Secret of Mana is a game that I’ve been meaning to get to for a long time now. I’ve always heard it regarded as one of the classic SNES RPGs, so I knew I would want to play it at some point. Now that I have beaten the game proper, I just find myself conflicted. I found the game really fun to play, and I enjoyed my time while playing it, but there were so many issues that prevent me from enjoying it any more than I already did. I don’t hate Secret of Mana, far from it, but I’m far from loving it.
When it comes to the combat of Secret of Mana, it’s… well it’s odd. When I’m in the natural flow of combat, it’s really fun, especially after the 2 other party members join. Sometimes it feels like you’re absolutely bullying the enemy, not allowing them to attack, which is kind of funny. Though this comes with a sort of caveat. Particularly, it’s really hard to tell when you can or can’t hit an enemy, and for some enemies (particularly bosses) it’s hard to tell where you’re even supposed to hit them. For some enemies, you’re able to hit them while they’re knocked down, while for others you can’t, and it’s just hard to tell when you can and can’t hit something. There were some noticeable jumps in difficulty, but they weren’t too hard to deal with, especially since the game is mostly forgiving in giving you methods of healing up. One personal pet peeve I had though is that sometimes it feels like enemies appear behind you, from places you’ve already been. While it might be a purposeful surprise attack, it felt more annoying than anything else. Though there’s more to the combat than the enemies you have to fight.
The first major aspect of combat itself are the weapons your characters can wield, and from what I remember you have 8 different weapons to choose from. This creates a fun sense of customization, not only in the weapon you, the player uses, but the weapons of your party members can impact combat as well. Though some weapons just end up more useful then others, particularly the Sword, the Axe, and the Whip. Throughout the game, and especially in dungeons, there are obstacles that require specific weapons to clear. Cutting down grass with the sword, breaking rocks with the axe, or crossing gaps with the whip. It just ends up being that these 3 weapons end up being the most useful, and with factors that’ll explain in a later section, I see it best to have the party members use those 3 weapons and nothing else.
To explain what the other major aspect of combat is, I want to paint a picture of the early game. In the early game, all you have to attack is using your weapons, and there’s some enemies with high defenses. There was an enemy encounter I had to fight that I died at more times than any other part of the game, and a boss fight that I found harder than any boss in the game’s final dungeon. So, you may ask, why was the early game so difficult? The answer couldn’t be simpler, you don’t have magic yet. Magic utterly breaks any balance this game once had, and every boss once you have magic is an absolute joke. Most bosses in the game range between 1800 – 3000 health, and if you train your magic properly, it can easily do about 500 damage. Boss fights can be done in less than a minute thanks to magic, making fights that sound scary into complete jokes. Though you can only get the spells as you progress through the story, and you have to train up your magic in order for it to be good, which is a different can of worms.
This game is extremely grindy. There’s of course the standard player level, but that doesn’t immediately improve weapon proficiency or spell proficiency. You have to grind levels for those too. If you play through the game in full only giving each party member a specific weapon to use, they’ll probably be at the max level for that weapon at the end of the game. And that’s fine if you’re doing that, that means they can fully charge their weapon to the strongest they can be. This as well is why I stuck the only the sword, axe, and whip, grinding out the weapon levels of other weapons would be a waste. On the other hand, you should grind out magic, the stronger it is, the easier the game becomes. But from having grinded out the characters to max, I can say with confidence it’s super tedious. Probably about a third of my playtime overall was grinding to max out the magic levels, and I don’t think I would’ve beaten the game as quickly if I didn’t do that. When it comes to the 2 characters who have magic, they have 7 different magic types they can cast, and each magic type has 8 levels, which means you would need to gain 102 levels for magic total. While I do enjoy level grinding from time to time, I do really wish that grinding magic levels was at least a little bit easier.
Though I did mention prior how magic makes boss fights an absolute joke, I still find them really fun. There’s a level of presentation, and even though you can cast magic quickly, you still have to avoid enemy attacks. This all leads me to say that I despise this game’s final boss. You can only hurt it with one kind of weapon that’s fully charged and only when the boss allows you to hit it. It’s extremely repetitive, slow, and because the final boss may target the one character who can attack, making it so that you have to wait for the next cycle, annoying as well. It ended up being the only boss I ended up hating out of the numerous bosses you have to fight during the entire game.
Finally done with talk of the game’s combat, the story of Secret of Mana is rather simple. There’s a noticeable amount of ambition I can see, but it feels like it’s unable to do what it really wants to do. While characters are fun, they’re rather simple, and the general plot isn’t anything to write home about. Even through all of this, I think the game’s opening and endings sequences are amazing. There was a great sense in closure seeing the end screen, even the the road getting there was quite rough.
One last thing I want to mention about Secret of Mana is that I had absolutely no clue where I was supposed to go for a lot of the game. I ended up using a guide (and especially a map) for the majority of the game, to know where I needed to go. For the later half of the game, the game tells you a location you need to go, but not exactly how to get there, or in what exact order you’re supposed to go to. Without the guides I used for this game, I probably would’ve still been playing this game even now, still probably lost somewhere. Though since I did use the guide, I can’t really say for certain.
