Secret of mana review on why i think its not as great a game as some think

I was thinking about this game since i was seeing some people praise it to death:

Secret of Mana Reviews for SNES – GameFAQs (http://www.gamefaqs.com/snes/588646-secret-of-mana/reviews)

No way is it a 10 out of 10.

The story:
intro of the game:
Retro Game Invasion – Secret of Mana – YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejHSVKi4wj8)

Secret of Mana (http://mmxz.zophar.net/rpg/mana/story/story.html) thats for story and characters

You start out with a nameless idiotic character on the waterfall messing around and you fall off the side and into the water and swim around and find a magic sword and get it to cut the grass down.

Soon you will meet your characters you will be forever:

Purim is a young lady who lives in the kingdom of Pandora. She was in love with Dyluck, a knight of Pandora’s forces, who could barely spend time with her due to his work. She is furious with the King when he sends Dyluck to eliminate Elinee the witch. She joins Randi vowing to find Dylcuk at any cost.

Purim uses heal-type magic, allowing the group to regain HP and enhance their performance in battle. She has a strong sense of justice and is determined to save Dyluck from the Empire.

Popoie is an orphaned sprite who floated away from his village at a young age and met up with the Dwarf Elder of Gaia’s Navel. Due to his rough experience as a young sprite, Popoie has retrograde amnesia and cannot recall past memories. He meets Randi and decides to join him in the hope that he might remember his past with the help of the Earth Mana Seed.

Popoie uses attack-type magic, and utilizes powerful spells to inflict heavy damage on enemies. He may be a little cheeky at times, but he still has a strong heart and is ready to fight for the freedom for the world. Popoie

Randi is the main character of the game. One day, while visiting a forbidden waterfall with his friends, he accidentaly fell down the fall and stumbled across a sword wedged into a rock. Guided by a mysterious spirit, he unwillingly pulls it free, and releases many evil monsters into the world. He then realizes that this rusty sword is none other than the legendary Mana Sword! He is then banished from Potos Village and must set out to rid the world of the monsters that have appeared.

Randi’s destiny is to save the world from the evil Empire. He must revive the Mana Sword and become the new Mana Knight. Along the way he will have to gain the power of the eight Mana Seeds and meet the Mana Tree, the guardian of the world.

Other than that,there isn’t any serious development for randi or popoie.

http://mmxz.zophar.net/rpg/mana/images/haunted_forest.gif

This is an example of the graphics:

Its very cartoony and not serious at all.

The enemies look like cute kids anime cartoons and seems more like something a very small kid would enjoy.

Oh yeah:you fly in mode 7 diagonally and around the world,like seen in this pic:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5c/Flammie_Flying.gif

Gameplay:

Here is some footage

Secret of Mana gameplay video – YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBNSJKJxWI4)

You have to charge your weapon to attack and use a commands ring to equip armor and weapons and use items just like in secret of evermore.

Spells:In secret of mana,only popoie and purim can use magic.

Purim can use healing and buffs and popoie can use black magic just like in ff4.
In order to get your spells,you need to go to the shrine and meet the spirits essencially protecting that shrine and these shrine protectors join you and give you their magic element.

Once you have magic as seen in the video,you must use those spells in order to level them up in order to make them stronger.

I hope this review is comprehensive enough,feel free to add any new data.

Oh yeah my commentary:Secret of mana seems to have less stuff to do than games like:Chrono trigger.

In chrono trigger,you have multiple endings and you have secret items you can get.

Plus:it has a better story and i find:better music too.

This is all of course taste.

I am not negating that it isn’t a good game,i just mean to say that I don’t think it deserves 10 out of 10.

Oh yeah:people i want to know your thoughts on seiken desetsu or whatever it was called which is the first game vs:seiken 2 which is essencially:secret of mana.

1 better? 2 better than first?

http://ist1-1.filesor.com/pimpandhost.com/1/_/_/_/1/A/K/F/A/AKFA/1312959312657.gif

Some of the Mana games are a lot of fun. Is this your first one or what? You are going to see the cutesy "m�e" look in every one, lol.
Incidentally, I don’t remember Seiken 2 or 1 very well right now. My favorite is Seiken 3.

EXTRA! EXTRA! TC compares games from 1993 with games of 1995! (a huge gap back then).

SUPER EXTRA!: 90% of SNES games looked cartoony and not serious at all!

READ IT ALL HERE!

EXTRA! EXTRA! TC compares games from 1993 with games of 1995! (a huge gap back then).

SUPER EXTRA!: 90% of SNES games looked cartoony and not serious at all!

READ IT ALL HERE!

Maybe a little animated like:earthbound which is cartoony.

I haven’t played every single snes game,and there are a lot of games.
But i have played:Lufia1 and 2,earthbound final fantasy1-4 and:one of the phantasy star games for snes.
Oh yeah:terranigma is sort of an rpg and zelda is more of an action game even though it does have mid evil style thing going.

Its just that:
Mike’s RPG Center – Secret of Mana – Bestiary (http://mikesrpgcenter.com/mana/bestiary.html)
http://shrines.rpgclassics.com/snes/lufia2/monsters/elcid.shtml
Not as anime ish.

