History VideoGame / SeikenDensetsu3

** Late in the game, the Many Holyland is struck by an attack from the Big Bad, now supercharged with the energy of all eight God-Beasts. The straightforward path to the Tree is a now lot more convoluted, with broken columns and branching paths of lily-pads placed to confound you. This is a good as time as any to level grind.

** Kevin and the Ferolian troops all share the same werewolf sprite. The latter use the same techs as Kevin's top-tier classes. Needless to say, this gets ''very'' confusing if he's on your team.

* OurFairiesAreDifferent

** The official art of Lise's fenrir class on almost puts anything Angela has to shame, as it's just [[http://images.wikia.com/mana/images/5/57/Riesz_Fenrir_Knight.png a bikini with a wolf hide cape]], but Angela still wins the award for the most Stripperific outffit in the game. In her Magus class, while she wears a chestplate and cape, there's nothing [[http://images.wikia.com/mana/images/0/0e/Angela_Magus.png but a thong around her waist]].

** Subverted. Regardless of which main character you've picked, the [[spoiler:decaying]] Mana Holyland will be the last dungeon.

* YouAllMeetInACell: Also played with. If you didn't pick Charlotte as your third party member, you'll pick up your third after being thrown in the Jadd prison upon defeating the first boss. Subverted if Charlotte ''is'' your third party member, in which case your party is already full and your would-be fourth member just helps you break out of jail and is left behind when your party [[GetOnTheBoat gets on the boat]].
* YouAllMeetInAnInn: Played with. You can find every potential party member except Charlotte at the tavern in Castle City Jadd, but nobody actually joins your party until later.

''Seiken Densetsu 3'' (聖剣伝説３, literally translating as ''Holy Sword Legend 3''), released in 1995, is the third game in the ''[[VideoGame/WorldOfMana Mana]]'' series and the first one to [[NoExportForYou never make it Stateside]], though fan translations do exist via [[UsefulNotes/{{Emulation}} emulation]].

It's also one of the meanest games in the series; perfect for ''[=SoM=]'' vets, but a tough nut for newbies to crack.

''Seiken Densetsu 3'' (聖剣伝説3), released in 1995, is the third game in the ''[[VideoGame/WorldOfMana Mana]]'' series and the first one to [[NoExportForYou never make it Stateside]], though fan translations do exist via [[UsefulNotes/{{Emulation}} emulation]].

* [[AdjectiveNounFred Adjective Noun Place]]:

* AwesomeButImpractical:
** Level 2 and 3 techs. While they do have awesome attack animations, a lot of late-game enemies (''and'' some bosses) will answer them with an equally devastating tech in return, which (if it's something which hits the whole party) can easily spell a TotalPartyKill. This is to prevent spamming.\\\

* BlackMarket[=/=]MerchantCity: Byzel is a merchant city by day, and black market by night.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Even for a series whose theme is all about a cute and charming fairy tale aesthetic meshed with very stark and mature story elements, Seiken Densetsu 3 was and is the only installment that marked where the mature elements were at their highest. Human sacrifice? The want of those of the underworld wishing to take over the world of the living? Warfare that veers on near genocide? This isn't even including equipment and spells described in overseas guide books and official materials. A suit of armor made from the bones of demons feared to bite into its user's flesh and turn them into bloodthirsty murderers? A mask reminiscent of serial killers meant to scare and unleash the killing instinct? A skull themed glove with pointy finger claws meant to rip and tear at the head of the opponent? A spear made for obscene amounts of collateral damage and to remind people of the threat of violent giants that once terrorized the world in the past? It's there.

*** Path to the Heavens and the Gusthall (Corridor of Wind is the fan translated name).
*** Also, Bucca, because ChekhovsVolcano is a mountain which you climb and then descend into.

* DoomedHometown:
** Everybody's hometown gets invaded, either by the baddie for various nefarious reasons, or the heroes themselves in order to kick the bad guys out.
** Poor Astoria. The quaint river village is doomed to get pummeled to pieces by Lugar, no matter what.

