Postby Bobtheduck » Tue Mar 30, 2004 5:57 am
Um... All of the games involved the Mana sword. SH3 was about the 6 conflicting kingdoms. There were six main charachters of which you could play 3 at a time.
Duran - The Knight
Angela - The Witch/(black mage)
Charleotte/Carlie - The Priestess (white mage)
Kevin - The Werewolf (berserker)
Lise/Riez - The Amazoness
Hawkeye - The Thief
They all have their own stories of why they are seeking out the Mana priest (except for Carlie, because she's his granddaughter) and then why they are seeking out the Mana sword and the Mana stones. Duran's kingdom was invaded by the Witch queen (Angela's Mother) Angela's mother was influenced by some weird guy. The guy Carlie likes was taken away by the guy who corrupted the Werewolf king, The werewolf king was influenced and led an attack on a lot of different towns, and in the process Kevin lost his dog and was kicked out of the kingdom after this wierd clown guy caused him to kill his dog, Riez/Lise must find a way to drive the thieves out of their kingdom, and Hawkeye is bound by a curse that if he clears himself of the murder of his best friend, his girlfriend will die. They are all seeking help from the Mana priest, and whoever you choose first will come in contact with a Mana fairy who will reside in their heads for the rest of the game.
The order you choose the characters will chage certain events. For instance, the last battle is decided by the first two people you choose. There are, I believe, 20 different last battles. Also, the fairy goes in the head of whoever you choose first and you play out the game as the first person you choose. The second person will usually meet you at the gate (unless you have carlie on your team) and the third person will usually meet you in prison (once again, unless you have carlie on your team) That's just some of many events that are different based on who you have on your team and what order you choose them. The stories for each scenario are pretty straight forward.
There is a class change system that anyone who's played the SD1 remake will be familiar with. You can class change twice using the Mana stones. You can choose a dark path or a light path. Choosing a dark path means you have greater attack power, choosing a light path means you have greater support and defense power. There are 4 final combonations possible. (7 classes per character alltogether) All of the characters can use some magic depending on the direction they choose. For instance, the light path all the way on Duran will give him healing magic. The dark side all of the way for Carlie will give her summoning abilities. The light side all the way for angela... Well, I forget...
The most powerfull of the bunch is Hawkeye. He has the best class changes, in my opinion. However, having him in your team, particularly in the first 2, really makes the scenario more difficult. Because he's stronger and because his story is a bit more complex, his scenario puts harder things in his way and his last battles are the hardest in the game.
This game has all the Mana familiarities. The ring menu, rabites, flammie, the mana sword, the Mana Tree... All are there. The enemies in this game can level up, so you can actually fight a rabite at level 18 that's just as powerfull as you. The battle system, in my opinion, reached its best in SD3. It's not as action oriented as the others, so it sort of disappointed many people. Some people can't figure it out, but I figured it out and it's probably the best ARPG battle system in existance IMNSHO.
I could go on for hours about this game... It's just too good. It pushed the visuals on the SNES to the extreme (I ventured to say that some of the bosses on here looked better than early PS1 stuff) It's a beautiful game without getting too cutesy (like SD4 and even the SD1 remake get) and it has an incredible story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evcNPfZlrZs Watch this movie なう。 It's legal, free... And it's more than its premise. It's not saying Fast Food is good food. Just watch it.
Legend of Crying Bronies: Twilight's a Princess