Starting this weekend, I I have guests in town. In order to make their vacation more pleasant, I have put my PlayStation 4 in their room so that they have access to the streaming channels of their choice. This has pulled me away from finishing up SpiritFarer. That's fine. Emotional moments aside, this game is boring as hell, so putting it on pause isn't much of an issue. But it has left me looking for something else to play during those quiet moments to myself.

I've opted to play Sword of Mana, the GBA remake of Final Fantasy adventure which was the first in the Mana series. The spirit in which that game was made is really something special. The remake enhanced the story as you would expect, but it also included familiar characters, enemies, themes, and the graphic style from the later games in the series. So basically the series came full circle back to the origin with all of the other things that enhanced it over the years.

Unfortunately, the execution did not meet the spirit. Those damn ring menus do way too much to bring an action game to a halt. I don't really see any scenario where it happens, but I would like to see this game get a Trials of Mana style remake to add in all the quality of life features.