Secret of Mana Review

Back in middle school, I watched a flash animation called Secret of Mana Theater. The website is still around, but hasn’t been updated in over a decade. This animation made young Roy play Secret of Mana for the first time. I remember loving it, but I do not remember why. I decided to replay it, and see why boy Roy loved it.

After playing it now, I think the combat system is interesting. I am not aware of any other game that uses a system like Secret of Mana’s . It is real time, but plays out similar to turn-based. There is a stamina meter. When at 100%, your characters can do full damage if they hit. Anything under full, and your character does a tiny bit of damage. It is a system that encourages you to run in, take a swing, and then run back; just like the characters in turn-based games.

Speaking of characters, you have three characters in your party. You control the active character, while the AI controls the other two. You freely switch among them using the Select button. It has a cool coop feature, and allows a second and third player to control the other two. I did not play this way, but it is a nice option since the AI is not great.

On top of the regular stamina meter, the combat has a charging mechanic. You can hold down an attack to charge up your meter and do a more powerful attack. The higher level your weapon is, the more you can fill your charge meter, and the more damage you do. I never got good at it, and I thought it was a waste of time. The few times I was able to successfully do a charged attack, I did only a little bit more damage. I did not feel like the time wasted charging it was worth it, when I could have just done a second or third attack.

The game gives you a lot of options for combat. You find several different weapons, and you can switch among them at will. You will quickly find a preferred weapon, and be able to switch to others when a scenario requires. Later in the game, you also unlock magic. Magic is powerful. Using magic during early levels sucks, just because your magic pool is so small. However, by the second half of the game, I was using magic generously. The menu system is snappy, which is good; there is a lot of stuff in there. Some things, like equipment, are buried, but the important bits are readily available. If you do play the game, read through the manual, or read through a guide that explains the menu options.

Overall, the combat system feels really good when fighting normal enemies. The rhythm of dashing towards an enemy, striking them, and jumping back felt satisfying. The combat completely falls apart during boss fights. It does not work well when the boss can fling spells at you, and they have a longer reach. The first few boss fights were frustrating for me. Once I got magic, it completely erased that frustration.

Secret of Mana tries some interesting things for leveling. You can level your character. Doing so will increase their stats, like health and magic points. You can also level your weapons. First you have to unlock the level for the specific weapon. After you do that, a character can use the weapon and level it up to the unlocked level. Each character unlocks levels for each weapon.

You can also level up your magic. First you have to unlock the magic type. Then, throughout the game you raise the level cap of your overall magic. You have to use a spell within a spell type to level up the type, and you have to do this for each type.

Unfortunately, I had to do a lot of grinding. I relied on magic during boss fights, so I needed to make sure my magic was at the highest levels at all times. Whenever I unlocked a new spell type, I would make sure to level it up to the level cap. Once I increased the level cap, I made sure to level up the spells in each type to the new cap. It was a process that took hours, but was 100% necessary for me. I breezed through every boss fight.

There is a reason why I do not remember much from my first playthrough of this game. After replaying it, I think the story is fine, but utterly forgettable. It never got its hooks in me. The three main characters have distinct personalities, but they never go deep. I did feel emotions bubble to the surface near the end of the game. The game needs more moments like that, but it rarely delivered. I did like the dialogue between the characters, but I wish the overall story was better.

The music deserves its own paragraph. The soundtrack is the best I have heard on the SNES. The drums have a punch to them, and the all of the “instruments” come together to form a full sound. The music is always appropriate, ranging from lighthearted to spooky. It might be one of the best soundtracks of any game, period. I love it.

In the end, Secret of Mana does a lot of new (for its time) and interesting things. It works to an extent, but completely falls apart the deeper you get into them. I think the combat is great for the majority of the game, but utterly sucks when it comes to bosses. I like seeing numbers go up, so the leveling system kept me engaged, but I really hated grinding the magic levels. I wish this game was another Chrono Trigger situation; a game I think everyone should play. However, it doesn’t even get close to those heights. It really isn’t a game for me.