I'm about to give this game a shot since I loved the two Mana games that preceded it...

I'm about to give this game a shot since I loved the two Mana games that preceded it. I've read that it involves you building the world, which influences the order in which events occur. Is there much of a right/wrong way to build the world?

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=BMKovBcgr1o
twitter.com/AnonBabble

bump

There is definitely a right way and a wrong way to build the map. Figuring that out is on you.

Great game, top ten on my list.

if i go in balls deep without a guide, is there a high chance of getting it wrong?

You'll still be able to finish the game even if you get it "wrong" but setting it up right will help you with item materials and such.

best score

youtube.com/watch?v=BMKovBcgr1o

It's pretty much definite that you'll fuck it up. But it's an alright game to replay.

Absolutely. IIRC it's a zero-sum game situation.

It's not impossible to beat it (I guess, my blind run worked fine in the end at least), but you will miss tons of cool stuff, from neat pets like succubus and to story arcs that will end up incomplete.
But that is because you don't have to do much to unlock the final dungeon (and the new game plus after it). The game is so full of content that going straight to the final boss will make you skip almost half of the game.
You could check a "permanently missable" guide if you really want to go 100% on your first time, but you will miss all the fun of building your world on your own (since most of these guides will give you suggestions of world layouts and the order to place regions, since both of these features plays a big role in certain hidden mechanics).

i don't want to miss cool story stuff, but I feel like I shouldn't have to rely on a guide in order to not fuck things up

You're not going to "fuck things up", goddammit. The game is a collection of short stories and story arcs. When you play with a guide, you can completely every single story in one playthrough. This is not the only way to play and is not how the game was intended to be played. You're supposed to play through the game blind and find the storylines yourself. After you beat the game, you can play a new game+ with added difficulty and certain bonuses. The game is made to be played multiple times, discovering new events along the way.

Play it once blind. Play it again with a guide.

>I loved the two Mana games that preceded it.
as long as you don't come expecting the same.
it's a beautiful game on its own.

Don't use a guide for a first play.
The number of missable things based on map placement are actually very few in number.

If memory serves right you can lock yourself out of being able to buy the highest tier of materials from shops (but you can still find it elsewhere no matter what you do), The demi-human pets, which are one fraction of one sub-system of the game, and 3 out of the ~70 quests in the game.

Just don't sweat it and do whatever you feel at the time.

Its hard to acualy screw up unless you want to min max or some shit.
So dont worry to much about it.
The game does however have 3 major side stories and you can only do 1 per play thru (Maybe its possible to do 2 or all 3 but i would not know.)
Or to be specific you have to do one of the 3 to unlock the final boss.

The first is the story of the Jumi, a dying race of people who have external jewel hearts which are considered valuable.

The second is the story of Larc and Sierra, brother and sister dragoons who serve different dragon masters and fight on opposite sides of the same war for power.

The third is the complicated love story of four childhood friends: Matilda, Irwin, Daena and Escad. Irwin, a half-demon dissatisfied with the rules that society imposes on him which prevented him from being able to have a relationship with the holy leader Matilda, seeks to destroy the world in retribution,

I just hope that my first (and possibly only) playthrough can give me a full experience

Gak!

You can do all three in a single playthrough.
In fact it's always possible. You can't lock yourself out of any of the main stories

>The game does however have 3 major side stories and you can only do 1 per play thru
Nice misinfo. You can easily do all three without a guide or any foreknowledge.

bub?

You can do all of them in one playthrough, but I believe that just one is enough to unlock the last region so it's easy to miss the other two since the last dungeon have a bullshit point of no return.
These doujins make my dick so hard they should be illegal, especially the Sierra ones.

Furfag pls go

Considering that things like crafting, pet raising and golem crafting won't make sense on your first, second or fifteen playthrough, you will miss some stuff, unless you just say fuck it and read player-made recipes.
I think that, while certainly just a minor part of the game, some stuff is designed to be rewards for experienced players (demi-pets, unique weapon-based attacks, a few short story arcs), so new player will miss them without a veteran's help (an online "how to not miss stuff" guide and crafting recipes, in your case).