Line #132 VideoGame/SwordOfMana


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2	%% Zero-Context Examples have been commented out. Do not remove the percent signs unless you can provide the missing context.
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4	%% Please refer to the Canon Name example before adding examples referring to either of the game's protagonists.
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6	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sword_of_mana_gba_6276.jpg]]
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8	''Sword of Mana,'' released in Japan as ''Shin'yaku Seiken Densetsu'' (新約聖剣伝説) or ''The New Testament: Legend of the Holy Sword'', is a VideoGameRemake of the [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyAdventure first game]] of the ''[[VideoGame/WorldOfMana Mana]]'' series with many of the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' references removed and [[ContinuityNod many added details from the later games inserted]]. It was released for the Platform/GameBoyAdvance in late 2003. Faithful remakes of the original 1991 video game were released in 2006 [[NoExportForYou exclusively for Japanese mobile phones]] and in 2016 for Platform/{{iOS}}, Platform/{{Android}}, and Platform/PlayStationVita.
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10	Not so very long ago in the kingdom that would become known as Granz, a knight and sorcerer named Vandole stumbled upon the Mana Tree, inadvertently absorbed its power, and (of course) [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity proceeded to slowly lose his mind and sense of self]]. He established an empire that [[AndManGrewProud abused Mana to power its technology]], had a reign of terror, and was eventually vanquished by [[LaResistance a small but powerful band of heroes]]. A bit of time has passed since, and those heroes had begun to settle down and stabilize the world, when trouble (naturally) reemerged. Stroud... [[ThatManIsDead Oh, please]] [[DoNotCallMePaul excuse me]], ''[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Dark Lord]]'' (son of Granz, one of the previous generation's heroes) and his... um, ''[[HoYay friend]]'' Julius staged a bloody coup of the Granz regime and began a vicious persecution of the Mana tribe. In so doing, two young children--the son of one of the Granz aristocrats and a girl of the Mana tribe--have their lives very violently disrupted: the Mana tribe is wiped out and the girl is forced to go into hiding, while the boy's parents meet a similar fate. He isn't as lucky as her, and is forced to fight as a gladiator for Dark Lord's amusement.
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12	Ten years later, the boy makes an escape and the girl starts out on a journey to find other Mana tribe survivors. They bump into each other again, and destiny ensues.
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14	Like many of the other "old-school" ''Seiken Densetsu'' games, ''Sword of Mana'' allows the player to choose whether to play as [[HelloInsertNameHere the hero or the heroine]]. Unlike other ''Seiken Densetsu'' games, though, there are significant differences depending on who you choose to play--the hero's route has slightly more focus on dungeon gameplay; in the heroine's story, the characters (particularly the villains) are MUCH more well-developed.
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16	Also like many other "old-school" ''Seiken Densetsu'' games, ''Sword of Mana'''s story is wrought with angst, and a great many main characters die. Good luck not getting attached to any of them, though.
17	----
18	!!''Sword of Mana'' contains examples of the following tropes:
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20	* AccentuateTheNegative: [[spoiler:In the end, Julius' shadow shows the protagonist the main characters' vices.]]
21	* ActionGirl: The heroine, primarily in her route. She's {{Chickifi\|cation}}ed a bit in the hero's. Amanda and Isabella also count to some degree.
22	* AdaptationNameChange: In the Japanese version of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyAdventure'', Vandole was spelled バンドール (better translated as "Bandol"). To go along with the newer ''Mana'' series references, ''Sword of Mana'' changed it to ヴァンドール (Vandole), suggesting a greater connection to the ''VideoGame/SecretOfMana'' character of the same name.
23	* AdaptedOut: [[spoiler:Julius']] third form, traded for a fight against three [[PaletteSwap yellow]] Gray Oxen before [[DoppelgangerSpin his original first form]].
24	* AllDesertsHaveCacti: The Prickly Desert, naturally.
25	* AntiVillain: [[spoiler:Dark Lord is just bitter over his father's refusal to save his mother; Julius is slowly succumbing to his Vandole blood (that's if he's not Vandole himself).]] Even so, they're both psychopaths who kill many innocent people and settle at ruining many other lives just as badly to obtain their own goals without hesitation.
