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5''Secret of Mana'', known in Japan as ''Seiken Densetsu 2'' (聖剣伝説2, literally translating as ''Holy Sword Legend 2''), is the second game in the ''VideoGame/WorldOfMana'' series. It was released for the Super Famicom/SNES in 1993.
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7An Platform/{{iOS}} version came out in 2010, and was ported to Android in 2014. A 3D [[VideoGameRemake remake]] was released on February 15, 2018 to Platform/{{Steam}}, Platform/PlayStation4, and Platform/PlayStationVita.
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9It follows the story of a boy who mistakenly pulls the Sword of Mana [[OnlyTheChosenMayWield out of a rock]] to cut a path back to town. Unleashing the Sword also opened its seal on evil, and monsters begin to ransack the world again. Back at the ranch, it doesn't take long for the pitchforks to come out, and the boy is [[FelonyMisdemeanor exiled from his home forever]]. With nowhere to go, he is left with little choice but to fulfill his destiny as the Mana Knight -- with the help of a runaway young lady and a [[AmbiguousGender sprite]] who tried to con them out of their money. Naturally, this involves [[TheEmpire stopping an evil empire]] before they [[GottaCatchEmAll unseal a number of MacGuffins]] and [[SealedEvilInACan raise some demonic superweapon]].
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11''Secret of Mana'' was promoted heavily by {{Creator/Nintendo}} at the time of its release, showcasing revolutionary gameplay features such as the 3-player co-op (taking the roles of the Boy, the Girl and the Sprite at the same time). If only one player is available, the game's AI will control the other characters, but there is a dial to determine how meek or aggressive they are.
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13Whenever you attack, there is a gauge. In order to deal the most damage, you must wait for the gauge to fill to 100%. Once an enemy is hit by a ChargedAttack, they will be momentarily dazed and [[MercyInvincibility cannot be attacked until they recover.]] This makes the combat a little more strategic than simply mashing the attack button. Item, spell, and weapon management is deftly handled using the RingMenu.
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15Of course, you get other weapons besides [[HeroesPreferSwords the sword]]. Each weapon has its advantages, either during battle or [[UtilityWeapon when navigating dungeons]]. For instance, the axe isn’t much different than the sword, but sometimes there’s debris in your way. Find a large gap which you can’t cross? Odds are there’s a stake in the ground on the opposite side and you can use your whip as a rope. With experience, your characters are able to perform a stronger version of the charged attack. The experience cap increases as you locate "Orbs" that, when obtained, you can take to the UltimateBlacksmith, and he’ll [[EquipmentUpgrade forge a stronger weapon]] out of it.
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17As you progress through the game, you’ll also uncover Mana Seeds and Mana Spirits. Each Spirit will give your supporting characters a new group of spells to cast. The girl mainly has access to [[WhiteMage healing and support magic]], whilst the sprite is going to be your [[BlackMage nuker.]] In addition, each time you find a Mana Seed, you’re able to start leveling up their magic, as well.
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19The 2018 remake restored some of the nuances and plot elements the North American release [[BlindIdiotTranslation had to remove due to space restrictions]], and added all-new ''{{VideoGame/Grandia}}''-style [[YouAllMeetInAnInn inn scenes]] between major story events that help flesh out your party. It also offers a choice between the original and remastered soundtracks, as well dual audio tracks for English and Japanese dubs.
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21The mobile version and the remake also add several little touches that make menu navigation much more convenient: most notably shortcut keys for frequently-used weapons and spells, and switching between characters within the Equipment screens without having to switch control over to them entirely.
22----
23!!Tropes:
24[[foldercontrol]]
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26[[folder:A-D]]
27* AbsurdlyHighLevelCap: Three of them! Your EXP, weapon, and spell levels get pretty redundant past a certain point.
28** The experience level cap for your characters is 99, though a normal playthrough will end with your characters at around level 55, which is more than enough to easily beat most of the trash mobs you come across, even in the final dungeon. Your spellcasters' MP hit the cap of 99 at level 70.
29** Grinding for weapon levels is also fairly useless. While the higher-level charged attacks look cool, they take a long time to charge up that high, and you'll almost certainly hit the damage cap with lower-level moves. You also need to find the final Weapon Orbs as RandomDrops in the VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon, so you might not even find them in the first place. Not to mention, the final form of the eight weapons don't get any special abilities, whereas the penultimate forms usually have some sort of passive bonus that makes it more practical to stay at the InfinityMinusOneSword form.
30** Primm and Popoi each have their own set of connections to the elementals which can be upgraded the more they use any spell from either of them. An elemental connection can be maxed out to level 8 but this requires a lot of time and [=MP=] restoring items.
31* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: The Imperial Sewers.
32* ActionBomb: Any enemy who can use the Burst spell, and Popoi. Lesser enemies will use this as a SuicideAttack, while stronger enemies and Popoi can blow themselves up repeatedly without any repercussions (aside from MP usage).
33* ActionGirl: Primm, in spades. Her default weapons are the [[PowerFist knuckles]], and she shows up trying to rescue her boyfriend from a decidedly unfriendly witch. And her boyfriend is a soldier!
34* ActuallyIAmHim: Sage Joch is always out of his cave, the party [[MissedHimByThatMuch having just missed him leave]] according to his disciple, Jekt. Only after a multitude of {{fetch quest}}s and a test of character is it revealed that Jekt ''is'' Sage Joch.
35* AdamSmithHatesYourGuts: Neko sells items at double the price other merchants do. While you can normally ignore his wares through most of the game, he's the only vendor who sells decent gear for you when you head to the Purelands for the first time, meaning you'll be forced to pay an obscene amount of money for the required goods, or deal with getting hit really hard from the monsters that live there. Fortunately by that time the gold dropped by enemies is high enough that the price-hike for a lot of goods isn't as big a deal anymore.
36* AdaptationExpansion: The remake adds many party chat scenes to be seen when the team takes a break at a inn, exploring their motivations, reactions to events throughout the game and showing their character development; a welcome addition since the original script was quite minimal in dialogue, there are some scenes where the party is merely being talked to, we didn’t get see what they think about certain situations.
37** This is also true in some cases for the soundtrack. See EpicRocking below for details.
38* AdaptationalAttractiveness:
39** Not so much Primm, surprisingly. She's a bit "cuter" with her longer ponytail and more obvious elf-ears, but her look isn't that heavily re-designed (it is more obvious that her top bares her shoulders and much of her back). However there is one exception: A special DLC allows the player to change Primm's appearance so she's ''actually'' [[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FSMS9HKYWEo/maxresdefault.jpg shown wearing the Tiger Bikini]] in-game (here called "Tiger Two-Piece").
40** [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/mana/images/b/b1/Luka.png Luka, originally]], was a conservatively-dressed priestess through and through. [[https://secretofmana.square-enix-games.com/img/character_rusalka4.png Her redesign]] emphasizes her cuteness and the lightness of the upper portion of her dress... but they also decided to have her ShowSomeLeg by removing most of the front of her dress (it was a floor-length gown from all sides in the SNES version).
41** Originally, it seems that Fanha was intended to be a bit of [[TheVamp a vamp]], as [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/mana/images/b/b8/Fanha_Artwork.jpg her outfit in the SNES version]] appears to be a very typical "[=90s=] anime mage" ensemble of a long dress with a right-side slit for [[ShowSomeLeg showing some leg]] in her walk animation if you pay attention (and, because of certain spriting decisions[[note]]specifically, from the front and back her design is asymmetrical, but her side sprite is mirrored to depict what would be her left side with the heavier shawl when she's facing both right ''and'' left, leaving out the side with the un-draped armored pauldron entirely[[/note]], in-game her outfit comes across as heavier and less revealing than it does in the concept work). [[https://secretofmana.square-enix-games.com/img/character_fanha5.png Her redesign]], however, radically alters her into a younger-looking woman with a skimpier outfit.
42** While The Boss of the Scorpion Army was already TheVamp in the original game, the remake makes it ''much'' more obvious as you can now see she's basically wearing a one-piece swimsuit (and for that matter, more obvious that she's actually ''female'', since her gender was never stated in the original game, and her sprite can appear somewhat androgynous).
43* AdvancingWallOfDoom: The Wall Face boss will attempt to smash you against the [[SpikesOfDoom spike-lined]] rear wall if you don't kill it quickly enough. It does this as a last ditch effort when it runs out of MP... which it will quickly, since it tends to keep reviving the eyes which costs a lot of MP.
44* AfterTheEnd: The game takes place after the destruction of an ancient civilization following a war. As alluded to by some crystals ("veedios") that include a ShoutOut to ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' and similar programmes, and the {{s|inisterSubway}}ubway in the [[UnderwaterCity lost continent]] complete with turnstiles, said civilization is presumably (a version of) ours.
45* AllThereInTheManual: This was where the canon names for the main characters used to live. According to the original Japanese version's manual, the boy is Randi, the girl is Primm, and the sprite is Popoi; the English manual just calls the boy "JEFF" and the girl "KAREN". The in-package German strategy guide has another set of names: Erwin for the boy, Trudi for the girl and Helga for the sprite. The remake superseded all of these, however; see CanonName below.
46* AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield: The Mana Fortress is trippy in both music and appearance.
47* AmbiguousGender:
48** Popoi in the Japanese, so the player isn't forced into TwoGuysAndAGirl or TwoGirlsAndAGuy. However, it's male in the SNES & iOS English versions and female in the German versions; the English remake, however, uses [[GenderInclusiveWriting gender-neutral "they"]] for Popoi. Voice-wise, Popoi ''is'' voiced by women in both Japanese and English, although in both cases it's done in a manner that is meant to be androgynous. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMMqMos_6nY&t=6m17s According]] to the [[WordOfSaintPaul voice actress]], Popoi is [[NoBiologicalSex genderless]].
49** [[GoldfishPoopGang The Boss's]] gender is never explicitly stated in the game, and the sprite can appear somewhat androgynous. However the 3D remake ultimately clears this up, and confirms that the Boss is a woman.
50* AmericanKirbyIsHardcore: ''Magazine/NintendoPower'' had exhaustive coverage of ''Secret of Mana, including (as was its custom in the early nineties) [[http://www.giantbomb.com/secret-of-mana/61-19507/artwork-nintendo-power-issue-64/52-102977/12/51-268472/ original artwork]] depicting scenes from the game. Those illustrations are decidedly more western in nature; the Mana Beast in particular looks like something out of Creator/GaryGygax's nightmares. The magazine cover also featured an unrecognizable Flammie with a bridle. Interestingly, the TV commercials made Randi even more cutesy than the Japanese art, although still in a distinctly western cartoon-y style.
51%%* AndManGrewProud: The ancient civilization who gave rise to the Mana Fortress.
52* AntidoteEffect: The strict inventory caps (only four of each type of item) lead to a dependence on healing magic. The remake gives you the option of increasing the item cap if you want.
53* AntiFrustrationFeatures:
54** While most weapon orbs are obtained by defeating bosses, some are obtained in treasure chests in side areas, and therefore can be overlooked and missed. If the player falls behind in upgrading a certain weapon because of this, the game will provide extra "catch-up" orbs the next time the player find a chest with that weapon's orb, so they don't have to backtrack and scour the world for the ones they missed.
