Retro Game of the Month February 2018: Secret of Mana (SNES)

Tanoomba

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Perhaps inspired by the soon-to-be-released remake, the community selected the well-loved SNES classic Secret of Mana as this month's retro game. Real-time action meets JRPG in this gorgeous epic with a stunning soundtrack.

Secret of Mana
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Wikipedia Blurb:
Secret of Mana, originally released in Japan as Seiken Densetsu 2,[a] is a 1993 action role-playing gamedeveloped and published by Square (now Square Enix) for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the sequel to the 1991 game Seiken Densetsu, released in North America as Final Fantasy Adventure and in Europe as Mystic Quest, and it was the first Seiken Densetsu title to be marketed as part of the Mana seriesrather than the Final Fantasy series. Set in a high fantasy universe, the game follows three heroes as they attempt to prevent an empire from conquering the world with the power of an ancient flying fortress.

Rather than using a turn-based battle system like contemporaneous role-playing games, Secret of Manafeatures real-time battles with a power bar mechanic. The game has a unique Ring Command menu system, which pauses the action and allows the player to make decisions in the middle of battle. An innovative cooperative multiplayer system allows a second or third player to drop in and out of the game at any time. Secret of Mana was directed and designed by Koichi Ishii, programmed primarily by Nasir Gebelli, and produced by veteran Square designer Hiromichi Tanaka.

The game received considerable acclaim for its brightly colored graphics, expansive plot, Ring Command menu system, and innovative real-time battle system. Critics also praised the soundtrack by Hiroki Kikuta and the customizable artificial intelligence (AI) settings for computer-controlled allies.

The original version was released for the Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console in Japan in September 2008, and for the Wii U's Virtual Console in June 2013 . The game was ported to mobile phones in Japan in 2009, and an enhanced port of the game was released for iOS in 2010 and Android in 2014. Nintendo re-released in September 2017 as part of the company's Super NES Classic Edition. A full 3D remake will be released for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Microsoft Windows in February 2018.

Enjoy!
 
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pharmakos

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i'm going to suggest that, like last month, we nestle two games in the series together. the sequel, Seiken Densetsu 3, was only released in Japan, but has a wonderfully done, fan-translated English patch (available pre patched on Vimm^). it eliminates many of the tedious aspects of Secret of Mana, like the grinding and limited inventory space, and has many other improvements.

you pick your party from three of six possible characters at the beginning, and there is a branching progression system with four possible ultimate classes for each character (two classes at mid level, then two more branching off those end game).

the story changes depending on who you pick for your main character, three different possible stories.

the replay potential is therefore way higher with SD3 than with SoM.

i haven't participated in the last couple GotMs, but will this month.
 
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Tanoomba

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pharmakos said:
for ROMs: Vimm's Lair: Preserving the Classics

i'm going to suggest that, like last month, we nestle two games in the series together. the sequel, Seiken Densetsu 3, was only released in Japan, but has a wonderfully done, fan-translated English patch (available pre patched on Vimm^). it eliminates many of the tedious aspects of Secret of Mana, like the grinding and limited inventory space, and has many other improvements.

you pick your party from three of six possible characters at the beginning, and there is a branching progression system with four possible ultimate classes for each character (two classes at mid level, then two more branching off those end game).

the story changes depending on who you pick for your main character, three different possible stories.

the replay potential is therefore way higher with SD3 than with SoM.

i haven't participated in the last couple GotMs, but will this month.
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I own Seiken Densetsu 3 for the Super Famicom but I can't really read kanji so it's been virtually untouched. I may try the fan translation to finally see what the game is all about.

Having said that, I would also suggest people play Seiken Densetsu 1, which was release in North America as Final Fantasy Adventure for the original GameBoy. It manages to capture a lot of the charm of Secret of Mana in a compact package, with weapon-switching action and a lot of familiar enemy designs.
 
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McCheese

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Tanoomba said:
I own Seiken Densetsu 3 for the Super Famicom but I can't really read kanji so it's been virtually untouched. I may try the fan translation to finally see what the game is all about.

Having said that, I would also suggest people play Seiken Densetsu 1, which was release in North America as Final Fantasy Adventure for the original GameBoy. It manages to capture a lot of the charm of Secret of Mana in a compact package, with weapon-switching action and a lot of familiar enemy designs.
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Oh god...Final Fantasy Adventure. I remember I got stuck at one point in that game because I ran out of some kind of pick you used to break rocks...I think a mithril pick or something like that? Anyway, I spent literally weeks trying to find a way to backtrack and buy more, but I was never able to. I just was stuck there. I ended up quitting in frustration. Looking back now it probably was just me being a stupid kid and I'm sure there was a way back or to get more picks, but it really soured me on the game.
 