26	* AnyoneCanDie: It's a wonder anybody actually ''survives'' this game.
27	* ArtificialStupidity: It's best to let your partner die rather than waste healing items on them. If you actually try to keep them alive, the entire game can become an EscortMission. Except [[spoiler:in Dime Tower, where you are best off simply playing as Marshall and blasting everything to pieces with laserbeams before your main character has a chance to get themself killed]].
28	* AscendedExtra: All the characters' roles were expanded and given more depth, but especially Willy stands out for this trope. He didn't even manage to survive the first ten minutes of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyAdventure'', and here he actually makes party member status! Along with being [[spoiler:one of the ''markedly'' few characters to actually survive the game]].
29	* AwesomeButImpractical: Mooglemorphis turns you into a Moogle! Along with [=BubbleBoat=] and Shadow, these spells make the player invisible to all monsters except those that can track you by smell, sight, and sound respectively. However you can't attack, move very slowly, and probably will still be surrounded by monsters if you were trapped before.
30	* BarehandedBladeBlock: Dark Lord, in the hero's opening sequence.
31	-->'''Willy:''' H-he stopped the sword with one hand!?
32	%%* BeastAndBeauty: Backstory-wise, [[spoiler:Vandole and Mana]].
33	* BecauseDestinySaysSo: [[spoiler:The heroine MUST become the Mana Tree to avert TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, even if she'll live on as the new Mana Goddess like her mother before her.]]
34	* BerserkButton: Screw with [[spoiler:Medusa]]? Devius and Dark Lord ''will make you suffer.''
35	** Also, don't address the latter two by their birth names. [[ThatManIsDead Just]] [[DoNotCallMePaul don't.]]
36	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:After you fight your way through the game, you find out that the heroine has to [[{{Transflormation}} turn into the Mana Tree]] to save the world.]]
37	%%* BigEater: Willy, shown in one of the cut scenes.
38	* BreakingAndBloodsucking: Despite warnings and misgivings, the hero and heroine stay the night at Vinquette Hall, and this time both the heroine and Isabella are taken by the vampire in the night. However, because of AdaptationalHeroism, Count Lee is a FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire trying to protect the women of the Mana Clan.
39	* CanonName: The hero and heroine have several. To avoid confusion, they are not used here, and are referred to as "the hero" and "the heroine" respectively.
40	** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyAdventure'' and ''Adventures of Mana'': Hero and Heroine in Japanese, and Sumo and Fuji in English.
41	** In ''Sword of Mana'': Duke and Elena in Japanese material, and Matt and Rose in the English strategy guide and official promotional comics.
42	* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Amanda is an Unlucky Childhood Friend for the hero, while Willy has a crush on the heroine. Sadly, PairTheSpares doesn't work out since Amanda is [[spoiler:forced into a MercyKill because of Medusa's venom]].
43	* TheChosenOne: The heroine is a woman of the Mana clan, and thus is able to [[spoiler:[[PoweredByAForsakenChild sacrifice her body]] to sustain the Mana Tree, becoming the next Mana Goddess in doing so]].
44	* ClassAndLevelSystem: You can select to level up according to 6 different archetypes; mixing and matching how you level can result in 42 different final classes.
45	* CollisionDamage: Rare monsters deal one point of damage and knock you flat on your back upon collision. Medusa's snakes inflict poison upon collision, but don't knock you down.
46	* ContinuityNod: Each of the six class trees from ''VideoGame/TrialsOfMana'' show up again here. Isabella (in appearance only; her real name of Bigieu/Belladonna is not used in this game) and Goremand have {{exp\|y}}ies here as well.
47	* ContinuityPorn: Aside from Goremand and Isabella, we have [[VideoGame/LegendOfMana Li'l Cactus, Niccolo, Dudbears, the Seven Wisdoms]], [[VideoGame/SecretOfMana Durac and Popoi]]'s Notebook, [[spoiler:one of Julius' OneWingedAngel forms, which is an {{expy}} of [[VideoGame/LegendOfMana Irwin]]]], and the hero, who resembles Escad.