55** The quick casting option added to the remake ''really'' speeds up the previously-agonising process of grinding up your spell levels by casting the same spell over and over and over again.
56** Also in the mobile version and the remake, there's no longer a fixed maximum distance you and your party members are allowed to move apart from each other -- your AI companions [[ArtificialStupidity will still get stuck trying to navigate around a small rock]], but at least they don't hold you back any more. Also, any time a companion is off screen, you can reset them to your location just by opening and closing the ring menu.
57** Another notable improvement made to the remake was changing running to work like it did in ''VideoGame/SecretOfEvermore.'' In the original, running immediately used up your entire power bar just like attacking, it wouldn't start refilling again until you stopped, and while you could sprint infinitely, it could only be in a straight line. In the remake you still need a full power bar to start running, but it only starts slowly counting down from 100% so when you stop it will very rapidly fill back up to full (unless you ran for a ''really'' long time) letting you attack much more quickly, and you can control your movement freely while doing so.
58* AntlionMonster: The Spider Legs in the obligatory desert region. They're usually found in sand pits, and will target whoever disturbs them with a painful Earth Slide spell before hiding in the ground again. They can nuked with magic before they even show themselves, though.
59* ApocalypticLog: The Empire was already up to mischief in the Old World, if the orbs in Mandala are anything to go by.
60* ArchEnemy: While [[spoiler:Thanatos]] is probably the closest the game has to a true BigBad, [[spoiler:especially after betraying and murdering the Emperor]], Geshtar is the most recurring boss and holds the biggest grudge against Randi and his friends.
61* ArrangedMarriage: An easily-missed conversation in Pandora will reveal that Primm is in one of these with the son of a noble and, being in love with Dyluck, she runs away from home to get out of it. The remake expands on this by revealing that Primm's betrothed is an insufferable brat.
62* ArtificialStupidity:
63** You have AI-controlled heroes joining you, they for the ''most'' part function well. They path-find their way to you well enough, only getting caught on occasion. The real problem is keeping them alive. You can control how aggressive they are, which is useful early on when they are not quite strong enough to handle certain battles. (The AI was a lot more adjustable in the original SNES than in future ports of the game.) Having the AI set to anything other than the most conservative possibility results in two 'drones' getting themselves killed very quickly. Another solution is to avoid a full-on attack unless you equip them with ranged weapons, e.g. Girl gets the whip, Sprite get the [[BattleBoomerang boomerang]]. Luckily, by late game your Evade is so high that there's no reason not to put them into the most aggressive stance possible.
64** There's one design flaw of the original game that was removed for the mobile version and functions the same in the remake. In the original, in order to keep the party visible, you could only walk so far before hitting some invisible wall. This will often result in your teammates getting stuck between scenary. Later versions do away with this, which is a godsend when you're just trying to run through a place. And, if the AI characters get stuck offscreen, simply opening and closing the item ring will teleport the AI characters to your position.
65** Mech Rider 3 suffers from an extreme case of it: he's coded to always cast Speed Up on himself if he doesn't have it active. Fortunately, he's also coded to cast [[AttackReflector Wall]] beforehand, meaning that he'll spend the entire fight reflecting his own Speed Up spells onto your party. The only way to rationalize this in-storyline is that he's doing this deliberately because [[ICannotSelfTerminate he wants you to kill him]].
66** Enemies that use Magic Absorb (most commonly the Marmablues) will regularly target Randi, with it, especially if you're controlling him. Since Randi has no MP at all, he doesn't even flinch from it.
67* AsLongAsThereIsEvil: Among the cut content from the in-game text is the revelation that Vandole is a dark force which periodically takes the form of a man, thus explaining the Empire's activity in the past. ''VideoGame/SwordOfMana'' confirms this while tying the dark force known as Vandole to the existence of Mana, which, taken alongside information concerning Mavolia in ''VideoGame/DawnOfMana'' hints that that dark force may in fact be the Echoes of Mavolia, which are behind ''all'' the World of Mana villains. They will not rest until the world is destroyed and demonkind overrun the world.
68* AwesomeButImpractical:
69** As mentioned above, High-level weapon attacks don't see much use. In the time it takes to charge up a level 7 or 8 strike you'll either have been beaten down by a room full of enemies, or you could have killed everything twice over with normal attacks and magic. Making matters worse, despite them being spectacular flurries of multiple strikes, they can only hit any single enemy once, no matter how many times the animation strikes them.
70** Attack spell damage doesn't climb linearly with MP cost. So early on it's best to stick with the 2 MP-cost attack spells over the 3 or 4 MP-cost ones, at least until the Sprite gets Luna's Magic Absorb, at which point you can spam your strongest spells with impunity.
71** The so-called "Level 9" spells can get like this. It's impossible to chain cast once a level 9 animation goes off and it's arguable if it the effect of the spell is raised from level 8. This was changed in the remake so that level 9 spells no longer freeze the action while their animation plays out.
72** Honestly, a lot of the weapons are only there for the sake of being there; you have 8 weapons to choose from and only 3 party members. The gloves in particular are unambiguously the worst weapon in the game, and will rarely see use for any reason other than grinding for completion.
73*** Speaking of the gloves, they have a unique attack activated when you attack an enemy at point blank range where they will [[SuplexFinisher pick the enemy up and slam them on the ground behind them]]. While it ''looks'' cool, it does no more damage than a normal attack (and the gloves are among the least-damaging weapons in the game anyway) and, more importantly, it inexplicably puts the enemy back down on their feet (or whatever they have instead of feet) meaning it doesn't apply any form of knockdown, leaving the enemy ready to instantly strike back against you while you're desperately waiting for your charge bar to refill. It can even cancel the ''existing'' knockdown applied by another attack, picking an enemy up and dusting them off, basically ''inviting'' them to beat you up!
74** The expensive spells in general. First, you have a 99 MP maximum limit. Second, even with the Magic Absorb spell from Sprite, using the lower MP damaging spells are just as effective if not more effective in various situations. Third, some of the higher level spells will likely fail or be used against you.
75* BadassCape: A popular look in this game's world. Gemma is the only heroic character who wears one.
76* BadassNormal: Randi. When Primm and Popoi first receive their magic powers, he's a bit dismayed, but Undine tells him that eventually the Mana Sword will become stronger than any magic (and he's [[TheChosenOne the one meant to wield it]]).
77* BadassSanta: Because children no longer believe in him, Santa Claus turns into a monster called Frost Gigas who challenges the party to a boss battle.
78* BeatThemAtTheirOwnGame: A boss example: Dread Slime by default attacks the players with Acid Storm. However, if it is attacked by an offensive spell other than one of Shade's spells (its weakness), it will respond by using the same spell on the players.
79* BigEater: Popoi, who eats an entire ship's supply of food when forced to do kitchen duty. "[[GetOut Get him out of here!!]]" In the remake, Popoi expresses an interest in eating the [[PlotCoupon Mana Seeds]], and considers it a revelation that the Empire is not trying to get them to eat them (which, as Primm points out, she and Randi weren't even considering in the first place.)
80* BigFancyCastle: Elinee's and the Emperor's castles.
81* BittersweetEnding:
82** The Mana Fortress is toast, as is the BigBad... but [[spoiler:so is the Mana Beast, the Mana Tree is still gone, Dyluck died as well, and Randi and Primm will never see Popoi again]].
83* BlackMage: Popoi's main role in combat is casting offensive magic, though Primm gets a few attack spells of her own later on.
84* BlackMagic: Popoi gets exclusive access to [[CastingAShadow Shade's]] magic, letting them use Dark-element spells like Dark Force, Evil Gate, and Dispel Magic. In exchange, they can't use [[LightEmUp Lumina's]] magic at all, leaving that element for Primm.
85* BlamedForBeingRailroaded: The beginning has the hero falling into a waterfall. The only way to get out and to get back to his village is to pull the Sword of Mana from the rock that lies near the base of said waterfall. Said act leads to his, and your, banishment from the village.
86* BlobMonster: Lime/Dread Slime. The former shrinks as you fight it, while the latter continues to grow with each hit. The "Drop" monsters are also blobs of slime that attack you with various elementally fused attacks.
87* BloodlessCarnage: [[spoiler:Dyluck's suicide]] is hinted at but not seen. We fade immediately to black and then to the Oracle boss arena.
88* BlowYouAway: Sylphid/Jinn uses the Air element, with Thunderbolt being Air and not "[[ShockAndAwe Electric]]".
89* BoobyTrap: There's a chance that chests dropped by enemies are trapped, potentially causing damage or status ailments (or just being a ChestMonster). The Sylphid spell Analyzer can defuse them.
90* BookEnds: Randi returning the sword to its place under the waterfall.
91* BoringButPractical: Leveling up your elemental magic spells. Even with areas to grind, this is time-consuming. On the other hand, doing so makes your magic use a lot more effective and can be very useful against the final bosses in the game where their magic defenses can resist their weaknesses. Use a Lvl 0 Dark Force against Dread Slime? Only 0 or 1 damage.
92* BossArenaIdiocy: If the [[spoiler:Mana Beast]] just used its long-range diving attacks and didn't spend any time hovering directly in front of you, the battle would be unwinnable.
93* {{Bowdlerise}}: In the original English translation for the SNES, the Scorpion Boss was subject to one of the most half-ass bowdlerizations ever. Instead of editing the very scantily clad sprite and its suggestive poses, they just changed the script to refer to the character as male and assumed no one would notice that the sprite was clearly female. Somehow, this was enough to satisfy Nintendo of America.
94* BrokenBridge: Most of the things blocking your ability to progress are these. Early in the game, this often takes the form of the Cannon Travel service simply not offering you any way to get into the next area (until you complete the current area's task). At other times you are simply blocked by an NPC who refuses to grant you entry to some area until some other task has been completed. This is particularly egregious in that often the NPC in question has no real reason why they're blocking your path. For example, Tasnica, the guards refuse you entry into the castle because they have discovered that the castle has been infiltrated by an Empire spy. Once the party progresses enough by completely wholly unrelated side missions, the guard simply vanishes despite the fact that the spy situation has not changed; indeed, the party solves the spy infiltration themselves.
95* BroughtDownToNormal: Once she's defeated, Elinee reverts from a hooded psychopath to an old granny with her hair in a bun.
96* ButThouMust:
97** You can't leave the area where the Mana Sword is (your progress is balked by an InsurmountableWaistHighFence that can only be chopped down by bladed weapons) until you remove it from its pedestal.
98** Interestingly, the game offers some leeway with regard to when you recruit Primm. In one scenario, Randi is nearly [[DistressedDude turned into soup]] by some goblins, but Primm quickly saves you when they are distracted; she can later be found bickering with her father at the castle. In another, Randi encounters her in the forest, where she demands his help to rescue Dyluck. This is one pig-headed lady.
99** When Geshtar tries the whole [[HostageForMacGuffin hostage stunt with Luka for the Water Mana Seed]], you ''can'' take Luka's advice and just run for it, but Geshtar will forcefully pull you back and call you an idiot for trying to escape.
