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.