* DumpStat: Agility for everyone but Hawkeye, who uses it for some of his spells. This is due to it being poorly implemented: It was intended that for every point of Agility you had your Evasion Rate would go up by 1%, but instead the game uses the character's class's base Evasion. This would have made it useful for [[SquishyWizard squishier]] character like Angela, but the point of the stat ceases to exist. Though it's often speculated that it increases your chances of randomly executing a short animation composed of invincibility frames when attacked, which is technically different from a "Miss", so the point of the stat might not be entirely lost.

* EvilCostumeSwitch[=/=]PaintItBlack:

* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Valda has gotten it into her warped brain that Altena isn't quite overpowered enough -- that her kingdom is entitled to each of the world's Mana Stones. When glimpsing the full scope of her plans, King Richard spits back, "The Queen of ''Reason''!" with maximum irony.
** [[spoiler: The truth of the matter is a bit more complex. Altena depends heavily on magic just to ''survive'' on their frozen continent, and with the Mana Tree threatened, so is the supply of mana that keeps their country going. Of course, unsealing the mana stones and freeing the [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] [[SealedEvilInACan stored in each one]] is probably the ''worst'' way to solve that problem, but you can thank [[EvilChancellor Koren]] [[BrainwashedAndCrazy for giving her that idea]]]].

* HaveWeMetYet: If you take Angela or Duran's path, the party will run into a younger version of the King of Valsena.
** If Duran is leading the party, [[spoiler:you also run into his father, Loki, just before the battle in which he's going to die. [[TearJerker Duran tries to convince his father not to go, but Loki goes anyway.]] And just to wring a few more tears out of the player, Loki comments that he hopes his son "turns out to be a fine young man like [present!Duran]."]]
* HeWhoMustNotBeSeen: The Dark Lord's remains are never seen. His resurrected body, on the other hand, is.
* HiddenDepths: With the exceptions of the Dragon Emperor and the Earl of the Evil Eye, all of the villains get fleshed out, well-developed personalities and back stories.

* HufflepuffHouse: Laurent Kingdom is busy keeping the peace up north.
* IThoughtEveryoneCouldDoThat: The Faerie has a bit of trouble remembering that humans [[GravityIsAHarshMistress can't fly]].
* InUniverseGameClock: The days of the week are named according to the Mana Spirits, thus affecting the strength/weakness of their corresponding magic. It's also free to sleep at an inn on Mana Holy Day.

* InnSecurity:
** Twice. Sleeping at an inn is required to make the fairy appear, and later on [[spoiler:in a free boat ride leads to the characters being trapped on the GhostShip]].
** DangerousInn: Sleeping in one room in the middle of [[spoiler:the Ghost Ship]] will make monsters spawn and attack you right away, and oh, you don't get the recover you were expecting.

* JustLikeRobinHood:
** The Thieves Guild of Nevarl at the beginning.
** Doubly since the Wanderer and Rogue class allude to when Nevarl wasn't a desert.

* OurFairiesAreDifferent
* OurVampiresAreDifferent: The Earl of the Evil Eye.
* OurWereWolvesAreDifferent: The Beastmen, who are a race of their own but very clearly inspired by werewolf mythology. They transform at night, gaining a sizeable attack bonus. This includes Kevin.

* PaintingTheMedium[=/=]GameplayAndStoryIntegration: Class change is a thing that exists InUniverse instead of just a gameplay mechanic. In fact, Duran's entire (initial) motivation is to be able to get strong enough for one of these.

* TheRuinsICaused: After you beat Bigieu, her section of the Dark Castle collapses, and the party flees across a connecting bridge to the next tower. If Hawkeye is with you, he'll stand over the gap and announce that vengeance is his at last.

* WakeUpCallBoss: Full Metal Hugger. Most first-time players fall victim to this guy. He'll slap you upside the head and let you know that bosses cast undodgeable attacks and you better heal after every last one. And if you picked an all male team, chances are Jewel Eater will be this too.

* YouAllMeetInACell: Also played with. If you didn't pick Charlotte as your third party member, you'll pick up your third after being thrown in the Jadd prison upon defeating the first boss. Subverted if Charlotte ''is'' your third party member, in which case your party is already full and your would-be fourth member just helps you break out of jail and is left behind when your party [[GetOnTheBoat gets on the boat]].

** Lise is a BadassPrincess, but she's not a OneManArmy. When raiders invade her kingdom, kill her people and kidnap her brother, she has to run in order to find help. She also never gets a chance to go on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge, instead having to find ways to stop the plans of the BigBad while putting her kingdom's reconstruction on hold.