100* CallReceptionArea: Yanking the Mana Sword from the stone causes monsters to appear everywhere. Whoops.
101* CanonName: As of the remake, the game auto-fills in "Randi", "Primm" and "Popoi" as default names for the Boy, Girl and Sprite, respectively; these are the names that have been associated with the three in Japan since the game's first launch, but were removed from international versions. You are still free to rename the characters if you wish, however. (Some fans have alternatively translated the Japanese names for the girl as "Purim" and the sprite as "Popoie".)
102* CastingAShadow: Shade uses Dark magic, though only Popoi can summon him.
103* TheChainsOfCommanding: One of the kids in the resistance HQ mentions that he hears Krissie "crying at night".
104* ChainmailBikini: The "Tiger Bikini", which can be bought for the girl in Northtown. Funnily enough, it actually offers higher defense than the Tiger Suit available for the other party members. It was renamed the "Tiger Two-Piece" in the remake, which also offered exclusive preorder DLC that let it (and the Tiger Suits that looked like tiger-pattered onesies) [[{{Fanservice}} be visibly worn on the character's bodies]].
105* ChainsawGood: Kettle Kin wields one in in the original Japanese release, [[{{Bowdlerise}} unlike in the localization where it was a carbon copy of Kilroy]]. The chainsaw is retained in the 2018 remake.
106* ChangingGameplayPriorities: Early on, your characters must carefully ration healing items and level up their weapon skills, and boss fights can be quite brutal due to the game's limited inventory system. After acquiring magic, however, healing becomes trivial and most fights consist of stunlocking your opponents with spells until they explode. Magic dramatically changes the game.
107* ChestMonster: Treasure chests that are dropped can be trapped, and this is one of the potential traps.
108* TheChooserOfTheOne: Jema is the only person who accepts Randi as the hero without a hint of reservation. Luckily, Jema still has swing with the various sages and regents you encounter. If Jema says this kid is alright, then everyone else will fall in line.
109* TheChosenOne: Zig-zagged. Near the start of the game, Randi [[OnlyTheChosenMayWield pulls a sword out of a stone]] because otherwise his way home was blocked by [[InsurmountableWaistHighFence tall grass]]. He is later told that only a great hero should be able to remove the sword, but since he is too young to be a hero, it must have happened because the power of Mana is weakening. He is asked to take care of the sword until he can find a real hero to give it to. [[spoiler:Later on, of course, it turns out that he was the Chosen One all along. He's even the son of a hero!]]
110* CityOfGold: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Gold City]] is entirely made out of gold due to its king abusing the power of Lumina, the light elemental.
111* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard / ThatOneAttack: Like all ''Mana'' games, you are not allowed to dodge if a boss feels like casting a spell on you. While this is fair once you can cast spells back, it makes early fights... a tad unfair.
112* ConMan: The Sprite, before joining your party.
113%%* CoolOldGuy: Jema.
114* CoOpMultiplayer: It was the first RPG to feature a co-operative multiplayer gameplay mechanic where a second or third player could drop-in and drop-out at any time. Even today, it remains one of the only true [=JRPGs=] which allows proper multiplayer.
115* CycleOfHurting: The fastest and cheapest way to die in this game is to get incapacitated and mercilessly wailed on by a bunch of strong enemies with fast attacks. While you can try doing this to most of the regular enemies, some of them are resistant or outright immune to this tactic because of several factors like spotty hit-detection, evasion, defense, and elevation differences.
116* DamselInDistress:
117** Primm if Randi heads for the Haunted Woods instead of Gaia's Navel, where he finds her accosted by two werewolves.
118** [[spoiler:Again at the Empire temple where a brainwashed Dyluck drains Primm of her life energy and delivers her body to Thanatos. Randi and Popoi quickly get her back in time to face the vampire boss]].
119* DarkIsNotEvil: Although it seems it's played straight with the Mana Spirit of Darkness, Shade, the added dialogue in the remake makes it seem as though the trope is not in play. In the remake, when the party recruits Shade, it mentions that prior to being sealed in the Palace of Darkness, it was the King of Mavolia, the Underworld. Within the World of Mana, Mavolia is represented as being an evil place; all of the villains either are denizens of Mavolia itself or bargained with Mavolia in order to obtain evil powers.
120* DarkMessiah: Thanatos's reason for reviving the [[LostSuperweapon Mana Fortress]] is, in the NA version of the game at least, to create a "peaceful world" -- by any means necessary. Dyluck exposes him as either a shill for the underworld or a liar.
121* DegradedBoss:
122** The Dark Stalker, a boss who masquerades as Tasnica's {{fake king}}. In the [[ForcedLevelGrinding very next area]]!
123** The Biting Lizard as well, goes from a boss in front of Undine, to coming in [[RuleOfThree a group of three]] in the IcePalace.
124* DealWithTheDevil:
125** How [[spoiler:Thanatos and his followers]] got their powers from Mavolia (called "the Underworld" in the SNES English translation).
126** [[spoiler:The emperor's in on this]] in the Japanese game; poor Ted Woolsey ran out of text space, though, so English-speakers never got that plot point.
127* DeathMountain: The Lofty Mountains. Actually one of the more scenic examples of this trope, with a particularly relaxing soundtrack.
128* DeflectorShields:
129** Lucid Barrier prevents non-magical attacks from harming whoever it's cast on. However, weapons with status effect buffs, such as flame sword, will still go through, and in fact will activate every single time. Keep in mind this also works the other way around as well, so enemies who cast a weapon buff will also cause status effects on your character if they have lucid barrier.
130** The Wall spell deflects spells off whoever has it cast on them. However, healing magic also gets deflected if there's an enemy in the area, so exercise caution if attempting to heal a teammate who's got a wall spell on.
131* DevelopersForesight:
132** There are two occasions where you can't get a game over. The first is up until you beat the first boss. Mostly because they were probably kind enough to not make players sit through the couple of minutes it takes to get from "Enter name" to "Controlling character". The second is, if you really wanted to, you could get a game over at any point in the Ice Palace. Except, its host just kicks you out after reviving Randi.
133** Some events will also change based on what you do. For example, when you first recruit Primm into your party, if you attempt to head to the Dwarves' cave first, she will insist that you guys go rescue Dyluck. If you refuse to, she leaves your party until you acquire Popoi. However, if you attempt to reach Elinee's castle first, you'll be blocked by some rocks. She will then tell you to go to the dwarf cave first, to acquire the axe needed to break through the rocks, and will stay in your party for the duration.
134** When you first see Popoi, it's in a carnival show and your character is asked to donate money to help it get back home. If you pay, they'll be glad to have conned you, but will refund your money later. However, if you don't have enough money, Popoi will instead call you a cheapskate. The scenario afterwards still plays out the same way in either situation where you're forced to fight a boss.
135** Once you know where to go, you don't need to visit Jehk at all until near the end of his missions. He doesn't mind it if you don't visit him first and instead go to the various locations he would normally tell you to go to in order to find Sage Joch.
136* DiabolusExNihilo: [[spoiler:Dyluck rejects Thanatos at the cost of his own life]] and we learn a bit about the villain himself... But not much more. With no human body left, Thanatos assumes his Dark Lich form to attack you. Not too much to say beyond that; he's a bad seed who thrives on destruction and hate.
137* DialogDuringGameplay: The remake introduces conversations held by Randi, Primm and Popoi when you stay at an inn, where they'll discuss what recently has happened in the journey. It's not quite [[NowWhereWasIGoingAgain a full recap]], but it adds some characterization to them, with Primm often teasing Randi's attempts to show himself as a capable warrior.
138%%* DiscOneFinalDungeon: The Emperor's crib.
139* DishingOutDirt: Gnome's Earth magic is one of the eight types of magic in the game.
140* DistressedDude: Dyluck; also, one of the ways to meet the girl is to get the boy captured and almost cooked by Goblins.
141* DominoMask: The Scorpion Army, futilely trying to look intimidating.
142%%* DoomedHometown: Potos has a small vermin problem...
143* DropInDropOutMultiplayer: Possible on a local level with up to 3 players, if one has the accessory that allows more than 2 controllers to be plugged in or is playing the Wii Virtual Console port.
144* DubNameChange: Two of the Elemental Spirits were renamed in the English version: [[BlowYouAway Jinn]] became Sylphid, and [[LightEmUp Wisp]] became Lumina. All subsequent ''Mana'' games used the original Japanese names. Notably, the 2018 remake still keeps Sylphid and Lumina.
145* DungeonShop: Ever-reliable Neko is always hiding in a nook somewhere.
146[[/folder]]
147
148[[folder:E-K]]
149%%* EarlyBirdBoss: Spikey Tiger is one of the more notorious examples.
150* EarlyGameHell: Beyond Mantis Ant being an annoying first boss, the early game isn't too bad, but without magic, you're relying on items to heal and the {{Squishy Wizard}}s are just squishy. Then Elinee's castle increases in difficulty with Werewolves that take forever to kill, while also landing powerful hits; to say nothing of the battle with Spikey Tiger at the end. It's after Elinee that Undine (and thus, magic) is available to the player, and the game gets a fair bit easier.
151** There's one optional but particularly gruesome bit in the remake- as in the original, if you recruit Primm in Pandora before traveling to Gaia's Navel you have to travel into the Witch's Forest until you reach the skull pillars that require the axe to pass before attempting to visit the Navel, otherwise Primm will storm off in a huff and force you to not only do the Navel and Tropicallo fight solo but also face a really nasty optional encounter to resue her later. However in the remake this brief preliminary excursion into the forest will ''kick your ass'' due to the Chobin Hoods there now being able to shoot at you from any angle, rather than only in 4 directions, and you lacking a ranged weapon to shoot back. Combined with the fact that you'll be several levels lower than you should be for this area and with weaker weapons and armour (since you're still supposed to do the area ''after'' Gaia's Navel and the fight against Tropicallo), you run a real risk of being arrowed to death before you can even reach the pillars if you don't make a run for it.
152* EasilyForgiven: A couple of examples. After drawing the Mana Sword, the Potos villagers refer to Randi as an "outsider," beat him up and have him exiled from the town. Randi forgives them almost immediately; in the remake he talks about wanting to protect the villagers and return there despite being banished. Also with Elinee, the forest witch. The original translation makes it unclear why she became evil, but the remake makes it clear she voluntarily made the choice to sell the souls of the Pandoran citizens to Thanatos as a desperation move to retain her magic powers. Once she loses her powers, nobody gets mad at her and she's never mentioned again.
153%%* TheEmperor: Emperor Vandole.
154* EndOfAnAge: By the end of the game, [[spoiler:the Mana Fortress is smashed and the Mana Beast destroyed, but the Mana Tree has been destroyed as well, the consequences of which are not explored until ''VideoGame/LegendOfMana''.]]
155* EnemyScan: The Analyze(r) spell lets players see an enemy's HP, MP, and elemental weaknesses.
