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Seiken Densetsu 3, Legend of the Holy Sword 3 reviewed
http://www.rarityguide.com/articles/articles/59/1/Seiken-Densetsu-3-Legend-of-the-Holy-Sword-3-reviewed/Page1.html
By Douglas Shepard (Editor in Chief, RarityGuide.com)
Published on 12/22/2008
 
I've told you about the game, now I give you my facts and reasoning. A good look at the lost Secret of Mana game that never made it over to the states.

System: Super Nintendo (Super Famicon)
Title: Seiken Densetsu 3
Publisher: Squaresoft
Circa: 1995
Overall Rating:
92 percent

 

title screen


Intro

I’ve written an article telling about the game, but if you’re looking for something more factual this would be what you’d want. This game never made it state-side officially, but it still enjoys some popularity among those who played Secret of Mana. I heard about this game back in high school from a friend as a ROM. While RarityGuide does not endorse ROMs and avoids them as much as possible (as the authentic game and console is preferred by all here), for a game like Seiken Densetsu 3 (SD3 or Secret of Mana 2) we make an exception.

 

Story

The story of the game depends on the character you pick as your lead. Hawk is trying to save his beloved, Duran is out for revenge, Angela escapes to try to save her land (and her life) from her mother, Kevin is out stop his father from invading the human lands, Lise is trying to help her land return to peace with their neighbors and Charlie is trying to save her friend.

Regardless, each character must seek out the head priest in Wendel to learn more about their fate that meeting with the fairy has brought on them. All of them journey all across the land seeking out the mana stones and working to right things in the world.

There are three main story lines that the game follows, each leading to a different end stage. Every character has a different ending as well, which makes for a good bit of variety in game play.

 

Gameplay

At the beginning of the game, you get to choose 3 of the 6 characters. Every one of them is different in what they can do. Angela and Charlie, for example, are the main spell casters but Charlie naturally leans toward support and summons magic while Angela is more battle focused magic.  Every character will follow something of a similar plot with many of the same major land-marks within the game but it’s simply a question of how they get to the end and where the end game is for them.

The biggest difference in this game was the introduction of the class system used where at two points in the game you choose light or dark for each character. Each results in a very different style that the character follows. While the character changes visually, the class change has no effect on the story. Still, the changes in game play style can be enormous as to show the party develops and what roles are filled by which characters. The choice of class changes what spells each character gets, what their statistics max at and what special moves they gain. A good way to simply sum up this light/dark system is that Light tends to focus on support and healing (aid) while Dark favors raw power be it physical or magical.

Another change over Secret of Mana would be the power gauge, located near each characters Health/mana display. As the characters land hits, this gauge fills up and allows the character to perform a more powerful attack. As the character progresses through the game and undergoes their two class changes, this gauge expands, allowing the character to perform that class’s special attack. Each of these attacks are unique and affect a different number of enemies on the screen. These attacks can be very powerful, hitting everything, usually killing something, thus it takes a while to charge them up. Still, the gauge fills as the character lands physical attacks over the course of a battle, which means its very easy to fill and store for the boss battles. These attacks are a huge help in that regard honestly.

 

screen shot


Multiplayer

As its emulated, not really available though it is possible.

 

Controls

The controls do take a bit of getting used to. The manual is decidedly your friend while you are learning the game. Still, the layout would shine on a controller opposed to the keyboard, allowing for easy access to the ring menu, storage screen, and party screen.

 

Graphics

Very nice choice of pastel colors for the characters and the scenery. It’s very easy to admire the beauty of the game for a 16 bit system. I honestly prefer this game, graphically, over Secret of Mana. The characters status screen illustrations also change with the character’s class, meaning you are not looking at the same picture throughout the whole game.

 

Sound Effects & Music

Definitely this game wins points here. There aren’t a great number of remixes out for this particular game’s soundtrack, but there doesn’t need to be. It’s very solid and quite enjoyable. The theme music for the characters usually tells something about them, giving another way to connect to them. The sound effects are very well done as well. The little sound of the characters drawing their weapon before battle never gets old and the sound of your character running is kept enough in the background its very easy to overlook thus does not become annoying.

 

Obscurity

Knowing about this game is something of an “in” thing, as it was a Japan exclusive game that never really made its way over to the US.

 

Summary/Author’s Take

My last year of high school and the first two years of college saw a lot of play with SD 3. I really enjoyed the game and liked how the class system changed the basic level of play inside the game enough to make it a different difficulty all together. The class changes themselves were events to be enjoyed as well since it was a very notable benchmark for each of the characters and allowed for notable upgrades in what they could equip and use. I always rued the times I couldn’t play without the sound because I enjoyed the music. While with other games on the computer I might put something else on, I never did with this game. This game got a lot of attention on my computer, with me going so far as to make multiple copies of the ROM so I had enough save states and save files. This is a game that takes time to play through and is worth multiple play-throughs at least.



Story

90 percent

Viva variety!

Gameplay

90 percent

6 characters, 3 stories, 18 classes.

Multiplayer

50 percent

It exists, but emulators are somewhat questionable.

Controls

80 percent

Manual, or a bit of configuration.

Graphics

90 percent

Very delicate.

SFX and Music

90 percent

Beautiful

Obscurity

70 percent

It takes someone knowing, or luck.

Overall

92 percent

The lost secret.



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