Seiken Densetsu 3 (Secret of Mana 2)(SNES, 1995)
Graphics-9 Sound-8 Control-7 Challenge-6.5 Story-6.5
Level Design-7 Frustration-7 Fun-7* Originality-6
Overall Score-7
*1-player
+
Pick your team before beginning (three different characters out of a roster of six)
Basic class changing system (can change twice per char using certain items, different classes have different abilities and stats)
3-player co-op (with a hack, otherwise 2)
Switch between party characters on the fly in 1-player mode
More character customization (character building via manual stat allocation upon level up (strength, agility=evade+agility magic, vitality=defense+vitality magic (Kevin only and only one spell), intelligence=magic attack+defense+offensive spell learning requirement, spirit=non-offensive/wisp spell efficiency, luck=critical hit chance+chest trap def), techs)
Impressive visual effects (spells, perspective effects during the intro and ending, day/night cycle, etc.)
Pretty good dialogue overall
Combo attacks (hold A then release and press B when you see an alternate attack animation - easier with Hawk and Kevin (and Angela?) supposedly since they hit more than once/have a longer animation but I found it near impossible due to the small sprites+party members getting in the way+quick animation+no other indication of when to do it)
Great art direction and animation overall (the movement animation in stairs is pretty choppy)
Day/night cycle (some interesting uses - getting out of the second town as Duran for example, can rest until midnight or -day at inns (after the first town) or use a special seed item to skip ahead)
Some world map teleporters (cannon system returns) - can also summon a giant sea turtle (Booskaboo) later on to travel between certain beach spots and even later on a dragon which can be ridden manually (Flammie returns)
Greatly decreased player knockback when hit in combat
Decent to pretty good bosses (tactically simplistic though)
Good replay value (different beginning stories/prologues for characters which interweave later on as well as a few unique moments per char later on, some teams talk more to each other during the game than in SoM)
One optional hidden boss
Nice cutscenes overall
You can tell if an enemy will cast a spell by looking at the knockback from your attack (no knockback=casting)
Somewhat improved NPC AI overall (they can still get confused near narrow passages and gather slowly when engaging with shopkeepers)
Larger inventory and added storage which can be accessed anywhere
Monsters can lose their initiative by you pressing A the moment battle starts
Somewhat comical tone
Can push NPCs out of the way and even push enemies (won't be damaged until they attack)
Unlimited running outside of battle
Large and detailed boss sprites
New one use items (buffs and debuffs/thrown weapons/elemental damage)
Week mechanic which affects elemental spell strength (gnome day/sunday=earth for example)
Can teleport out of dungeons with ropes as in the prequel
Some memorable locations (the ghost ship, Pedan - you can view some events from the past as mirages here like Duran's father going after the villain)
Different footstep sfx depending on the environment - Metal Gear 2
Fight one boss in the sky on flammie's back
Some interesting spells (aura wave - boost power bar/special attack stamina to max, rainbow dust - quadra-elemental attack, ff-style summons, enemy summon spells (six different ones) - however they appear and attack once instead of staying and fighting for you, revenge voice (enemy only) - turns into one of your chars)
+/-
Linear structure overall (opens up a bit after recruiting the first four spirits but you'll have to grind to be able to take the alternate path and then it becomes linear again, you're locked out of parts of various areas until later, opens up a lot when hunting the god-beasts)
Fairly frequent save points (three slots - Golden Axe Warrior) as well as HP/MP restoration points
No more stamina bar system (visual queue for when to strike instead - no sub 100% stamina strikes possible during battle so you can't pin enemies down and the queue halts your movement for a moment (though not every time)) - now there's about half a second delay between attacks instead
Holding A/attack triggers auto-attacking (not very efficient though)
Respawning enemies (move two sub areas/screens away)
No presentation text when picking characters (see manual)
Can't ask NPCs questions that might come up such as who the guy in the corner in Jada is
Pointless animation during battle which halts your movement (serves as the regular attack queue when your stamina refills but it can make it harder to dodge enemy attacks)
Instant/Chain-Casting trick (not as OP as in SoM though as you make two chars cast two different spells and just a chain of three is kinda tricky, can also be used to cast a single spell instantly)
