Sword of Mana Review

|Tap-Repeatedly|FFC Archives

            Sword of Mana

Review by DavoJune 2005

Old School at Its Best

Although I started on the time-sucking path to “hardcore gamer” in 1990 when I played the first Dragon Warrior game on the NES, I really got interested in gaming with the release of the Super Nintendo in 1991. Whiling away many an hour on my SNES, I played every RPG and action-RPG I could find, most of them produced by Nintendo, Enix or Squaresoft (and later Square Enix when Squaresoft and Enix Software merged). I played many SNES games now considered console classics: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Act Raiser, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy III, and Secret of Mana. Nowadays, SNES games like Secret of Mana are revered by hardcore Square fans as relics of the halcyon days of console gaming when the focus was on gameplay first and everything else second.

Which leads me to Sword of Mana, a Square Enix game released in early 2004. Sword of Mana harkens back to those old-school console games by emphasizing fun gameplay, good controls, appealing graphics and decent music. A caveat, of course, being that nothing here exceeds the quality of an SNES game due to the processing limitations of the Gameboy Advance.

Sword of Mana is an appealing single-player action-RPG, which also happens to be a semisequel to Square’s SNES classic, Secret of Mana. It’s a bit like a more action-oriented Golden Sun. Even though Sword of Mana lacks Secret’s beloved cooperative multiplayer feature, it offers numerous bells and whistles of its own that make for a rewarding game experience.

As you would expect, the game is not without flaws, a few of them rather egregious. The game lacks a save-anywhere feature, which is just unnecessary and entirely frustrating at this point in the evolution of gaming. You’ll also die a lot in this game, which forces you to return to your last unable-to-save-anywhere save file. Finally, you travel throughout the game with different NPCs, but their AI is so poorly implemented that it’s frequently more convenient to let them die rather than revive them.

Despite its flaws, Sword of Mana rewards players willing to look below the surface of the game to the many satisfying elements lurking beneath. You can play this game strictly as a one-dimensional hack’n’slash affair and plow through the story as rapidly as possible to reach the end, but I suspect you’ll find that approach boring.  Casual players will likely find the game too long and the puzzles difficult and frustrating. The real appeal of Sword of Mana lies in the huge variety of hidden items, tasks, activities, opportunities and side quests hidden just below the single-player game that enhance the playing experience tremendously.

The game promotes experimentation and excitement by letting you choose your avatar’s abilities and then providing hundreds of hidden items and weapons that alter the experience and allow you to customize your character to your liking. There’s even some number-juggling in the customization process that will appeal to your inner statistician.

What’s a Seiken Densetsu?

First, some history for the uninitiated. Sword of Mana is the latest in a long-running series of Squaresoft/Square Enix games known in Japan as Seiken Densetsu. Seiken Densetsu is Square’s action-oriented RPG alternative to its turn-based Final Fantasy games. The first game in the series to appear in the United States was a Gameboy action-RPG released in 1991 under the title Final Fantasy Adventure. Square tacked the Final Fantasy name onto the title in an effort to tap into US fans’ familiarity with the franchise. As is the case in the console world, the word adventure was shorthand for the use of puzzles and real-time combat a la The Legend of Zelda instead of the turn-based combat typical in Final Fantasy games.

The next game in the series to get a stateside release was Seiken Densetsu 2 in 1993, otherwise known as Secret of Mana. Secret of Mana became an instant hit in the U.S. because of its colorful graphics, involving story, orchestral score and cooperative multiplayer options.

Legend of Mana on the PSOne followed next in 2000. A number of Secret of Mana reviews tore into Legend rather vigorously because it didn’t have Secret’s robust multiplayer cooperative feature and lacked a cohesive storyline. Legend presented players with dozens of standalone scenarios telling self-contained stories only loosely connected to an overarching narrative. Rather than well-reasoned critiques of the game’s shortcomings, I thought many of the criticisms were more knee-jerk reactions by fans disappointed that the game diverged from Secret of Mana so dramatically.  The self-contained chapters permitted players to play for 30 to 60 minutes at a time and enjoy the successful completion of a single episode before returning to real life. Legend also offered gorgeous watercolor-style graphics and loads of little side quests and tasks like gardening and weapons forging. I enjoyed Legend of Mana and recommend you hunt down a copy if you have a PSOne or PS2.