156* EpicRocking: The 2018 soundtrack has several examples. "Secret of the Arid Sands" runs for 6:51. "Did You See the Ocean?" is 6:56. "The Wind Never Ceases" is 7:12. "Flight Into the Unknown" is 6:05. "Whisper and Mantra" is 7:23. "The Second Truth from the Left" is 7:31. And the kicker, "Danger (ARM Version)" runs for 8:25. "One of Them Is Hope", at 5:54, just ''barely'' misses the cutoff. The original 1993 soundtrack averts this entirely, though that isn't helped by the fact that the songs don't loop before fading out, which is customary on most video game soundtracks (presumably this was done to fit the songs on one disc). "Pure Night" is the longest song in the original game, but even if it looped before fading out, it would still only be about 5:12.
157* EvilEmpire: Seems to be played straight at first, but ends up being subverted in that [[spoiler:Thanatos is one wirepulling jerkass bastard, and Emperor Vandole probably wouldn't have become such a douche if he hadn't had that influence going on]]
158* EvilIsNotWellLit: Elinee and the Emperor have a fondness for mood lighting.
159* EvilSorcerer: Thanatos, the game's BigBad, uses dark magic to become immortal.
160* EvolvingWeapon: No matter how many times you've upgraded the sword, unsealing Dryad's magic will cause it to revert back to the legendary Mana Sword.
161* ExcaliburInTheRust:
162** The Rusty Sword you take from the pedestal at the beginning of the game is revealed quite early on to be the mythical Mana Sword.
163** And thus Excalibur by extension according to the opening scroll! Nifty.
164* FallingDamage: Not that you can fall off of anything in the game itself, but apparently long falls are totally meaningless in the Mana universe. The party is dropped into pits multiple times in the game with no ill effects, and the primary means of long distance travel is simply being shot out of a cannon without any kind of landing plan beyond hitting the ground. Somewhat amusing in that the remake includes the added detail that Primm is afraid of heights (both riding Flammie and taking the Cannon Travel service).
165* FeatheredDragons: Flammie, who may be the last of his kind, is a white, feathered dragon.
166%%* FakeKing: Sheex's scheme to overthrow Tasnica.
167* TheFerryMan: You meet a cute creature named Karon (a mistranslation of "Charon") in the desert, who will ferry you through the Sea of Stars to the Moon Palace... without cost, of course.
168%%* FieryRedhead: Popoi and Fanha.
169%%* FierySalamander: Salamando.
170%%* FirstTown: Potos.
171* FlyingBooks: Which also flip their pages while shooting spells.
172* ForDoomTheBellTolls: Thanatos' themes, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNDMGSWfVq0 "Ceremony"]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjrrPqAcKfs "Oracle"]].
173* {{Foreshadowing}}: When you reach the Great Forest, you'll begin to see a Flammie dart across the screen in a horizontal path. And when you go to the Karakka desert, ''you'll see it again''.
174* FourIsDeath: The emperor's [[EliteFour quartet]] of hench...uh, people (Fanha, Geshtar, Sheex, Thanatos). They're referred to with the traditional ' shitennou' in the Japanese game.
175* FourSeasonsLevel: Each Upper Land Forest area represents a different season.
176* GaiasVengeance: The construction of the Mana Fortress superweapon in the game's intro [[GodIsDispleased angered the gods]] and they sent their Mana Beasts to destroy the ancient advanced civilization.
177* GameOver: "Sadly, no trace of them (or "Randi" earlier in the game) was ever found..."
178* GemstoneAssault: Gem Missile, which is classified as Gnome magic (i.e. DishingOutDirt), sends pointy gems into the target.
179* GenderBender: Thanatos gave serious consideration to possessing the body of Phanna, Primm's best friend, but she didn't make the cut.
180* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: This happens quite a few times, either to snap someone out of a HeroicBSOD or to try to break someone free of Thanatos' power. The slap is heard, not seen, and the screen flashes white.
181%%* GhibliHills: The Kingdom of Pandora.
182* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: Several boss battles occur with no build-up; you just walk into a new screen and are ambushed by a monster. The most obvious candidates are Boreal Face in the middle of the ice country and the three bosses in the Pure Land (Dragon Worm, Axe Beak, and Thunder Gigas) that aren't the dragons (whose appearances are foreshadowed, as on-screen text directs you towards them).
183* GivingTheSwordToANoob: Jema {{hand wave}}s this by declaring that the sword "chose" the boy, making him ''the'' Mana Knight by default. None of the neighboring kingdoms seem to make a fuss over it. [[spoiler:This is arguably subverted when Randi turns out to be the son of the Mana Tree and Serin, the original Mana Knight.]]
184%%* GlobalAirship: Flammie serves this purpose.
185* GoldfishPoopGang[=/=]OddlySmallOrganization: The Scorpion Army. There's [[TerribleTrio three of them]].
186* GottaCatchThemAll: To fix the Mana Sword, one must visit all eight Temples and receive blessings from the Spirits. Simultaneously, Randi is required to seal all eight Mana Seeds to prevent the Empire from raising the Fortress. All of this is moot; the Empire manages to unseal all of the Seeds while you're away, and the final Spirit (Dryad) is too feeble to bless the sword, anyway.
187* GrandTheftMe: Thanatos attempts this on Dyluck [[spoiler:only for Dyluck to break free of his control just long enough to kill himself]]. When that plan falls through, he immediately tries to hijack your party.
188* GreenAesop:
189** The abuse of Mana to power the potentially world-destroying Mana Fortress is a standard 90s aesop about killing off our planet's natural resources.
190** One of the orbs in Mandala has a dialogue expanding on this. "We must restrict the use of Mana energy...we're using it up!" "Hah! You can't USE UP Mana!" "Argh, you don't understand!"
191* GreenThumb: Dryad represents the Tree/Wood element, but only Sleep Flower represents "nature" out of her abilities. Gnome's Speed Down, meanwhile, tangles the opponent with vines to slow them down.
192* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: Emperor Vandole, when he invites the resistance over to his castle for a "truce". But he still throws you in jail with one petty guard...
193* GuideDangIt
194** Haven't been leveling up that mostly useless Dryad magic? [[spoiler:Hope you've got a full stock of Fairy Walnuts, or the final boss might just be {{Unwinnable}}.]]
195** A big world and a long storyline can easily make players feel lost on where they need to go and what they need to do next. Hence the reason why the game was bundled with a strategy guide.
196** When using Shade's Dispel Magic on enemies, particularly those that cast the magic reflecting Wall spell, there's a minimum level requirement Shade must be to dispel the buff. Nothing mentions this until you attempt to remove the buff and a pop-up says it can't work.
197* GunshipRescue: The big reveal of Adult Flammie. Geshtar tries a last-ditch kamikaze attack on the castle roof, but manages to blow up everything ''but'' Randi's party.
198* HailfirePeaks: The climate of the Great Forest is carved up according to season. On a smaller scale, the Scorpion Army harnesses the power of Salamando to create [[MundaneUtility a tourist trap]] in the middle of Ice Country.
199* HarderThanHard: There is a fan made hack of the game that ramps the difficulty up to eleven. To put it in perspective, boss fights consist of CurbStompBattle on the receiving end even with reasonably overleveled characters in the normal game.
200* HaveANiceDeath: "[insert name here] sees the reaper!" The GrimReaper appearing over your ghost when you die is still one of the most unintentionally funny death sprites in any game.
201* HealItWithWater: The water spirit Undine grants support mage Primm a "Healing Water" spell when the party go to her to learn magic. Candy, the healing item, gives out a water drop animation when used.
202* HealerSignsOnEarly: Undine, the mana spirit that grants you healing magic, is the first mana spirit you obtain.
203* HelloInsertNameHere: There are no default names in the game's original release; the characters are merely "BOY", "GIRL", and "SPRITE", and it's up to you to provide actual names.
204* HeroicSuicide: [[spoiler:Just before the penultimate battle, Dyluck kills himself so that Thanatos cannot take over his body and become unstoppable. Left without his intended vessel, Thanatos is forced into his true form -- Dark Lich.]]
205* HeyYou: For some reason the English voice track in the remake does not include the instances where other people and the party itself call Randi, Primm and Popoi by their canon names if the player chooses to leave their names as it is, it goes as if the player typed different names thus the voiced lines won’t say it; meanwhile the Japanese voice track will call Randi, Primm and Popoi in all situations their names come up if the player has preferred to go by their canon names.
206%%* HighCollarOfDoom: The "Boss" of the Scorpion Army.
207* HistoryRepeats: Subverted. If the Mana Beast succeeds in [[GaiasVengeance destroying the Mana Fortress]] before Randi and his friends can shut it down, like the legendary Hero did before, it will result in the ''[[ApocalypseHow end of everything]]''.
208* HopeSpot: In one last ditch attempt to repower the Mana Sword, the heroes make way for the Mana Tree. But just as they arrive, the tree is destroyed by the Mana Fortress.
209* {{Hover B|oard}}ike: Geshtar rides one, complete with {{bayonet|Ya}}.
210* HufflepuffHouse: Tasnica is the only nation standing between the Empire and global domination. Some Tasnican troops make landfall with Jema once the Lost Continent rises.
211* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: [[spoiler: Implied by Dyluck, who asks Randi to take care of Primm for him before his HeroicSuicide]].
212* ImmortalityImmorality: Thanatos needs a very special individual to body-surf into (apparently, Dyluck was fated at birth to become his vessel). He's in kind of a hurry; Thanatos energy-slurpees and hypnotically zombifies a whole Kingdom to root out Dyluck and Phanna.
213* ImpossiblyCoolWealth: King {{M|eaningfulName}}ammon abused Lumina's power to turn his entire island to gold.
214** {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in the Enhanced FanTranslation, where an NPC laments that their island's economy is now ruined by massive inflation.
215** An NPC in the Woolsey translation mentions that the island is slowly sinking under its own weight.
216%%* InevitableWaterfall: Watch that first step, Randi.
217* InfinityMinusOneSword: RandomlyDrops from the enemies in TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. Ironically, the Gigas Axe is actually better in every way than its final form, the Doom Axe, due to +5 on character strength.
218* InfinityPlusOneSword:
219** [[spoiler:The fully restored Mana Sword (Level 9). Its attack exceeds that of any weapon in the game by over 70 points. Obviously, the high attack was designed to attack the Mana Beast's godly defense while other weapons cannot harm it. This is legitimately available at the end of the game by casting the no-longer-sealed Mana Power from both Primm and Popoi near simultaneously or by cheating via sword orb glitch.]]
220** The very best and very rare armors in the game can only be found in randomly dropped chests at Pure Land and the Mana Fortress. And being only available so far late in the game means you won't get a good amount of mileage from them.
221* InterfaceScrew: One of the effects of the Silence/Confusion spell is to reverse the controls.
222* InternalHomage: One of the Mandalan crystal balls mentions Lorimar (or Lorima as it's written here) -- this is a city that shows up in ''Final Fantasy Adventure'' and again in ''Dawn of Mana''. In the Japanese game, this one also mentions Wendel, the holy city of other titles. This can spawn all kinds of WildMassGuessing fits and headaches about just ''how'' the timeline of the games is supposed to go...
223** The item shops in the Empire with the merchant in the upper right hand corner is the same layout for Item shops (and not Equipment shops) from ''Final Fantasy Adventure''.
224%%* IntrepidMerchant: Neko/Nikita and Watts.
225* IronicName: The Scorpion Army. It only consists of a measly three members.
