 THE GAME PUSHED THE SNES TO ITS LIMITS
Secret of Mana is a beloved JRPG which released back in 1993 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It has garnered a cult following since its release, enough of one that Square Enix is set to release a remake of the game featuring a graphical overhaul, a new 3D art style and voice acting. The game is often cited as being one of the best RPGs of all time and is surrounded by an interesting story of failed business relationships and technical restraints. The game ultimately had a direct influence on games like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI in a way that can be directly traced back to its troubled development. With the release of Secret of Mana HD imminent, let’s look back at what made the original so great and why, to this day, it remains a modern classic.
The SNES had its fair share of absolutely beautiful games and Secret of Mana is one of the best. The hand drawn backgrounds and landscapes are a joy to behold and the character sprites are remarkably varied and imaginative. While its peers featured largely the same attention to detail, there’s a colorful wackiness to Secret of Mana, a product of the game taking itself less seriously than say Final Fantasy.
The music, too, is simply delightful. Complementing the dungeon crawling and epic boss fights surprisingly well, the soundtrack is retro gold which is able to instantly tug on the heart strings of those which played it back in the day. The game pushed the limits of what was possible in the 16-bit era, evident in the way the console would often slow down when faced with multiple players and towns.
It is an impressive achievement despite the fact that many parts of the game had to be cut to fit it onto a CD-ROM add-on to the SNES. Infamously, Nintendo and Sony had partnered on the project only for it to fall through at the last minute. Luckily the game is still a fantastic fairy tale adventure nonetheless.
LOCAL MULTIPLAYER FOR UP TO THREE PLAYERS
Secret of Mana was a blast to play alone, even better with friends. Capitalizing on the inherent party vibe which the SNES cultivated, Secret of Mana allowed up to three players to play the game together. The experience puts a real emphasis on teamwork and crawling through dungeons with your friends was always a special experience.
The action-oriented combat was also perfectly suited for multiplayer, keeping the pace up so that no player was left waiting for their turn for too long. In an era where there were a tonne of co-op experiences to choose from, Secret of Mana stood out for the simple fact that it was a full-length RPG which you could enjoy with your friends. Don’t get me wrong; beating your buddy in Mario Kart is great, but it’s got nothing on saving the world side by side.
ACTION-PACKED COMBAT
The combat in Secret of Mana was a different beast from anything seen in its peers and the games that influenced it. In an era where RPGs were dominated by turn-based battle systems, Secret of Mana chose instead to mix in Zelda-style weapon swinging combat. The result is something pretty unique, offering an increased sense of pace to proceedings.
The animations behind each character’s power attacks also added to the action, offering up an awesome visual spectacle every time a character would choose to jump up and shoot fireballs out of their hands. This combat also lent itself to multiplayer as it allowed a more accessible pick and play feel without compromising the depth of the systems. There’s a bunch of weapons to choose from and they’re often available to upgrade which, when combined with the magic attacks and systems, really felt like something new and different at the time.
The statistical elements synonymous with RPGs of the time still remained, it’s just that the combat felt more palpable due to the one to one input nature of the attacks. Secret of Mana’s unique blend of hack and slash and turn-based combat may seem standard nowadays, but at the time it really was a breath of fresh air in a genre which had become very rigid in its rules and gameplay systems.
IT’S ZANY AS ALL HELL
While other games chose to focus on space Nazis or bloodthirsty demons, Secret of Mana decided to tell what is essentially a fairy tale. This game has it all, from dragons and swords trapped in stones to weird Easter Eggs referencing martian conspiracy theories. One section in particular highlights just how out there Secret of Mana gets, a section which just so happens to involve ol’ Saint Nick himself. After stealing a magic seed, Santa is transformed into a Frost Titan which the player must defeat. This sense of adventure and the tongue in cheek plot acted as a welcome break from the serious and straight-faced stories its peers were telling. You can level a lot of criticisms at Secret of Mana but lack of originality isn’t one of them.
There’s a child-like quality to the game which evokes bedtime stories of heroes and monsters, something which game designer Koichi Ishii says is both intentional and personal:
 “I really loved working with Secret of Mana, as much as I love the finished game. There is so much of myself in it. I even designed parts of the game after my own childhood memories. There are enemies that come from my nightmares when I was a little boy.”
You can travel across the map by being fired out of a cannon, there’s an abandoned subway system in an ancient city full of zombies as well as a ton of other strange and ridiculous secrets to find.
It remains clear that Secret of Mana is a very special game which deserves to be played by as many people as possible. Its action-oriented combat and multiplayer options have always made it somewhat easier for modern audiences to go back and play than some of the turn-based games of the era. With the 3D remake upon us, it will be interesting to see how many players choose to experience the game for the first time. What they’ll find is a wacky but rewarding Squaresoft RPG that remains a modern classic to this day.
Published: Feb 15, 2018 10:16 am