My opinion: Best console RPG ever, stands the test of time even in the next NEXT generation
1. Story - This is the number one issue many people have with this game. While SoM and Seiken Densetsu 3 were completely story-driven and full of character development. In this installment, your protagonist is silently and barely nods his/her head throughout the course of the game. This is to give you more feeling of control and attachment to your character, as if the character is an extension of you. Does it work? For me, absolutely! For others, probably not.
This does not mean that the story is uninteresting. It's more than one story. It's more than a legend. The game is about you defining your character's Legend of Mana. Literally, you're going out there and doing deeds that will make you a legend. Not just one song will be sung about you. Indeed, the final boss and strings of quests have nothing to do with the first 3/4 of the game. The game is mostly rescuing people, fighting giant monsters, saving villages, adopting magic-using orphans, performing menial but important tasks, and proving yourself as a hunter/bounty hunter.
Gradually you get the sense that, this isn't the story of You defeating so and so to save the world from la-dee-da. Oh sure, there's a bit of that at the end, but this is the story of YOU, and everything you do that prepares you for your ultimate destiny.
So yeah, it's a little different story-wise, but the creators were trying something new, and in my opinion, it worked.
Sound/Music - Sound effects don't go far beyond Secret of Mana for the most part, but the music is the best music you'll hear in a console RPG. Seriously. If you hate the game, get a torrent downloader at least and download the soundtrack off of www.isohunt.com at the very least, because some of this music is so beautiful or powerful that it can make anything feel epic or moving.
Gameplay - The biggest difference in gameplay is the combat system. Everything is more than a little bit different from the older installments, but the most noticeable is that combat has a different feel. In the other games, nothing changed when you ran into a monster except that you whipped out your sword. In LoM you whip out your weapon, the magic system is enabled, your health bar is activated, and the AI is all turned on very systematically. Beyond that, it just feels different. The movement has changed, and there's no ring menu. Ring menus only appear when doing things at home, like working with making an item, training a pet, or reading the in-game encyclopedia.
Is the combat system an improvement? Certainly. Although I miss being able to charge my weapon 8 bars full like in SoM, you gain special skills with each weapon you can assign to L1, L2, R1, and R2, along with any spells you want. Depending on what weapn you use when you level up, your stats level up a certain way. Use a Staff if you want high magic, and use a 2h Sword if you want high power, for example.
To gain these abilties you have to take the time to learn combat abilities that aren't necessarily damage inflicting. These come in the dozens, like sit, evade, lunge, counterattack, moonsault, double jump, shove, and the list goes WAY on. Depending on which of these you know, you may learn certain weapon skills, or other related nonweapon skills. For example, jump and roll lead to somersault or something like that.
The Artifact Placement system allows you to "design" the world. I haven't noticed a massive difference in the quests available based on placement, but the most notable difference is that placing dungeons close to home makes the monsters in that dungeon less powerful and lower leveled. So, the further from home you place a dungeon, the harder it will be.
There are also customization options. You can build a golem from weapons and armor, you can farm in your orchard to produce food for your pets, you can find eggs in the wild and bring them back to your nursery, hatch them and train the monster to be your companion (allowed to train multiple monsters), you can forge weapons, armor, and instruments (needed for magic), and temper the weapons to make them more powerful. Depending on which fruits you feed your pet, they will increase in their stats a certain way. Individual character customization is limited to choosing the gender, name, and main weapon at start-up, followed by which spells and abilities you use/learn.
The game doesn't wear out its welcome very easily to those looking for a great time. While LoM isn't an RPG the same way SoM is, it's something much more in its own way. LoM did for the PS1 what SoM did for the SNES. It brings an innovative game with a refreshing system of gameplay, aesthetically pleasing but not fancy graphics, and interesting controls to a system that thought it had seen it all. LoM is almost perfect in every way.
Controls - The controls are solid. No complaint here. I've never heard a complaint about the controls, beyond mindless complaints about the ring system's absence.
Difficulty - Depends on how you play the game. The Artifact Placement system allows you to start out easy and get harder as you go, or start out much more challenging. Once you complete the game, there are new was to play at a greater difficulty.
So in summary, don't believe what the fanboys tell you about this game. It's amazing. It's also amazingly different. If you can't take it with a pinch of salt, then get out of here and stop criticizing a game that so many consider a masterpiece, and some even call the best in the series. Yes, we get it; you liked Secret of Mana! I did too! But I can move on. The world has changed. Wha'ts BS is that the Heroes of Mana and Children of Mana games both received below a 6 by gamespot, but both received an 8/10 by IGN. Why? Because IGN knows how to accept something for what it is. Gamesport just said "This is what we think the game should be, and isn't". Every game in the mana series is a different type of game, borderlining on genre switching at times, and if you can't accept that not every installment is the same, then quit buying the games already. It's not always about being revolutionary, but it is always about trying something new. if you had any doubts, look at Heroes of Mana. Completely detached from the RPG feel of the other games, it's an RTS. IGN noted, the first REAL and simple RTS for the DS, and prove that it's possible and relatively simple. Yeah, the pathfinding was a little rough, but you gotta take the wins with the losses. And yeah, CoM is a dungeon crawler, but as IGN says, it's a GOOD dungeon crawler.
So, in summary, I think LoM is the best in series, for sure. It's a masterpiece. A work of art. No better console RPG have I ever seen. Not too long, not too short, but tons of customizablity and replay value for those who can get used to the new story-telling style. The graphics are awesome, the characters are great, the music is perfect, the bosses are fun, the sound is classic, and the game is just wonderful. So pick it up. Try it. Buy it. Ye with an open mind, read a faq or two before you play it so you know what's going on. I promise you won't regret your purchase.