Gaming Seiken Densetsu 3

[KharBevNor]

Has anyone here ever played Seiken Densetsu 3, either in the original Japanese or the fan-translated ROM? If not I recommend you pick up a SNES emulator and get a ROM now (Its legal now under the new abandonware laws). It's certainly one of the best 2D games square ever made, second only to Chrono Trigger. Like Chrono Trigger, its a refreshingly different concept to the brilliant yet un-deniably samey feel of FF games. It also happens to be probably one of the most non-linear RPG's I have ever played, more so even than Deus Ex. There are six main characters to choose from at the start, making it one of the few games to have alternative beginnings, and depending on who you picked in your party the potential combinations of plot events are endless...

A must-play game!

[Bremma]

I agree. I greatly enjoyed this game and, am infact, playing it again. It has wonderful replay value becuase of class changes in the game, where you can change what moves your charaters learn. Plus, it has an excellent plot and battle system. And so far, my favorite team is Kevin, Hawk and Lise. Anyone else got team preferences?

[ZytaZiouZ]

Isn't Seiken Densetsu 2 the same thing as secret of mana? If so, then I may definitely have to try to get this game.

[Semjaza]

I really don't feel this game should fall under "abandonware", unlike what these sites want you to believe. The copyrights are still held and the companies are still running. It seems like the only reason it does is simply because it never came out in the US and thus companies here have no real domain over it. That and it's apparently old enough that people feel that they can do as they please with it. Apparently developers don't feel the same though considering how many abandonware sites get asked to take down specific games due to warnings.

It's as weird as the sites that claim you can't get in trouble for downloading a ROM if you delete it within 24 hours. Oh well.

Square USA and Nintendo kind of messed up the naming process.

It goes like this:

Seiken Densetsu -- Final Fantasy Adventure (Game Boy)
Seiken Densetsu 2 -- Secret of Mana
Seiken Densetsu 3 -- Announced for US as Mana 2, but never released

There has actually been a GBA remake of the original Seiken Densetsu. It's coming out here on December 1st and will be called Sword of Mana. It was made by Brownie Brown (a Nintendo funded company) and looks excellent. Has a similiar style to 3, especially the art work. I think people in Brownie Brown were responsible for the original.

As for this game, I've tried it. Didn't play much because I'm not fond of playing console games on my computer, but I wanted to try it out to see what we missed. It wasn't bad, although I didn't get into it as fast as I did with Secret of Mana.

As for the choosing characters at the beginning... there are actually a lot of RPGs that do this, but it doesn't seem to be all that common with stuff Square puts out for some reason. Sword of Mana allows you to pick from two characters, which apparently changes the storyline. I think that's pretty cool.