Sword of Mana—released in December 2003—is actually a complete makeover of Final Fantasy Adventure, and I do mean complete. Although the games share many similarities, they are quite different, if for no other reason than Sword is three times as large as Final Fantasy Adventure. Many of the more insidious puzzles remain in place, and the stories are similar. If you’re a completist, you might have some fun hunting down Final Fantasy Adventure on eBay. It’s in black and white (it was released for the original Gameboy) but it’s a fun little game, especially for Legend of Zelda fans.

Buy One Partially Clichéd Story-Based Game—Get One Free

Sword of Mana tells the tale of two young people whose lives are devastated by an army seeking the members of a religious cult.  Being a Square Enix game, the story is heavy on melodrama and cliché.  The storyline focuses on that usual console mainstay: a great evil that threatens to destroy the world and can be stopped only by a group of intrepid teenagers with great power. Even with the clichéd story and some truly juvenile dialogue (for example, “You’re not going to get all mushy now, are you,” a statement by the hero in reference to a moment when the heroine is close to tears), the game manages to deliver a tale that is, at times, quite charming.  The console clichés are tempered somewhat by the twisting and turning plot and a few touching moments. It isn’t Shakespeare, but it’s got a few surprises that will keep even jaded players interested until the end. The best moments come just before the final boss battle when the game’s six heroes reveal their most shameful moments to one another.

You choose to play as either the hero or the heroine. The hero is a young man whose family is slaughtered by a marauding army as it chases after the heroine, a member of the religious cult. The cult is actually a peaceful order charged with the preservation of mana, that trademark magical force that sustains all life in console RPGs. Sword of Mana has two game files, so you can alternate between the dual stories as you desire. At first, the game plays identically for both characters. You explore the exact same landscapes, perform the same tasks and experience the same story.

About five hours into the game, however, the characters’ paths begin to diverge. Later in the game, each character’s individual story begins to play out uniquely within the larger framework of their joint effort to save the world. This divergence becomes most apparent in a chapter involving an airship. If you’re playing as the heroine, you’ll be trapped on the airborne vessel trying to locate a means of escape. If you’re playing as the hero, you’ll be on the ground seeking a way to get to the airship and rescue the heroine.

Impatient players likely won’t want to play through both stories, which requires you to play the game twice. You won’t notice much difference in the story until at least five or six hours of play time, but it’s worth the effort if you like this type of game. The heroine’s story focuses on her efforts to avenge the persecution of the mana clan and come to grips with her destiny. The hero’s story focuses on his efforts to define his place in the world as he fulfills his mission of helping the heroine face her uncertain future. Experiencing the story from each character’s perspective is one of the more enjoyable parts of the game. They’ll react differently to the same events, travel with different companions and explore areas inaccessible to the other. It’s a lot of fun, but you have to hang in there patiently for awhile to actually experience the differences.

You’ll Play Through the Game with the Greatest of Ease

Gameplay consists of exploring every nook and cranny of the world as either of the game’s two characters. Combat is real-time and very basic. You fight by hammering on the A button as fast as you can to attack. As you fight, a meter at the bottom of the screen fills in slowly. When the meter is full, your character’s body will flash, signaling that you can unleash a special attack if you hold down the A button momentarily and release it after a couple of seconds when your body starts to glow. A rock, paper, scissors overlay adds an element of strategy to the combat. Weapons fall into three categories: blunt, slashing and jabbing. Some enemies are completely immune to one or two of the weapons categories, so you have to experiment with different weapons against each opponent. Fortunately, bringing up your weapons menu pauses the game so you can select the correct tool for the job.

Unless you play point-and-click games exclusively, you’ll have little trouble mastering the controls and the combat system. The control system is very similar to the ones used in the overhead Legend of Zelda games.

Players acquire spells primarily by defeating bosses and acquiring spirits. Each spirit provides the player with two spells: one that enhances the character’s statistics temporarily and one that creates a magical attack. The statistical enhancement spells allow you to raise your defense, speed, magical immunity and other abilities.  The magical attack spells fall into the usual water, fire, lightning and ice categories. One interesting wrinkle is the effect your weapon has on your spells. The type of weapon you wield determines the trajectory of your attack. If you have a bow equipped, the spell will arc toward the enemy like an arrow. If you have a spear equipped, the spell will travel in a long, straight line.

