In the Spotlight - Seiken Densetsu

For my very first installment of In The Spotlight I have decided to cover the great Role-Playing Game series known as Seiken Densetsu. This series began in 1991 on the Game Boy with the release of Final Fantasy Adventure. Despite the name, this game couldn't have been any more different than the popular Final Fantasy on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Many people have drawn this same conclusion, and I'll gladly do the same myself. This series is Final Fantasy meets Legend of Zelda. Interested? Good, keep reading!

The first game begins with the hero acting as a "gladiator" for the evil Dark Lord. After the easiest boss battle in video game history, you decide to escape and overhear Dark Lord's diabolical plan to gain access to the Tree of Mana. From there your adventure begins, primarily spent alone. In several dungeons you'll be able to recruit the aid of some usually useless NPCs, but really you don't need the extra help anyway. The dungeons are long and challenging at times, and many of the boss battles might test your limits. My only real gripe is the horrible world map. I spent many times wandering screen to screen on the world map, unsure of exactly how to get to my destination. But still, you NEED to play this fun game!

Second in the series is Secret of Mana, released in 1993 on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. You start off as a boy who discovers a sword in the middle of a river near his hometown. Turns out this is the legendary Sword of Mana, which when pulled unleashes monsters on the world. After your first boss battle you are banished forever from your hometown, and from there your adventure begins. Along the way you'll get help from a girl and a sprite, both of whom are very handy. Why? Because the boy is incapable of learning any magic, so you'll want to be sure to keep the other two alive. The best part of this game would be the multiplayer option, because friends always make things better. After all, they have to be smarter than the AI, right? Apart from the lack of intelligent AI, my only other real gripe is the slow leveling progression of the magic. I've always been a melee player by preference, so while my weapons were all fairly current the magic was horribly underleveled. While I still had few troubles in the game, from what I've read thing would have gone much faster by having capped magic and nuking the bosses into oblivion. Oh well, the fun factor is all that really matters!

Third is Seiken Densetsu 3, released ONLY in Japan back in 1995 on the Super Famicom. From what I gather Square decided not to release it in the United States because it was too close to the release of the Nintendo 64. How dumb is that? We missed out on an excellent game, people! I'm only 6 hours in so far, but as of now it is easily the best of the first three. With six different characters to pick from, each with unique stories, classes, abilities and items, this already has stong appeal. The fact that all the boss battles so far have been a challenge only adds to my love for this game. Did I mention the Ghost Ship? So freaking awesome! Obviously I'll be updating this as soon as I beat this third installment in the series, but I thought I'd go ahead and brag about it already. After all, I am almost positive this game will be one of my 10 favorite games of all time when I'm done.

There are several other games out there in this series, as well as a future game slated for release on the Playstation 2. First off is Legend of Mana on the Playstation. Sword of Mana can be found on the Game Boy Advance. Children of Mana is out on the Nintendo DS. Finally, the date is still TBA, but we will have Dawn of Mana on the Playstation 2! I know I'm excited, and at this time plan to play every one of these whenever possible. I've thoroughly enjoyed the first three games in this series, and I think you will too.



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