Overpowered Poison Bubble/Aura Wave combo (Hawk as Wanderer class)
Only one status ailment at a time allowed (Mini cancels Moogle for example, same with elemental buffs on weapons)
Can't stack stat debuffs of the same kind
Still have to pause to use magic and items (only mildly annoying in multiplayer)
Attacking at the same time as a monster can cancel your attack (and not just because of dodge/evade)
Automated dodging (decided by Agility stat "dice roll")
Mashing the attack button (A) instead of waiting causes you to miss attacks
Very controlled use of the familiars to investigate things (such as the entrance to the dwarf village)
Rehashes some spells/items and enemies
Using a special attack while away from enemies won't deplete the special attack meter
A special attack can't be saved for the next screen/sub area (the meter resets)
Smaller punishment for losing a character during battle (gets resurrected with 1 HP after the current battle)
Gameplay pauses when spells and items are used
Status ailments wear off after clearing a room/area of enemies and so do buffs (kind of tedious to keep casting sabers for example)
Can plant certain seeds at inns for a random item in its category (kind of annoying system for getting class change items - have to go fight an enemy then save and reload normally to reset the random number that determines what you'll get (it's based on your current exp))
Missing with a special attack won't drain its charge meter here (manually/physically, not if the dice roll makes you miss)
Healing items can be wasted if you used right as a party member is taking a lethal hit
Can't revert a class change
Features mentions of slavery at one point
Can't level up your weapons and spells here (you gain new special attacks when class changing and new spells when leveling up or leveling up certain stats)
There are a few points where you use spirits to manipulate the environment which is kind of interesting but very underused and not very in-depth
It takes longer before you can start using spells here and depending on classes chosen you might have much fewer to use than in SoM or SoE
Temporary caps on stats depending on class chosen (so for example around lvl 20 as a Monk Kevin you can't increase your Agility beyond 11 until leveling up more)
Partial boss gauntlet in the final dungeon (tougher versions of the first four)
No level scaling - can grind to lower the challenge
Can't use invisibility/TransShape to skip enemies without a spellcaster char (no item with the same effect)
-
Various control/interface issues (sometimes there's a delay on going into the menu to use an item during combat, slow menus (cursor movement and transitions), can't pause or go into the main menu during combat (means you can't change the behaviour of your CPU-controlled allies during battle), can't run while in battle (also makes it harder to simply skip battles than in SoM/SoE), somewhat limited CPU ally AI (can't tell allies to back off completely nor set their aggression level like in SoM/SoE, can't see what you've previously set their behavior to in the menu), invincibility time is too short (easy to get pinned down by just a couple of enemies since there's no blocking or running in combat - bug fix patch helps though), spell casting is still quite slow unless a trick is used, shop interface could be more efficient (shops are split into armor and weapon shops (in SD1 there was even a CPU ally you chould buy from during parts of that game), buy one item at a time, can't sell equipped gear or choose to switch to a superior piece you just bought while also selling the previous one within the shop interface), if you start casting a spell and the battle ends then it's canceled, have to memorize who you put what stat/elemental buff on since there's no indication until it wears off and a short message is displayed - status ailments are displayed clearly so why not these?, hard to tell who hit the enemy since the damage indicators are the same color (should've been different colored or positioned so that one could easier be able to tell players' actions apart), some boss attacks pause the action completely even though they only hit one character and so do later special attacks by the party - breaks flow, a minor delay before chests appear after combat means you have to wait for ~2 seconds after each one just in case, Kevin goes back and forth between human and wolf form between each battle in hostile areas (means there's a minor pause where you lose control each time a battle starts and ends if you play as him), )
Some grinding for seeds/class changing/the best gear (you're ~lvl 11 when you first encounter a mana stone - need lvl 18, for the best gear in the elven town and onwards pretty much - gets a bit silly towards the end of the game but you can also find equal or better gear at this point via armor/weapon seeds while grinding)