Casting spells is as easy as attacking. A tap of the R trigger casts a statistical enhancement spell. Holding down the R button casts an attack spell. The enhancement spells can turn your character into a real powerhouse. During the final boss battle, I cast a “raise defense” spell repeatedly until I was taking almost no damage.

As you move through the game, you can collect multiple spirits within the same category. You can collect six fire spirits, for example, or six water spirits. The advantage to having multiple spirits is an exponential increase in the effectiveness of your spells. If you have two fire spirits, you’ll cast two fire spells simultaneously. Three water spirits equates to three simultaneous water spells. The benefit of this is massive damage to enemies when casting attack spells. The downside is that you’ll tear through your spell points casting six spells at the same time.

Finding multiple spirits is one of the most difficult parts of the game. These suckers are well-hidden. If you love solving difficult puzzles, then you’ll likely enjoy hunting down spirits. You have to find all kinds of hidden items and decipher obscure clues to find every spirit in the game. You’ll automatically get one of every spirit just for beating the game’s bosses. The rest are available only to the most thorough players. The gauntlet is thrown if you think you’re up to the task.

Look at All This Stuff

Beyond finding spirits and following the story, the game offers up a slew of things to do. Early in the game, you’ll receive an item called a hothouse, which is a giant cactus-house that you grow in pots scattered throughout the desert areas. The hothouse appears instantly and grants you immediate access. Inside, there’s a very basic gardening subgame that requires you to find hidden seeds in the outside world, plant them in an interior garden and return a day later to gather magical fruits used to improve your armor and weaponry. There’s also a blacksmith who will upgrade your weapons and armor for a small fee if you have appropriate fruits and vegetables.  Another minigame in the hothouse focuses on a small living cactus who writes poems about your adventures. There are 50 poems in all, and you’ll have to explore every inch of the game world and complete every task to get every poem. On my first run through the game, I got only about 20 poems.

Acquiring items is a key component of the game. The game can’t be played for very long without using the dozens of healing, restoration and special items scattered throughout the land. Some you buy in stores, some are available only from traveling merchants and some are hidden in diabolically concealed spots. This game has plenty to do for gamers who love side quests and hidden adventures.

When your character collects enough experience points, you’ll gain a level. Gaining a level adds a “Level Up” selection to your menu screen and lets you assign points to one of six class categories. Combining certain classes opens up otherwise unavailable specialty classes. These special classes allow you to take advantage of ability bonuses like increased weapons proficiency or faster accumulation of spell points. It’s similar to D&D multiclassing but on a much more basic scale. The leveling system is robust enough to allow you to customize your character to your liking, yet not so robust that you’ll be able to brag about your +8 damage against zombies. The changes are more subtle. You’ll notice your character recovering magic points more rapidly, but it’s not like you’ll suddenly gain the ability to hide in the dark and backstab.

Graphically, the game maintains the very appealing watercolor style used in Legend of Mana. Buildings have a fairy-tale quality that suits the game perfectly. The artwork for the characters and monsters has a cartoon-like feel.

The music and sound effects are pretty good. Most of the music strives for a moody orchestral sound. Sorrowful music punctuates sad moments, while more exciting pieces accompany combat and adventuring.  The quality of the music is hampered somewhat by the hardware. Some of the songs sounded tinny as they emanated from the GBA’s small speakers. The sound effect that accompanies the scrolling text is a hideously shrill noise that reminded me of the sound of slot machines jangling at once in a busy casino. This awful noise may have you wanting to turn off the sound.

This Tale’s Dark Side

A few flaws prevent Sword of Mana from attaining an optimal rating. At times, you’ll hate the game for not letting you save anywhere. I got overconfident on a few occasions and failed to return to a save point for more than 30 minutes. You can guess what happened next: Death, followed by the loss of 35 minutes of gameplay. The developers tried to ameliorate this somewhat by providing you with a magic rope that instantaneously returns you to your last save point. Even though you don’t have to walk back to your last save point, you still have to make the trek back to the spot from which you used the magic rope. It’s not as good as a mark-and-recall spell or a save-anywhere feature, but it’s better than nothing. Also, although you have two game slots, you only have one save space per game. You can’t have multiple saves for the same game slot. Gamers used to making dozens of saves will clearly feel some frustration at this limitation. It didn’t bother me, but you should be aware of it if it’s important to you.

