[Secret of Mana] Some games never get old

captaink · May 2012

I was hunting around for an action RPG to sate my appetite until Diablo 3 hits, and I finally remembered Secret of Mana. I popped it in a couple of nights ago, and I'm already near the end. I really love this game, it's just such a timeless classic. This will probably be the 4th time I've beaten it.

Part of it is the spritework, which is just some of the best ever. The look and feel of this game is ageless. Some of my favorite 16-bit graphics, alongside Chrono Trigger. And it's a great game to just pick up and play. No complicated character planning, no hidden treasures to miss, just enemies to whack, and elementals to collect. This time I put in a code to level weapons and magic faster, and I'm glad I did. Removes one of the main sources of tedium, so I get to the cool flashy spells that are worthwhile faster.

I just picked up Luna, and I'm headed for Dryad, after that is the endgame, pretty much. A boss rush, more or less. Hopefully Girl will have enough MP to heal through it all. Sprite just learned MP absorb so now she is an absurd machine gun of magic spells that never runs dry.

I also really like Seiken Densetsu 3, which has a little more replayability. But I spend way too much time before a game agonizing over who to pick. I was actually going to play SD3, but I couldn't decide on a 3rd character to take with Duran/Angela, or what classes to take Duran based on who else I brought. Eventually I just said "fuck it" and booted up Secret of Mana.

I also played Secret of Evermore a loooong time ago. I liked some of the different stuff it did, but I ended up stuck near the end somehow. I think I was just scared to pull the trigger and actually fight the end boss though. I was pretty young. Some day I should go back and actually beat it.

I played the GBA Mana game. Sword of Mana? I was pretty unimpressed. Didn't like being a solo character. Didn't like how the magic worked based on your equipped weapon. It messed up a lot of the good parts about the Mana series, I thought. Were there any other Mana games that turned out to be good? I never played the ones on Playstation.

Keamien · May 2012

I adore this game, and secret of evermore as well. It might be just my love of the SNES era rpgs because those were the ones I played the most during my childhood, but they are still awesome.

I have yet to beat Secret of Mana though, the enemies get super tough super fast towards the end and I always hated grinding.

Rorus Raz · May 2012

The game is awesome, don't get me wrong, but the ring menu is one of the worst things ever for a multiplayer game. Experience the action as you sit around and wait for your friends to stop pausing every two seconds to cast a spell.

Also, it has a stellar soundtrack. Ceremony remains one of the creepiest songs.

Viking · May 2012

This game was the one that got me to buy a multi-tap back in the day, so much fun playing with 2 friends.
I loved that anyone could just pick up a controller at any point and just take over once of the other 2 characters, then when they left the game just carried on without them. No mucking around, it just worked.

CygnusZ · May 2012

I actually like the gameboy game the best. For a game on a black and white system the story was both moving and epic. The ending also left a fairly deep impression on me as a 4th grader. Secret of Mana never really jived with me because I felt like it encouraged a ton of grinding, the story was a step down and taking care of your companions was a huge pain.

anoffday · May 2012

Keamien wrote: »

I adore this game, and secret of evermore as well. It might be just my love of the SNES era rpgs because those were the ones I played the most during my childhood, but they are still awesome.

I have yet to beat Secret of Mana though, the enemies get super tough super fast towards the end and I always hated grinding.

I freaking love SNES rpgs. I've got Secret of Evermore in my SNES right now in front of me. I need to find a copy of Secret of Mana though. I just have it on my Wii VC and that doesn't cut it.

CaptainNemo · May 2012

The music in this is incredible. That is all I know about it.

Brainiac 8 · May 2012

I still have this game in cart form for my SNES...I also bought it on the Wii VC. I love this game.

I need to actually play it again.

harvest · May 2012

I bought a reproduction English SD3 cart from someplace (it uses that old translation that was completed ~2000) and have been playing that with a friend. Looks really nice on my tube tv with S-Video out from the snes provided by a gamecube AV cable.

Sadly, the copy of Secret of Mana I thought was mine turned out to be my brother's, and he took it with him when he moved out

I shall have to procure another. I really like the boss music when you're fighting Lich, but I have no idea what the track is called. That's the fight where he's the ghostly skeleton doing shadow magic on you and pretty much the only way to win is by spamming the light beam spell.

Raggie · May 2012

I'm still disappointed they didn't bring us SoM2.

