Egglia or Legend of Mana?

All other video games not related to the main farming series - Pokemon, Stardew Valley, My Time at Portia, and other indie-developed games.
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Kikki
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Okay guys, I need more information to make a decision. I have both Legend of Mana and Egglia Rebirth on my wishlist, but I don't know which I should get because I'm not sure what the difference is.

I know that one of the main guys on the dev team is the same, though they're made by different companies. Egglia came later and was based on Mana, afaik. Egglia Rebirth is basically a port of the mobile game, Egglia: Legend of the Redcap, I think? Remade a little to be more suitable for console, but still with clear mobile-gaming influence, particularly in the form of some cool-downs or timers stuck into the gameplay. And Legend of Mana is an enhanced or remastered port, right, of a much older console game. (No timers.)

I like the graphics of Egglia better, but it's not a huge difference...the character sprites are much smoother in Egglia than in Mana, though...in Mana they're very grainy/pixelly, which bugs me. They're both terribly charming overall, though, and I can't tell which game's gameplay would be better (for me). How similar is the gameplay and the story? I doubt I'd want both, they seem VERY similar. Anyone know just how similiar? Got any information about what one game does better than the other?

Thanks for any input!
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Bluie
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They both have vastly different gameplay styles outside of the world placing mechanic and grinding for materials.

Legend of Mana is an action JRPG with an open end story. You place artifacts on the world map that create new towns and dungeons where various plot threads of many stories can be picked up or ignored. Most of these will require some dungeon crawling or interacting with specifc NPCs to advance said plots and you'll usually get another artifact as a reward. There are four main arcs that are the big stories of the game, but you don't even need to complete any of them to actually finish the game. Legend of Mana has a very odd structure with it's story telling that may require a guide at points because one wrong dialog choice can lock you out of a story or, for example, picking a patch of world at the beginning of the game with no water in it will exclude you from placing and water related artifacts down on your world map. Not to mention that your home base has all the fixings for upgrading your magic and weapons that you'll need to progress, but you need to finish specific side plots to even unlock them. I love this game, I really do, but it can be frustrating when you're trying to follow one of the main arcs and you accidentally screw yourself over, leaving you to reload an old save or wait until your next new game+.

Egglia on the other hand is completely linear. Everything unlocks as you progress the story and as far as I know, there's no missables. Dungeon crawling is now a grid based fare where you roll a dice and move accordingly. The main frustrations with this game is it still hold onto it's waiting and gacha mechanics when it really has no reason to. Having to wait real time instead of dungeon diving a few times for your resources to grow is stupid and only exists to artificially pad the game. Also, Egglia is a lot more grindy that Legend of Mana in the sense that dungeon drops can be unexpectantly stingy when you need them to progress the story or a villager's request. I ended up dropping the game because the demand to continually redo dungeons to stop my progress really got on my nerves.

Bottom line: Legend of Mana is a JRPG with a brilliant, lovingly crafted story with a confusing and frustrating progression system while Egglia is a more laid back faire bogged down by grindy and unneeded mechanics.

I'd personally say Legend of Mana because there is a lot there to enjoy, even with it's frustrations. I played the game a few times blind and still enjoyed myself (and also managed to complete two arcs blind while having to look up guides for the others). Once you're in NG+, every new playthrough is faster than the last as you retain all your levels, party monsters, and equipment. You can even turn off battle encounters (minus bosses) in the remaster so progress can be even faster. Egglia might me better if you're looking for something to pick at, but it didn't jive well with me who wanted to just keep going with the story but had continual road blocks of 'I need X amount of wood from a specific dungeon you'll need to run 5 times to get!'.
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Kikki
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HMM. It sounds like Egglia might be easier for me to play right now, when long sessions are a no-go anyway and my brain is too frazzled for much thinking, so a linear story with no missables is probably better. Timers would normally be enraging in a console game, but as I am, they may actually work for me.

Probably Legend of Mana has the better story and gameplay in the long run, but in the short term, Egglia seems like the more suitable option. I think. I should probably look up a brief gameplay video or something for that last bit of input I still feel like I need.

Thanks, Bluie!

EDIT: Okay, now have and am playing Egglia, and it's adorable. Chabo in particular! (That's the default name provided for the little red cap, at least in my game...no idea if the default name is completely random or if it's always Chabo. I chose not to change it. Town name is simply Fantasia, because The Neverending Story was my favourite movie for all of my childhood.) The way Chabo nods his affirmation is darling. SO is the way his big pointy elvish ears wiggle a little as he stands there.

No trouble with timers yet, but it is the first hour. Now that I have Egglia, I just have to do a bit more research on Legend of Mana to know if I want it too, or not. But not yet; I'm not up to putting in much time planning out any strategies or remembering too much.
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Kikki
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Okay, one or two people are interested in Egglia x Legend of Mana, so I have a little more feedback on Egglia now, in addition to what Bluie says.

I don't really mind the timers. Some of them can be sped up with inventory items, but because life is so wildly hectic right now, I don't mind them anyway. BUT the material grinding can become 'ugh' even when you have no timers holding you back. The thing is...Egglia seems to have very little info on the internet. I was hoping to figure out which area has the MOST conifer logs. THe original area should since only two types are available there, but no...you barely get any, and instead it's all the study logs or whatever those ones are called. Another area I've put down has conifer logs but it's more difficult of a run, and it's not a LOT more. Dunno if any future areas will have more conifer logs to offer or not since that information doesn't seem to be on the internet anywhere.

Legend of Mana has plenty of info, if you care to look it up. So if you would want to be able to easily get answers to things you don't know about the game, then Egglia isn't a good choice. I found a wiki for it...but none of the pages have any information on them, lol...so it's just the frame of a wiki with almost no content. If you don't like to look info up when you get stuck anyway, then that's not an issue. :)
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simside
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Thanks Kikki (and Bluie!)! I was thinking of playing either Secret or Legend of Mana on a trip this summer. I have Secret on a compilation, but Legend was more intriguing. I don't think I've ever tried Legend (if I did it was forever ago), but it sounds kinda intense, and I suspect I won't have as much time to sit with a guide as I'll want to.

Egglia sounds interesting, though. I tend to prefer more linear gameplay, especially if there isn't a lot of documentation online. It might work better on my trip, since there's nothing to look up anyway, and it sounds like it might be better for short sessions, which I'll probably need.
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Bluie
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Just gonna slip back in here quick because I remembered something. Egglia does have a small alternative to continually dungeon diving for more materials. You'll eventually get a shopkeeper that sells anything you've collected at least once, but it is rather expensive. They'll offer discounts and more payout for specific items too.

Also, I somehow completely forgot about it, but Legend of Mana is getting an anime adaption this year: https://www.gematsu.com/2022/04/legend- ... key-visual

It'll be following the Jumi arc which is arguably the best of the four (and is also the easiest to achieve in-game).
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Kikki
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Yeah, I've been buying all my conifer logs since they moved into town :) Costs 2880G to get enough to make a new house, but SO much less bother! I have PLENTY of other types of logs but I can never get enough conifer; maybe because EVERY new home build requires 12 so far, and two or three shop renos, as well.

I found a site that lists all of the map links that give you access to extra materials, too, so I won't waste any more eggshells after this, having to change map segment places. (I have to move most of the ones I already have down, though!)
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