** The Dark Lord was feared and hated as a child, which hints that he had been prophesied as a harbinger of doom. His status as something to be feared invited demons from the underworld to tempt him over to [[TheDarkSide their side]], thus dooming his kingdom ([[spoiler:revealed to be Lorimar in DawnOfMana]]), which the Dark Lord promptly destroyed.
** [[spoiler:Turns out in DawnOfMana that he was feared and hated for trying to drown his little brother, for eliminating all rivals to declare himself emperor and king of Lorimar, and for being an absolute tyrant. His deal with the demons was actually to open the door to Mavolia/the underworld and his Archdemon form is the result of merging with ''multiple'' Thanatos masks. His killing of the previous ruler of the underworld Medusa/Anise is also revealed to be from striking her host down with the first Mana Sword (it's also revealed that she secretly survived unbeknownst to the Dark Lord).]]

** Angela's prologue has her thrown into the aptly named Sub Zero Snowfield wearing nothing but a highly {{Stripperiffic}} leotard. Less than ten minutes later, she starts coming down with hypothermia.

** Hawkeye is a thief in a gang of them. Once Hawkeye decides he no longer wants to be part of the gang because of their growing corruption, they don't graciously let him leave; [[ResignationsNotAccepted they try to have him killed]]. It didn't help that he was framed in the murder of one of their own. When he returns to the gang as a hero trying to stop the end of the world, only two of Hawkeye's former gang members side with him; the rest are all {{Mook}}s who have to be cut down.
** Kevin can transform into a werewolf and kick major amounts of ass, [[InvoluntaryShapeshifting but he can't control it]]. The first time he transforms, Kevin kills his beloved pet Carl ([[spoiler:or so he thinks]]), and spends the rest of the game [[CursedWithAwesome hating his power]].

* ShiftingSandLand: Nevarl and the Dragon Hole's outer reaches (Glass Desert is the ''coolest'' name for a desert, hands down).

* SmugSnake: Deathjester. Good Lord, ''Deathjester''.

* StationaryBoss:
** Quite a few.
** Averted with the Dragon Emperor, a screen-filling FinalBoss who defies expectation by leaping into the foreground.

** Both Kevin and Charlotte are HalfHumanHybrids whose genetics give them significant abilities, but also cause a fair share of problems. Both of them have some sort of brain deficiency as a result of being a mix of two species, with Kevin talking in HulkSpeak and Charlotte still having the mindset of a small child despite being physically sixteen.

** ??? seeds sprout into Ultimate weapons and armour that are usable by Lv. 3 classes. The problem is, the game doesn't factor in which classes you've chosen, only the characters in your party. It's frustrating to pick a Light-Dark path, plant a seed and get rewarded with Light-Light pieces you can't use. SaveScumming mitigates this a bit, but it shouldn't be coded that way to start with.

* SchrodingersGun: Whoever you selected as the main character is going to be the one that ends up hosting the Faerie. Whoever you selected as the second character is going to join you outside the Cave of Waterfalls, and whoever you selected as the third will join you after [[spoiler:they bust you out of the Beastman-occupied Jadd's dungeons]]. Selecting Charlotte as your second or third character kinda throws that off (if chosen and not the hero, she ''always'' joins you somewhere between where the other second and third choices join), but [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything the dev team thought of that]]: [[spoiler:If Charlotte's on your team and thus you already have three characters by the time you get locked up in Jadd, the person in the other cell who busts you out will be a fourth hero who never joins your team (if Duran's not on your team, it'll usually be him), and your party leaves the person behind when they escape on the ship, but fortunately the person is able to escape the city off-screen.]]

* DarkIsNotEvil: You can use darkness element spells and weapons, and the darkness summon spirit Shade is not evil, though [[EldritchAbomination Zable Fahr God-Beast]] is ThatOneBoss for some people. Your characters' class alignment can become dark (or dark-dark), which is just a fancier way to say that the classes are more offensive based and enfeebling in their specialties. Even their descriptions are up to the player. For example, the Nightblade: a ruthless remorseless coldblooded murdererr who revels in the act of stealing lives, or an assassin who preys upon the villainous, corrupted, and nonredeemable in the dark? The Death Hand: a brutal, tasteless savage who turns to internal turmoil for the sake of limitless power, or a wielder of a well kept secret martial art that makes use of unorthodox but effective means to swiftly ensure quick and painless death on opponents? You decide.

