light spirit to opens the passage, findind their way to the tower.
After climbing Dime Tower, with the help of Marshall the warbot, they finally reach the sanctuary. Although, Julius' magic having already begun to affect the mana power of the place, soon they encounter many monsters on the way.
Traveling deep inside to the Mana temple, they are confronted by the shadow of Julius who tries to discourage them by showing their sins and those of their companions, but with their courage and determination and also the help of their allies and Granz, they regain courage and defeat him.
In the meantime, it is revealed that Boggard is the girl's father, and that a long time ago, he sacrificed his wife to the sanctuary.
While their companions face more shadow enemies, the boy and girl head together for the final showdown against Julius. Confronting him, Julius express his desire to obtain total power to even overpass the Mana Goddness, then, it is revealed that the fate of those sacrificed to the sanctuary, like the girl's mother, is to become the next Mana Tree, just as it will be for the girl. In this, Julius asks them to join him.
The boy refuse and raises the Mana Sword to stop him, in this, his trusting heart makes the sword restored, and the fight begins. Initially defeated, Julius summons all the mana power and transforms into a monster, heading into the final battle.
Finally, they defeat him, however it is too late, as the Mana Tree dies. The girl, then, accepts her fate and becomes the next Mana Tree, in turn, the boy promises to protect her.
In the last scene, the boy stabs the mana sword into the ground near its roots, ending with a monologue that someday, someone will find the truth in the legend of his story, about the light of hope passed on by him and the girl.
Development[]
Origin[]
After the release of the previous game in the Mana series, 1999's Legend of Mana, several members of the development team for the game left Square to form a new development studio, Brownie Brown. These included character designer Kameoka Shinichi and lead artist Kouji Tsuda, as well as several other writers and artists. The crew that stayed was merged with those behind Parasite Eve II, Brave Fencer Musashi and Chrono Cross to make Final Fantasy XI. Square, in turn, outsourced development of the fifth game in the Mana series to Brownie Brown. The producer for the game was Square's Koichi Ishii, who had directed or designed the previous games in the series. Ishii had served as the director for the original game in the series, Final Fantasy Adventure, of which Sword of Mana is a remake.
Game design[]
The remake, in addition to adding enhanced graphics to the original Game Boy title, sought to add elements present in later games in the series, such as the Ring Command menu system, and to expand the game's storyline. It also removed elements from the Final Fantasy series, which had been placed in the original game as a part of the marketing for the game before its sequels moved to be a distinct series. The ability to play as the heroine was added, and an element of multiplayer features that the series had become known for was added by allowing two players to link their Game Boy Advances together to trade items.
Character design[]
The hero was designed to show a lot of skin in order to convey his slave status. To help the character stand out when converted to pixel art design, cross patterns were added to the back of his gloves and his shoulder pads. For the heroine, her design was guided to make her look both like a warrior and a princess. Bogard, who in Final Fantasy Adventure has a "gentlemanly" look was made to look more like a ruffian or hermit.
The Eight Mana Spirits were designed to look like three-dimensional characters from a storybook. In order to hide the Dark Lord’s identity, a mask was designed so that this aspect of the plot could remain hidden until later on in the game. Game illustrator Shinichi Kameoka stated that he was told to design Julius to look like a neutral character. Kameoka stated he also tried to make Julius look “like a girl”.
Soundtrack[]
The game's music was composed by Kenji Ito, building on his previous score for Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden. Some of the 47 tracks were reworked versions of the previous game's songs, while others were entirely new. The soundtrack, Shinyaku Seiken Densetsu: Sword of Mana Premium Soundtrack, was released on August 27, 2003. The first edition included a bonus disc containing a single track.
| Shinyaku Seiken Densetsu - Sword of Mana Premium Soundtrack tracklist | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Disc 1 (01:09:51)
|
Disc 2 (31:01)
|
Bonus Disc (01:59)
| |
|
Original Composition Kenji Ito FIRST EDITION SECOND EDITION | |||
Merchandise[]
Limited Edition "Mana Blue" GBA SP
In Japan, a special edition "Mana Blue"-coloured Game Boy Advance SP was released, packaged with Sword of Mana and a carrying case. Those who purchased the game's soundtrack and strategy guide between August 27 and September 30, 2003 were given the opportunity to win a Cactus character cushion and a cellphone strap.
In 2004, Sword of Mana was adapted into manga form by author Shiro Amano and published by Enterbrain. Two novels based on the game were also published by Enterbrain.
Box Art[]
.png "Sword of Mana (US).png (518 KB)")
.png "Sword of Mana (EU).png (602 KB)")
Publications[]
External links[]
- Sword of Mana at Wikipedia
- Sword of Mana products at Square Enix Japan website
- Sword of Mana page on Square Enix Japan website (archived)
- Sword of Mana's Blue Edition page on Square Enix Japan website (archived)
- Sword of Mana's Deluxe Edition page on Square Enix Japan website (archived)
| v · e · d |
|---|
| Main Series |
| Collection of Mana (Final Fantasy Adventure · Secret of Mana · Trials of Mana) · Dawn of Mana · Visions of Mana |
| Spin-offs |
| Legend of Mana · Children of Mana · Friends of Mana · Heroes of Mana · Circle of Mana · Rise of Mana · Echoes of Mana |
| Remakes |
| Sword of Mana · Adventures of Mana · Secret of Mana (2018) · Trials of Mana (2020) · Legend of Mana (2021) |
| Cancelled |
| The Emergence of Excalibur · Sword of Mana 2 |
| This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article is at Sword of Mana. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Wiki of Mana, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License. |