48	* CoolOldLady: Selah, an old ally of the Gemma Knights, who isn't afraid to lend her home to the heroes.
49	* CreepyCrossdresser: Julius is bordering on this, what with the painted nails, [[FashionVictimVillain hot pink cape]], and brightly colored robes. He doesn't present as trans, though.
50	* {{Cthulhumanoid}}: Devius's OneWingedAngel form is a large mollusk-like humanoid with a nautilus for a head and tentacles for limbs. Li'l Cactus even calls him Old Squidface.
51	* DevilInPlainSight: Come on. His name is ''Dark Lord.''
52	* DontYouDarePityMe: Once the player character seriously injures [[spoiler:Devius]], Julius offers to heal him. Incensed at the very prospect, [[spoiler:Devius refuses... and then ''stabs himself'']].
53	* DragonTheirFeet: Despite the fact that the three [[spoiler:surviving]] members of his team are nearby and doing perfectly well, Dark Lord still fights you on his own, outnumbered two to one. May be a case of ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself on Julius and Isabella's part; definitely a case of dickery on Goremand's.
54	* ElementalCrafting: The game uses surprising variety of materials for equipment. There are eight classes of materials and two broad gear categories: fighter-type heavy armor and mage-type light armor. Any given piece of equipment can be made from several different material classes, leading to the hero wearing a bone breastplate and metal gauntlets while the heroine wears a cloth robe and wooden sandals. A given material class isn't "better" than another but they give different properties to the equipment they make. The full material list follows:
55	** Cloth: Cotton, silk, hemp, felt.
56	** Wood: Oak, holly, boabab, charcoal, ash, dion, mistletoe, fossil.
57	** Leather: Animal hide, gator, centaur, pegasus.
58	** Bone: Animal, elephant tusk, black bone, fossil.
59	** Metal: Bronze, iron, steel, alloy, iron, alloy, lead, mythril silver, orihalcum.
60	** Scale: Fish, lizard, snake, dragon.
61	** [[ThunderBoltIron Meteorite]]: Jake aerolite, hal, ankh, vinek.
62	** Stone: Marble, obsidian, pedan, crystal.
63	* EliteMooks: Kill 1000 of a specific enemy and the black version replaces them. This applies to ALL enemies. For example the standard Rabbite becomes a Black Rabbite (though not the ''Seiken Dentetsu 3'' version). Said monsters also drop high end materials required for the best equipment.
64	* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: Due to Dark Lord and Julius banning the use of Mana power alongside worship of the Mana Goddess, the Mana Tree is dying yet again, and only [[spoiler:the heroine's sacrifice]] can stop it, once Julius is defeated.
65	* EraSpecificPersonality: The antagonists are given much more development than in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyAdventure''. The heroine also has her own storyline instead of being a DamselInDistress.
66	* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Devius and Dark Lord are ''furious'' when the hero kills [[spoiler:Medusa, not caring that Medusa had had an episode]], forcing the hero to act in self-defense. Devius even kidnaps Bogard to force a fight to the death as revenge.
67	* EvilRedhead: Julius has red hair in this game, and is still quite evil.
68	* {{Expy}}: Goremand is based on the character of the same name from ''VideoGame/TrialsOfMana'', being a soul-eating MonsterClown.
69	** Isabella is a more straight example for Belladonna from the same game, with "Isabella" actually being her name instead of an alias to pass as human, in addition to being from [[CatFolk the Bigieu clan]][[labelnote:*]]("Bigieu" was how the ''Trials'' villain's name was interpreted prior to her official DubNameChange.)[[/labelnote]] and her interest in Dark Lord mirroring Belladonna's obsession with His Dark Majesty.
70	* FantasticRacism: In many flavors. Ordinary humans against the Mana tribe, humans in general against Mavoles and vice versa, and ''everyone and everything'' towards the Vandole family, whose body composition has been altered so much by Mana energy that they're no longer said to belong to any preexisting race.