Can't avoid enemy magic attacks or special attacks except for some lvl 1 specials (when the enemy flashes white) - can't go into the menu to use a healing item or spell to block them like in SoE
Duran's prologue story is kind of generic (most soldiers in the beginning castle say the same thing, leaves early morning when the family is sleeping to prove himself as a warrior but is stopped at the door to receive his father's sword, acts like he's about 12 years old while he looks like a young adult) and the climax rips off Star Wars (surprising but not that impactful since we barely knew anything about him)
Plenty of dead space in some segments and several dead end rooms in each dungeon/hostile area
Some backtracking (to Byzel to buy one use items at the black market and to other towns to stock up on regular items (during the late game a couple of cats follow you around and provide gear shops but not item shops), the rolante hideout cannon disappears after the rolante castle siege, can't use the rope in hostile areas like the snow/desert/night forest areas - only dungeons)
Some trial & error (moonreading tower is basically a maze with a bunch of dead ends, no in-game info on the classes when changing (manual or guide?), odd day and time units in the menu, have to check the save statue in the cleft of the earth cave to trigger a conversation about where the dwarves are - can't just go into the menu and ask one of the spirits, some battle mechanics, calendar), fairly non-interactive environments (especially in towns - disappointing when there's a lot of stuff there that you can't examine), bosses sometimes (rarely) counterattack with full screen techs or other specials more than once in a row and sometimes enemies use spells/techs twice in a row (triggered by level 2/3 tech or low HP and you can't heal between them)
Gets a bit repetitive at times (god-beast hunt segment for example - this might've been more interesting if you had to track them and they moved around in the area (or the areas had more puzzles or the fights had more tactical depth)
Dungeons are very simple overall (no pits or other hazards to avoid/push enemies into, some exceptions are the corridor of wind which has some minor switch puzzles and the ghost ship which has a minor code puzzle - SD1 had plenty of interesting puzzles in comparison))
Treasure traps (avoiding depends mainly on the luck stat (the agility stat also slows the wheel down?), can't dodge them manually after the wheel nor with agility rolls so leave this to Hawk or Carlie (or Angela if you don't have them))
No point in walking anywhere? - can't sneak past sleeping enemies
Unskippable staff roll after each prologue
Some points of no return (barrels in front of/south of Jada after exiting it and going to the next town, Rolante castle after the siege and the Rolante hideout around the same time)
Some unskippable cutscenes (sword of mana lore, fairies traveling, ship travel, etc.)
No dungeon/hostile area maps (not needed that often though)
Battle message bar obscures the view a bit at times
Some ludonarrative dissonance and plot oddities (logically you should be able to land in or next to any unvisited towns with Flammie since he can pick you up while in towns (to go to the mirage palace earlier for example but on the other hand it would skip a bunch of gameplay if you could), beast man invasion in Astoria took about one minute?, beast men pushing the party off a cliff, the party doesn't react to the crystal in the east section of Rolante castle during the siege, can use the fairy to move across a pit in the waterfall cave but not in the next one, upbeat/adventurous music starts playing right after talking to king Richard about the next mana stone (wind) while dying or dead soldiers are lying around next to you, the resistance movement on the path to the heavens trusts the party right away, the villains not being attackable in scenes involving them until the end-game and letting the party live as well), at times hard to make out important parts of the background (some dungeon passages such as the mana holy land passage near the class changing statue and some cave passages)
Some enemies and bosses inflict Silence before you learn any spells
No difficulty options or second quest
Somewhat rushed introduction of Flammie here
Cheap "kill all" attack by some enemies (the wolves in Moonreading tower and the ninjas in glass desert, dark lords' eruption sword and death roulette (kills one member but if you face three of eyeballs it can be deadly)
Most of the god-beast fights are a bit drawn out (quicker but more intense fights would've been more fun)
Fairly shallow story which is mostly a retelling of the prequel's and not much lore in-game
Can find gear via armor/weapon seeds that you can't wear due to being the wrong class (can at least sell it for good money)
No barrel item?