In addition, most players will die a lot, which further magnifies the problems created by the lack of a save-anywhere feature. Some of the creatures are strong enough to take away a quarter of your life with one hit. At times, you’ll be boxed into a corner by three or four enemies and end up dead before you can break free or heal yourself. It’s also easy to lose track of your life on the tiny GBA screen. Playing on a Gameboy Player alleviates this problem somewhat, but the game’s beautiful graphics look washed out and bland on a television screen.

I like a challenging game, but more than a few of the required puzzles and mysteries are frustratingly difficult. It can be exasperating to wander around for a couple of hours without enough information to figure out what to do next. The game’s clues are sometimes so obscure that you’ll have no idea they even serve as clues. It’s only later that you see the relationship between the clue and the solution. It doesn’t happen enough to throw the game balance off, but it comes close on two or three occasions.

Finally, there are the NPCs, who are as dumb as Shemp from the Three Stooges after a lobotomy. You travel throughout the game with one of several NPCs. Theoretically, this offers you a spellcaster if you’re a warrior or a warrior if you’re a mage, and so on. In reality, NPCs hang around getting stuck on the scenery and dying because they’re too stupid to defend themselves. You can adjust the NPC AI, but it seems to have no effect. They tend to be on the wrong side of the game screen when you need them most. What’s most infuriating is that when they die, they turn into a little ghost that is tethered to your backside while you continue adventuring.  Why can’t they stay that close to you when they’re alive and you’re in the middle of a difficult fight? You don’t need them to complete the game, which begs the question: why are they there?

Survey Says

I can absolutely recommend Sword of Mana to anyone who enjoys story-driven action-RPGs. There’s a lot of game here, especially for a GBA cartridge. Although there’s much combat, Sword of Mana is primarily a game of exploration. The controls are great, and the story is appealing. I finished the heroine’s storyline in just under 29 hours, and I didn’t even come close to completing every side quest. Depending on your play style, Sword of Mana offers 40 to 70 hours of playtime to work through both characters’ storylines. Finding every item and completing every side quest could take even longer. If you aren’t bothered by save points and a few imperfections in sound, NPC AI and game balance, you’ll find a lot to keep you happily busy in Sword of Mana. If you’re a GBA owner looking for a story-driven action-RPG with surprising depth, then I would definitely recommend Sword of Mana. And if you’re a Nintendo DS owner waiting for a compelling story-based game or RPG to come out on the system (and I know you’re out there), then Sword of Mana will help lessen the blow of distant release dates for your dual-screened handheld. The best news is that the game, while out of print, is readily available at this writing on eBay and other online sites for about $20. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Square Enix Publisher: Nintendo Release Date: December 1, 2003

Available for: Game Boy Advance

Four Fat Chicks Links

Player Feedback

Screenshots

Click to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlarge

Where to Find It

Links provided for informational purposes only.  FFC makes no warranty with regard to any transaction entered into by any party(ies).

      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

Pages

Top

Category Archives

Top

Blog Posts

Top

29 Responses to The Long, Sordid Tail of DRM

  • Meho

    Good one.

    Of course, it will be very interesting to see the battle between crackers and UBI’s cryptographers. PC version of Assassin’s Creed II is already circulating the warez scene, although as yet uncracked. Everybody seems to think it will be cracked in a couple of weeks time at worst, which, admittedly is better for UBI than what usually happens (games cracked before release). Of course, I won’t be buying it because I find this practice unnacceptable (and I do have the console version anyway) but the success of this game and its DRM might mean quite a lot in the future. Of course, we ARE moving towards the age where you will be required to be connected to do any playing at all, whatwith the Gaikai and OnLive systems rearing their heads on the horizon. Doesn’t mean I have to like it, eh?

  • Spike

    I went to the Ubisoft website and looked at their list of published games.  It seems that the last of their games I played was the last Myst game in 2005.  In fact the only Ubisoft games I’ve played have been Myst games.  So I don’t see that their new DRM crime-against-my-privacy will have much of an effect on me.  But I hate the idea.  It’s an “Off with their heads!” kind of development.  Reminds me of the idea that people will put up with lost privacy in exchange for security.  In this case the security is only to benefit Ubisoft.  Yes, I allow my privacy to be violated every day – each time I visit Amazon, or read Google News -the list goes on and on.  BUT THOSE ARE MY CHOICES.  I also have a choice about where and how I spend my money, and I’d refrain from buying a game that allows so much intrusion into my computer/life.  A game that tells me how I must live my life even in the smallest of ways such as always being connected to the internet is a game I can forgo.