71	* FinalBossNewDimension: You get sent to one of these for the third and last phase of the final boss fight against [[spoiler:Julius]]. It's kind of an abstract blue area with a shimmer effect in the foreground. You're confined to a small area of solid ground in the center while he constantly flies around. The location box in your menu just refers to the place as "Limbo."
72	* FlunkyBoss: A few bosses fight alongside smaller minions. Medusa summons her snakes, which inflict poison upon collision and Kraken summons aggressive fish. [[spoiler:Julius]] starts the first phase of his battle accompanied by four yellow oxen and periodically summons another if you slay them. Like the bosses themselves, these enemies don't appear in the bestiary.
73	* FlyingFace: Medusa's OneWingedAngel form is a giant floating head with snakes for hair and the third eye that she can fire a petrifying beam from.
74	* ForcedTransformation: Lester, and several other minstrels in Devius' manor. Inverted with one of them, who actually ''liked'' being a bird.
75	* GenerationXerox:
76	** [[spoiler:Like every Vandole,]] Julius has distinctive red hair and green eyes.
77	** The heroine apparently looks just like her [[spoiler:real]] mother, too.
78	%%
79	%% Calling foul on the one below. Wasn't Cibba the third Gemma Knight?
80	%%
81	%%** The legendary Gemma Knights were Gemma: a sword-wielding hero, Bogard: a man from the Mana clan, and Granz: a minstrel. What are the hero, Willy, and Lester again? And all of these characters are more or less doomed to re-enact the adventures of the previous generation. [[spoiler:The heroine]] and [[spoiler:Julius]] in particular have a pretty raw deal, as destiny has arranged for the former's self-sacrifice and the latter's loss of humanity, not helped that the same happened to their predecessors, Emperor Vandole and the heroine's mother [[spoiler:[[NamedByTheAdaptation Mana]]]], as well.%%
82	* GodhoodSeeker: [[spoiler:Julius/Vandole's goal.]]
83	* GoshDangItToHeck: Usually not overtly so, but it does make the {{bowdlerise}}d English versions of scenes that originally had impassioned swearing a little {{Narm}}tastic. See the entry for {{Narm}} itself below.
84	* GuideDangIt: ''Sword of Mana'' takes a lot of cues from ''VideoGame/LegendOfMana''. Unfortunately, this was one of them. Gardening is much more complicated than it looks like if you're trying to get certain kinds of produce, and trying out all the combination without a guide would be a ridiculously time-consuming expenditure. There's also the process of getting crystal weapons, Niccolo's special deals, and oh yes ALL of the advanced classes, especially the ones that require you to specialize in a weapon before you have access to it!
85	* HalfHumanHybrid: [[spoiler:Medusa's children, Dark Lord and Devius, fathered by Lord Granz.]]
86	* [[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend He Is Not My Boyfriend]]: The heroine to Watts regarding the hero, in the scene where she gets the Kusarigama.
87	* HelloInsertNameHere: You have to enter names for both the hero and the heroine regardless of whose route you're playing.
88	* HighSpeedTrainReroute: The abandoned mine is a MinecartMadness level where you have to do this several times to reach the boss and advance the plot.
89	* HijackedByGanon: There ''is'' foreshadowing for this [[spoiler:as we already know that Julius is ''a'' Vandole before he gets hijacked by ''the'' Vandole]], but the swerve is still pretty abrupt.
90	* HomingProjectile: The staff turns your attack magic into this, making it the heroine's default form of magic. If an enemy is close enough, it can come back around for a second hit. The knuckles cause a variant where you control the spell to send it in the direction of your choice. You can have it stop on top of an enemy for another hit as well.
91	* IdenticalStranger: Julius has the same face and hairstyle (aside from skin tone or hair color) as the minor character Prince Durac of Lorimar. Marley notices this, but the reason why they look so similar is never explained.