Eat it You Nasty Pig. · May 2012

the music in this was pretty amazing

I remember thinking it was really hard, but it probably wasn't actually hard I was just young and bad at understanding things

I also recall this is a pretty hard cart to find anymore, which is too bad because if I still had mine I might be motivated to bust out a snes and play it

ed: secret of evermore I was disappointed by. That might just be because I was expecting another Mana and it was too different, though

C2B · May 2012

LOVED every Mana game till the PS2 one where everything went to hell. Heroes of Mana was still mildly entertaining but bland.

SOM2/SD3 beeing my favourite

Edit: Also Evermore. Insane, real funny story mixed with interesting gameplay systems and Jeremy Soule Music

milk ducks · May 2012

I haven't played this game since I was a kid. Thank you for reminding me how amazing it was / is.

Dignified Pauper · May 2012

I love both of these games so damn much. The music and atmosphere in both is top-notch.

anoffday · May 2012

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but can we talk about other Square SNES games too? Which are all damn good.

SNES music is still the best video game music ever created in my opinion. And Square knew what they were doing.

Probably my favorite video game song ever.

milk ducks · May 2012

Yeah, not to thread-jack or anything, but Frog's Theme (along with the entire Chrono Trigger soundtrack, honestly) is some of the best music on the SNES. For pure, unadulterated bad-assery in terms of game music, though, I gotta give it up to Phantasy Star 4, for the Sega:

Achire · May 2012

I haven't played this game in years. One thing I'm kind of curious about: do the three main characters have official names? I don't think there was a default name in-game for any of them.

Krathoon · May 2012

I highly recommend not filtering the game. Leave it in it's pixelated glory.

anoffday · May 2012

Achire wrote: »

I haven't played this game in years. One thing I'm kind of curious about: do the three main characters have official names? I don't think there was a default name in-game for any of them.

Yeah, isn't it just Boy and Girl? Or am I thinking of another game?

Casually Hardcore · May 2012

Boy, girl, sprite

C2B · May 2012

Randi (the boy), Purimu (the girl) and Popoi (the sprite)

tastydonuts · May 2012

Krathoon wrote: »

I highly recommend not filtering the game. Leave it in it's pixelated glory.

Yeah, I don't think that's a capture from an SNES.

SoM was a fun game though.

As far as the PS2 game goes, DoM was pretty sweet too imo... if only because of the soundtrack.

edit: Dawn of Mana, not Legend of Mana. The remixed LoM songs are what I liked the most about it.

captaink · May 2012

I wish there were a quicker way to get the 'final' weapons. I don't really want to grind in the Mana Fortress forever, but I do want to see the level 8 weapons once. I've never done it before, except maybe a couple by accident.

physi_marc · May 2012

What blew my mind was finding out that the sprite is actually a boy. I still mostly think of it/him/her as a girl.

Though I thought it was weird that Gnome would call the girl the sprite's wife. Gay marriage reference in a 90's Nintendo game? Unlikely.

Brainiac 8 · May 2012

#1: Secret of Evermore was awesome. If you think otherwise, you should be ashamed of yourself.

#2: Frog's theme is my ringtone.

POKÉMON MASTER WT SHERMAN · May 2012

I rented Secret of Mana fairly regularly from Blockbuster back when SNES game rentals were a thing. When they cleared out their SNES stuff I managed to snag the cart in all its sticker-covered glory, along with the box and poster (no manual though :<). It still has the save file of a buddy of mine on it from when he'd rented it. He's been grumpy about missing out on it for a decade.

anoffday · May 2012

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

#1: Secret of Evermore was awesome. If you think otherwise, you should be ashamed of yourself.

#2: Frog's theme is my ringtone.

#1 Yes.

#2 Geno's Maze is mine, but I'm pretty sure at one point frog was my ringtone too.

I've been playing a lot of PC games lately, and I think the SNES needs some love. I should play Secret of Evermore tonight. I would play Mana, but I don't have a copy yet, and if I don't play it on the SNES with a SNES controller then I feel like I'm doing it wrong.

Blackjack · May 2012

Secret of Evermore was so good. It got so much shit for not being SoM2 but it really is such a good game.

carmofin · May 2012

What I would like to know is why they never bothered or managed to create a game like this again. All the later Mana games were terrible for one reason or another.

TheSonicRetard · May 2012

One of the very first games I picked up for my SNES when I got it. I went to funcoland to get Zelda: LTTP, but they were sold out. The guy behind the counter said that if I liked Zelda, I'd probably like Secret of Mana. I had heard of it, but never paid much attention, but since it was a square game, I decided to give it a go, which wound up being an awesome idea.