Yet again, I’ll repeat, I had a lot of fun playing through Secret of Mana. While I mention many of the flaws that appear in the game, the general gameplay of the game is still fun. It just has a lot of issues that I find to prevent me from enjoying it more. I can easily see why this game is as beloved as it is, but I can’t help but notice the flaws. With that in mind though, I still want to play later Mana games, and hope that maybe they improve upon where this game falters.
When it comes to the combat of Secret of Mana, it’s… well it’s odd. When I’m in the natural flow of combat, it’s really fun, especially after the 2 other party members join. Sometimes it feels like you’re absolutely bullying the enemy, not allowing them to attack, which is kind of funny. Though this comes with a sort of caveat. Particularly, it’s really hard to tell when you can or can’t hit an enemy, and for some enemies (particularly bosses) it’s hard to tell where you’re even supposed to hit them. For some enemies, you’re able to hit them while they’re knocked down, while for others you can’t, and it’s just hard to tell when you can and can’t hit something. There were some noticeable jumps in difficulty, but they weren’t too hard to deal with, especially since the game is mostly forgiving in giving you methods of healing up. One personal pet peeve I had though is that sometimes it feels like enemies appear behind you, from places you’ve already been. While it might be a purposeful surprise attack, it felt more annoying than anything else. Though there’s more to the combat than the enemies you have to fight.
The first major aspect of combat itself are the weapons your characters can wield, and from what I remember you have 8 different weapons to choose from. This creates a fun sense of customization, not only in the weapon you, the player uses, but the weapons of your party members can impact combat as well. Though some weapons just end up more useful then others, particularly the Sword, the Axe, and the Whip. Throughout the game, and especially in dungeons, there are obstacles that require specific weapons to clear. Cutting down grass with the sword, breaking rocks with the axe, or crossing gaps with the whip. It just ends up being that these 3 weapons end up being the most useful, and with factors that’ll explain in a later section, I see it best to have the party members use those 3 weapons and nothing else.
To explain what the other major aspect of combat is, I want to paint a picture of the early game. In the early game, all you have to attack is using your weapons, and there’s some enemies with high defenses. There was an enemy encounter I had to fight that I died at more times than any other part of the game, and a boss fight that I found harder than any boss in the game’s final dungeon. So, you may ask, why was the early game so difficult? The answer couldn’t be simpler, you don’t have magic yet. Magic utterly breaks any balance this game once had, and every boss once you have magic is an absolute joke. Most bosses in the game range between 1800 – 3000 health, and if you train your magic properly, it can easily do about 500 damage. Boss fights can be done in less than a minute thanks to magic, making fights that sound scary into complete jokes. Though you can only get the spells as you progress through the story, and you have to train up your magic in order for it to be good, which is a different can of worms.
This game is extremely grindy. There’s of course the standard player level, but that doesn’t immediately improve weapon proficiency or spell proficiency. You have to grind levels for those too. If you play through the game in full only giving each party member a specific weapon to use, they’ll probably be at the max level for that weapon at the end of the game. And that’s fine if you’re doing that, that means they can fully charge their weapon to the strongest they can be. This as well is why I stuck the only the sword, axe, and whip, grinding out the weapon levels of other weapons would be a waste. On the other hand, you should grind out magic, the stronger it is, the easier the game becomes. But from having grinded out the characters to max, I can say with confidence it’s super tedious. Probably about a third of my playtime overall was grinding to max out the magic levels, and I don’t think I would’ve beaten the game as quickly if I didn’t do that. When it comes to the 2 characters who have magic, they have 7 different magic types they can cast, and each magic type has 8 levels, which means you would need to gain 102 levels for magic total. While I do enjoy level grinding from time to time, I do really wish that grinding magic levels was at least a little bit easier.
Though I did mention prior how magic makes boss fights an absolute joke, I still find them really fun. There’s a level of presentation, and even though you can cast magic quickly, you still have to avoid enemy attacks. This all leads me to say that I despise this game’s final boss. You can only hurt it with one kind of weapon that’s fully charged and only when the boss allows you to hit it. It’s extremely repetitive, slow, and because the final boss may target the one character who can attack, making it so that you have to wait for the next cycle, annoying as well. It ended up being the only boss I ended up hating out of the numerous bosses you have to fight during the entire game.
Finally done with talk of the game’s combat, the story of Secret of Mana is rather simple. There’s a noticeable amount of ambition I can see, but it feels like it’s unable to do what it really wants to do. While characters are fun, they’re rather simple, and the general plot isn’t anything to write home about. Even through all of this, I think the game’s opening and endings sequences are amazing. There was a great sense in closure seeing the end screen, even the the road getting there was quite rough.
One last thing I want to mention about Secret of Mana is that I had absolutely no clue where I was supposed to go for a lot of the game. I ended up using a guide (and especially a map) for the majority of the game, to know where I needed to go. For the later half of the game, the game tells you a location you need to go, but not exactly how to get there, or in what exact order you’re supposed to go to. Without the guides I used for this game, I probably would’ve still been playing this game even now, still probably lost somewhere. Though since I did use the guide, I can’t really say for certain.
Yet again, I’ll repeat, I had a lot of fun playing through Secret of Mana. While I mention many of the flaws that appear in the game, the general gameplay of the game is still fun. It just has a lot of issues that I find to prevent me from enjoying it more. I can easily see why this game is as beloved as it is, but I can’t help but notice the flaws. With that in mind though, I still want to play later Mana games, and hope that maybe they improve upon where this game falters.