For those of you who have the misfortune of not playing this game, I HIGHLY recommend you check this out, especially if you enjoy Secret of Mana or JRPGs in general. Originally released only in Japan but fan-translated into English, Seiken Densetsu 3 (unofficially dubbed Secret of Mana 2) is the sequel to the SNES classic Secret of Mana. It borrows many of the same elements and has a similar art style, not to mention some pretty kickass music and high replayability.
In the beginning, you're presented with six characters, of which you pick a main character and two partners. Those characters are (from left to right in the above picture):
- Kevin - a half-beast guy who wants to revive his lost friend Karl. Turns into a werewolf during the night, in which he is the strongest. High HP.
- Angela - Altena's princess; escapes from home because her mother was going to sacrifice her to open the Mana Holyland. Low strength but strongest magic.
- Duran - a mercenary from Forcena who fights for revenge against a sorcerer who invaded his homeland. Strong physically but slow.
- Carlie - a half-fairy girl from Wendel. She is looking for Heath, who took care of her because her parents died. Abysmal strength, but the best healer (plus she's got that cuteness factor
). - Hawk - a thief who runs from his guild after being framed for murdering his best friend Eagle. Seeks the Mana Sword to break a curse on his other friend Jessica. Fast and attacks twice, but a bit weak in the strength department.
- Lise - an Amazoness from the Wind Kingdom Rolante; searching for her brother after he is kidnapped and her kingdom overthrown. Balanced stats.
Except for Carlie, all characters have the same beginning goal: go to Wendel and talk to the Priest of Light, who tells them about the Mana Sword. Some characters' stories interconnect; Forcena is invaded by Altena (Duran and Angela's kingdoms, respectively). Hawk's guild Navarre overthrows Rolante, Lise's kingdom. Kevin and Carlie are both 15 and have bad experiences with the same antagonist.
Any characters you don't pick are scattered around the world and you might bump into them sometime, which creates a lot of depth. Personally my favorite team is Duran/Hawk, Kevin, and Angela; Duran and Kevin can double as healers later in the game, Hawk can become a badass ninja, and Angela wrecks house with her magic.
Twice during the game you'll get the opportunity to class change your characters. It's basically a Light/Dark split, Light has a focus on healing your team and increasing their stats whereas Dark is more for damaging and lowering opponents' stats. Go check out a walkthrough for more details (if I can recommend one, I'd go for Loopy's on Gamefaqs; if I can't, let me know and I'll take this out)