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Szlia

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I was about to say I played Secret of Mana back in the days, beat it and have no desire to play it again, but I actually never beat Seiken Densetsu 3 as I stopped mid way through at the time... I might give it another go.
 
McCheese

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Seiken Densetsu has some kind of werwolf character in it, right? I played mostly through it on room many many years ago. Awesome game, highly recommend to anyone who is bored with SoM. I'll be sticking with SoM myself, since it's been decades for me
 
Tanoomba

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I've already spoken quite a bit about Secret of Mana here and here, so I'm not in a rush to start blabbing about it again. This is as good an excuse as any to go back to that saved game and try to make more progress, though. Hopefully it won't take me more than an hour to figure out what I've accomplished and what I'm supposed to do next (the bane of 16-bit RPGs).
 
V

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McCheese said:
Oh god...Final Fantasy Adventure. I remember I got stuck at one point in that game because I ran out of some kind of pick you used to break rocks...I think a mithril pick or something like that? Anyway, I spent literally weeks trying to find a way to backtrack and buy more, but I was never able to. I just was stuck there. I ended up quitting in frustration. Looking back now it probably was just me being a stupid kid and I'm sure there was a way back or to get more picks, but it really soured me on the game.
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Had a similar experience. Adventure was the second game I ever bought with my own money. I think I was maybe 8 or 9 years old. No idea why I bought it -- I guess the box art looked cool? The most in-depth game I had played prior to Adventure was probably Super Mario Bros. 3. But holy shit was I in over my head with Adventure. I would always get stuck in different spots. The idea of backtracking and leveling up was just so foreign to me. But something about that game kept me coming back...

It wasn't until like a decade later that I tried it out again with the intent to complete it once and for all. I beat it from start to finish. Great, great game -- truly impressive for a relatively early release on the Game Boy. But goddamn... looking back I realize that as a kid I was barely scratching the surface of Adventure. I was probably completing the first 10-15% then giving up, but for miniature me it felt like an eternity.
 
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Falstaff

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Final Fantasy Adventure was the game of choice for vacation road trips growing up. Went through so many batteries...
 
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yimmien

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I did a book report in maybe 4th grade on the prima strategy guide for this. I got away with it because it was weird and written kind of like a narrative.
 
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a c i d.f l y

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pharmakos said:
for ROMs: Vimm's Lair: Preserving the Classics

i'm going to suggest that, like last month, we nestle two games in the series together. the sequel, Seiken Densetsu 3, was only released in Japan, but has a wonderfully done, fan-translated English patch (available pre patched on Vimm^). it eliminates many of the tedious aspects of Secret of Mana, like the grinding and limited inventory space, and has many other improvements.

you pick your party from three of six possible characters at the beginning, and there is a branching progression system with four possible ultimate classes for each character (two classes at mid level, then two more branching off those end game).

the story changes depending on who you pick for your main character, three different possible stories.

the replay potential is therefore way higher with SD3 than with SoM.

i haven't participated in the last couple GotMs, but will this month.
Click to expand...

Came here to say something very similar. Asked my Japanese aunt what it meant, she replied simply "sword of power", which I thought was cool. I, too, played the translated version of DS3 on emu. Loved it. The one monk style dude was friggen insane when you leveled him up. It's been years since I played it, but I do think of it very fondly. SoM doesn't hold as much impact, but I enjoyed it as well. ChronoTrigger and the translated FFV are probably my top two SNES rpgs with SD3 as third, and SoM after. Followed by FF6, FF4, SoE, and so many others. Golden age of rpgs.
 
Gavinmad

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a c i d.f l y said:
Came here to say something very similar. Asked my Japanese aunt what it meant, she replied simply "sword of power", which I thought was cool. I, too, played the translated version of DS3 on emu. Loved it. The one monk style dude was friggen insane when you leveled him up. It's been years since I played it, but I do think of it very fondly. SoM doesn't hold as much impact, but I enjoyed it as well. ChronoTrigger and the translated FFV are probably my top two SNES rpgs with SD3 as third, and SoM after. Followed by FF6, FF4, SoE, and so many others. Golden age of rpgs.
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Kevin, and Kevin ain't got shit on dark/dark Hawke. SPLIT IMAGE SLICE UP IN YA FACE!!!
 
a c i d.f l y

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Amazingly I have several 20+ year old SNES carts where the battery is still good. I did have to replace the battery on my FF1 cart last year. Those 2032 batteries last forever on everything except motherboards.
 
Mures

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I think SoM legit had a bad batch of batteries when they were making their cartridges or something. Had a friend's go out just ~3 years after the game was released and then a different friend had his go out ~5 years after release. I didn't even know they had batteries in them until then.
 
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