TEXT PLAY: Legend of Mana (PlayStation; 2000): Issue #02: Hit The Road, Me!

Here's our first handful of relatively short quests.

First off, though, I should note that I misspelled Niccolo's name last time and didn't think anything of it until I saw the correct spelling in the game. Two “c”s, two “o”s, and an “l”. Got it right this time.

Anyway, once we talk to the bunnyman, he says he's a merchant who needs somebody to help him kick a little ass on the road and joins you if you agree to help. Before this little quest gets underway, Niccolo wants to go by Mark and Jennifer's shop to see that Teapo thing I mentioned earlier. This is just the game's way of giving us the artifact for the first quest map. Niccolo offers to sell an old wagon wheel to Teapo for 50,000 Lucre, the game's currency. She refuses, until Nic says he'll let me use the wheel until the talking teapot can fork over the fifty grand. I'm not quite sure what Teapo would do with it, since I suspect she's more often involved in scenes like this.

Place the wheel on the world map and it turns into the Luon Highway. This particular road doesn't connect much, but there are a good number of adventures that happen here once we're done with the first. In this case, the end goal is to put the hurt down on a gang of bandits lead by the Mantis Ant. And since we'll be getting into fighting for the first time here, I'll explain the combat system as best I can now.

Basically, this is a fairly typical thing for most of the Seiken Densetsu games. The characters are free to move about on a roughly screen-sized section of the map that stays fixed while there's a battle going on. There are special moves, combos, and limit breaks that can be used pretty much from the start of the game, so long as they're equipped. Money and experience as come as coins and crystals respectively, dropped as the monsters are beaten. These must be retrieved quickly, as they don't linger long. The same goes for item drops, which, strangely enough, seem to happen just as often, if not moreso, than drops of gold and XP.

Along the way, we meet the onion kid again, who offers hints on gameplay. I don't bother with him much, since I'm more a learn as I go player. We also meet a feline lady named Daena, who says she's a monk from someplace called Gato, and she's here to meet one of the Seven Wisdoms. There's not much explanation of who those are yet, and I can't quite recall myself at this point. Niccolo tries to hit on her, and since I've got sort of a thing for anthro kittygirls myself, I understand why he thinks she's cute. It's just too bad that Niccolo's tactics are barely more mature than Beavis and Butt-head's.

But she directs us to the first of these wisdoms, a boulder that can talk. Seems he doesn't like Niccolo, but tells me about a big tree that will help me with stuff later.

Once we're done there, it's off to the boss of the area. Beat him down, and Niccolo will be grateful enough to sell you a bun, an iron pot, and a bug for 300 bucks, which is a tenth of his normal price. What a guy, right?

With that done, it's time to go back to the house and tell Lil' Cactus about the adventure and save the game. When I leave the room next, Cactus will write about it on the leaf. I'd go check on that whole tree thing that the boulder mentioned, but the Pelican the mail bird is here and has a mission for us instead.

It seems some kids in Domina are carving jackolanterns in the field on the west end of town, and Pelican is scared of them. Why she's scared, I can't say. I've carved plenty of pumpkins in my day, and I've never used a knife big enough to be scared of. But since Pelican insists and I'm a nice guy, I'll go check this out. Maybe the kids kicked over a mailbox on their way. If Fa'Diel's mail regs are anything like the ones currently in the US, that'd almost warrant sending a guy with a sword after them, dumb as it is.

When I get there, it's just a couple of kids being kids, carving jackolanterns and pretending that they can take over the world with them. The kids' names are Lisa and Bud, which will be important in a bit, and not just because my dad's name is Bud. After Bud tells Lisa of his great plan to take over the world with a pumpkin army, he turns around, sees me, and thinks he can take a full-grown, sword-wielding adult in a fair fight. Now, if it were the real me against my real dad, those odds really would favor him, but since this is a video game, based on my limited and somewhat inaccurate knowledge of my dear old dad's life, I must wonder if the similarities go farther than just name. But, since Bud insists on a fight, all I can do is show him a Beavis impression and knock him and his fortunately loyal sister Lisa on their young asses.

I feel more than a little bad about having to do that to kids, especially ones who seem to not have any parents around to keep them out of trouble. Fortunately, these siblings offer me a chance to remedy that situation by making them my apprentices. I'm gonna say yes to that because not only is it Quaker Oats, but it'll open up a few more quests, too.

So, it's back home to make sure Bud and Lisa are safe there for time being. Since they are, I'm gonna go tell Lil' Cactus about it, see if maybe he'll help keep an eye on the kids. I guess I'll take his response as a yes, as he writes it down on his journal.

Now that I'm back home again, I may as well go check on that tree thing the boulder told me about when I went to see him with Niccolo. Looks like four of those carnivorous plant monsters from the Luon Highway have invaded. Take them out and a big tree springs up, filling the area. Since it appears that this tree is sentient and willing to talk to and help me, maybe the talking boulder was right and the tree can help me.

