Secret of Mana - The Greatest Action RPG Ever?

by the summer of 1993 the super nintendo entertainment system already epitomized the 16-bit era its stature in the gaming industry produced several noteworthy rpgs final fantasy 4 though not a smash hit in north america was critically acclaimed and games like luffy and the fortress of doom and breath of fire made a great impression on enthusiasts as well when secret amana was released in 1993 it offered an experience that no other rpg to that point provided rather than a turn-based strategic oriented battle system secret amana emphasized action-oriented gameplay and adventure while incorporating rpg elements some fans may be surprised to realize that secret amana was actually the second game in the seiken densetsu franchise the first being localized as final fantasy adventure for the gameboy believe it or not its follow-up secret of mana was originally planned to be released on the super nes cd-rom the product of a joint venture between nintendo and sony the cd format which was considered revolutionary at the time would have allowed many more times the amount of data to be stored on the disk allowing for more text and a larger world however the cd-rom project never fully came to fruition and sony's progress on what they had built was eventually used as the foundation for the sony playstation this change was a setback to the developers who were then forced to adapt the game they had been working on into cartridge format according to one account the designers initially resisted continuing the project rather than making the cuts needed due to the change in format however they were eventually overruled by square management and work on secret amana continued despite the development challenges rpg fans can be glad that the finished product ended up being considered among the best games on the system one of the reasons the game gets such reverence today was its unique combat system for battle secret amana makes use of a recharging system of sorts where each character has a gauge that determines the amount of damage that would be done to an enemy when attacking after each strike the gauge requires a short time to charge back up to 100 percent and if you attack enemies prior to this point the damage dealt is considerably less additionally you can hold the attack button to save energy for a charged attack depending on your character's aptitude with their weapon the attack can be stored in multiple increments while charging your character moves much slower but when the attack is unleashed it deals extra damage in general secret amana's battle system prevented players from just wrecking everything by spamming the button quickly and encourage planning attacks in advance the weapon progression system is another part of secret amana that should be highlighted there are eight total weapons the sword spear bow axe boomerang glove javelin and whip after obtaining the weapons they each grow progressively stronger after being used in combat and each has eight total levels of strength what's more is that the weapons themselves can be upgraded after finding weapon orbs rare items found throughout the game when taken to a blacksmith the orb is expended to reforge a weapon and give it greater power this system more than anything else in the game was a fun way to incentivize random battles giving players a way to evolve in power beyond what the leveling system offered was an innovation that definitely kept me playing and worked very well to make the gameplay fun secret amana uses an inventory system that was novel for the time based on circular menus whenever the menu button is selected the action pauses completely allowing the player to select items or use spells when the item or spell is selected the action is taken while gameplay proceeds unfortunately there's no way to bind certain items or spells onto buttons which was very disappointing allowing this would have been a huge blessing considering that so much of the gameplay involves monotonous navigation through menus the visuals in this game are pretty in line for what you would expect from an snes title from 1993. the colors are pretty vibrant and the animations were skillfully made for the time one factor that stands out when it comes to the graphics are the impressive look of the bosses they are generally huge in size and this made them pretty intimidating because they were few in number the boss encounters in secret of mana were really something special and each boss had unique attack patterns and abilities that presented a challenge seeker to mana also makes use of mode 7 effectively when the group is fired out of cannons a primary method of long-range transportation it also does so to an even greater extent when the group receives the ability to fly via flamie a white dragon because mode 7 was one of the most noteworthy graphical innovations of the snes it was good to see it put to use in this game story wise the game revolves around a hero named randy from potos village he and a group of boys defy their elders orders and travel to a nearby waterfall where legend has it that a treasure is located unexpectedly randy falls from a bridge and into a lake where a voice calls out to him to pull a sword from its position in a pond when he does so he inadvertently releases teams of monsters into the world when the villagers catch wind of this the deed is portrayed as a threat to the safety of the village and randy is exiled from potos eventually he learns from a powerful knight named gemma that the weapon is the fabled mana sword and that its true power can only be unlocked by visiting eight mana temples throughout the game along his journey he recruits a girl named prim a fighter from the kingdom of pandora and also a magic using sprite named popoy with memory loss the team is pursued by a powerful emperor that hopes to undermine the trio but it's later learned that the empire is being manipulated by thanatos an ancient sorcerer who hopes to