Bugs (mostly fixed by Praetarius's bug fix hack & a 3-player hack):
-Tech LV2/3 don’t take Sabers into account damage-wise (not fixed yet)
-Sometimes an attack that KO's a party member leaves them temporarily at 1 HP for a brief moment and if you use a healing item on them at this point it is wasted (not fixed yet)
-Sometimes you can perform a special attack twice in a row (not fixed yet)
-The battle system can mistakenly think the battle in the current room/screen is over (canceling your attack and canceling or locking the power gauge)(not fixed yet)
-The game lags when reducing displayed MP after spellcasting (not fixed yet)
-The hit and dodge rate stats do nothing as the game doesn't check them when determining whether or not attacks hit (makes the Agility/Dexterity stat, the Speed Up Spell, anything that inflicts Speed Down, and shields worthless)
-The critical rate stat is not used properly (meaning the Luck stat is nearly worthless and the Aura Ball spell does nothing)
-Cut content: the 3-player mode exists, but is dummied out. It can be re-enabled with a hack or probably even a game genie code. It was probably removed due to a bug during a certain point in the game where some characters leave your party.
-Accessories originally had special effects and they forgot to remove a few of them. For example, the Cobra Earrings make you immune to poison.
-Wolf bonus stacking abuse (not sure how it works)
-HP overflow can heal enemies with 65k+ HP (not sure how it works)
-Blaze Wall and Flame Breath remove status ailments from the target
-"It'd have to be rebalanced if everything worked properly. Some bosses, like Bill and Ben, would probably become ludicrously hard if Hit rate actually mattered. If you couldn't hit them well (particularly since they use Shuriken which does hit rate down), they'd probably be impossible. Also, high Dex Hawk with Shuriken might similarly be nearly invincible."
Notes:
-Beat it as Duran (first pick), Hawk and Kevin (Swordmaster, Warrior Monk, Ninja Master)
Level Design-7 Frustration-7 Fun-7* Originality-6
Overall Score-7
*1-player
+
Pick your team before beginning (three different characters out of a roster of six)
Basic class changing system (can change twice per char using certain items, different classes have different abilities and stats)
3-player co-op (with a hack, otherwise 2)
Switch between party characters on the fly in 1-player mode
More character customization (character building via manual stat allocation upon level up (strength, agility=evade+agility magic, vitality=defense+vitality magic (Kevin only and only one spell), intelligence=magic attack+defense+offensive spell learning requirement, spirit=non-offensive/wisp spell efficiency, luck=critical hit chance+chest trap def), techs)
Impressive visual effects (spells, perspective effects during the intro and ending, day/night cycle, etc.)