Breath of Fire Dojo (http://www.angelfire.com/rpg2/bofdojo/BoF/Bosses.html)

Yeah they are cartoony but not as kiddy and cutesy as some of the animated enemies from som.

As for seiken desetsu or whatever in the series:

I played secret of mana entirely and part of legend of mana which i think is seiken desetsu 3?

The 3 way co-op mode is still fairly unique even now though, isn’t it?

Its much more fun if you play it co-op, and whilst you could say its hardly original in terms in story etc, the story is always fairly enjoyable and doesn’t suffer from the same lulls that many RPGs do. Its consistently entertaining, rather than a game of great peaks and troughs.

Basically, its just great fun to play with a couple of mates. Lots of action, easy to follow story that doesn’t usually get too emo or anything, perfect game to have a dungeon crawling knockabout on. So its not that deep, big deal – at least its fun.

The 3 way co-op mode is still fairly unique even now though, isn’t it?

Its much more fun if you play it co-op, and whilst you could say its hardly original in terms in story etc, the story is always fairly enjoyable and doesn’t suffer from the same lulls that many RPGs do. Its consistently entertaining, rather than a game of great peaks and troughs.

Basically, its just great fun to play with a couple of mates. Lots of action, easy to follow story that doesn’t usually get too emo or anything, perfect game to have a dungeon crawling knockabout on. So its not that deep, big deal – at least its fun.

I don’t believe in perfection,humans are flawed and so it would show,which is why we humans obsess over remaking movies and making remakes of old games with retranslations and such.

But:i think secret of mana is like a year older or 2 if i’m not mistaken.

Also,at the most:its a decent game but hardly perfect,just look at the scores secret of mana got.

I mean:10 out of 10 is impossible for this game.

The game is more about gameplay and its hardly that innovative in gameplay.

I mean:the ring system and leveling spells was very nice,but there was hardly any extra stuff to get after you got to the end.

You get the orbs get max weapon and thats it and there is only one way of game style to play in this game.

I admit,older games do have more limited stuff,but some of them offer some despite their lack in some part make up for it in others.

I can’t understand how a game that is relatively short in gameplay and story is lacking and character development is lacking can get 10 out of 10.

At the most,maybe i can understand a 4 out of 10 or a 5 out of 10,but not a 10 out of 10.

There is no excuse,this game was on the snes and they could have added more stuff,they had the capacity.

Breath of fire 1 came out in april 1993 and had more extra stuff to do.

Ultima underworld,an american rpg had no story whatsoever or nearly none and had a very clich� story,but it made up by having a truckload of gameplay
It was released in march 29 1992.

Anyways,you can have a game with no story at all or practically none and still be good if the gameplay makes up for it.

Ultima underworld proves this by having superb gameplay.

The game is good for what it was,but i think secret of evermore was better in gameplay and it was just as cheesy in story and lacking in character development.

You had a ton of weapons to max out and a ton of alchemy abilities to choose from and play in different styles.

When someone says ‘The perfect game for this’ or ‘Its the perfect way to spend an evening’ etc etc, they don’t actually mean its 100% perfection – they just mean its a good use of your time. Its just a figure of speech.

I agree that some people blow this game way out of proportion, but 4 out of 10 is much too harsh. Those kinds of scores should be reserved for games that are actively and aggressively bad. I don’t think Secret of Mana is ever a game like that.

Sure, the single player is nothing that special, but its fairly nicely put together, with some genuinely decent sections (Thanatos is an enjoyably hateable bad guy), and its never actively bad (something that many RPGs are, even if only in short bursts).

It’d probably get a 7/10 from me, 8/10 if you play it with friends. Basically, I’d rather play it than a lot of other JRPGs from that time – at least it doesn’t have random battles, and the ‘Oh, after you Claude’ dance-hall style turn sequence in combat.

The biggest problem with Secret of Mana is its botched translation. The story makes absolutely no sense at all, really. This really only bothers me because I’m forced to play through it though.

The biggest problem with Secret of Mana is its botched translation. The story makes absolutely no sense at all, really. This really only bothers me because I’m forced to play through it though.

Good one,i forgot that part too.

Oh yeah:I never played som with another person because nobody around me was really that into videogames so i always played solo missions.

EXTRA! EXTRA! TC compares games from 1993 with games of 1995! (a huge gap back then).

Uh… what? Why was it a huge gap "back then?" Has the passing of time accelerated since the 90s?

An evil wizard guy who turns into a giant flying skeleton thing, who pilots a flying fortress, which goes round blowing up big magic trees that keep the planet stable. No, all seems pretty straightforward to me…

Seriously though, asking for a JRPG to make any sense… what planet are you from?!

Uh… what? Why was it a huge gap "back then?" Has the passing of time accelerated since the 90s?
Man he is quite obviously just suggesting that technological advancements were much more rapid back then than they are now. I don’t think this is accurate, but come on man.

man you shut the hell up bro that game is god and you are naruto and god don’t watch anime

som has great music.

fuck yeah puts idolmaster to shame

There are some good pieces of music and they fit,but i think that there are better games even on the snes like chrono trigger for an example.