  • Jason O

    Consoles CAN be connected to the internet 100% of the time, but there are still many consoles that never go online. Modern Warfare 2 sold over 11 million copies, yet XBox Live only shows 840,000 users that have been on-line with it. That’s not played online, that means they played the game in any mode while connected to XBox Live.

    Games that have required an internet connection and were multiplayer only have a history of vanishing quickly from the console marketplace. Phantasy Star ONLINE did much better on the Gamecube then it did on the XBox. What was the difference? Oh yeah, you could play PSO without an internet connection on the Gamecube, the XBox version require a live account and an internet connection. That’s hardly the only example but one that is near and dear to my heart.

  • Bennet

    No, no, you don’t get it! Ubisoft’s “always connected” requirement isn’t DRM, it’s value-add for you, the beloved customer. Just like the Albertsons supermarket chain requires employees to plaster obnoxiously bright orange “Thank you for shopping with us!” stickers on your Coke and milk not because they think you’re stealing them but to express their sincere gratitude for your patronage.

    Maybe my memories of a time when consumers paid for a product and got the product, unadorned by FBI warnings and impossible to open wrappings and authentication servers that can vanish at any time without warning were planted by aliens. In the current cultural climate it’s certainly difficult to believe that time ever existed.

  • Meho

    But Steerpike makes a good point: business model, retail model is lagging behind the times. And developers, instead of researching ways to use the existing systems to sell more games rather research new ways to piss off their paying customers.

    Seriously, in my opinion, pirates pirate games because they are better value than retail games. Not just in the sense that they get to spend less money on them, but they get them faster, do not have to go through any hassle with DRM and have full control over the game. I think that Gabe Newell put it best saying that Valve sees pirates as customers who haven’t been served yet.

    I think UBI and their ilk should look for ways to make retail games more valuable to their customers than (free) warez copies. Yes, stuff like achievements/ trophies helps a little, sure. There are other ways too and one of them is resale value. But, oh, what a surprise, used games market pisses publishers off MORE than pirates do. In fact most of the current DRM schemes are only effective against resales. EA’s ten dollar project and all other free DLC on day one initiatives. So, honestly, I’m afraid that UBI’s online-all-the-time-or-no-service DRM is basically only going to affect sales of used games. The crackers are going to bring their games to pirates eventually. I believe that draconic DRM schemes such as this will only inspire people like GeoHot, Dark Alex and Yoshihiro to spend more of their time on circumvention. Their street cred is going to be huge after all…

    What Valve seem to understand is that playing games through Steam should make playing MORE valuable/ comfortable than not playing games through Steam (which is, at the end of the day a DRM system). Being able to instal a game on as many machines as you want and not having to have a disc in the drive is exactly what pirated games give us too, but with Steam you also retain all your stats, friends lists, achievements and everything. So it’s BETTER than playing pirated games. I only hope that UBI wake up and realise they have to ADD value, not just subtract freedoms.

  • Lewis B

    I’m not really sure I see their DRM as a huge problem.  If my PC is turned on, so is my internet.  I’m fully aware that my name is probably on a million data bases already, and although it might be annoying knowing that Ubisoft have implemented such a security feature, if you don’t physically notice it, I don’t particularly care.

    I’m currently playing Myst at the moment, having never before.  What an odd game…

  • Meho

    Well, you know, just from a philosophical standpoint: if the game is unplayable as soon as you don’t have Internet connection (which, I’m afraid, happens to me more regularly than I am comfortable with) for no other reason than making sure you have paid for it then to me this is pretty much unnacceptable. Requiring a connection for something that is a function of the game itself is OK, but enforcing it just for the sake of protection of the publisher, sorry, no sale.

  • Lewis B

    True Meho.  I had 40 minutes the other day before I went out and thought I would have a quick skirmish on Dawn of War II.  Steam (despite my love for it) wouldn’t launch the game because for some reason it kept freezing and refusing to connect or launch in offline mode.  I couldn’t actually locate the source directory either to boot the game up manually. So, I didn’t get to play and instead spent 40 minutes in a fit of rage cursing Valve and all who work under them. 