* DarkIsNotEvil: You can use darkness element spells and weapons, and the darkness summon spirit Shade is not evil, though [[EldritchAbomination Zable Fahr God-Beast]] is ThatOneBoss for some people. Your characters' class alignment can become dark (or dark-dark).

* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything:

'''''Seiken Densetsu 3''''' (聖剣伝説3), released in 1995, is the third game in the ''[[VideoGame/WorldOfMana Mana]]'' series and the first one to [[NoExportForYou never make it Stateside]], though fan translations do exist via [[UsefulNotes/{{Emulation}} emulation]].

* WomanInBlack: Angela's Magus class.

In a departure from the norm, ''[=SD3=]'' revolves around six characters of which any three can make up your party. (Interestingly, the party leader also determines which of the three {{Big Bad}}s the heroes eventually take on.) Your heroes start the adventure in a default job, but have opportunities to pursue Light or Dark magicks later on -- sort of a mix between ''VideoGame/The7thSaga'' and the ''VideoGame/{{SaGa}}'' games. Unlike in most [[EasternRPG JRPGs]], there are no takebacks, and the fruits of your labor may not become apparent for a while. These 36 classes adds lots of replay value to a game with 12 party configurations.

The Mana Tree is dying ([[TheWorldIsAlwaysDoomed again]]), so the Mana Goddess sends her fairies to the world below to find someone worthy of restoring it. [[SoleSurvivor All but one]] perish on route due to the steady loss of magic, and the remaining Fairy settles for the first schmuck it can find. Naturally, that happens to be the initial hero the player selected. Interestingly, the party leader also determines which of the three {{Big Bad}}s the heroes eventually take on.

It plays very similarly to its predecessor ''VideoGame/SecretOfMana'', the difference being that the percentage meter (which limited the frequency of melee attacks) is gone. ''[=SoM=]''[='=]s {{charged attack}}s have also been replaced by {{Limit Break}}s (or "Techs"). The meter builds with each successful hit on the enemy, greatly speeding up the gameplay.

In a departure from the norm, ''[=SD3=]'' revolves around six characters of which any three can make up your party. Your heroes start the adventure in a default job, but have opportunities to pursue Light or Dark magicks later on -- sort of a mix between ''VideoGame/The7thSaga'' and the ''VideoGame/{{SaGa}}'' games. Unlike in most [[EasternRPG JRPGs]], there are no takebacks, and the fruits of your labor may not become apparent for a while. The 36 classes add replay value to a game already stuffed with configurations.

It's also one of the meaner ''Mana'' entries: Ideal for ''[=SoM=]'' veterans, but a tough nut for newbies to crack.

* HollerButton: Buskaboo the Turtle has a horn that does nothing except amuse a button-mashing player.

* SpeedRun: It's very possible (using cheat codes to bump characters' stats and get items that aren't available early in the game, like [[spoiler:the drum used to call Flammie]]) to beat the game in under five hours if you know what you're doing.

* ClassAndLevelSystem: The only ''Mana'' to feature it, and one which might take a bit of grinding to really exploit. The first class change can be achieved when the character is at Lv. 18 (roughly after the Machine Golem fight in the snowfield). This is done by touching any Mana Stone that you can encounter during the game. The second change happens at Lv. 38 (usually earned in the final dungeon... or the Ancient Ruins if you grind like hell); only the Mana Goddess herself can bestow this class, and you need a special item harvested from ??? seeds.

* MarathonLevel: To reach the final bosses, you must first comb through an alien landscape (Glass Desert for the Emperor, Jungle of Vision for the Mage, and Cave of Darkness for Archdemon), defeat the Dark God-Beast and a sub-boss, scour the dungeons for three past bosses, and then fight the dungeon boss. There are no gold Goddess statues (just headless ones... shudder), only a long, hard slog back to civilization if you run out restoratives/MP.

* AerithAndBob: Hawk, Eagle, Bigieu, Lord Flamekhan... and Bill and Ben. Would you believe it's the last two who pose a genuine threat?

* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: After their hometown gets ransacked by foreign armies, your hero sets out to become strong enough to avenge it. (Barring Carlie, who originates from the neutral city of Wendel). Jadd, Laurent, and Ferolia are always revisited, no matter which heroes you choose. Altena and Nevarl are unlocked only if Angela/Hawk is in the party, since the non-branching story doesn't go there.

* AnnoyingArrows: Hawk's traps--in particular, the "arrow" trap. Tripping the booby trap on a chest might also trigger it.

Furthermore, Hawk and Kevin can strike twice with their Lv. 1 attacks, which negates the Lv. 2 attack boost (even more so if they have saber spells, which stack with Lv. 1 attacks but not the higher ones). When fighting an immovable boss character, the ability to strike from anywhere in the arena is not as important as raw DPS output.

* BadDreams: Carlie's prologue starts out with a nightmare of her parents abandoning her.

* BoringButPractical: On reflection, Lv. 1 techs. They may just be a glorified melee attack -- but they won't be countered, can be enhanced by elemental sabers, and can still hit multiple enemies if they are bunched together. Even better, Hawk and Kevin have double-strike capability (Hawk wields two daggers, Kevin delivers a one-two jab and uppercut) which carries over into their level ones.

** [[spoiler:Loki and Heath are forced to follow orders from their masters, Dragon Emperor and Masked Mage]], respectively. And if you have Duran/Carlie in your party, the fight becomes a bit of a TearJerker.

** Inverted with Nikita, as the cat pops up several times during Hawk's story to break him out of prison, lend him a vital hand against Bigieu, and take care of Jessica so Hawk could carry his mission without worrying for her.

* CharacterDevelopment: It is highly recommended that you play the three routes with both of each route's central characters (Duran/Angela, Kevin/Carlie, and Lise/Hawk) for this purpose. It doesn't hurt that each pair tends to complement each other's abilities well.

* CombatPragmatist: Hawk's Nightblade class utilizes poison, blow needles, and bashing the enemy's face in with a wrench.

** Hawk's Nightblade class sports one, and some of his equip-able armor is of the CoolMask variety.
* CrashIntoHello: Carlie into Heath right at the start of her story.

* DoubleEntendre: When playing Hawk's intro, if you talk to one of the guards at the door of the throne room, he says about the Laurent amazons "I bet they're all cute ladies. I want to poke them with [[ICallHimMisterHappy my dagger]]." Think about it....

* DumpStat: Agility for everyone but Hawk, who uses it for some of his spells. This is due to it being poorly implemented: It was intended that for every point of Agility you had your Evasion Rate would go up by 1%, but instead the game uses the character's class's base Evasion. This would have made it useful for [[SquishyWizard squishier]] character like Angela, but the point of the stat ceases to exist. Though it's often speculated that it increases your chances of randomly executing a short animation composed of invincibility frames when attacked, which is technically different from a "Miss", so the point of the stat might not be entirely lost.

* EvilOverlord: The Dragon Emperor for Duran and Angela, the Masked Mage for Kevin and Carlie, and the Dark Lord (called Dark Prince in the fan translation) for Lise and Hawk.
* EvilSorcerer: The Wizard of the Crimson Lotus, The Masked Mage, and [[spoiler:Heath, Carlie's playmate and supposedly her mentor]].

** Hawk and Lise: [[spoiler:Archdemon, AKA Dark Lord]], a Lucifer archetype and arguably the worst of the whole rotten lot. Owns a sweet castle.
** Carlie and Kevin: [[spoiler:Masked Mage, or rather, Dark Lich]], a fallen cleric who has bathed himself in dark magic, losing any semblance of humanity he once had.

* FirstTown: Astoria. Well, it's the first town common to ALL the characters when any of them are the lead. Most characters have to make a stop in Jadd before they ever reach Astoria, with the exception of Carlie. It's also the first town shop-wise, as Jadd is under a curfew and can't sell you anything.

