Legend of Mana: Faerie Arc
The Faerie Arc (“Faerie%” to speedrunners) is one of the three major story arcs in Legend of Mana. Slightly longer than the Dragon Arc but significantly shorter than the Jumi Arc, it follows a doomsday plot orchestrated by a nihilistic demon with the help of some human-phobic faeries.
A reasonably fast way to complete this arc and finish the endgame is to do these Events:
- The Lost Princess
- Niccolo’s Business Unusual
- The Flame of Hope
- Teatime of Danger
- Huntin’ Du’Cate
- The Murmuring Forest
- Two Torches
- The Gorgon Eye
- Niccolo’s Business Unusual: Part 2
- In Search of Faeries
- Mine Your Own Business
- Pokiehl: Dream Teller
- Star-Crossed Lovers
- The Infernal Doll
- Faeries’ Light (The Spirits’ Light)
- Heaven’s Gate
- The Cage of Dreams
- Legend of Mana
To get started, all you need to do is pick a character and a weapon (“Sword,” meaning one-handed sword, is a great starter pick) and select a region of the world map to play on. For a first playthrough, you don’t need to worry about that last part: the region highlighted by default is fine, and you can place your Artifacts pretty much wherever as you acquire them.
Once you place the Mailbox, a couple of cutscenes will play, and then you’ll find yourself in your treehouse Home. The Sproutling (little green dude) outside will give you a little context on the game world and present you with the Colorblocks Artifact. When you’re done poking around the different places in Home, exit to the map (out the front door and down the path) and plunk the Colorblocks down. The blocks will turn into the town of Domina, which is where your first quests become available.
FAQ
“A reasonably fast way …”?
Yeah. 🙂 The current (mid-2021) speedrun route for Faerie% involves some things that make for a great speedrun but not a great first playthrough, like starting quests and not finishing them until much later. To keep things reasonably smooth and simple, my adapted route goes one quest at a time and attempts to leave as few loose ends as possible at any given point. I also recommend buying upgraded gear earlier and more frequently than tends to be the norm in a speedrun.