92	* InfinityPlusOneSword:
93	** Crystal equipment. We're talking MASSIVE stats in all categories, not counting the number of times you can temper them. Crystal weapons even have a chance to deal '''[[InfinityPlusOneElement ALL]]'''-''(yes, that's what it actually says)'' elemental damage, while crystal armors resist ALL elements and make you immune to Charm. However, you may find that a mix of other types of armors that resist other StatusEffects may be better than just straight-up pure defense. Also however, you'll notice that the heroine can only have crystal weapons and gloves. That's where Altena Felt comes in--does the same job as crystal for fabric equipment, but grants immunity to Confuse instead.
94	** The secret Brownie Ring, which increases all of your stats by 55.
95	* InformedAttribute: The game booklet claims that Julius is a master swordsman. We never see him pick up a weapon.
96	* InterspeciesRomance: Mavole law forbids marriage and interbreeding with humans. Sometimes couples try anyway; when the geas kicks in for the Mavole member of the couple, the results are never pretty. [[spoiler:Poor, ''poor'' Medusa.]] As for the children of such a union, there doesn't seem to be a taboo against relationships, but we never see one take its course [[StarCrossedLovers without the half-blood dying midway through]]. Children of such a union do tend to lead very messed-up lives. [[spoiler:Poor Devius and Dark Lord.]]
97	* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Goremand]]. Possibly only to be expected, as [[spoiler:he's an {{Expy}} of -- [[NonLinearSequel or possibly even the same character as]] -- Goremand from ''VideoGame/TrialsOfMana'', who was never killed there either]]. [[spoiler:But at least in ''Trials'' you could punch his smug face in. Here he's TheUnfought]].
98	* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Medusa's incurable memory loss--essentially the magical version of Alzheimer's--devastates her spouse and children, and eventually causes her family to splinter.
99	* TheLostLenore: [[spoiler:Mana to Bogard.]]
100	* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Bogard is the heroine's father.]]
101	* ManipulativeBastard: Julius is manipulating Dark Lord's resentment over how [[ReedRichardsIsUseless the Mana Clan refused to aid his mother]] to serve his own goals.
102	* MiniBoss: The Ebony and Ivory Butlers act as this in Vinquette Hall, leading up to Count Lee, and are variants of the Werewolf enemy. Which one you fight depends on which route you're playing. A guardian dragon serves as this at one of the thresholds between the Mana Sanctuary and the Mana Temple.
103	* MoralityChain: Dark Lord to Julius. [[spoiler:True to type, he completely succumbs to his Vandole blood right after Dark Lord's death and makes a beeline for the Mana Tree. Alternately, if "Julius" is an assumed identity of Vandole, he dropped his "Julius" facade because Dark Lord is no longer a threat.]]
104	%%* MoralityPet:
105	%%** Medusa to Devius.
106	%%** Marley to Dark Lord.
107	* MysticalWaif: Julius to the villains' side, although ''Sword of Mana'' is far more vague on how he and Dark Lord wound up together than the original ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyAdventure'', where [[spoiler:Dark Lord was significantly older and Julius was an orphaned child he found in a cave. This does not seem to be the case here, as the two of them are roughly the same age]].
108	* NamedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler:The heroine's mother]] was not named in the original ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyAdventure'' or in its more faithful remake ''Adventures of Mana'', but is named [[spoiler:Mana]] in this game.
109	%%* NowWhereWasIGoingAgain
110	* ObliviousToLove: The hero doesn't really figure out that the heroine likes him until near the end of the game, just enough to join her in her determination to [[spoiler:ScrewDestiny before it becomes clear that it's already too late to do so AND avert TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt]].
111	* OneWingedAngel: Every Mavole you fight, and [[spoiler:round three against Julius]].
112	%%* OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: Except when they want to quit.
113	* OurMonstersAreDifferent: Humans ''treat'' them like traditional vampires and werewolves and so on, but Mavoles are ''very'', very much not. See also FantasticRacism.
114	* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: The Werewolf and Wolfiend enemies look like standard werewolves and attack with [[{{Lunacy}} moon-elemental magic]]. Count Lee's butlers also take on werewolf-like forms with the same abilities when fought as mini-bosses.