** Carlie gets one even if you didn't select her as a teammate at all.

** The game doesn't mention this, but certain spells can't be learned unless you've leveled up [[OneStatToRuleThemAll particular attributes]]. Hawk learns new moves by leveling up his AGL and LUCK, but dumping points into his INT is useless. However, Duran (the no-frills tank) must raise his SPIRIT at least a little if he wants to learn his Paladin moves, which require MP to use. The requirements aren't always intuitive, and you may waste a level or two trying out new combinations before you see a result. Thankfully, the game rewards ''every'' spell you've missed along the way (without any fanfare, just a quick message box) once you meet the requirements.

* HypnotizeThePrincess: Koren and Bigieu, posing as {{Evil Chancellor}}s of sorts to the north and south, work independently to provoke fighting with their neighbors. Koren reveals that he [[spoiler:hypnotized the Queen of Reason into becoming a warmonger]], and Bigieu basically prostitutes herself out to Lord Flamekhan. By the time Hawk notices something's amiss, she now has mind control powers over the ''entire'' ninja clan, including Eagle and Bill/Ben.

* KaleidoscopeHair: The heroes can become blonde (or blonder) through class changes, too. Carlie, Lise, and Kevin are already light-haired, but Angela and Hawk are both dark-haired, and their class-changes with blond hair are both dark-dark.

** Carlie, the Elf-King is your ''other'' grandfather.

** This seems to be the characteristic of the Light path. The Dark classes spit out a higher volume of attacks and maximum strength levels. The Light classes, comparatively, have little to offer until about ten hours later, when Light-Light finally yields big dividends -- especially in the final areas of the game. Hawk's first Light class, Ranger, is really underwhelming: No buffs/debuffs, no elemental attacks, and mediocre stats across the board. If you survive long enough to promote him to Wanderer, he'll learn Counter magic -- effectively neutering Koren, who won't be able to lay a finger on your trio. It gets ugly ''real'' fast.

* MirrorBoss: The Darkshine Knight [[spoiler:is a former Knight of Gold]], Koren is a hopeless student of magic who fast-tracked his abilities due to outside influence, [[spoiler:Heath is the orphan ward of Wendel's top priest]], Lugar is the sneering Beastman general who somehow thinks the throne is rightfully his (in contrast to ReluctantRuler Kevin), Bill and Ben are, or at least used to be, laid-back master ninjas, [[spoiler:Heath]] is fully fledged summoner in addition to his necromancer abilities, granting him all of Carlie's dark magic.

** Each class the heroes can take has a enemy parallel. Duran has knights. Angela magicians. Kevin with werewolves. Light Carlie are potos, while dark Carlie shamans. Light Hawkeye with Chobins and dark has ninjas. Finally, Reise has the bee women and goblins.

* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: An EnforcedTrope. Hawk and his feline pal are the only thieves seen doing any stealing: Under Isabella's influence, the thieves' hideout of Navarre is gearing up for cavalry assaults on whole cities.

** Hawk is a thief in a gang of them. Once Hawk decides he no longer wants to be part of the gang because of their growing corruption, they don't graciously let him leave; [[ResignationsNotAccepted they try to have him killed]]. It didn't help that he was framed in the murder of one of their own. When he returns to the gang as a hero trying to stop the end of the world, only two of Hawk's former gang members side with him; the rest are all {{Mook}}s who have to be cut down.

** Both Kevin and Carlie are HalfHumanHybrids whose genetics give them significant abilities, but also cause a fair share of problems. Both of them have some sort of brain deficiency as a result of being a mix of two species, with Kevin talking in HulkSpeak and Carlie still having the mindset of a small child despite being physically sixteen.

* ReformedCriminal: Hawk, sort of.

* TheRuinsICaused: After you beat Bigieu, her section of the Dark Castle collapses, and the party flees across a connecting bridge to the next tower. If Hawk is with you, he'll stand over the gap and announce that vengeance is his at last.

* SchrodingersGun: Whoever you selected as the main character is going to be the one that ends up hosting the Faerie. Whoever you selected as the second character is going to join you outside the Cave of Waterfalls, and whoever you selected as the third will join you after [[spoiler:they bust you out of the Beastman-occupied Jadd's dungeons]]. Selecting Carlie as your second or third character kinda throws that off (if chosen and not the hero, she ''always'' joins you somewhere between where the other second and third choices join), but [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything the dev team thought of that]]: [[spoiler:If Carlie's on your team and thus you already have three characters by the time you get locked up in Jadd, the person in the other cell who busts you out will be a fourth hero who never joins your team (if Duran's not on your team, it'll usually be him), and your party leaves the person behind when they escape on the ship, but fortunately the person is able to escape the city off-screen.]]

