The Legend of Mana remaster Denuvo has been removed, a welcome update for fans wanting to play the classic RPG on PC.
Denuvo is used as an anti-piracy measure for games on PC and because of its known issues fans generally aren’t happy when a game utilizes it. I’m excited that Square Enix has decided to pull it completely from the Legend of Mana remaster (via DSOgaming). The original game is a classic JRPG released in 1999 as one of 5 of the Mana series.
Each Mana game is similar to Final Fantasy in that each game takes place in a different world with wholly different stories and characters (except for Cid, who cameos in numerous Final Fantasy games). The story for 4th installment, Legend of Mana, sets you in the role of an unnamed hero tasked with rebuilding a ravaged landscape and restoring the Tree of Mana.
The tree is a mainstay in all the games as basically the source of the world’s sustenance and the progenitor of life itself as well. The colorful cast of characters, well-written dialogue, battle system, and overall quality of this timeless JRPG will definitely scratch that itch in all the right places if you’re also an aficionado of the aforementioned genre like myself.
Anyone with a PC built for gaming or even a current generation console is more than likely familiar with Denuvo. Various major, and even lower level game studios tend to include it into their games’ framework across the board. It’s done much to the chagrin of the majority of PC gamers and console gamers alike.
The software also has been implicated in various scandals over the years, ranging from allegedly having unauthorized access to kernel level admin files in Windows, throttling framerates for no discernable reason, forcing seemingly unoptimized, massive, game-breaking update patches to various games, just to name a few from recent memory.
But I digress, the Legend of Mana remaster Denuvo getting removed is a good thing and more companies need to follow suit. There are better ways to combat piracy, other than being forced to install useless bloatware onto your hardware just to be able to play the latest Call of Rooty Tooty McShootman or whatever tickles your pickle.
More developers and publishers need to realize that people will buy any product if it’s actually a well-made product. That’s business 101 at its core and needs to be the focus instead of cramming anti-consumer practices into your game.
The Legend of Mana remaster was released for PC, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4 back in June 2021. In case you missed it, you can find our thorough review on the game here.