    Not exactly the same situation, but not hugely dissimilar.

  • Gregg B

    I’m really not concerned about the privacy issue simply because that illusion is just that, and doesn’t really comfort or unsettle me. My problem with this whole thing is that internet connections can be temperamental at the best of times and the idea that if the connection falters I will lose my progress (and thus my invested time which I’d argue is more valuable than my money) then quite frankly Ubi can fuck off. I’ve been pretty placid up to press with DRM simply because it’s not seemed that intrusive but this will affect the paying customers more than the pirates. It devalues the product and I fear it will push otherwise paying customers to download cracked versions that don’t suffer from this shit. Which, of course, will play into Ubi’s hands.

    Am I right in believing all this stems from the hideous retail model that just refuses to die? Physical retail creates pressuring deadlines, costs considerably more due to increased physical production (and overheads in staffing and floor space), it’s inflexible with stock limitations and shelf space dictating the range of titles available in any given store and by the sounds of things is the sole reason for this ‘tail’. If you look at Steam, it isn’t always the newest games that sell the most due in no small part to their sales and weekend deals.

    “I wonder if we’ll ever get to a point where a person would be just as likely to invest in a beloved classic as a hot new release.”

    From my experience there are a lot of people who simply can’t stomach old looking games, even some of my friends who’ve been playing games since they were young have turned into total graphics whores. Seriously you want to see the totally underwhelmed look on their faces when I show them XCOM for any period of time. We’re at a stage now where graphics are so advanced that for a lot of people going back so far to sample an allegedly classic title is simply too much. Thankfully GOG is doing a fantastic job of making these titles as accessible, and valuable, as possible.

    EDIT: Spot on Meho. My point exactly.
    See what I mean though Lew? Time. Valuable stuff. A quick skirmish on DoW turned into a 40 minute skirmish with Steam.

  • Mat

    This seems like an awful idea.. or at least one which sounds like a good idea to somebody somewhere, but in reality is unworkable.

    Since I’ve been a paying internet customer I have lived at 3 different addresses and used around 5 different ISP’s. I have ALWAYS had problems with my internet connection. With my current set up it tends to go down if a menacing looking cloud passes overhead..

  • xtal

    Some people may like to play a game offline now and then; this is especially easy with older ones before the dawn of activation codes and online authentication. While those aren’t that annoying, having to maintain a constant internet connection just to play a game that you paid for, which is not specifically a MMO, really bites.

    Gregg B said:
    “Am I right in believing all this stems from the hideous retail model that just refuses to die? Physical retail creates pressuring deadlines, costs considerably more due to increased physical production (and overheads in staffing and floor space), it’s inflexible with stock limitations and shelf space dictating the range of titles available in any given store and by the sounds of things is the sole reason for this ‘tail’. If you look at Steam, it isn’t always the newest games that sell the most due in no small part to their sales and weekend deals.”

    I agree with this. Just a few years ago I couldn’t see myself paying for intangible, digital goods. Fast forward to now and it’s really my preferred method of computer gaming, whether it’s GOG, Steam, or elsewhere, I find it’s the model that works best for the customer. If I’m not mistaken, I believe once upon a time that was who the industry was trying to serve, no? The customer?

  • Cesar

    You know, I’m from Brazil and there piracy is HUGE. Maybe for that reason I feel for the industry and understand the efforts to stop it. However, I suspect this crack delay would have a very minor impact in markets like Brazil. People can’t afford the games, so they wouldn’t pay full price anyway.

    It is a shame that we don’t have privacy anymore. The other day a friend of mine on XBox Live sent me a message to congratulate me on a goal I scored in Fifa 10. I didn’t know but apparently not only you can see I’m playing Fifa, but you also see when I score and my avatar cheers! While that sounds very cool, it is also very disturbing. But like Matt points very well, privacy is already gone. And since I don’t have it anymore, why not help stop piracy?

    On the other hand, the plurality of solutions is a different matter, it becomes a hassle. I think the solution should be platform dependent, not publisher dependent. In Brew phones, the control is embedded in the system and you cannot use an app if it cannot be verified, which means if you are not connected to the network you can’t play.