** Unless your protagonist is Hawk or Riesz, the Navarl faction loses big in the Mana Sword sweepstakes. The [[spoiler:Dark Lord]] loses his corporeal form in exchange for opening the way to the Mana Tree, but his enemies steal the body and destroy it before he can be properly revived. The Earl insists they can still keep to the plan by taking back the sword and unsealing their underworld armies, but [[spoiler:Bigieu is unable to go on without her love. Rather than live in disgrace, she murder-suicides herself and the Earl]].

* SimpleYetAwesome: Hawk's "Ninja Master" class gains the ability to multi-target his Shuriken ability. This means you have a fast-casting ability that hits all enemies on the screen, does significant damage, knocks enemies back, and lowers their evasion. All for only 1 MP. Fans have dubbed it the "1 MP Wonder".

* SpikyHair: Hawk's pal, Eagle.

** If you liked the party from ''VideoGame/SecretOfMana'', Duran, Carlie, and Angela make good replacements for Randi, Purim, and Popoie, respectively (though unlike Randi, Duran can learn his own magic). Interestingly you can complete this game with ever having recruited a mage or healer. Magic isn't as devastating as it used to be, and you can scrape by with healing items, but the latter makes boss fights a lot tougher.

** Hawk and Eagle.

* ThirdPersonPerson: Carlie.

** Hawk and Lise. Especially if they're both in your party, and either them is the leader.
** [[spoiler:During the battle to retake Laurent, if you have Lise in your party but not Hawk, Hawk will ask the party to spare Bigieu's life. Lise will agree, and Hawk will kiss her, causing Lise to freak out.]]

* YouAllMeetInAnInn: Played with. You can find every potential party member except Carlie at the tavern in Castle City Jadd, but nobody actually joins your party until later.
* YouAllMeetInACell: Also played with. If you didn't pick Carlie as your third party member, you'll pick up your third after being thrown in the Jadd prison upon defeating the first boss. Subverted if Carlie ''is'' your third party member, in which case your party is already full and your would-be fourth member just helps you break out of jail and is left behind when your party [[GetOnTheBoat gets on the boat]].

It plays very similarly to its predecessor ''VideoGame/SecretOfMana'', the big difference being that the percentage meter (which limited the frequency of melee attacks) has been removed. ''[=SoM=]''[='=]s {{charged attack}}s have also been replaced by {{Limit Break}}s (or "Techs"). The meter builds with each successful hit on the enemy, greatly speeding up the gameplay.

In a departure from the norm, ''[=SD3=]'' revolves around six characters of which any three can make up your party. Your heroes start the adventure in a default job, but have opportunities to pursue Light or Dark magicks later on -- sort of a mix between ''VideoGame/The7thSaga'' and the ''VideoGame/{{SaGa}}'' games. Unlike in most [[EasternRPG JRPGs]], there are no takebacks, and the fruits of your labor may not become apparent for a while. The 36 classes add replay value to a game already overstuffed with configurations.

It plays very similarly to its predecessor ''VideoGame/SecretOfMana'', the big difference being that the percentage meter (which limited the frequency of melee attacks) has been removed. Now the meter builds with each successful hit on the enemy. ''[=SoM=]''[='=]s {{charged attack}}s have also been replaced by {{Limit Break}}s (or "Techs"), greatly speeding up the gameplay.

It's also one of the meaner ''Mana'' entries, ideal for ''[=SoM=]'' veterans but perhaps a tough nut for newbies to crack.

* AnotherSideAnotherStory: Out of six playable characters, you can only choose three to build your party for any given playthrough, and only ''one'' can be the Mana Knight (which grants him or her additional screen time and also determines who the final boss will be). The remaining three become [=NPCs=] who you may or may not cross paths at various points. Thus, every playthrough with a different party combination can become Another Story.\\\
Another thing to consider is each character has a rival who is also the Big Bad's right-hand man. Rivals have an adversarial relationship with at least two main characters (e.g. Deathjester orchestrates the murder of Karl, then makes off with Heath).