The tree wants me to give it the seeds I've been finding after beating plant monsters. It says that it'll turn those seeds into fruit for me, if I just give it a couple days.

This brings me to something else I probably should have mentioned earlier. There's a partial day-night system in this game. There's really no “night” per se, but there are “days” based on the elemental spirits in the game. I want to say there's a day for each elemental, but I'm not entirely sure of that, partly because I can't remember how many elementals there are here, and that I can't remember having seen days for some of them. But anyway, this comes into play for a few things. Mark and Jennifer alternate days at their shop in Domina, for example, and there are things that you can only get from one or the other. The days also affect what kind of produce grows on the tree and how long it takes, based on the day it was planted and what kinds of seeds were given.

With that in mind, I'm gonna have to go running off to Domina again, because moving around the map is the easiest way to get the days to change. I know, I know, I just brought a pair of orphan kids into my home, but I gotta do it if I want to advance the story.

And speaking of advancing the story, there's another quest I can go on here. No, not that Elazul guy. I'll get to him either next issue or the one after, I'm not entirely sure yet. For now, we're gonna swing by the inn, run by a big yellow bird named Miss Yuka, who could very easily be Big Bird's aunt or mom. Heck, she's even got a little egg named Pee-Wee that she wants me to leave alone because he's very fragile. Now, as a child of the 1980s and early 1990s, I gotta say that as much as I liked visiting Pee-Wee's Play House every Saturday morning, it's also exactly why I'll gladly take her advice about the egg. But Pee-Wee's not the only special guest at Miss Yuka's Inn.

It seems that after her little conversation with Niccolo and I, Daena headed for Domina and needed a place to stay for awhile. Find her in the guest room on the first floor, and she'll ask you if she should go see the boulder by the highway. There are a lot of reasons I can think of to say yes, not the least of which is that it, too, is Quaker Oats. I'd also like to apologize for Niccolo's behavior last time I met Daena, so I'll go with her to meet the boulder again.

The trip itself is much nicer this time around, because Daena's such a dainty mover, but then again, most cats are. And when she runs, either to keep up with me or in battle, she does it on all fours, much like the classic cat girl. There's really only one thing I can say about that, and unfortunately it's a Beavis and Butthead quote. And that goes double for the fact that Daena's a better fighter than Niccolo was, but that comes from her being a monk, I think.

But anyway, the boulder's got a name. He's called Gaeus the Earth, and he's one of the game's Seven Wisdoms. That's interesting. Maybe he'll have some good advice for us. Daena asks Gaeus how she can help a friend who's been possessed by a demon and is about to die from it. Gaeus tells her to just do whatever the friend has asked her to do. Sadly, Daena's friend has said that she's OK with what's going to happen and doesn't want any help, and Gaeus says that's what Daena should go with. With that, the quest is over, and Daena gives us something called the Forbidden Ring. Just the name of that is enough to make me think this whole demonic possession thing will be coming back to bite me later.

But since Daena went on her way, I might as well go back home to tell Lil' Cactus about the kitty girl and see if there's anything ready on the tree. There's stuff growing, but it's not ready yet, so I may as well go see if Pelican wants to say thank you for getting rid of the not-very-threatning jackolanterns that were keeping her from delivering the mail. No such luck, it would seem. Might as well go down to the field and see what's going on there. No pumpkins this time, but the onion kid is there, and he's going to show us how to use our barnyard. I suspect this is going to be an Adventures With Bill sort of thing here. Basically, the deal here is that we can find monster eggs in the course of our other adventures and can take them back to the barnyard to hatch the eggs and raise the monsters as pets to take on the road with us. The onion boy gives us some fruit to throw out for the egg, so I do that and let the egg have at it. After nomming the one piece of fruit I had out, the egg falls asleep so I go to pick it up. Soon as I do, Pelican comes along and horks it right out of my hands. If I didn't want to punch her in the face before, now I really do.

The onion kid says that Pelican has just taken the egg back to my barnyard, so maybe she's not so bad after all. So, we go there too, and the kid explains that I can have up to five pets, two in the barn itself and three in the yard associated therewith. The pet monsters can gain levels, too, either by being out in the yard or coming on adventures. The eggs or the pets can also be sold to Jennifer at the shop if you wind up with more than the limit of five. There's also some bit about the monsters' diets affecting their personality. There's some truth to that in real life, too, I think.

I was kind of expecting this mission to be like the orchard one, where I had to wait a few days for the egg to hatch for the mission to end, but since it ends when the onion boy is done explaining things, I'll call this a good place to end the issue. Maybe we'll get to see what's actually growing on that tree at my place next time. I know the fruit the onion kid game me was kind of strange, and the stuff growing on the tree doesn't look any less weird.

So, I guess I'll see you next time, in issue #03: Getting Fruity.