226%%* ItsUpToYou: Jema's raison d'être.
227* JackOfAllTrades: Randi, Primm and Popoi each come with the Sword, Glove and Boomerang/Bow respectively, but because you can swap between them and they can be played in multiplayer, this means very little; all three of them can fully master every weapon type and spell in the game, so long as you're willing to make the grind for it. The only point a character's weapon matters is [[spoiler:Randi needing to wield the Mana Sword while both Primm and Popoi enhance it with Mana Magic to push it to the final level for the FinalBoss.]]
228* KarmaHoudini: The only repercussions the witch Elinee faces for willingly kidnapping and sending innocent people to be Thanatos' zombie slaves and life-energy-cattle, in exchange for magical herbs, is to lose her powers and magically-extended youth.
229* KnewItAllAlong: [[spoiler: Datamining the game files of the PC version revealed script for future DLC, in which Luca reveals in the narration, that she always knew that Randi was the son of Serin. She even knew his mother personally, before she turned into the Tree of Mana.]]
230[[/folder]]
231
232[[folder:L-Q]]
233* LastDiscMagic: Dryad's "Mana" magic, which powers the Mana Sword to full strength -- but the spell doesn't appear until the final boss battle, after the seal limiting Dryad's magic is removed by [[spoiler:the destruction of the Dark Lich]].
234* LevelGrinding:
235** Not only normal levels, but weapons and spells. Spells level up at a third of the speed if you don't cast them in a combat area (indicated by whether or not the heroes have their weapons out)
236** Luckily, the Wind Palace, despite never containing any enemies, grants full spell XP, and there's free healing there to boot, making it the best place to level up pretty much all the Girl's magic (most of the Sprite's magic requires an enemy to cast it on).
237* LifeDrain:
238** Popoi gets a spell to steal enemy HP. However, this spell drains Popoi's HP if used on some enemies, [[ReviveKillsZombie such as zombies]].
239** Using Moon Saber on enemies recovers the user's health by the amount of damage they dish out.
240* LighterAndSofter: When compared with ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyAdventure'', yes, but there's ''no'' shortage of dark moments...
241* LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards: Played straight for the most part. While each character can become competent with every weapon available, and will be your bread and butter when fighting normal trash mobs, during boss fights, Popoi's spells (and Primm's offensive spells), when leveled up, do far more damage on average than charging up a weapon attack. The attacks spells also have the added bonus of freezing the boss in place until the magic attack animation is completed. A properly leveled up Popoi with Primm support magic will often make most boss fights easier than fighting some of the regular mobs such as werewolves.
242* LightEmUp: Lumina/Wisp grants the party Light magic. Well, she grants Primm it, at least. This also means Lucent Beam is one of her few offensive spells.
243* LiteraryAllusionTitle: The Japanese soundtrack titles contain one definite and at least two other possible examples. "EternalRecurrence" ("永劫回帰") refers to a concept commonly attributed to philosopher Creator/FriedrichNietzsche about how history tends to repeat cyclically. This is in fact a central theme of the game. Two other tracks have identical titles to the Japanese translations of well-known novels, though it's not clear if the similarity is intentional. They are "Literature/HeartOfDarkness" ("闇の奥", often translated as "In the Dead of Night") and "Literature/TimeEnoughForLove" ("愛に時間を", often translated as "Leave Time for Love"). Another possible translation of the latter title is simply "A Time for Love", which could constitute a reference to the Literature/BookOfEcclesiastes. [[note]]Ecclesiastes would actually tie in with the game's EternalRecurrence themes to some extent, so it's possible that this is Kikuta's intended reference -- or, given his love for rock music, it may also be a reference to Pete Seeger's "Turn! Turn! Turn!", best known in its cover by Music/TheByrds, which lifts the Ecclesiastes passage almost verbatim for its lyrics. For that matter, it's quite possible that Heinlein himself was also referring to Ecclesiastes in his novel's title; it would hardly be his only reference to the Tanakh.[[/note]]
244* LivingStructureMonster: The game has two different Wall Face bosses, both of which function similarly. They have a central third eye weak point that has to be defeated to win, and try to crush the player if both of their normal eyes are killed first.
245* LongSongShortScene:
246** In general, a lot of these (especially the Mana Fortress-related examples) are suspected to be remnants of the game's troubled development cycle. Many of them were likely intended for greater use in the CD version, but instead only get briefly used, but still get ''used'' period since the team had the songs.
247** The overworld song that plays after the Mana Fortress emerges but before you have access to it has a nice sense of foreboding, but lasts only until [[spoiler: the Mana Tree is destroyed]], when it's replaced by a fittingly frenetic song instead.
248** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4Kv3ZlvQLw Eternal Recurrence]]''. One of the best songs in the game. Plays in a two-rooms dungeon, only ''after'' you clear it, and in a few of the altar chambers.
249** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEmDpKsMJWc The Oracle]]'' could be considered kind of wasted too. If you spam magic like a mad thing, you probably won't hear a damn thing of it, and it's fricking wicked. Damn limited sound channels.
250** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c89YgEs1Jog A Conclusion]]'' is another strong example, heard only twice in the entire game -- once when [[spoiler:the gang meets a dying Mana Tree]] and again after [[spoiler:the Dark Lich is defeated, and Primm is mourning Dyluck]]. In the second instance, it's only playing for a couple of lines of dialogue before the dungeon begins to collapse, when it then switches to ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GGiE7_Ryaw Morning Is Here]]''. Which, incidentally, is another LongSongShortScene situation, as it only plays in that one scene. As is the song immediately afterwards, ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IlAeZYIPX8 One Of Them Is Hope]].''
251** Jeez, that entire area has a lot of Wasted Music of Awesome. The brief track that plays once Dark Lich appears, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6lhXhJ20wc The Curse]], is one of the most genuinely terrifying little bits of strange in any game.
252** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01ZOLmuVDdw Phantom and a Rose]]'' (AKA "Rose and Ghost") only plays in three places: Pandora and Kakkara (before you fix the problems they're facing) and the ruined Sprite Village.
253* LordBritishPostulate: Some people have actually succeeded in defeating the final boss without ever reviving the Mana Sword. It took some doing, but it's possible with max-level sword charge attacks. A more mundane example would be Karon, the friendly NPC who shuttles you to the Moon Palace... and happens to be a random monster programmed not to attack the player, so the player can kill him with magic. He/she just comes back, but still. This was fixed in the iOS version.
254* LostInTranslation: In Matango, "Gontma" means goodbye because "ゴンタマ" is "マタンゴ" backwards. This was caught and changed to "Ognatam" in the iOS version.
255** The entire original localization was done in a mere ''thirty'' days. On top of this, the font chosen by Squaresoft for the English release was so massive that far more dialog than usual was flat out cut. Ted Woolsey was apparently deeply unsatisfied with the final product's quality due to most of the dialog in the game being the absolute bare-bones simplifications of the original lines. The iOS release left this script largely unaltered in spite of having none of the technical restraints of the original cartridge, though it did clean up some of the errors left behind from the original script.
256** As a result, quite a few plot points got dropped--the most striking example being the explanation for why Dyluck is the only person Thanatos can certainly bodyjack, ...and what would happen were he to possess just any old schmuck instead. [[spoiler:According to him, it ain't pretty--the sheer amount of magical and supernatural clout he wields would cause his soul and the host body to reject one another...and the unlucky host would basically just ''explode''.]]
257*** A lot of Thanatos's creep factor was lost in translation. For example, the reason he has Dyluck energy-munch from Primm? [[spoiler:Because Thanatos needs [[BloodMagic some of her blood]] for his spellwork.]]
258%%* LostSuperweapon: The Mana Fortress.
259* LostTechnology: The Mana Fortress, and a lot of stuff on the Sunken Continent. [[spoiler:Your party gets to ''ride the subway'' at one point, which [[RagnarokProofing amazingly still works]]. It's full of zombies, for extra realism.]] Also the "orbs" in Mandala- while they were created in-game by [[PropRecycling simply putting the targetable magic crystal sprite on a grey tile]], according to one of the locals they're actually called ''[[Platform/{{VCR}} "veedios"]].'' The party comments on these devices in the inn skits of the remake, talking about what kind of things they'd like to record.
260%%* TheLostWoods: The Great Forest.
261* LoudnessWar: The 2018 soundtrack isn't the worst example out there since it comes to [=DR8=] overall, but some individual songs are affected by this badly.
262* LoveMakesYouEvil: Phanna was able to be manipulated by Thanatos because of her growing jealousy of Primm and Dyluck's relationship. [[spoiler:With a little medical treatment in Southtown, she gets over it and the two girls reconcile near the end of the game.]]
263* LukeIAmYourFather: Randi, [[spoiler:the Mana Tree]] is your mother. Also, [[spoiler:the ghost in the opening scene]] is your father.
264* {{Lunacy}}: Luna personifies the Moon element. Notably, outside of Moon Saber, there's absolutely no way to deal Moon element damage.
265* MagicallyIneptFighter: While Primm and Popoi learn new spells each time you meet one of the mana spirits, Randi never learns any magic. When he asks Undine, the first spirit, why she can't grant him spells, [[HandWave she replies that his sword will eventually become more powerful than any spell the spirits could teach him.]] Never mind the fact that you can actually equip the sword on Primm or Popoi instead. The remake goes into it even more- Undine implies that if Randi ''did'' attempt to use magic while being the wielder of the Mana Sword, the results could be unpleasant (again, never mind the fact that either of the two magic-users can wield it again) and Randi gets really rather downcast about it in a party conversation at the inn.
266* MagicFromTechnology: The sole magic spell in Captain Duck's arsenal is Exploder. However, if you look carefully at its movements before casting the spell (quickly crawling towards its target and then jumping away) and its actual casting animation (pressing a detonator), it is implied its "Exploder" is really a sticky bomb.
267* MagicMisfire:
268** Tomato Men will continue to try to cast spells even after they run out of MP, and become completely bewildered when nothing happens. They also have a small chance of casting Defender on one of the player characters instead of one of the Zombies they summoned. Their [[UndergroundMonkey stronger cousins]] the Eggplant Men will sometimes summon Rabites by mistake instead of Needlions, wearing the same bewildered look when it happens.
269** [[FlyingBooks Mystic Books and National Scars]] will sometimes flip to a nude centerfold when trying to cast a spell or summon an enemy, and then immediately flip away, visibly embarrassed.
270* MakingASplash: Undine's magic is water-based, though this is only evident with Cure Water and Acid Rain; her offensive magic is instead [[IceMagicIsWater ice-themed]].
271* ManaDrain: Popoi gets a spell which allows him to steal MP from an enemy, which allows him to essentially be able to cast spells indefinitely so long as there are enemies in the area that you can steal MP from. However, keep in mind a few enemies are immune to this, and will actually drain Popoi's MP to them instead.
272%%* TheManBehindTheMan:
273%%** Thanatos to Elinee.
274%%** In gameplay it appears Thanatos is also this to [[spoiler:Vandole if not merely TheStarscream]].
275* ManEatingPlant: Tropicallo and Boreal Face.