    Unfortunately that cannot be applied to consoles, there’s a considerable number of devices outside the internet umbrella. But if the game constantly checks if you are online and tries to authenticate the copy, online piracy will suffer a big hit and the technological move towards full connectivity will make the practice more and more efficient over time.

  • Andrew

    Not going to buy the game, long tail or not, it sucks to have that kind of persistent connection needed for offline play. Not even just startup authorisation either. I must admit any Game For Windows Live games can be similar (Dawn of War 2 being one of them necessitating it) although most of them allow offline profiles, and most of them allow the saves to be moved easily between any online or offline accounts.

    Oh, and if you’re disconnected it won’t kick you out of the game too, even Microsoft didn’t get that wrong.

    I don’t even understand how privacy comes into it, my main issue is twofold:
    – The above note about simple, offline play (and disconnects for blips in service)
    – The fact it isn’t just your connection that is necessary, it is THEIR connection and servers

    The second point as a partial game historian leads me to wonder how many years (not decades) the servers will be there. Publishers have removed much more necessary servers quickly if they are a cost liability (or they want to push people onto a newer game…). Downtime is also, considering some of the services require payment (Xbox Live for instance) devastatingly poor considering the user base sizes, especially on high load days (and I wonder if we’ll see “Assassins Creed 2 unplayable at launch due to server overload” at all, heh). Lucky it’s “just games” though, no worries if we only have 99% uptime right?! 😉

    (Also, frankly their Assassins Creed 1 port was poor until they patched it, where at least then it was playable (in full on 16:9…for some reason), which makes me wary of any PC release of a console game they do. I wonder also if they still have unskippable cutscenes, I’ve not checked it out on the consoles).

    The fact they’ll never have enough sales of this PC version due to the earlier console release to either say this is a roaring success or roaring failure. It’s the longest end of the tail in the first place. Or they’ll lie about whatever happens anyway. It’s utterly bizarre…I just don’t understand it.

  • Meho

    Cesar: I’m in Serbia and here piracy reigns supreme (much worse than Brazil, I imagine) but still, this is pure and simple bullshit. I purcahsed BioShock 2 today, for my PS3 even though I’d prefer to play it on my PC just because of the stupid DRM that won’t let me control the use of a game I pay for. They can fuck off with that. So, my purchase was influenced by DRM, depsite the game being more natural to play on a PC. Protection measures should not create this kind of bitterness in a human being.

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    The issue of server overload on release days is significant. Think about it – a game like Modern Warfare 2? Or any other hotly anticipated release? Of course the servers would go down. It’s not cost-effective to install a server infrastructure capable of handling Day Zero traffic. That would royally piss people off.

    Ubi and others who use draconian DRM typically insist that if they ever go out of business or shut servers down, they’ll issue patches so the games can be played offline.

    Around the holidays here, big stores like Best Buy station a guy at the exit. His job is to go through your bag and consult your receipt to make sure you haven’t stolen anything. That’s a very similar ideology to this one: treat all consumers like thieves in hopes of catching the few who are.

  • Lewis B

    Considering most MMOG servers cannot cope on launch day, I see it as a gaurentee that when the next Modern Warfare is released, if they do follow through with this, would see many unhappy players.

  • lakerz1

    This new DRM policy will totally be screwing me over because I have a wireless internet setup, but my signal is a bit weak so here and there it drops out for a 10-15 second period before it reconnects.  Plus my wireless router is a bit wonky and will just stop working once in awhile until I cycle power to it.  So, until my setup changes, I will be forced to avoid all Ubi PC games that use this.

  • Igor Hardy

    I seriously doubt a person which would normally pirate a game, will pay money for it just because she has to wait a short while longer for the cracked version. This can work only for very cheap games – like 1$ cheap.

  • Meho

    Just for those keeping tabs: the Russian version of Assassin’s Creed II has apparently been successfully cracked, with a fix for the saves too. Of course, I don’t KNOW this for sure but that’s the word circulating through the grapewine.

  • Cesar

    Brazil is a strong competitor in the piracy rates. 95%-97% if I am not mistaken.

