Zakato: Maan

Synopsis:

The title might misleadingly imply a sequel to the above mecha shooter, but Maan has actually nothing in common with thata, other than the name of its protagonist. Instead Makkoya created their first traditional RPG, with heavy influences from both Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger. While the graphics at times can even be confused with the former at times, the combat system leans more towards the latter. Enemies are seen on the map at all times, but when the heroes approach them, the game switches into an active turn-based combat mode. It lacks the finesse of its role model and interesting features like the combination techs, though. The background story is rather silly: A kid wants to play a video game but get smacked in the head by his mother, so he cries himself into the video game somehow. In a world full of strange anthropomorphic characters, he is Zakato, the robotic warrior, and has to team up with two goddesses to fight an evil godess' threat to world peace. On the quest further allusions to Squaresoft games ensue, like a pseudo mode-7 world map flight mode, although the view is completely static, without the little palette animations that made the dragon ride in Secret of Mana so adorable. The game unfortunately is heavy on grinding, especially in the beginning stages, where one has to waste a couple of hours to get into shape so one can even reach the other party members. Worst of all, the game's sequence can easily be glitched, and at one point it's almost easier to force oneself to hours of mindless grinding and end up on the wrong path than finding the right one, only noticing the mistake after suddenly people that aren't there start talking in the cutscenes.

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