276* ManualLeaderAIParty:
277** With the exception of spell casting, you can only control one character at a time (although it allows co-op play where up to three players control a character), but the offensive action of the ones you are not using can be changed with a system called the "action grid", which allows the player to switch between offensive/defensive behavior on one axis and the range at which they engage the enemy on the other.
278** Other entries in [[VideoGame/WorldOfMana the series]] uses this trope to different extents (with better or worse AI).
279* MasculineFeminineAndrogyneTrio: The main characters are a young man (Randy), a young lady (Purim) and a sprite child (Popoie, whose gender is different depending on the game's localization).
280* MassHypnosis: Thanatos can't resist building a cultist army wherever he goes.
281* MeaningfulName:
282** The GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere Boreal Face. Boreal is another name for subarctic climate. Guess where you fight it?
283** Neko is an anthro cat, neko being the Japanese term for cat.
284** Luka's name in the original japanese version is ルサ・ルカ, or Rusalka. Pretty fitting for a water temple priestess living near a cave, which is home to a water spirit named Undine.
285%%* MedievalEuropeanFantasy
286* MinorMajorCharacter: Sheex is canonically the second in command of Emperor Vandole, but he has the smallest role of Vandole's four generals.
287* MinusWorld: It is possible to sneak back into the village and get your [[MemeticMutation power wrist]] by exploiting a glitch, but you won't be able to get ''out'' again unless you have control of Flammie.
288* MirrorBoss: Sage Joch's final trial. The bosses are PaletteSwap versions of the main characters.
289* MobileMenace:
290** The Emperor's agents hit up each of the Mana Temples while Randi is running errands for Sage Joch.
291** {{Justified|Trope}} with Thanatos blowing up [[spoiler:the Mana Tree]]. In fact, he was probably sitting up there for hours waiting for you to show up first.
292%%* MonsterTown: Matango.
293* MookMaker: Tomato/Eggplant Men, Kimono Birds and [[GoshDangItToHeck Heck]] {{H|ellhound}}ounds are a few examples who summon a single type of mook (Heck Hounds and Eggplant Men occasionally summon a second type). Shape Shifters can summon a wide variety of mooks for you to fight.
294* MoneyForNothing: Up until you finish the Underground Palace, money is plenty useful to keep up with the latest armor and to have the blacksmith forge your weapons. In particular, the best armor that can be bought (right before the Pure Land) is both very convenient due to a huge spike in the enemies' attack power and very expensive, to the point that you will likely be just barely able to afford it all unless you've been grinding excessively. In the final two areas of the game, however, you earn more money from mooks and bosses than ever, but have nothing to spend it on except for the final weapon upgrades (which cost only a fraction of the money you'll make fighting to get the needed orbs). You even receive 27,000 GP from defeating the Dark Lich, money that is literally for nothing since you have to finish the game afterwards and cannot backtrack or save.
295* MrExposition: Jema always has pointers on where to go next. Jehk's instructions on where Joch went also tend to point the party to objectives that otherwise would be obscure.
296%%* MultiMeleeMaster: Anyone, with enough work.
297* MundaneUtility: The Elemental spirits often get used for frivolous purposes relating to their powers. The Scorpion Army captures Salamando and traps him in an oven in order to make a warm, tropical village in the middle of a frozen continent and then sell the real estate. King Mammon, the ruler of the Gold Isle, traps Lumina in the island's tower and forces it to turn the entire island into gold. However, once rescued, Lumina reveals that the gold she created will eventually revert to plain rocks. Expanded on further in the remake where it's revealed the player's party is also doing this. At one point, Gnome appears in the middle of a meeting between Randi and Popoi to complain that Primm has been summoning him in order to make her give out shoulder massages and do her laundry. Popoi gets into this also when they complain about being thirsty in the Kakkara desert, so they summon Undine for the purposes of getting them a nice glass of water. Given that the scene occurs in an Inn, it's this trope, but it probably wouldn't be if they had summoned Undine for that purpose when the party was dying in the desert.
298* MythologyGag: Jema himself is a shout to the Gemma Knights of the first game, released in the US as ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyAdventure''. The 2018 remake updates his name to Gemma.
299* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Thanatos, as that's the name of the Greek god of death.
300* NeverSayDie: Played straight in the English translation of the original game, but averted in the remake. For instance, [[spoiler:when you find Emperor Vandole's corpse in the altar room of the Mana Palace, the remake freely states that he's dead while the original game falls just short of saying the word.]]
301* NewbieImmunity:
302** Dying at any point before reaching the first town will revive, then teleport you back to where the sword was drawn from the stone.
303** Dying to the first boss (Mantis Ant) will result in Gemma [[AutoRevive reviving]] you as many times as necessary.
304* NiceJobBreakingItHero:
305** Well, 'old guy', really -- remember Dyluck's ill-fated hike to Elinee's castle? Well, [[spoiler:Primm's father sent him out there because [[ParentalMarriageVeto he didn't approve of his daughter wanting to marry a soldier.]] Elinee then sends Dyluck to the Pandoran ruins, thus involving him in the GrandTheftMe energy-thieving antics and plot machinations of hidden BigBad Thanatos. Way to go, Elman.]] Randi also gets this reaction from the townsfolk in Potos Village because they believe that Randi's "foolish" act of drawing the Mana Sword broke the seal preventing monsters from attacking Potos. While this is technically true, it turns out it was entirely necessary for Randi to draw the sword - the Empire was already actively seeking to restore the Mana Fortress and the world had need of a hero (Randi) to draw the sword and save the world.
306** Arguably, Jekt sending you off to do various dungeons in search for Sage Joch [[spoiler: when it was really just a SecretTestOfCharacter as he was Joch all along]] falls under this. In the time you spend dealing with this, the Empire gets more than enough free time to proceed in their plans off-screen. While the heroes do unlock the power of more Mana Seeds in the process, these dungeons aren't even plot-important and even have some PaletteSwap bosses (or no bosses, in the case of the Moon Temple), making almost the whole thing feel like {{Filler}}. [[spoiler: And the Mana Seeds are temporarily deactivated shortly thereafter anyway.]]
307* NoCutsceneInventoryInertia:
308** Not quite a cutscene example, but when you fight your party's doppelgangers late into the game, they'll always wield the sword, knuckles, and boomerang (for the Hero, Girl, and Sprite, respectively), regardless of what your real party members are wielding.
309** Averted at all other times; when the script calls for a character to attack someone (such as, say, Primm attacking [[spoiler:Thanatos when he's trying to possess Dyluck]] late in the game), they will do so using whatever weapon you have them equipped with. Played straight in the remake when [[spoiler:Randi attacks a mind-controlled Dyluck after he energy drains Primm in the Northtown ruins, snapping him out of it,]] where, as a result of happening in a fully-rendered cutscene, he will always use the Mana Sword.
310* NoMisterBondIExpectYouToDine: What's this? The Emperor wants a truce. And he's invited the Resistance over to his castle for negotiations. When you get to the dining room, he reveals that you're screwed--it's a trap. [[StupidityIsTheOnlyOption How expected.]]
311* NoNameGiven: Krissie's two companions. Despite having unique character designs, they're simply known as "Man" and "Girl".
312%%* NoobCave: Gaia's Navel.
313* NoOntologicalInertia: [[spoiler:The seal that Thanatos put on Dryad's Mana magic is undone when his true form, Dark Lich, is defeated.]]
314* NotCompletelyUseless: The Midge Mallet and Moogle Belt normally apply the pygmy and mooglization [[StatusEffects debuffs]] to the targets, and you can only target your own party members with them. Why are they useful? [[spoiler:Because if either of them is used on someone who already has the corresponding debuff, the debuff will be removed instead.]]
315* NumberOfTheBeast: [[spoiler:Dark Lich, the penultimate boss and the true form of Thanatos, has 6666 HP]].
316* {{Nurikabe}}: The monsters Wall Face and Doom's Wall are based on Nurikabe.
317* ObfuscatingInsanity: Mara in Southtown. A man there will tell you "She's nuts!"but talk to her yourself and she'll recognize you as Jema's friends. Turns out she's really a spy for Tasnica.
318* OminousFloatingCastle: The Mana Fortress, complete with DramaticThunder for extra ominousness.
319* OneTimeDungeon: The Emperor's Castle, the Sunken Continent, and the Pure Land. Once they're completed, you can never return, so make sure you don't miss anything!
320* OneWingedAngel: Sheex and Fanha both transform when you engage them in battle, and Thanatos reverts to his true lich form.
321* OnlyTheChosenMayWield: Zigzagged with the Mana Sword. For general combat, your other characters can wield it just fine, but for the final confrontation with the Mana Beast, it's all up to Randi.
322%%* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame
323%%* OurGhostsAreDifferent: The waterfall ghost, and several ghost enemies.
324* PaletteSwap:
325** A pretty heavy offender; almost every enemy and boss has a palette-swapped version. The boss exceptions are Aegropilion, Hexas, Dark Lich and the Mana Beast, while the ''only''unique Mook type in the game are the Griffin Hands in the Pure Land.
326** [[spoiler:Sage Joch's SecretTestOfCharacter has the gang fight against pallete swaps ''of themselves.'']]
327* PauseScumming: Were it not for the 999 HP {{cap}}, the stack damage from the Sprite's magic would kill any boss in seconds.
328* PermanentlyMissableContent:
329** You can miss the spear entirely if you bypass the first meeting with Sage Luka.
330** The shop in Potos Village is the only place that sells Overalls. Once Randi's banished, you can't go back unless by exploiting a glitch, making the Overalls the ''only'' piece of equipment outside of the late-game rare drops that can't be bought from a shop at any time. However, since Randi starts off already equipped with the Overalls, it thankfully can't be missed when counting towards the Trophy or Achievement in the remake.
331** There are 3 enemies[[note]]Griffin Hands, Ice Thugs, and Ghosts[[/note]] that ''only'' appear in the Pure Land and each has a RareRandomDrop that can't be acquired anywhere else. Once events transpire at the Mana Tree, [[OneTimeDungeon you can never return]]. And since one of those 3 drops is Randi's best helmet, you'll ''really'' want to make sure you get it first.
332*** There are a few other enemies with rare drops that appear in the Sunken Continent or Pure Land that also appear in the Mana Fortress, so their items aren't lost forever. However grinding for them is often easier in the earlier locations since the enemies may appear in greater numbers or closer to an easily-exploited respawn point.
333* PinkGirlBlueBoy: Randi is the male lead and wears blue, while Primm is the female lead and wears pink. Played with in that there's also Popoi, who has an AmbiguousGender and wears green.
334* PlayingWithFire: Salamando uses Fire magic, though some of his spells also use [[MagmaMan lava]]. Notably, his is one of the few offensive spells Primm has access to.
335* PointyEars:
336** It wasn't super obvious in the early spritework or other art, but even from the start Primm has had notably pointy, elf-like ears. These go unremarked on by others and are never addressed or explained. Later portrayals of the character, including the 3D remake, put more emphasis on these ears, making them flare out from her head a bit more (they were originally just pointed tips upward, which is why they were easy to miss).