    Anyway, I don’t have a problem with the privacy issue. Not even with the assumption that we are all thieves. If you extrapolate that idea, you will conclude we shouldn’t have patrol cars on the streets. They assume people will commit crimes and have to keep watch. Homo homini lupus. Society isn’t perfect and even though losses are part of the model, no one is ready to lose out of good faith alone. I don’t mean to say DRM and police watch are the same thing, I’m just saying it’s not that simple to draw a line where it becomes offensive to monitor society.

    That being said, it is not acceptable to have a DRM impact gameplay at all. I don’t mind it authenticating my copy. But if I am offline it has to work. And if I loose connection during the game I shouldn’t be kicked out.

    And while the efficacy of the solution might be questionable under these circumstances, like I said in the previous comment, it only tends to increase.

  • Andrew

    “Ubi and others who use draconian DRM typically insist that if they ever go out of business or shut servers down, they’ll issue patches so the games can be played offline.”

    I have seen this happen to absolutely zero games ever. The fact that it is nearly impossible to sanction any work on IP if a company is in administration is the key. That and it is non-trivial to get around your own disk DRM by producing an installer that will work with your disk copy to install it.

    I’d love to be proved wrong…this is by far the most worrying thing of the deal, just installed Bioshock 2 and it has online activation (sigh)…worried I might need to download cracked versions to install it in the future!

    Oh, did you see the patch notes of the first patch? It makes the DRM very very very slightly “better” (I mean, better as in “still shit”):

    http://www.fileshack.com/file.x/17456/Assassin%27s+Creed+2+Patch+1.01+-+US

    “Game can now be continued from the exact same point when connection is restored”

    Ho ho ho. Ho.

  • Gregg B

    I like this bit:

    “Only those who purchased a copy of ACII or SHV legally appear to be affected. Pirates playing illegally downloaded cracked versions of the game are able to play without a problem.”

    Is it apparent pirates are having no problems yet? If they’ve properly cracked it then what I feared (above) is true. Last I heard was that the DRM apparently downloads levels or important files as you play. I don’t know whether this is true or not though.

  • Spike

    Meho beat me to it.  I just read a similar article on The Register.  I don’t suppose that the DDoS attack will make Ubi rethink its evil ways, but this might (I can dream, can’t I?):

    “Meanwhile Ubisoft’s much criticised controls have been broken by software hackers. A hacker group called Skid-Row managed to bypass DRM restrictions on Silent Hunter 5 less than 24 hours after the game was published. Skid Row has releasing a crack for the game based on this work, Zdnet reports. ®”

    Full article here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/08/ubisoft_anti_drm_hack_attack/

  • Littermate

    Spike.  RE: The Register article
    There is a comment to that article that claims the crack for SH5 is not a complete crack and would only allow an incomplete experience, because not only are save games stored online but some of the game data files are stored online too, implying that the boxed game you buy is incomplete.  This seems plausible and effective IMO, because if I was demanding an internet connection for my software this is how I would do it.  It demands not only that a games code be cracked but that missing data files be supplied too.

  • Spike

    Having just read this article – link below – I’m thinking that DRM will be fine and dandy AND hunky-dory with me as long as the packaging it comes in is “green”.  Yep.  That makes it more palatable.

    http://www.fastcompany.com/1620105/ubisoft-green-recycled-case-digital-manual-sustainable-packaging

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    I would kind of like to buy games in potato cases.

  • xtal

    I was thinking… and remembered one of the most creative instances of “DRM” if you can call it that: King’s Quest VI! I looked it up and sure enough it is mentioned on KQVI’s Wikipedia page:

    A booklet titled “Guidebook to the Land of the Green Isles” (written by Jane Jensen) is included in the KQVI package. Aside from providing additional background to the game’s setting, this booklet serves as part of the game’s copy-protection. The player will not be able to pass the puzzles on the Cliffs of Logic that guard the Isle of the Sacred Mountain without information from the booklet. The booklet also includes a poem encoding the solution to one of the puzzles in the labyrinth on the Isle of the Sacred Mountain.

    I guess that’s not very feasible today, what with widespread use of the internet around the world. I still think it’s more creative than the “thank you for your money, we intend to treat you like a criminal” method.

  • Bluebogle

    I played the KQVI game with the booklet. I was a kid at the time, and thought the booklet was so cool! It really added to the whole game’s experience.

    The quest for Glory games came with fun booklets as well, though I don’t remember if they had copy protection elements to ’em.

    Ahh, the good old days..

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.