Difficulty level

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Difficulty levels are a recurring element in newer installments of the Mana series. Also a feature of other games including remakes and remastered versions from Square Enix, the ability to adjust the difficulty level of the game allows the player a degree of control over their experience by adding challenge to or removing challenge from the game itself. Typically, this is done by adjusting the various attributes of both player characters and enemies, or by modifying enemies' attack patterns and attack frequency.

History

Trials of Mana HD

The player may select any difficulty level from the Options menu. If the game has been fully cleared and there is at least one starred save file, the two highest difficulties, Expert and No Future time-attack mode, appear as choices.

Original Difficulty Levels

• Beginner

“Beginner difficulty setting for those who wish to focus mainly on the story. You can resume in the same spot no matter how many times you get a game over.”

—3D Opening menu

On this difficulty, enemy groups spawn less likely and are faster to kill. In addition, player characters can resume from the same spot no matter how many times they are defeated.

• Easy

“Easy difficulty setting for those who find action games a little hard.”

—3D Opening menu

On this difficulty, enemy groups spawn normally but are faster to kill compared to the normal setting.

• Normal

“Normal difficulty setting.”

—3D Opening menu

This is the standard difficulty. Enemy groups spawn normally and take time to kill.

• Hard

“Challenging difficulty setting for action game pros.”

—3D Opening menu

On this difficulty, Enemy groups are harder to kill and will spawn more often.

1.1.0 Update

As of the release of its 1.1.0 update on October 14, 2020, the game now features two additional difficulties.

• Expert

“An even harder difficulty for seasoned players. Make use of the "New Game Plus" option to retain gear and chain abilities from your previous playthrough. Challenging difficulty setting for action game pros.”

—3D Opening menu

• No Future

“Not a difficulty for the faint of heart. Challenges include limits to the number of equippable abilities and items, as well as timed boss fights. You cannot switch to this difficulty from another in the middle of a playthrough.”

—3D Opening menu

Legend of Mana

Once players have beaten the game once, they are granted an additional encyclopedia called the Forbidden Tome where they can change the difficulty level. This can be adjusted at any time. There are three levels available:

• Normal Mode

By selecting "Yes" to the question "Do you want peace?", every enemy in the game stays or reverts back to its original level.

• Nightmare More

By selecting "Yes" to the question "Do you want a nightmare?", every enemy in the game becomes 30 levels stronger increasing their attack, HP, and defense greatly. Furthermore, some encounters will feature more enemy reinforcement.

• No Future Mode

By selecting "No" to the question "Do you want a future?", every enemy in the game a promoted to level 99 increasing every stat greatly. Also, each Exp crystal dropped by an enemy is worth 54 EXP points.

Dawn of Mana

There are four levels of difficulty in total, two of which can be unlocked by completing the game under lower settings. Completing chapters or the whole game on a certain diffculty can grant Emblems for Keldric to use during the main story or the Arena mode

• EASY

“Difficulty ★ EASY -- For those who think NORMAL might be too tough.”

—In-game menu

• NORMAL

“Difficulty ★★ NORMAL -- A good place to start for most people.”

—In-game menu

• HARD

“Difficulty ★★★ HARD -- ???”

—In-game menu

This difficulty is only available once the player has completed the game at least one time. Upon selecting this difficulty the following changes will occur:

• • Enemy HP is boosted by x 1.25, ATK by x 2.0 and DEF by x 1.25.
  • Enemy Panic count during attacks is lowered and some enemies can shake it off regardless if the counter is still there.
  • New enemies appear in each Chapter.
  • Enemies are more aggressive and may use attacks that you likely would never see in a NORMAL game.
  • Bosses are mostly the same, except some like Grim Treant have added elements to the mix.
  • Boosted Lucre acquisition by x 5 during Chapters and x 10 during the medal bonus after completing a Chapter.

• ULTIMATE

“Difficulty ★★★★ ULTIMATE -- ???”

—In-game menu

This difficulty is only available once the player has completed the game at least one time. Upon selecting this difficulty the following changes will occur:

• • This difficulty is only available once the player has completed the game at least one time.
  • Enemy Panic count is lowered even further and much more enemies will shake off Panic status from a relatively early Chapter.
  • More new enemies appear in each Chapter.
  • Enemy AI is extremely aggressive, make them very dangerous in groups.
  • Enemy mobs are larger in size.
  • A majority of enemies have resistance to mono objects, like barrels.
  • Bosses panic counts are extremely low, with most Panic attempts only yielding counts from 6-9 save their weakpoints(10-15).
  • Bosses have new attack patterns and many of their attacks are boosted with new Status aliments.
  • Bosses may summon weaker monsters for assistance.
  • Boosted Lucre acquisition by x 10 during Chapters and x 100 during the medal bonus after completing a Chapter.

Visions of Mana

There are four difficulty levels available upon installing and starting the game: Beginner, Easy, Normal, and Hard.

Heroes of Mana

There are two difficulty levels: Normal Mode and Hard Mode. Completing the game on Hard Mode grants the player with Free Battle 38.

• Normal Mode

This is the original difficulty level.

• Hard Mode

This mode can only be selected once the player has completed the game at least once. By selecting this difficulty level, the following changes will occur.

• • Some enemy units' stats such as HP and attack are increased.
  • Treant and Gaia starting values are decreased.
  • Item rewards boast higher stats or a more valuable.
  • Items from previous saved game are conserved, but everything still has to be unlocked (characters, magic, unit ans structure creation).
  • Conditions from Ranking remain the same.
  • Notebook completion is transferred to the new game.

Echoes of Mana

Difficulty was relative to the party's individual and overall combat power rating (PWR), which is determined by each unit's level, stats enhancements, attached Memory Gems, and equipped gear. All main quests as well as certain training and event quests, offered a recommended PWR value for an indicated number of units during quest selection and loadout. The main quests were further divided into Normal, Hard, and Very Hard tracks, each with sharply increasing difficulty between tracks. Each non-story quest also had a time limit of 5-10 minutes, which in turn contributed to the mission's overall score and rank.

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References

Legend of Mana

• Legend of Mana GameFAQs

Dawn of Mana

• RPGamer
• Seikens

Heroes of Mana

• GameFAQs