337** These also become more common in the remake; while it wasn't in the original art at all (or was a detail lost to resolution), both Luka and Fanha now have notably pointed ears of a similar sort to Primm; Sheex, of all people, also has them, though they're less pronounced. Curiously, Dyluck definitively ''doesn't'', so it seems it isn't a "Pandoran thing" or something similar.
338* PostClimaxConfrontation: [[spoiler:Although Thanatos is the BigBad and the ultimate threat behind the Mana Fortress, he's not the FinalBoss; that instead goes to the Mana Beast fought after his death, which is wholly independent from his schemes.]]
339* PowerUpLetDown: Most of the weapons carry a bonus effect at different levels, usually something along the lines of also inflicting a status effect like poison or sleep, being strong against certain enemy types like bugs or undead, adding a small stat bonus, or having a higher critical hit rate. However, at level 8, half of the weapons only have the bonus effect "strong against dragons", which might sound good, except that the ''only'' dragon-type enemies in the entire game are 3 bosses in the Pure Land; no regular enemies have that type. It gets worse at level 9, as ''none'' of the final weapons have ''any'' bonus effect at all. Only the Mana Sword, the level 9 sword, has a significant power boost, being more than double the level 8 sword, but it's only usable for the final battle. For the axe, the level 9 axe's attack power is actually ''lower'' than the level 8 axe, due to level 8 also having a +5 Strength bonus.
340* PropheticName:
341** King Ma'''n'''mon was transliterated because Ted Woolsey didn't know that that's how they spell it in Japanese. It was actually changed to Mammon in the iOS release.
342** Also, Thanatos HAS to count as one, because [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast seriously]].
343* PuppyLove: {{Exaggerated|Trope}}. One village has a house with a pair of ''married'' children!
344-->'''Boy husband''': Age means nothing, as long as there's love! Adults just don't get it!
345* PyrrhicVictory: The team defeat Thanatos at the Mana Fortress, [[spoiler: at the cost of Dyluck's life, which Primm is devastated over]].
346[[/folder]]
347
348[[folder:R-Z]]
349* RandomDrop: Some of the monsters have pretty good armour as rare drops. Top-tier armour pieces are actually the common drops from monsters in the [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Mana Fortress]], while their rare drops are weapon orbs (or candy if you're already maxed out on that type of orb), and you need seven[[note]]Actually nine, as the Fist and Axe only go up to level 7 on their own so you need two of each of their orbs- inexplicably, the two sub-bosses in the Mana Fortress you'd expect to drop their final orbs don't drop anything.[[/note]] of them to upgrade every weapon except the sword to level 9.
350* RebelLeader: Krissie leads the underground resistance against the tyranny of the Vandole Empire from within.
351* RealityIsUnrealistic: Tasnica is referred to as the Republic and is ruled by a king. For many players, this might be seen as an error or a bad translation. However, a number of nations have styled themselves as republics, with elected kings (in the case of Poland prior to the nineteenth century) or dukes (Doges in the case of Venice). Somewhat corrected in the remake, as the "King" is instead referred to as the "Tasnican Chancellor" in the English translation. Of course, he's still wearing a crown and has the same model as the other "kings" in the game.
352* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Sage Luka is quite a piece for a 200-year-old woman. Not that you could tell by the sprite in the original, but Randi {{lampshade|Hanging}}s it so we know. She also uses the typical 'old folks' sentence ender 'ja' in the Japanese script as a hint. Luka's age is brought up a bit more in the remake, where Primm has an inn skit where she wonders just how Luka managed to stop her aging. She concludes that the lake surrounding the Water Palace must be enchanted by Undine and resolves to start swimming in it to retain her youth (an odd choice given that Primm can directly summon Undine to do her bidding at this point).
353* RecurringRiff and/or {{Leitmotif}}: Several songs contain similar elements. A no doubt incomplete list:
354** "I Won't Forget You" is a DarkReprise of the main theme, "Angel's Fear".
355** "Did You See the Ocean?", in the original soundtrack, is essentially a remix of "The Boy Heads Into the Wilderness" with drums; the 2018 soundtrack makes it more complicated.
356** "Where the Wind Ends", "Eternal Recurrence", and "Flight Into the Unknown" share some of their melodic elements.
357** "Whisper and Mantra" and "Mystic Invasion" also share melodic elements, and in the 2018 soundtrack, the latter also incorporates elements of "Ancient Dolphin" from ''VideoGame/TrialsOfMana''.
358** Kikuta continued his usage of this trope across games when he composed for ''VideoGame/TrialsOfMana'', as several songs from its soundtrack contain {{Call Back}}s to this game: for instance, "Electric Talk" is yet another remix of "The Boy Heads Into the Wilderness" (this one quite radically altered), while "Meridian Child", perhaps unsurprisingly, reprises melodic elements of "Meridian Dance".
359* ReforgedBlade: How to turn your Rusty Sword into a Dragon Buster in eight easy steps.
360* RightHandAttackDog: Elinee's pet tiger.
361* RockOfLimitlessWater: Amusingly, one appears as a graphical quirk on [[http://i.imgur.com/iJfRINl.png the world map]] (In the smaller green land mass on the right).
362* RooftopConfrontation: Geshtar on the Emperor's castle wall. Also, the Mana Beast is encountered on what is apparently the pinnacle of the Mana Fortress.
363* RuleOfCool: As mentioned in AwesomeButImpractical, the Level 9 spells. Fireballs turning into Eastern-style dragons, lava pools sprouting screenwide, or [[StuffBlowingUp explosions taken]] up to eleven? Definitely impressive.
364* SandIsWater: Morie and Meria's sandship.
365* SantasExistenceClause: Santa is real, and you better have faith in him, [[spoiler:or he'll go evil and become a monstrous ogre]].
366* ScaledUp: Fanha transforms into a [[MultiArmedAndDangerous four-armed]] [[SnakePeople naga]].
367* SceneryPorn: Do we actually need to explain this one? The whole game is one of the most gorgeous games released on the SNES to that point (though [[VideoGame/TrialsOfMana its sequel]], ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld2YoshisIsland'', and possibly ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' would later outdo it). Pure Land (or the Holy Land) is probably the most gorgeous part, though. There's also the official art associated with the game, of which the page image up top is only one example.
368* SchizoTech: The entire game is a traditional medieval fantasy setting, complete with dwarves, goblins, swords, knights, castles... and large tunneling vehicles, a metallic sandship, steampunk robots, a modern-day subway system on a lost continent, and "[[Platform/{{VCR}} Veedios]]".
369* SchmuckBait: Randi is conned into giving money to Popoi when they first meet in the dwarves' cave. Shortly afterwards however, you overhear how they conned you, and they refund your money back to you out of guilt.
370* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: It takes an entire game and three boss fights, but the Scorpion Army finally gets wise. You are ''really'' THE Mana Knight.
371* SecretTestOfCharacter: Partway through the game, you're required to visit Sage Joch. However, when you reach the cave where he lives, you instead run into his assistant Jehk, who has a tendency to send you to various places. [[spoiler:In actuality, Jehk is Sage Joch, and he tells your party that you weren't ready quite yet, hence why he sent you to various locations to train and be ready to take on the Emperor.]]
372* SequenceBreaking:
373** The King of Matango tells you that your next destination is the Fire Palace in the desert. Upon arriving there, you discover [[spoiler:that not only is the Palace impossible to traverse without Salamando, but also that the Fire Seed was stolen]]. Therefore, you're forced to go to the Ice Country to recover both. However, nothing stops you from going to Ice Country before the Desert in the first place (and completing both objectives in the process). On the other hand, the shops in Kakkara and Todo Village both sell the same items and equipment, and regardless of if you go to the Ice Country first, you still have to go through the sequence with the Sandship on your first trip to the desert, so the only real benefit is having better equipment before you fight Geshtar (and saving 50gp on a cannon travel trip).
374** At the game's midpoint, you supposed to scale the Lofty Mountains to visit Sage Joch at the peak. When you get there, he's not around, but his assistant sends you to look for him in the Palace of Darkness. There, you complete a different objective, but don't find the Sage. The assistant then keeps sending you to various places around the world every time you climb up the mountain -- the Gold Isle, the Moon Palace, and Tasnica -- until the storyline finally progresses. However, if you know where to go in advance, you don't have to visit him a single time before you've completed the "search", meaning you'll only have to scale the mountain once instead of five times. Also, while the three latter destinations have to be visited in order due to various [[EventFlag Event Flags]], the Palace of Darkness can be tackled at any point in the sequence. Since it's the only large dungeon here, it can be quite beneficial to come to it when you've leveled up a bit.
375* ShiftingSandLand: The Arid Sands, [[IAmNotShazam which is constantly mistakenly called Kakkara despite Kakkara only being the oasis city-state in the Arid Sands]].
376* ShipTease: The original version of the game contains very little dialogue spoken by the party members, but the remake adds a series of skits which take place whenever the party sleeps at an Inn following some story-related event. The remake adds a bunch of this between Randi and Primm. At one point Popoi makes fun of Randi for getting jealous that Primm is so laser-focused on Dyluck, and later on, Popoi makes fun of Primm for getting jealous when Randi admits he's attracted to Krissie. And on a more somber note, [[spoiler:Dyluck's last request before his suicide is specifically for Randi to take care of Primm. The ending leaves this ambiguous as while they travel together to inform everyone during the ending, they do split directions near the end.]]
377* ShonenHair: Randi. The rebel leader, Krissie, is a female version of this trope. Most of the bad guys in service of the emperor as well. Sheex, Fanha, Geshtar and Thanatos have blue, orange, green and pink hair respectively.
378* ShoutOut:
379** The second vampire boss that Randi & Co. face is called Film/{{Buffy|TheVampireSlayer}} in the SNES localization (it was reverted to its original name "Vampire King" in the remake, probably because [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece the original joke rather dated the game]]).
380** The Scorpion Army's ultimate weapon is named Kilroy, a reference to Styx's cult song "Mr Roboto". It could also be a shoutout to [[TerribleTrio the Dorombo Gang]] from ''Anime/{{Yatterman}}''. The Scorpion Army Boss dresses a lot like Dorombo boss Doronjo, the "Boys" resemble Boyacky, and both teams fight with cartoony mechas. It's far more obvious in the remake where the Boss' outfit can be seen more clearly.
381** Subtle, but watch how many of the zombies move around. [[Music/MichaelJackson Yes, sliding backwards.]]
382** One of the [[ApocalypticLog crystals]] has a ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' game going on. In the remake this was updated to ''Series/WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire'' ("Is that your final answer?").
383** There's a place called Film/{{Matango}}, with mushroom people in it.
384** The location named "Gaia's Navel" may be a reference to the location of the same name in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIII''.
385* SickeninglySweethearts: Primm and Dyluck have almost no dialogue between each other in the original game, but the remake has Primm constantly gushing over how great her boyfriend is. It gets to the point where Popoi [[OhNoNotAgain groans in annoyance]] when Randi asks Primm about Dyluck during one of the inn cutscenes.
386* SinisterSubway: Located underneath the Ancient City. Zombies are the only passengers... aside from one Eggplant Man and two Needlions.
387* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Fanha, the only female among the Emperor's lackeys.
