Secret of Mana is one of those classic, storied games with a massive legacy. Not quite on the mythic tier of an icon like Chrono Trigger, fans have nevertheless held Secret of Mana aloft as an all-time great in the RPG genre, and one of the very best games on the SNES. For decades, people have reminisced on the game's beautiful, vibrant pixel art and the phenomenal soundtrack from Hiroki Kikuta. The game is also fondly remembered for its innovation in featuring cooperative multiplayer, which wasn't (and still isn't) common with RPGs. We had an SNES when I was born, but we never owned nor rented Secret of Mana, so it was always one of those games that I just admired from afar; that legendary box art imprinted on my mind from as early an age as I can remember.
To this day, some 32 years later, I've still never played the original Secret of Mana. Recently though, I played through the remake that released on PlayStation Vita, PS4 and PC back in 2018. This remake was quite controversial. The stunning pixel art was replaced with a relatively uninspired, almost dull looking 3D art style. The remake also featured voice acting, but the 3D character models had no lip synching to actually match the dialogue to their mouth motions, which made the update look even cheaper. The iconic soundtrack was re-recorded and upset a great number of fans of the classic version, though I personally really enjoyed some of the tracks from the remake's soundtrack. The gameplay was also adjusted in myriad minor ways, such as adding full 360 degree movement and additional opportunities to save your progress throughout the game. From what I understand the narrative wasn't updated in any way, shape or form.
Secret of Mana is an action-RPG and plays somewhat similarly to a classic top-down Legend of Zelda game; this held especially true in the original SNES version of the game, as movement was limited to the four cardinal directions. You control a party of three: a young man (the protagonist) who finds a magical sword, a princess seeking to rescue her brainwashed knight boyfriend and a sprite of an indeterminate gender who longs to find his or her lost village. There are myriad weapon classes available, and each of the characters can equip every weapon type. The girl can also learn defensive or support-based magic, while the sprite can learn offensive magic. Every weapon class and magic type can be leveled up through repeated use in battle, and you're highly encouraged to keep these skill levels as high as you can, especially the magic, as actively utilizing magic can make the game much easier for you.
The weapon classes are either melee or ranged, and I found it to be most effective to lead combat with the boy, equipped with a strong melee weapon class like the spear or the axe, while the girl and the sprite hang back and use magic and attack with ranged weapons, such as the bow or the boomerang. Truthfully, you'll probably have the best luck just spamming whatever powerful spells you can in 99% of the fights. While that strategy worked best for me, I should say that I genuinely did not enjoy this game's combat, which is a bummer, because it's easily the largest component of Secret of Mana's gameplay. You're in battle constantly, especially if you grind experience points, which I recommend doing. The party member AI is astonishingly bad, and I was having to heal or resurrect them constantly, which made an already unsatisfying battle system significantly worse. The combat itself feels incredibly repetitive and I think it aged poorly. But, I think this feeling was also intensified by pairing these dated, frustrating mechanics with a brand new art style, as if the gameplay didn't need any tweaking. I feel that they could've easily made some adjustments to the combat in this remake to make it more enjoyable and engaging.
I didn't think Secret of Mana's story was really anything special, and as far as I can tell, the story remains unchanged from the original version of the game. In 1993, we had already received numerous landmark games that had shifted our expectations for sophisticated, complex stories being told in the medium of video games. Other than its length, Secret of Mana has the kind of story that you'd expect from an RPG from the NES era. Just a straightforward, streamlined tale of good versus evil with a relatively small cast comprised of two-dimensional characters. These aren't inherently negative traits; sometimes predictable comfort food-type stories are exactly what we're craving. But, when I've heard over the last few decades about how phenomenal Secret of Mana is, I expected something bigger. Something grander. Also, as an addendum to the discussion regarding the plot, Secret of Mana's pacing is incredibly uneven and this further adds to the sense of the game feeling like a mess at times.
I was disappointed to find that Secret of Mana didn't match the high expectations that I had developed for the game over the years of hearing about it. I'm sure experiencing the game through the remake wasn't the ideal way to play it, but many of my issues with the game sound like things that weren't changed between versions. Lackluster, repetitive combat paired with a paper-thin story made for a less than stellar experience when the game heavily relies on those two core pillars. I'm well aware that my opinion is in the minority regarding this game, so I guess I should say to hold my opinion loosely, and judge the game for yourself. If you're still interested in Secret of Mana, consider trying the original version of the game, which can be played on the SNES or as part of the Collection of Mana compilation on the Nintendo Switch, and play it in local co-op for the highest quality experience.
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