Sword of Mana isn't the most complex RPG there is, but it's style of gameplay make it a unique find for GBA.
Story: This is probably were the game had most, if not all, of it's flaws. Bad translation and botched up sequences make the story more corny and more confusing as time goes on, but it was not bad enough to make you want to turn the game off. You can pick one of two main characters to play as: A girl who's past was messed up and now searches for others of her clan, and a guy who's life was messed up because his family was harbering the girl and grew up as a slave. Both character's paths cross every once in a while, more so toward the end of the game, but the story perspectives are different enough to play the game at least twice if you find you care enough about them to do so. With a villian who's name is the Dark Lord and more than a few other corny general plot outcomes, you can probably guess one after playing the other.
Gameplay: If you've played a Mana game before there is nothing two different here. You find weapons and sprite magic that you can level up in the more you use them. Other than that, it good hack and slah fun. You beat down anyone in your way as you progress through the story, shop and save at towns and take out loads of interesting bosses. Not to difficult to wrap your mind around. You just mold your character to your liking the whole time. There was some problem with the game becoming almost to easy because of the way the leveling style was allowing you to get stronger than the enemys could keep up with. I think I beat the last boss with only ten or so attacks simply because my strength was maxed out by the time I ended up fighting it. It was still fun, however, as being the over powered brute has always been my style of preference in almost every RPG I play.
Graphics: The graphic were colorful and cartoony, much like past Mana games. The enemies are and heroes are supposed to be kind of over cute japanese sprite style. Take hard core characters and epic battles then add a touch of ironically child freindly graphics to it, that's always been the Mana thing. It's the style that makes it stand out and I am perfectly fine with that, even more, so the thought and detail they put into their unique style has always been on of the things I've always been impressed with. Take a tough almost dungeon crawler feel to gameplay and broaden your audience range by making everything cartoony. Very Smart and very successful.
Sound: The epic music where used to from Square-Enix has been dumbed down a little in this one. I'm not sure why, but Sword of Mana seems to just have good tone instead of great tunes this time around. The sound effect aren't anything exceptional ether. There was nothing that irritated me or anything like that though.
In conclusion, for anyone who wants a carry along RPG, this is a pretty good addition to your collect if you don't mind a few plot hole and are more into hack and slash level building. Great for long trips in the car.