Pretty good dialogue overall
Combo attacks (hold A then release and press B when you see an alternate attack animation - easier with Hawk and Kevin (and Angela?) supposedly since they hit more than once/have a longer animation but I found it near impossible due to the small sprites+party members getting in the way+quick animation+no other indication of when to do it)
Great art direction and animation overall (the movement animation in stairs is pretty choppy)
Day/night cycle (some interesting uses - getting out of the second town as Duran for example, can rest until midnight or -day at inns (after the first town) or use a special seed item to skip ahead)
Some world map teleporters (cannon system returns) - can also summon a giant sea turtle (Booskaboo) later on to travel between certain beach spots and even later on a dragon which can be ridden manually (Flammie returns)
Greatly decreased player knockback when hit in combat
Decent to pretty good bosses (tactically simplistic though)
Good replay value (different beginning stories/prologues for characters which interweave later on as well as a few unique moments per char later on, some teams talk more to each other during the game than in SoM)
One optional hidden boss
Nice cutscenes overall
You can tell if an enemy will cast a spell by looking at the knockback from your attack (no knockback=casting)
Somewhat improved NPC AI overall (they can still get confused near narrow passages and gather slowly when engaging with shopkeepers)
Larger inventory and added storage which can be accessed anywhere
Monsters can lose their initiative by you pressing A the moment battle starts
Somewhat comical tone
Can push NPCs out of the way and even push enemies (won't be damaged until they attack)
Unlimited running outside of battle
Large and detailed boss sprites
New one use items (buffs and debuffs/thrown weapons/elemental damage)
Week mechanic which affects elemental spell strength (gnome day/sunday=earth for example)
Can teleport out of dungeons with ropes as in the prequel
Some memorable locations (the ghost ship, Pedan - you can view some events from the past as mirages here like Duran's father going after the villain)
Different footstep sfx depending on the environment - Metal Gear 2
Fight one boss in the sky on flammie's back
Some interesting spells (aura wave - boost power bar/special attack stamina to max, rainbow dust - quadra-elemental attack, ff-style summons, enemy summon spells (six different ones) - however they appear and attack once instead of staying and fighting for you, revenge voice (enemy only) - turns into one of your chars)
+/-
Linear structure overall (opens up a bit after recruiting the first four spirits but you'll have to grind to be able to take the alternate path and then it becomes linear again, you're locked out of parts of various areas until later, opens up a lot when hunting the god-beasts)
Fairly frequent save points (three slots - Golden Axe Warrior) as well as HP/MP restoration points
No more stamina bar system (visual queue for when to strike instead - no sub 100% stamina strikes possible during battle so you can't pin enemies down and the queue halts your movement for a moment (though not every time)) - now there's about half a second delay between attacks instead
Holding A/attack triggers auto-attacking (not very efficient though)
Respawning enemies (move two sub areas/screens away)
No presentation text when picking characters (see manual)
Can't ask NPCs questions that might come up such as who the guy in the corner in Jada is
Pointless animation during battle which halts your movement (serves as the regular attack queue when your stamina refills but it can make it harder to dodge enemy attacks)
Instant/Chain-Casting trick (not as OP as in SoM though as you make two chars cast two different spells and just a chain of three is kinda tricky, can also be used to cast a single spell instantly)
Overpowered Poison Bubble/Aura Wave combo (Hawk as Wanderer class)
Only one status ailment at a time allowed (Mini cancels Moogle for example, same with elemental buffs on weapons)
Can't stack stat debuffs of the same kind
Still have to pause to use magic and items (only mildly annoying in multiplayer)
Attacking at the same time as a monster can cancel your attack (and not just because of dodge/evade)
Automated dodging (decided by Agility stat "dice roll")
Mashing the attack button (A) instead of waiting causes you to miss attacks
Very controlled use of the familiars to investigate things (such as the entrance to the dwarf village)
Rehashes some spells/items and enemies
Using a special attack while away from enemies won't deplete the special attack meter
A special attack can't be saved for the next screen/sub area (the meter resets)
Smaller punishment for losing a character during battle (gets resurrected with 1 HP after the current battle)
Gameplay pauses when spells and items are used
Status ailments wear off after clearing a room/area of enemies and so do buffs (kind of tedious to keep casting sabers for example)
Can plant certain seeds at inns for a random item in its category (kind of annoying system for getting class change items - have to go fight an enemy then save and reload normally to reset the random number that determines what you'll get (it's based on your current exp))
Missing with a special attack won't drain its charge meter here (manually/physically, not if the dice roll makes you miss)
Healing items can be wasted if you used right as a party member is taking a lethal hit
Can't revert a class change
Features mentions of slavery at one point
Can't level up your weapons and spells here (you gain new special attacks when class changing and new spells when leveling up or leveling up certain stats)
There are a few points where you use spirits to manipulate the environment which is kind of interesting but very underused and not very in-depth