create a new world in his own image one aspect of secret amana that continues to receive a claim is the game's soundtrack especially for its time the musical score blew people away for its complexity and infectious melodies and the development process composer hiroki kikuta said that he tried to fit the songs into the areas of the game that they'd be used in also he uniquely made his own samples of instruments rather than creating them through sound engineering as far as standout tracks go i think fear of the heavens secret amana's unofficial theme of sorts is breathtaking its soothing melody was amazingly catchy and still remains in my head more than 25 years after playing the game for the first time the manner in which the game made use of the snes sound chip was actually quite great and still holds up today i think one of the most under-appreciated parts of secret of mana is the game's support for cooperative play with two controllers each player can control one of the three characters which really allowed the game to be enjoyed with friends something almost no other rpg allowed what's more was that it was actually possible for three players to play simultaneously via the super multi-tap accessory which really was revolutionary in fact i really can't think of an rpg that made better use of multiplayer capability for its era while secret of mana was an incredible game i happened to think that seiken and setsu 3 which would have been called secret of mana 2 had it been released here was actually a better game while squaresoft was planning to release it in north america some snags and localization including data limitations prevented that from ever happening it's a real shame too because the game was truly a step forward for the series the sequel allowed the player to choose their party from among six possible characters while also selecting one to serve as the league character this meant that character development and story in seikun densetsu 3 was greatly expanded fortunately for north american gamers square enix finally published trials of mana the renamed secret amana 2 for the nintendo switch playstation 4 and windows in 2020 as a 3d remake of the original game it retains most of the storyline while providing an up-to-date experience i haven't played this version of the game at all but from all accounts it was honorably dumb as awesome as the game is i do have a few general criticisms of secret of mana the first is that the allied character ai is just horrendous there'll be times in which the characters you aren't controlling just stand idly get stuck in various locations and act in quizzical ways that don't assist you at all to be fair this was probably the most difficult part of the game for the developers to code for but i'd like to think it could have been done better the other gripe i have is the lack of character development outside of a few moments here and there all three characters the hero the sprite and girl are all relatively uninteresting characters that lack personality and have little real growth the gameplay does make up for this omission but people that are used to rpgs with epic storylines may feel let down after trying this one the story actually did utilize some good ideas but i don't think secret amana allowed the player to empathize with the characters in the same ways you would find in some of the seminal rpgs the english translation was done by ted woolsey in only 30 days which was an incredible time constraint for a game such as this also data limitations forced about 40 percent of the game's original planned story to be cut which one developer said would have been quite a bit darker than the finished product given that english translations for japanese characters typically takes up more space on screen as it is i can see why this flaw came to be for those that didn't get to enjoy secret amana originally square enix gave the game a complete graphical overhaul and re-released it in 2018 now available on the playstation 4 playstation vita and windows this opened up the game to a whole new generation of fans even though i haven't played this version i know it's received some criticism either way i do think that the original snes version stands the test of time and is still more than playable so that's the one i recommend for many fans secret amana was a gateway drug of sorts into the rpg world the gameplay was intense enough that fans of action and adventure games could test the waters with it while rpg fans were willing to jump on board for its leveling and weapon skill advancement system secret of mana was also a game that influenced others that followed in its footsteps one title that inherited many of the game's characteristics was secret of evermore even though that game is a bit polarizing the combat and menu systems are strikingly similar and many fans that played it were already familiar with what to expect after having played secret amana if you liked this review and remember secret of mana leave a comment below about the most memorable aspect of the game to you if you like my videos please subscribe to my channel and click the bell below to be alerted upon the addition of new ones also please consider supporting my channel via youtube's join feature to receive member exclusives such as advanced videos and complete video transcripts you

Channel: Xygor Gaming

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Keywords: Secret of Mana, Secret of Mana review, Secret of Mana retrospective, Secret of Mana explained, secret of mana, secret of mana review, secret of mana retrospective, secret of mana explained, snes secret of mana, secret of mana snes, Secret of Mana SNES, SNES Secret of Mana, SOM SNES, snes som, som, secret of mana story, secret of mana complete, Secret of Mana gameplay, Secret of Mana 2, Collection of Mana, Trials of Mana, Secret of Mana PS4, Secret of Mana Switch

Id: WvDcfKt5sWY

Length: 11min 25sec (685 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 05 2021