115	* PermanentlyMissableContent: A number of treasures in can only be acquired at certain points of the game. If you didn't realize you were supposed to backtrack to an earlier town at just the right time, tough luck.
116	* PetTheDog: Devius in the heroine's route. ''Very'' much, considering his birds, [[spoiler:Medusa]], and the way he treats the heroine herself.
117	* {{Planimal}}: Inverted. Many of the crops you can grow in the hot house resemble animals.
118	* PleaseKillMeIfItSatisfiesYou: This is the protagonist's reaction to seeing their counterpart corrupted.
119	* PlotCoupon: The heroine's pendant, the titular sword... [[spoiler:[[MacGuffinSuperPerson the heroine herself...]]]]
120	* PointOfNoReturn: '''Dime Tower'''.
121	* PosthumousCharacter: Vandole and [[spoiler:Mana]]. Granz too, [[spoiler:but this eventually turns out to be subverted, as Julius secretly kept him alive to siphon off his magic behind Dark Lord (who has been shown to publicly shun magic)'s back]].
122	* PoweredByAForsakenChild: [[spoiler:The Mana Tree, after losing its power, must be "recharged" by the self-sacrifice of someone from the Mana tribe.]]
123	* PowerFloats: Julius can, and does when you fight him. [[spoiler:''Before'' he goes OneWingedAngel on you.]]
124	* ThePowerOfLove: How the player character gets past the ugliness of his/her friends' darkest secrets; particularly apparent in the heroine's route.
125	* PunnyName: Goremand. In case you don't get it, consider that it was called Deatheater in the Japanese version.
126	* PuppeteerParasite: Boison Vine, one of Julius' servants. This plant controls the corpse of a Full Metal Haggar to move around, and once the crab is destroyed, he will flee to take control of a giant plant monster to deal with the player character.
127	* ReedRichardsIsUseless: The Mana Clan ''could'' use the power of Mana to save innocent lives [[spoiler:such as Medusa's]], but won't, because it would "throw off the balance" to help only one person, and/or because it's a {{slippery slope\| fallacy}} that leads down to an EvilEmpire abusing Mana power and using it as a weapon. Dark Lord [[DisproportionateRetribution has the entire village exterminated for it and declares the survivors heretics to be killed on sight]].
128	** Julius even calls the Mana Clan out on this very early in the story, perhaps in parody of the GreenAesop in ''VideoGame/SecretOfMana''. "This wouldn't be happening if you'd stop keeping your powers to yourselves, you know." "Huh? But Mana is everywhere, how could we be hoarding it?" "...Wow, talk about completely missing the point."
129	* RobotBuddy: Marshall, a robot found in the Tower of Dime, is your companion in both routes.
130	* SaveTheVillain: The heroine toward every major antagonist you fight. Her route only. [[spoiler:It never works.]]
131	* SequentialBoss: [[spoiler:Julius]] has a three-part battle. He first fights alongside a number of yellow {{Palette Swap}}s of the Gray Ox. Then his second phase has him do a DoppelgangerSpin before each attack. Finally, he goes OneWingedAngel [[spoiler:using the power of the Mana Tree]] and sends you to an AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield where he frequently flies out of your attack range.
132	* ShipTease: Hero/Heroine, Hero/Amanda, Devius/Heroine, Willy/Heroine, Dark Lord/Isabella, and Dark Lord/Julius all get implied at some point or another. Which pairings are hinted and how strongly often depends on whose route you're playing.
133	* ShipperOnDeck: Li'l Cactus, it appears, ships Dark Lord and Isabella. And maybe the protagonists.
134	* {{Sidekick}}: Even out of the {{NPC}}s, the protagonists wind up with particular characters more often than not--for the hero, his designated backup is Lester; for the heroine, this is [[spoiler:Willy]].
135	* SlapSlapKiss: The hero and heroine can't stand each other early on, but eventually fall for each other.
