History VideoGame / SwordOfMana

* ForcedTransformation: Lester, and several other minstrels in Devius' manor. Inverted with one of them, who actually ''liked'' being a bird.

* BerserkButton: Screw with [[spoiler:Medusa]], and Devius and Dark Lord will ''make you suffer.''

* ContinuityPorn: Aside from Goremand and Isabella, we have [[VideoGame/LegendOfMana Li'l Cactus, Niccolo, Dudbears, the Seven Wisdoms]], [[VideoGame/SecretOfMana Durac and Popoi]]'s Notebook, and [[spoiler:one of Julius' OneWingedAngel forms, which is an {{expy}} of [[VideoGame/LegendOfMana Irwin]]]].
%%* CoolOldLady: Selah.

** The legendary Gemma Knights were Gemma: a sword-wielding hero, Bogard: a man from the Mana clan, and Granz: a minstrel. What are the hero, Willy, and Lester again? And all of these characters are more or less doomed to re-enact the adventures of the previous generation. [[spoiler:The heroine]] and [[spoiler:Julius]] in particular have a pretty raw deal, as destiny has arranged for the former's self-sacrifice and the latter's loss of humanity, not helped that the same happened to their predecessors, Emperor Vandole and the heroine's mother [[spoiler:[[NamedByTheAdaptation Mana]]]], as well.

* [[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend He Is Not My Boyfriend]]: The heroine to Watts re: the hero, in the scene where she gets the Kusarigama.

* MiniBoss: The Ebony and Ivory Butlers act as this in Vinquette Hall, leading up to Count Lee, and are variants of the Werewolf enemy. Which one you fight depends on which route you're playing. A guardian dragon serves as this at the halfway point of the Mana Sactuary.

* ReedRichardsIsUseless: The Mana Clan ''could'' use the power of mana to save innocent lives [[spoiler:such as Medusa's]], but won't, because it would "throw off the balance" to help only one person, and/or because it's a {{slippery slope| fallacy}} that leads down to an EvilEmpire abusing Mana power and using it as a weapon. Dark Lord [[DisproportionateRetribution has the entire village exterminated for it and declares the survivors heretics to be killed on sight]].

* StarCrossedLovers: Pretty much ''every single love story'' turns out this way: The protagonists in the hero's route, Dark Lord and Isabella, Pamela and Durac, [[spoiler:Bogard and Mana]], and Granz and [[spoiler:Medusa]].

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Goremand. [[http://jul.rustedlogic.net/thread.php?pid=277727 A scene]] where he spoiled the ending and got a proper exit was DummiedOut.

Not so very long ago in the kingdom that would become known as Granz, a knight and sorcerer named Vandole stumbled upon the Mana Tree, inadvertently absorbed its power, and (of course) [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity proceeded to slowly lose his mind and sense of self]]. He established an empire that [[AndManGrewProud abused Mana to power its technology]], had a reign of terror, and was eventually vanquished by [[LaResistance a small but powerful band of heroes]]. A bit of time has passed since, and those heroes had begun to settle down and stabilize the world, when trouble (naturally) reemerged. Stroud ...[[ThatManIsDead Oh, please]] [[DoNotCallMePaul excuse me]], ''[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Dark Lord]]'' (son of Granz, one of the previous generation's heroes) and his... um, ''[[HoYay friend]]'' Julius staged a bloody coup of the Granz regime and began a vicious persecution of the Mana tribe. In so doing, two young children--the son of one of the Granz aristocrats and a girl of the Mana tribe--have their lives very violently disrupted: the Mana tribe is wiped out and the girl is forced to go into hiding, while the boy's parents meet a similar fate. He isn't as lucky as her, and is forced to fight as a gladiator for Dark Lord's amusement.

Not so very long ago in the kingdom that would become known as Granz, a knight and sorcerer named Vandole stumbled upon the Mana Tree, inadvertently absorbed its power, and (of course) [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity proceeded to slowly lose his mind and sense of self]]. He established an empire that [[AndManGrewProud abused Mana to power its technology]], had a reign of terror, and was eventually vanquished by [[LaResistance a small but powerful band of heroes]]. A bit of time has passed since, and those heroes had begun to settle down and stabilize the world, when trouble (naturally) reemerged. Stroud ...[[ThatManIsDead oh, please]] [[DoNotCallMePaul excuse me]], ''[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Dark Lord]]'' (son of Granz, one of the previous generation's heroes) and his... um, ''[[HoYay friend]]'' Julius staged a bloody coup of the Granz regime and began a vicious persecution of the Mana tribe. In so doing, two young children--the son of one of the Granz aristocrats and a girl of the Mana tribe--have their lives very violently disrupted: the Mana tribe is wipled out and the girl is forced to go into hiding, while the boy's parents meet a similar fate. He isn't as lucky as her, and is forced to fight as a gladiator for Dark Lord's amusement.

* AccentuateTheNegative: [[spoiler:In the end, Julius's shadow shows the protagonist the main characters' vices.]]

* AdaptedOut: Julius' third form, traded for a fight against three [[PaletteSwap yellow]] Gray Oxen before [[DoppelgangerSpin his original first form]].