Review of Mana Quest II

Created by JHawk

Reviewed by Vortex

I knew I had to try this game when I heard about it, since I really liked Secret of Mana on the SNES. But I also thought it would be a major ripoff with terrible graphics and a cheesy storyline. Not so. This game has a good storyline. It's about this one guy named Daris who has to collect the mana stones to revive the mana or else the mana beast will awaken and destroy the world to begin anew. He must go to each of Princess' Fannah's scholars and then go to the palaces to collect the stones, blocked by monsters.

So that means the game is a big ripoff with a good storyline, graphics, and design. The graphics are amazine. Not just that the tiles are used really well (and some, like some characters, are original), but there is a very nice title screen and there's even an avi in there. Well, the avi is kind of pointless, but just the fact that there is one is good enough for me.

The design is great, and runs smoothly. The only problem is that the bosses could have been made a little harder, but that's hardly a setback. Levels don't come very often, and that's a good thing. Inventory is not cheap either, unlike some games where I can buy what I need when I need it. The monsters weren't made too easy either, but that's not bad, because they aren't terribly hard.

Some other really nice things in the game was the moving water, which was good but it made the water town take a while to load, and also the hidden switches and things like that were pretty cool, and added some challenge to the game.

Bugs and Glitches: Nada, none, zip, zero. 100%

Music and SFX: Most came from Secret of Mana, but sadly some came from the original ASCII music set. 70%

Tiles: Great! Some characters were original, and even some tiles, and they were used really well. 95

Other GFX: One word: Wow! The avi and title screen were great! 100%

Cutscenes: All were good! 98%

Story & Plot: There seems to be a really thick plot in this game and it could go a long way. 93%

Game Design: It all fits together really nice, but those bosses could be a little harder! 92%

Overall: The game was great, I fully recommend it! 93%

Comments: The game was better than I expected, a rare thing with RM95, and I really am looking forward to just playing demo 2!

* - I do not refer to AVIs, I refer to events on the screen moving around in a scene.