It takes longer before you can start using spells here and depending on classes chosen you might have much fewer to use than in SoM or SoE
Temporary caps on stats depending on class chosen (so for example around lvl 20 as a Monk Kevin you can't increase your Agility beyond 11 until leveling up more)
Partial boss gauntlet in the final dungeon (tougher versions of the first four)
No level scaling - can grind to lower the challenge
Can't use invisibility/TransShape to skip enemies without a spellcaster char (no item with the same effect)
-
Various control/interface issues (sometimes there's a delay on going into the menu to use an item during combat, slow menus (cursor movement and transitions), can't pause or go into the main menu during combat (means you can't change the behaviour of your CPU-controlled allies during battle), can't run while in battle (also makes it harder to simply skip battles than in SoM/SoE), somewhat limited CPU ally AI (can't tell allies to back off completely nor set their aggression level like in SoM/SoE, can't see what you've previously set their behavior to in the menu), invincibility time is too short (easy to get pinned down by just a couple of enemies since there's no blocking or running in combat - bug fix patch helps though), spell casting is still quite slow unless a trick is used, shop interface could be more efficient (shops are split into armor and weapon shops (in SD1 there was even a CPU ally you chould buy from during parts of that game), buy one item at a time, can't sell equipped gear or choose to switch to a superior piece you just bought while also selling the previous one within the shop interface), if you start casting a spell and the battle ends then it's canceled, have to memorize who you put what stat/elemental buff on since there's no indication until it wears off and a short message is displayed - status ailments are displayed clearly so why not these?, hard to tell who hit the enemy since the damage indicators are the same color (should've been different colored or positioned so that one could easier be able to tell players' actions apart), some boss attacks pause the action completely even though they only hit one character and so do later special attacks by the party - breaks flow, a minor delay before chests appear after combat means you have to wait for ~2 seconds after each one just in case, Kevin goes back and forth between human and wolf form between each battle in hostile areas (means there's a minor pause where you lose control each time a battle starts and ends if you play as him), )
Some grinding for seeds/class changing/the best gear (you're ~lvl 11 when you first encounter a mana stone - need lvl 18, for the best gear in the elven town and onwards pretty much - gets a bit silly towards the end of the game but you can also find equal or better gear at this point via armor/weapon seeds while grinding)
Can't avoid enemy magic attacks or special attacks except for some lvl 1 specials (when the enemy flashes white) - can't go into the menu to use a healing item or spell to block them like in SoE
Duran's prologue story is kind of generic (most soldiers in the beginning castle say the same thing, leaves early morning when the family is sleeping to prove himself as a warrior but is stopped at the door to receive his father's sword, acts like he's about 12 years old while he looks like a young adult) and the climax rips off Star Wars (surprising but not that impactful since we barely knew anything about him)
Plenty of dead space in some segments and several dead end rooms in each dungeon/hostile area
Some backtracking (to Byzel to buy one use items at the black market and to other towns to stock up on regular items (during the late game a couple of cats follow you around and provide gear shops but not item shops), the rolante hideout cannon disappears after the rolante castle siege, can't use the rope in hostile areas like the snow/desert/night forest areas - only dungeons)
Some trial & error (moonreading tower is basically a maze with a bunch of dead ends, no in-game info on the classes when changing (manual or guide?), odd day and time units in the menu, have to check the save statue in the cleft of the earth cave to trigger a conversation about where the dwarves are - can't just go into the menu and ask one of the spirits, some battle mechanics, calendar), fairly non-interactive environments (especially in towns - disappointing when there's a lot of stuff there that you can't examine), bosses sometimes (rarely) counterattack with full screen techs or other specials more than once in a row and sometimes enemies use spells/techs twice in a row (triggered by level 2/3 tech or low HP and you can't heal between them)
Gets a bit repetitive at times (god-beast hunt segment for example - this might've been more interesting if you had to track them and they moved around in the area (or the areas had more puzzles or the fights had more tactical depth)
Dungeons are very simple overall (no pits or other hazards to avoid/push enemies into, some exceptions are the corridor of wind which has some minor switch puzzles and the ghost ship which has a minor code puzzle - SD1 had plenty of interesting puzzles in comparison))
Treasure traps (avoiding depends mainly on the luck stat (the agility stat also slows the wheel down?), can't dodge them manually after the wheel nor with agility rolls so leave this to Hawk or Carlie (or Angela if you don't have them))
No point in walking anywhere? - can't sneak past sleeping enemies
Unskippable staff roll after each prologue
Some points of no return (barrels in front of/south of Jada after exiting it and going to the next town, Rolante castle after the siege and the Rolante hideout around the same time)
Some unskippable cutscenes (sword of mana lore, fairies traveling, ship travel, etc.)
