Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The Secret of Mana...Too Good of a Secret It Would Seem

Before I became the proud owner of a Super Nintendo, I only had the opportunity to play whatever games my friends had, and since most of my friends didn't have a Super Nintendo either, I only had the opportunity to play a few good ones.  My first foray into the world of Roleplaying games came around this time in the form of Secret of Mana.

This was the box art, nothing fancy, and certainly understated just how awesome this game is.

This is probably without a doubt the BEST action Role-playing game ever made, and arguably one of the last good ones made either.  The sad thing about this game is it is so good I don't think the creators realized that they had a good thing and perhaps should have stuck to it.  Every sequel to this game seems to lack the charm, simplicity, and playability that made Secret of Mana such a grand success to begin with.  So what makes this game so great?

 One of many "Gigas" bosses that would spawn the myth of the "Gigas Gigas" (king of the gigases) among some of my friends.


A few things come to mind right off the bat.  A memorable soundtrack, original concepts, simple battle mechanics, drop in drop out co-op multiplayer, a great story, fun characters, great support characters, and that's just off the top of my head.  It's not too long that if you sink a full weekend into it, you should be able to finish it, but not so short that you'll feel short changed when it's all over.  I've played through this game quite a few times and have found quite a bit of enjoyment out of each play-through, either by trying different tactics, exploring alternatives that I hadn't considered, and I learn fun new things each time that inspire me to play it time and time again.

 These Ring Menus Were the Coolest!

The game was so good that when news of a sequel sprang up I was very excited, but that excitement faded over time as the game never made it stateside and it wasn't until I was in high school that I managed to track down a playable translation, and it definitely lacked the atmosphere, game mechanics, and charm that it's predecessor had used to great effect.  It begged the question "why couldn't it be more like Secret of Mana?" and has been the first of many far more disappointing titles that would come out since then.

Japanese box for Seiken Densetsu 2 (wait, what? this is a sequel!?)

Secret of Mana itself is a sequel to a Gameboy game called Seiken Densetsu which would be released as a Final Fantasy knockoff stateside so as far as people were concerned in the US, Secret of Mana was the first game in the series.  The Ill fated Seiken Densetsu 3 or Secret of Mana 2 would never make it stateside and when people like myself and other fans of the original Secret of Mana got a chance to play it, it did NOT deliver the goods.  This would be followed by an even bigger disappointment with Legend of Mana, a game so bad I quit playing about 15 minutes in and haven't looked back.  The game played like a poorly conceived children's picture book, not a compelling RPG that was instrumental in bringing about the golden age of Sqauresoft.  Sword of Mana on the Gameboy Advance was a step in the right direction, but it was intended as a prequel and played like one, less features, no new mechanics, overall unforgettable.  It too lacked elements that made SoM a great game, and although I gave it an honest play through, I would not take much satisfaction in doing so again.  Further disappointment would ensue with the release of Seiken Densetsu 4 which basically just ripped off the Kingdom Hearts short of including a cast of Disney characters, and failed to bring anything unique to the table.  It failed to provide any semblance of any of the games in the series, and was a huge failure for one simple reason, it was nothing like Secret of Mana and didn't even try to be anything other than a failed entry into what should have been a dead franchise.  Most recently they made Children of Mana on DS, another sequel/prequel like Sword of Mana, again adding nothing new to the series and leaving me a bit disappointed.  Finally, we have Heroes of Mana on the DS which resembles a real time strategy formula rather than an action RPG one, and once again fails to deliver the goods.  I thought there was some potential with the vibrant cast of characters and what was shaping up to be an interesting storyline, but minutes into the game I realized that the game mechanics were complicated, not fun, and confusing.  To complicate things, the characters became far too chatty and I found myself skipping huge chunks of dialogue in hopes of "getting on with it already" and just being disappointed at what I ended up getting to ultimately.  It ended up being a cycle of skipping cut scenes just to run into a shitty game that lacks everything I could ever hope for in a Secret of Mana sequel.

 Sadly it never made it to the States.

You'd think with all the Squresoft buzz that this would have made it stateside, it even got decent press coverage, I remember seeing articles about "Secret of Mana 2" all over the place.

 Slightly bumped graphics, slightly different interface, drop in drop out multiplayer same as before, just lacking a certain something, maybe it was the lack of personality that the characters had in this one since they reduced it to a "choose a class" character select format.  Amateur Japanese to English translation may not have helped much either.

Character select screen for Seiken Densetsu 3, I suppose limiting who you could bring with would encourage you to play the game again with those characters you excluded from your first go around, I did not experience that urge.

Legend of Mana *shudders*


 Why didn't they just add Micky Mouse and quit making further mockery of this poor dead beaten horse...

Hey blonde Sora where's Goofy and Donald at?  Fucking....Weak.....

So how do I really feel?  In a word, wanting.  I have been waiting for what will be going on almost 20 years for a decent title in the "Mana" franchise to step up, knock off the gimmicky reinvention cycle that has sent this series straight to the gaming gutter, and make a game that will once again captivate me, and give me the pure satisfaction that Secret of Mana gives me every time I play it.  I just want two things really, drop in drop out multiplayer action RPG action, and a compelling cast of characters caught up in a world of magic, fantasy, political intrigue, and saving the world.  I don't know why that's so hard to recreate, they could have made 10 successful widely popular sequels if they'd just followed that simple formula when they went ahead with any sequels to begin with.  What this tells me is that the people responsible for continuing this franchise fail to realize that the key to success lies in the fact that they made a brilliant game to begin with, and that they shouldn't try to fix what ain't broken.  It's a testament to a game's greatness that a franchise can stay alive for roughly two decades on the merit of one good game followed by several total stinkers that everybody only buys in the desperate hope that perhaps the next new one will finally be the one that we've been waiting for since 1993.

2 comments:

  1. I've been looking all over the internet for an analysis on what makes Secret of Mana such a great game. I think this post touches on it a bit. What made the game so great seems to be just a secret.

    I think you could also talk about Secret of Evermore. I thought that game was fantastic; besides the weak weapons system (lack of lvl 8 attacks that were so much fun in SoM.) Storyline was also phenominal in my opinion.

    Thanks for the great post!

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    1. Secret of Evermore is pretty solid, I played that one a few years after I played Mana, I think what bothered me about it at the time (I was about 11-12) was I was half expecting it to be a sequel of sorts (both had secret in the name, seemed logical), and when I found out it was a standalone game, I was put off by it. I borrowed it from a buddy and beat it eventually, but it took me some time to warm up to the game. In hindsight it was probably one of the better games in terms of story during the "Golden Age of Sqaresoft" because the main character was quirky and had a lot of great lines, but I didn't really appreciate it until I got older. There were some mechanical issues with the game that weren't as good as SOM or Chrono Trigger that held it back from being elevated to a state of reverence for me growing up.

      I really appreciate the input. I don't get a lot of feedback on here, but it's nice to know people actually read this once in while! :D

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