I love Secret of Mana (SOM) for the Super Nintendo. Nothing makes me happier than popping that cart in and having those great memories of playing with my younger brother when it was first released flooded back in. When I heard that it was receiving a proper remaster (no the iphone games don’t count for me) I was super excited and couldn’t wait for it to be release. Did it meet my expectations? Read on to find out.
The Original Classic
SOM is a roleplaying game by Squaresoft for the Super NES that bought a lot of new and exciting ideas to the table. Many may not realize that Secret of Mana is the second in the popular Japanese Seiken Densetsu series. It is about a boy who becomes an outcast in his town because villagers believe that he has brought danger to the village. He quickly stumbles upon a sprite and a princess and then goes on his mission to power up the Mana sword in order to save the world.
The Remaster
Many people who played the original are complaining about the chibbby graphics and the voice acting or the lack of lip synching. While I agree that i'm not a fan of the characters models I think they are passable. The environment graphics however are awesome. While they are not super details, they still keep the uber colorful look of the original. The game has never looked better with widescreen and 4K support.
Gameplay wise it feels pretty similar to the the original game. I thought some of the boss battles were a tad bit easier and that characters wouldn’t get caught in environments quite as much as the SNES version. The is a remix version of the soundtrack, which isn’t bad, but the original soundtrack is the best in all of videogamedom to me, luckily the player can switch to the original if so desired.
The Final Verdict
The Secret of Mana is a must play game in my opinion. They gameplay, graphics and music is a trifecta that can’t be beat. I play it with my kids every 3 or 4 years and we have a ball. The SNES version is pretty pricey now going for over 100 bucks as well as getting a third controller and a multitap. The entry price for the remaster is much cheaper and while I would have loved more of an update (Such as all of the cut text from the original version) as well as fixing all of the bugs. The convenience of being able to easily play it on PC (via Steam) or PS4/Vita for 30 bucks with the all of the quality of life updates makes the SOM remaster the way to play the game today.
