Legend of Mana is Copyright Square Enix. Any and all references to content are strictly for review and discussions therein.
Well well, a post for Wreckonomics has finally come to pass! Be advised that things discussed below, especially crafting and the Gas Pedals, will assume some working knowledge of the game and may contain spoilers.
Legend of Mana is one of Square's entries into the World of Mana aka Seiken Densetsu series of RPGs. This series is well known for it's quirky, cartoonish presentation, which is often countered by some very dark themes and elements weaved throughout the story and characters. It also is part of the PS1 era of RPGs, which is both good and bad. Good because this when the giants of the RPG world were really hitting their stride, and the attention to graphics, sound, and in-game mechanics really showed. Bad because the demand for these sort of games and the subsequent frenzied production and translation really made for some horrible missteps in actual storytelling. This game is very much of the "obscure equals profound" school of storytelling. What this translates to is that while there is a over-arching story and plot, you had to piece it together from hints and dribbles found in all sort of places. The whole thing was exacerbated by making this a open-world style of RPG, so lots and lots of wandering around and hoping that you can a picture of things ensued. Many players really stopped giving a damn about ten hours in, and proceeded to find the real meat of the game, crafting and combat.
The good parts of this game are very good indeed. Combat is fun and intuitive, with both normal attacks and special moves (called Killer Moves) for all sorts of weapons, plus an intricate magic system using eight elements. The monsters are very colorful and varied. Characters are even more so. The whole graphical style is designed to evoke a children's storybook setting, with characters and monsters having a pop-up feel. The music is an absolute joy, very much adding to the experience. The crafting system is far and away one the biggest reasons to play this game. It eschews the now traditional A plus B equals C recipes for an extremely deep and versatile upgrade system. You can even recruit pet monsters with actual practical combat benefits, and create golems from your crafted gear, both of which have all sorts of nasty moves and spells to unleash on the forces of badness.
If you have a console that run this game, and you like smacking things like killer bunny slippers, angry treasure chests, and ridiculously large bosses, feel free to try this out. Just don't bother figuring out why until you've beaten the game at least once; some evil soul decided that the background material needed to be made into journal snippets unlocked as you progress, and then decided to place it somewhere you'd get no real indication to check.
Crafting System: Holy crap does this game have a crafting system! This is by far one to the deepest and most varying systems I've ever seen. Weapons, armor, and accessories are directly created through the use of materials known as Primaries (metals, woods, stones, etc.), and are altered using Secondaries (magic crystals, potions, elemental coins, magical fruit, etc.). Spells are derived from magical instruments, using a Primary and an elemental coin to determine properties. All these are furthermore the building blocks for golem companions. The whole process is very involving, and can be addictively fun. Whole sites and fandoms have sprung up for this part of the game over the years. I could literally go on and on about this.
Theoretically Unlimited Wealth: Very present, with both a decently large-capacity wallet and a massive inventory. Farming for drops in this game is relatively painless, with fixed encounters that respawn infinitely upon leaving the screen and re-entering.
Limitations: Very low cash drops that do not improve over the course of the game, plus many of the best crafting materials command premium prices in shops. Even if you diligently farm and sell unwanted drops and equipment, you'll rarely get enough cash together to get more than a few of the goodies at a time. The good news is that the best of the materials are monster drops. All this is actually compounded by the crafting system, which is very much based on experimentation and trial-and-error techniques, with results that usually will not surface until you alter the same piece of gear at least three to five times. Finally, the drop system is reliant on monster level, with each monster type having a tiered table of drops. The kicker is that lower-level items are still dropped by high-level monsters.
Gas Pedals: The good news is there are ways to speed up both the cash acquisition and rare drop rates. The first and most direct way to acquire a pet Polter Box, which gives you a vastly improved drop rate. Each monster is considered to be two drop tiers above actual, which bypasses the experience crystal/cash drops in favor of items. This also allows mid- and high-level monsters to drop the higher tier items far more often, though you'll still need to fight the high-levels (50+) to see the highest tier drops (Adamantite, Dior Wood, etc.).
The second way is to use the crafting system. Effecting enough changes in a piece of equipment produces a Mystic Card. These determine specific special properties for equipment, and except for a certain one (Pixie) tend to increase the selling price. One the most efficient ways is to acquire a WindCap (dropped by Spiny Cones) and four Clear Feathers (dropped by Stinger Bugs). Altering the WindCap with all four feathers will result in three Lord of Flies cards, which take the dirt-cheap WindCap into the realm of 20000+ Lucre. There are many other ways to get quick cash, but this one has the benefit of requiring low-tier drops from extremely common monsters (these can even be found in good numbers on the Luon Highway, the usual starting combat zone) and an extremely dramatic price increase because to the WindCaps starting properties. This wonderful tidbit was published by Marcus Majarra on gameFAQs (link: http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/256525-legend-of-mana/faqs/10806 ) and helped my personal quest for the best monster masher. This article is also a very nifty way to learn the nuances of Legend's crafting system. Go read it!
In any case, Legend of Mana is a very fun little game, and armed with this knowledge, you can now go forth on your quest to wave a sword made from hemp at angry rabites and actually do damage!
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