It’s a great port, but $22 is a bit much
Legend of Mana is the fourth entry in Square Enix’s popular RPG series, originally released on the PS1 in 1999. Well, Square has been busy making a slew of remasters, with many that are already available on the Play Store, but Legend of Mana was one of the holdouts. The game landed on consoles and PC this past June, so it’s something of a recent release, and it was known it would come to mobile at some point, and that point is today. That’s right; Square Enix has finally launched its Legend of Mana HD remaster on Android and iOS.
The above gameplay launch trailer is from June, published during the console and PC launch, which should provide a quick glimpse of what to expect from Legend of Mana on Android. As you can see, the pixel graphics still look superb, something this series is known for. The action RPG gameplay remains the same and offers similar combat to previous 2D Mana titles. Hacking and slashing is the name of the game, much like a classic Zelda title. What’s unique about this release is that there is no set journey, so unlike previous Mana titles, you get to choose how the world evolves, which indeed impacts how your journey unfolds.
Legend of Mana is a premium release, and it’s pricey at $21.99, though this is $8 cheaper than the Steam and Nintendo Switch versions. Even though the start screen fits the entire landscape length of my phone, the gameplay is pillarboxed, seemingly because Square decided to code this remaster entirely in 16:9 instead of thinking forward about how this ratio will look on mobile screens. What is surprising is that this mobile port offers full controller support out of the box, and since this is a game that also offers second-player controls, there’s even support for a second controller. Best of all, you can easily map your buttons in the game’s settings for both controllers. While the touch controls are serviceable, with a solid selection of customization options, Legend of Mana is an action game, and it’s a challenging one, so I would definitely recommend playing with a controller if you have one.
So for once, Square Enix has actually released a capable remaster on Android. Seeing that many of its mobile ports exclude controller support, it’s great to see that Legend of Mana wasn’t purposefully hobbled. Sure, the price is high, and there’s no telling how long Square will support this mobile release (the company has a horrible track record in this area), but at least the port works as one would expect of a $22 game. So if you’d like to jump into this remastered PS1-era action RPG from Square Enix, you can finally do so on mobile.
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