And as for technological advancements go:

Its not enough years to really make a huge difference.

I mean:What,like:2 or 3 years between chrono trigger and som?
1 year or almost between ff6? you are getting very ridiculous now with the ageist sensitivity.

It would be one thing if it was a difference of 5-10 years,but 1-3 years doesn’t really make a huge difference back then.

I played dragon warrior rom on my computer and dragon warrior 4 and there wasn’t a huge enough gap in graphics to really notice it.

Sure there were minor changes but not enough to warrant what you are talking about.

Now if someone were to say:Som is shit in comparison to ff7 or ff8 or FFX then you would have something to complain about because it is a larger gap and much more noticeable.

The psx 3d graphics even then weren’t that good,and i played the very first psx 3d game i think:kings field 1 on the psx which i think came out in 1994 or 1995.

It was extremely dark and almost impossible to see because back then there was lighting problems and it was one of the first 3d games.

I can also notice the difference between secret of mana and legend of mana,but legend of mana supposedly came out in like 1997 or 1998.

man wtf legend of mana fucking sucks man if you watch porn graphics way to go man but secret of mana has no booty

Ash, you should buy this for me SQEX-10249~68 | Seiken-Densetsu Music Complete Book – VGMdb (http://vgmdb.net/album/26348)

I don’t think Legend of Mana is the greatest game ever, but it doesn’t suck!
wtf

Man he is quite obviously just suggesting that technological advancements were much more rapid back then than they are now. I don’t think this is accurate, but come on man.

Not only is that not accurate but it would also involve the assumption that technological advancements make a game better AND that you can’t compare the quality of games with a large gap between them none of which makes any sense at all, which was basically what I was getting at there

Not only is that not accurate but it would also involve the assumption that technological advancements make a game better AND that you can’t compare the quality of games with a large gap between them none of which makes any sense at all, which was basically what I was getting at there

Well… There was a big difference between ff1 and ff2 in term of character development.

FF1 had no character development at all but ff2 at least each individual had a bit more personality.

I think though,it has more to do with improving your formula,sort of like:akalabat was i think richar garriot’s first game and it was very very primitive.So then he made ultima and it was better because you could see the character and know where you are going and then,each time he got better and better.

I bet there were some improvements between seiken deketsu 1-3.

wtf the big difference between ff1 and ff2 is that you can play ff1 and not die of boredom

i liked som because i played thru it with someone else. it was kind of groundbreaking to have a multiplayer rpg at that point in time i think.

wtf the big difference between ff1 and ff2 is that you can play ff1 and not die of boredom

FF2 had character development and ff1 didn’t,

Plus:you got to choose more or less what you wanted to be.

I for an example made the girl my warrior and my guy the mage just to be different and it worked,but i had to work hard to get it to happen.

Also:i was hoping you would answer my question about seiken deketsu 1 and 2 if any differences at all and 3.

I noticed that it was still very colorful in the game and seemed like you got freedom of movement really early in the game.

In fact:i didn’t even know what to do in legend of mana and got stuck and got bored.

Man he is quite obviously just suggesting that technological advancements were much more rapid back then than they are now. I don’t think this is accurate, but come on man.

no, i meant that back then if a game took very long to develop nobody noticed or cared, thanks partly to the lack of the internet. the only way you would know of a game in advance was on magazines.

That’s retarded, man.

Chewey hi

Yeah only way to know was magazine but either way:you will get mixed reviews unless you try it yourself by renting it or pirating it and finding out it sucks.
This is especially a problem when companies pay off reviews to give rave reviews of games.

I don’t fully trust other gamers either because i prefer to have my own view on a game,and sometimes some gamers just seem to love whatever is popular or if its a square/square enix game,they think they can do no wrong.

Yeah only way to know was magazine but either way:you will get mixed reviews unless you try it yourself by renting it or pirating it and finding out it sucks.
This is especially a problem when companies pay off reviews to give rave reviews of games.

I don’t fully trust other gamers either because i prefer to have my own view on a game,and sometimes some gamers just seem to love whatever is popular or if its a square/square enix game,they think they can do no wrong.
Not even friends whose views you are familiar with?

Either way:i still think secret of mana is slightly overrated.

i KNOW your opinion of a game is overrated

I really liked Secret of Mana. It was the first RPG i ever played. It was the game that got me interested in RPGs and video games in general. I understood the story perfectly, and i cried when the Mana Tree died and Sprite passed away, it was so sad.

Understanding the story is literally impossible considering like 40% of it is lost because of the cheap translation. It is a fact that it is nonsense.

Oh yeah:even though i don’t think its the best game ever,i still think its fun to play on single player mode and lvling the spells.
I beat it about 5 times or more,i can’t remember since i’ve played it quite a bit.

The gameplay is definitely the highlight since it has nearly no story at all.Of course,the music is also another thing i like about the game.
One thing i found about the music,is that it feels rather campy at times and fits the surroundings very well.I think my favorite piece of music,is the deep forest musical piece.