No dungeon/hostile area maps (not needed that often though)
Battle message bar obscures the view a bit at times
Some ludonarrative dissonance and plot oddities (logically you should be able to land in or next to any unvisited towns with Flammie since he can pick you up while in towns (to go to the mirage palace earlier for example but on the other hand it would skip a bunch of gameplay if you could), beast man invasion in Astoria took about one minute?, beast men pushing the party off a cliff, the party doesn't react to the crystal in the east section of Rolante castle during the siege, can use the fairy to move across a pit in the waterfall cave but not in the next one, upbeat/adventurous music starts playing right after talking to king Richard about the next mana stone (wind) while dying or dead soldiers are lying around next to you, the resistance movement on the path to the heavens trusts the party right away, the villains not being attackable in scenes involving them until the end-game and letting the party live as well), at times hard to make out important parts of the background (some dungeon passages such as the mana holy land passage near the class changing statue and some cave passages)
Some enemies and bosses inflict Silence before you learn any spells
No difficulty options or second quest
Somewhat rushed introduction of Flammie here
Cheap "kill all" attack by some enemies (the wolves in Moonreading tower and the ninjas in glass desert, dark lords' eruption sword and death roulette (kills one member but if you face three of eyeballs it can be deadly)
Most of the god-beast fights are a bit drawn out (quicker but more intense fights would've been more fun)
Fairly shallow story which is mostly a retelling of the prequel's and not much lore in-game
Can find gear via armor/weapon seeds that you can't wear due to being the wrong class (can at least sell it for good money)
No barrel item?
Bugs (mostly fixed by Praetarius's bug fix hack & a 3-player hack):
-Tech LV2/3 don’t take Sabers into account damage-wise (not fixed yet)
-Sometimes an attack that KO's a party member leaves them temporarily at 1 HP for a brief moment and if you use a healing item on them at this point it is wasted (not fixed yet)
-Sometimes you can perform a special attack twice in a row (not fixed yet)
-The battle system can mistakenly think the battle in the current room/screen is over (canceling your attack and canceling or locking the power gauge)(not fixed yet)
-The game lags when reducing displayed MP after spellcasting (not fixed yet)
-The hit and dodge rate stats do nothing as the game doesn't check them when determining whether or not attacks hit (makes the Agility/Dexterity stat, the Speed Up Spell, anything that inflicts Speed Down, and shields worthless)
-The critical rate stat is not used properly (meaning the Luck stat is nearly worthless and the Aura Ball spell does nothing)
-Cut content: the 3-player mode exists, but is dummied out. It can be re-enabled with a hack or probably even a game genie code. It was probably removed due to a bug during a certain point in the game where some characters leave your party.
-Accessories originally had special effects and they forgot to remove a few of them. For example, the Cobra Earrings make you immune to poison.
-Wolf bonus stacking abuse (not sure how it works)
-HP overflow can heal enemies with 65k+ HP (not sure how it works)
-Blaze Wall and Flame Breath remove status ailments from the target
-"It'd have to be rebalanced if everything worked properly. Some bosses, like Bill and Ben, would probably become ludicrously hard if Hit rate actually mattered. If you couldn't hit them well (particularly since they use Shuriken which does hit rate down), they'd probably be impossible. Also, high Dex Hawk with Shuriken might similarly be nearly invincible."
Notes:
-Beat it as Duran (first pick), Hawk and Kevin (Swordmaster, Warrior Monk, Ninja Master)