YMMV / Sword of Mana

• Awesome Music:
  • Desert Theme stands out fairly well, though there are other nice themes too. For a GBA game, this one sure had quite a few nice tracks to it.
  • The two sequential final boss themes are epic, as is the arranged version of the first.
• Broken Base: While a lot of people who've played it and the original version like both (usually for different reasons), some feel that the remake added a few superfluous changes, while others felt that the remake added a nice coat of paint to the game and enjoy the Remake Expansion a whole lot.
• Epileptic Trees: There are a lot of unanswered questions about Julius, which lends quite well to the making of complicated theories. For instance, Bogard, Cibba, and Selah mention that there was some form of romance between Vandole and Mana in the past, presumably before Mana and Bogard had their daughter. Considering this, it's possible that Julius and the heroine are half-siblings(that is unless Julius is Vandole himself which is heavily implied in which case he's replaced Mana with Heroine in his affections).
• Fashion-Victim Villain: The color palette on Goremand and Julius? Oh god, my eyes.
  • At least Goremand is going for the evil jester look, so he's kinda excused. Julius with his fabulous red finger- and toenail polish and several layers of mis-matched robes? Not so much.
• Good Bad Bugs:
  • At point-blank range, the bow can hit twice—one for the first frame of the animation of the bow being readied, and another for the actual arrow. Something similar can happen at maximum range with the arrow planting in the ground, but this is much harder.
  • In addition to that, your character is temporarily invulnerable when the animation for eating healing items is running. Spamming the use of healing candy is a popular strategy for surviving enemy attacks that blanket the screen.
• Ho Yay: Arguably, Dark Lord and Julius.
• Narm: The Hero yelling "BLAAAAAAAAAAST IT!!!" at Amanda's death kinda ruins the gravity of the scene, mainly due to the censorship.
• Player Punch: Many, usually involving character deaths. Slightly less than the original Seiken Densetsu though as Willy, the male protagonist's friend and fellow gladiator-slave, is Spared by the Adaptation.
• Tear Jerker: Many parts of it - it's a remake of what is historically known as one of the saddest Game Boy games.
• Wangst: The heroine mourns everybody no matter how many horrible things they do.