I waited for years for Secret of Mana 2 to come. never did. Earlier this year, I finally got fed up of waiting. I bought a Seiken Densetsu 3 cart, opened it up, soldered on a translated eeprom, and constructed a US housing. I'm about half-way through Secret of Mana 2, and it was well worth the wait.

carmofin wrote: »

What I would like to know is why they never bothered or managed to create a game like this again. All the later Mana games were terrible for one reason or another.

Secret of Mana 2 is better than the original, IMO.

Lucedes · May 2012

Legend of Mana, the PS1 Mana game, is amazing.

It is my favorite game of all time. Hand-drawn watercolor backgrounds, multiple storylines, 3 different ways to trigger endgame, a huge cast of awesome NPCs (like, 10 of which can accompany you on adventures).

I would recommend it to basically everyone, ever.

Etiowsa · May 2012

Lucedes wrote: »

Legend of Mana, the PS1 Mana game, is amazing.

It is my favorite game of all time. Hand-drawn watercolor backgrounds, multiple storylines, 3 different ways to trigger endgame, a huge cast of awesome NPCs (like, 10 of which can accompany you on adventures).

I would recommend it to basically everyone, ever.

This guy knows what's up. Amazing game. The only mark against it is the lack of info on forging equipment in game, despite every item you find being used in said forging.

The Dude With Herpes · May 2012

Etiowsa wrote: »

Lucedes wrote: »

Legend of Mana, the PS1 Mana game, is amazing.

It is my favorite game of all time. Hand-drawn watercolor backgrounds, multiple storylines, 3 different ways to trigger endgame, a huge cast of awesome NPCs (like, 10 of which can accompany you on adventures).

I would recommend it to basically everyone, ever.

This guy knows what's up. Amazing game. The only mark against it is the lack of info on forging equipment in game, despite every item you find being used in said forging.

I loved Legend of Mana, but yeah, forging is obtuse, and also, honestly, so is the world building. You can knock yourself right out of a lot of content if you don't use a guide to place things correctly.

Gnome-Interruptus · May 2012

Damn you! I thought they might have recently re-released this [Secret of Mana] on one of the portable systems or something and I could finally pick this up and play it once more.

captaink · May 2012

Gnome-Interruptus wrote: »

Damn you! I thought they might have recently re-released this [Secret of Mana] on one of the portable systems or something and I could finally pick this up and play it once more.

It is on iphone, apparently. And the Wii virtual console. But no, no Nintendo or Sony handhelds have released it. It would be perfect.

C2B · May 2012

TheSonicRetard wrote: »

carmofin wrote: »

What I would like to know is why they never bothered or managed to create a game like this again. All the later Mana games were terrible for one reason or another.

Secret of Mana 2 is better than the original, IMO.

As mentioned before +1.

Kevin's one of my favourite video game charachters. The whole cast in that game is great in some way.

Darmak · May 2012

harvest wrote: »

I bought a reproduction English SD3 cart from someplace (it uses that old translation that was completed ~2000) and have been playing that with a friend. Looks really nice on my tube tv with S-Video out from the snes provided by a gamecube AV cable.

Sadly, the copy of Secret of Mana I thought was mine turned out to be my brother's, and he took it with him when he moved out I shall have to procure another. I really like the boss music when you're fighting Lich, but I have no idea what the track is called. That's the fight where he's the ghostly skeleton doing shadow magic on you and pretty much the only way to win is by spamming the light beam spell.

That track is called The Oracle:

DarkMecha · May 2012

I bought this on vcon years ago and then forgot to actually play through it again. I remember playing it back in the day on my SNES when I was a kid. Such a great game!

RainbowDespair · May 2012

This got me thinking...we were planning on shooting for a Chrono Trigger style of graphics after our current games, but it might be a better idea to use Secret of Mana as the target instead. Looks nearly as good but easier to do.

Oh and as much as I love Secret of Mana, I always had a sweet spot for the original Game Boy game. Probably because of all the great chiptunes.

Brainiac 8 · May 2012

RE: Secret of Evermore

Gnome-Interruptus wrote: »

Damn you! I thought they might have recently re-released this [Secret of Mana] on one of the portable systems or something and I could finally pick this up and play it once more.

Get a Supaboy and a Secret of Mana cart and BAM! You have a portable Secret of Mana.

El Fantastico · May 2012

I would kill for another instant hop-in-and-out kind of adventure-RPG like Secret of Mana. White Knight Chronicles probably comes closest to getting the multiplayer right, though it's still not perfect.

Penny Arcade

[Secret of Mana] Some games never get old

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