136	* SlippySlideyIceWorld: The Snowfield and Kahla Peaks form one of these in the mountains around Lorimar Castle. The snow frequently gives way to patches of bare ice that the characters can slide on. The local BossRoom is an ice bridge in an ice cave, making it particularly difficult to dodge the boss as it climbs around the nearby ice pillars to attack from above and below.
137	* SparedByTheAdaptation: Willy, who dies shortly after the beginning of the original ''Seiken Densetsu'', gets a lot more characterization and screen time in ''Sword of Mana'' and survives the entire story.
138	* SpreadShot: The axe causes your attack magic to hit an expanding area, though only the fire, water, and earth spells visualize it as spreading projectiles. Moon, wind, and wood spells are visualized as expanding waves, light as two projectiles that zigzag around each other and them move outward, and darkness as an expanding sphere.
139	* StarCrossedLovers: Pretty much ''every single love story'' turns out this way: The protagonists, Dark Lord and Isabella, Pamela and Durac, [[spoiler:Bogard and Mana, and Granz and Medusa]].
140	* TheStoic: Devius. [[NotSoStoic Except when you mess with his mother.]]
141	* SwordAndSorcerer: Dark Lord and Julius. Depending on their class growth, the main characters can also count.
142	* SwordOfPlotAdvancement: The titular sword, though it's really more of a PlotCoupon--you can't use it, and it's rusted, so even if it was usable, it wouldn't do you any more good than your other weapons. Even at the climax of the game, where the sword is restored to its proper glory, you ''still'' can't use it.
143	* ThatManIsDead / DoNotCallMePaul: Gurnda and Stroud prefer to be known as "Devius" and "Dark Lord" respectively. You can only get away with calling them by their names from their "old lives" if you're ''very'' close to them. The latter corrects the hero's parents when, not knowing about the name change, they address him as Prince Stroud.
144	* ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil: Vandole and [[spoiler:Julius, who might be Vandole]].
145	* {{Transflormation}}: [[spoiler: What the heroine must undergo in order to save the Mana Tree. Julius also takes on a tree-like form after absorbing the last of the Mana Tree's power.]]
146	* UnexplainedRecovery: Despite being defeated by Isabella after Dark Lord's death, Goremand shows up alive and well to open the way to the Ruined Passage with nary an explanation for his survival, let alone whether Isabella spared him or if he somehow escaped before she could finish him.
147	* UltimateBlacksmith: Good ol' Watts is your man/dwarf for forging equipment. He can also temper them too.
148	* TheVirus: [[spoiler:Medusa's venom inflicts BodyHorror on Amanda; the Vandole family's addiction to Mana power eventually gets the better of Julius (of course, depending on whether he's Vandole himself or not, he may be the one who got the Vandole family addicted to Mana power in the first place).]]
149	* WeaponBasedCharacterization: Swords for the hero, staves for the heroine. They can use other weapons, but these pairings are used in official art.
150	* WeCannotGoOnWithoutYou: Your partner is free to bite it, and in some cases [[ArtificialStupidity might be recommended]], but if the one you're playing as at the time bites it, it's GameOver.
151	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse
152	** Goremand, after opening the door to the Ruined Passage. [[http://jul.rustedlogic.net/thread.php?pid=277727 A scene]] where he spoiled the ending and got a proper exit was DummiedOut.
153	** Isabella. Though it's stated that she defeated Goremand in their battle after Dark Lord's death, the player never sees her again.
154	* WhatTheHellHero:
155	** [[spoiler:Dark Lord]] thinks the Mana clan's [[ReedRichardsIsUseless non-interference policy]] is stupid and [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge makes his displeasure]] [[DisproportionateRetribution VERY clear]].
156	** A more humorous example occurs if the player accepts the side quest to trade away Li'l Cactus and then the follow-up quest to get him back. Entries in Li'l Cactus' journal naturally don't get added while he's gone, but get filled in retroactively when he returns. The entry that gets added for the sidequest where he gets traded away is just the word "TRAITOR" repeated for the entire page length.
157	* WorldTree: The Mana Tree, as per the series staple of it providing the very life force of the world which is manipulated as magic.

Context VideoGame / SwordOfMana