388* SnipeHunt: Sage Joch's assistant Jehk has a tendency to send you on these. However, there's [[SecretTestOfCharacter a reason for it...]]
389* SoundtrackDissonance: The peaceful song "I Closed My Eyes" used for when the party sleeps at an inn is also used when the party sleeps... [[GameOver permanently]].
390* SpectacularSpinning: Charged attacks tend to incorporate gratuitous amounts of whirling in place.
391* SpellMyNameWithAnS: The spellings of the main characters' names (as well as Jema's) has been a matter of discussion for many years, until the remake provided definitive spellings. More notably, Primm's friend, previously called Phanna, had her name changed to Pamaela- possibly because Phanna sounded too much like minor villain Fanha, but more likely because that's her actual name in Japanese (パメラ), as well as a real girl's name.
392* SquishyWizard: Mostly subverted. The characters that eventually get magic start out pretty squishy, but can take hits and fight about as well as the main hero after gearing up and getting some levels. By the time they get access to their magic, they won't be too far behind in durability.
393* StarCrossedLovers: [[spoiler:Primm and Dyluck, ultimately.]]
394* TheStarscream: Thanatos started out as one of Vandole's generals, but it's clear from almost the very beginning that he's got his own agenda.
395* StatGrinding: While you could just level your character's spell power by playing normally, you're generally better off just spending some time burning all their MP, then restoring it and casting the spells over and over until they reach whatever level Mana seed you've obtained so far. Primm and Popoi's spell level can often mean a boss fight being extremely tough or a very easy walk in the park. Weapon levels also work on a similar principal; however, most players probably won't bother charging up weapon attacks as regular hits will often be sufficient on trash mobs.
396* StatusEffects: They're all here: Burning, Sleep, Poison, and all their familiar friends. However, in keeping with the game's "[[SugarBowl cute]]" graphics, they are done with an impish twist: when Frozen (called "frostied" in game), characters turn into snowmen, Petrifaction renders you a cherubic statue, in lieu of Stop ("spaced out") you get a balloon tied to your head, etc.
397* StormingTheCastle: The game's finale has the party storming the revived Mana Fortress. There's also an inversion earlier, when they have to storm their way ''out'' of the emperor's castle after he lies to them about wanting a truce.
398* SupportingLeader: The Resistance is another recurring force for good in the game, alongside Jema and his homies. The closest you get to teaming up is when Krissie is dumped in the same cell with Randi. "Emperor Vandole is a '''DOG.'''", she fumes.
399* StoryToGameplayRatio: The first rough half of the temples (Up until the Fire Temple) are a good half of the game and span 3 continents. The next 3 temples (plus foiling a political assassination and going to the MOON.) are good for about an hour's worth of gameplay all the while you're trying to talk to Sage Joch who's pulling a SecretTestOfCharacter on you. This may have been due to cut content, owing to the fact this game was developed with [[WhatCouldHaveBeen SNES-CD in mind]], namely the extra storage of a CD. The reduced content could also be due to time constraints after the device was cancelled by Nintendo.
400* SummonARide: The party can summon Flammie from (almost) any point in the world so long as they're outdoors and carrying the Flammie Drum.
401* SupernaturalAid: Started the tradition of gaining power from the eight elemental spirits.
402* SupportingLeader: Jema. Any time he actually does something it happens offscreen, because ItsUpToYou.
403* TakenForGranite: The Stone Saber spell allows you to do this. As an added bonus, attacking a petrified enemy kills them instantly, making this one of the most best, if not most useful, saber spells in the game.
404* TakingYouWithMe: Upon being defeated, Geshtar decides to ''blow up'' his boss' castle rather than let you escape. Luckily, Flammie swoops down and carries you away.
405* ThisIsUnforgivable: When a possessed Dyluck drains Primm's life and sends her to Thanatos to be sacrificed, it's enough to make Randi snap and declare this before striking him hard enough to [[BeatTheCurseOutOfHim knock the possession out of him]]. The line was left out of the original translation, but made it into the remake.
406* ThrivingGhostTown: Potos has only three houses!
407%%* TinTyrant: Vandole.
408* {{Tomorrowland}}: The base of the Great Palace is a textbook example of RagnarokProofing.
409* TragicMonster: [[spoiler:The Mana Beast, which must be destroyed despite its goal to restore Mana to the world, because in doing so it would inadvertently '''DESTROY''' said world.]]
410* TronLines: The Mana Fortress is filled with them.
411* UltimateBlacksmith: Watts the Blacksmith is capable of upgrading every single type of weapon in the game, even the one-of-a-kind Mana Sword.
412* UndeathAlwaysEnds: Thanatos spent a ''lot'' of time searching for an ideal body. Once [[spoiler:Dyluck]] dies, the lich's boss music communicates his rage.
413* UnholyNuke: Dark Force and Evil Gate, Shade's offensive spells. Dark Force is a basic damage spell, Evil Gate does damage based on the enemy HP.
414* UncommonTime: The meter signature of "Danger" bounces all over the place and "Premonition" is mostly in 5/4.
415* TheUnfought: The Emperor, [[spoiler:as he's killed by Thanatos in a coup before you get the chance to battle him.]]
416* UnintentionallyUnwinnable:
417** It is possible for the player to attack enemies (and bosses!) in such a way they could '''never''' counter-attack. The only problem is it's possible for ''the player'' to get caught by enemies this way through bad luck or plain old carelessness. Cue RageQuit, especially if one hasn't saved in a while.
418** As stated in the entry above, it's possible to screw yourself in a boss battle by running out of MP. An even more cruel example is right at the game's end: [[spoiler:the easiest way to defeat Dark Lich is by spamming Lucent Beam which has a hefty MP cost and you ''can'' run out of MP, especially if you forgot to train Dryad's magic and/or to restock Magic Walnuts. In order to kill the final boss - without glitches - you ''must'' use one of the girl's spells, Mana Magic, to restore the Mana Sword and kill the final boss.]] Oops. Mind you, you'd have to be ''particularly'' sloppy to end up in this position as [[spoiler:Mana Magic only costs 1 MP per cast]].
419*** The aforementioned scenario doen't happen in the original SNES version because [[spoiler:you don't even need to cast Mana Magic to damage the last boss]]. However, the 'Dread Slime' boss expands when damaged and could potentially crowd the player characters out reach of its core due to a lack of diagonal aim.
420* TheUriahGambit: Before the story begins, Primm has rejected the ArrangedMarriage put together by her father, having fallen in love with a career military man named Dyluck. Conveniently, Dyluck is sent away by the King on a risky mission to Elinee's Castle. Then Primm finds out her father was the one who advised the King to send him on that mission. [[{{Understatement}} She is NOT happy about this]], but [[NiceJobBreakingItHero that's just the tip of the iceberg]].
421* UselessUsefulSpell:
422** Most of Primm's buff spells are pretty useless, ''particularly'' early in the game when her mana reserves are so low that she can only get a few spells off before running out and needing a precious Faerie Walnut, and their maximum spell level is so low that they literally only last a few seconds anyway. The weapon buffing Saber spells in particular can be more of a liability than a help. They eventually do start working rather well, but by then probably aren't needed unless you want to damage a tough monster with a basic attack. Really, the only spells Primm should be using for roughly the first half of the game are Cure Water and Analyze (and Remedy if you run out of Antidotes). Of course, some of her ''late'' game buff spells, particularly Lucent Barrier and Wall, are a borderline GameBreaker.
423** Also Evil Gate, the most expensive of Shade's spells. Dark Force is a cheap, reliable source of Dark damage and Dispel can be critical against enemies, particularly bosses, who use buffs, ''especially'' Wall, but Evil Gate is ridiculously expensive, yet only does damage based on the enemy maximum HP and ''doesn't affect bosses.''
424** Actually, most of Popoi's expensive attack spells aren't all they're cracked up to be. Spells like Earth Slide, Thunderbolt and Exploder cost 50-100% more mana than their more basic counterparts (Gem Missile, Air Blast and Fireball) but don't do proportionately more damage, and without any additional effects they're just not mana-efficient.
425** Popoi's Lunar Magic (not the class, the spell) just generates a completely random effect, which can include such nasty things a transforming your entire party into midges or Moogles or healing the enemy. And at a cost of 8 mana, it's not worth using for anything other than giggles.
426** Dryad's entire pool of magic, on a technicality. In actuality, all of her spells are useful... it's just too late. You get her assistance just before the penultimate area of the game, and the spells all end up being pretty redundant. Plus, it starts at level 0, and do you really want to spend yet another grind session leveling it?
427*** In the SNES version [[spoiler:you may regret not leveling it when Mana Magic unlocks at the end, as it works like a buff in that version and expires quickly at level 0]].
428* VaderBreath: As Thanatos' body starts to crack up, he begins wheezing and coughing like the diva he is.
429* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: [[spoiler:The Mana Fortress, the giant dungeon summoned by the bad guys that floats in the air and houses the game's strongest enemies. If the visuals don't clue you in, the music definitely will.]]
430* WakeUpCallBoss:
431** Elinee's Spikey Tiger. Also often cited as ThatOneBoss, even though it's only the ''third boss'' in the game, and the last one you face before you get magic.
432** Boreal Face, sort of. The boss was probably designed to upset the "spam magic until dead" strategy. But it was still plenty vulnerable to weapons.
433* TheWallsAreClosingIn: The wall face boss. At first it is stationary, but if you destroy its left and right eyes first leaving the center one it will start pushing you towards a wall of spikes. If you fail to kill it before it pushes you into the spikes it is GameOver.
434* WeCanRebuildHim: Geshtar pops up a third time in the Sunken Continent, having been restored to life by Thanatos.
435* WhiteMagicianGirl: Primm, though she's not the stereotypical "weak healer" by any means. She's nearly as physically strong as Randi with proper equipment, and she later [[TheRedMage gets a few attack spells of her own]] from [[PlayingWithFire Salamando]] and [[LightEmUp Lumina]], the former because it seems hard to come up with nonlethal uses for fire magic, and the latter is to make up for Popoi using Shade's magic instead.
436* YankTheDogsChain: Every time Primm gets close to saving Dyluck, something happens that takes him away from her again. [[spoiler:He's taken permanently out of her reach near the end of the game.]]
437* YouCantGoHomeAgain: After the hero's removal of the rusty sword triggers a monster outbreak near Potos, the villagers agree that he's too dangerous to allow to stay, and [[PersonaNonGrata banish him from there forever]]. And they mean it... even late in the game when you've acquired your uber-weapons and uber-spells, the guard villager will ''still'' be there, telling you to scram. In the ending, it's implied that Randi is accepted back in the village.
438* YouCantThwartStageOne: It's a given that the Empire will raise the Mana Fortress, despite the heroes efforts to seal the Mana seeds.
439* ZeroEffortBoss: If your equipment is on par for the course, you literally cannot lose the rematch with the three Biting Lizards in the Ice Palace. Your characters will most likely dodge every hit in their Tonpole form and in their Biting Lizard form, they literally cannot do any damage (as in, no damage numbers appear) when they eat your characters. In fact, eating your characters ''hurts them''.
440[[/folder]]
441----
442->You are hereby banished from this page. Now, [[GetOut get out of here]]!

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