Previous Soulsborne I just could never enjoy playing. I loved watching them and think they are great games, but I just could never enjoy playing them.

Eldin Ring was the first one that I loved playing and got hooked. I'll admit, I am a sucker for character creating, big open worlds that I can explore however and whenever I want, and a jump button. That last one is silly, but I like to jump around as I aimlessly wander.

The story in this game is wonderful, the music is majestic, the gameplay is fun, and I just overall miss a game that actually is challenging and respects the player. The game subtly tells your what to do and where to go, but allows you to say "naw, I'm good" and go off the beaten path.

Simple review because you really should experience it for yourself. It's well worth your time, if you're willing to put in the effort and enjoy risk/reward.

I stated this in my SNES SoM review, that SoM is my favorite game of all time. So I was very excited for this remake.

Then it came out. And you know what? It plays exactly the same way as the original with some QoL tweaks. I won't repeat what I said in that review. Which is why I am confused as to why people who say they like the original's gameplay, but hate the remake's gameplay. It's the exact same. Maybe it just highlights the originals flaws a bit more? Doesn't matter, it plays the same with some improvements. For example, they add shortcut buttons to make the combat faster. Use to be you had to pause the game mid-combat and navigate through menus to choose a recovery item or a spell or a weapon to use. Now, you just assign that spell/item to a button, and you're good to go. It's not perfect, but it helps make the combat keep pace.

Story is basically a copy/past of the original translation with some slight tweaks. For example, Popoi in some translations is considered a boy, in others Popoi is considered a girl. In Japanese, they are neutral. They kept them as neutral in this version, which I think fits better for a sprite. I still refer to Popoi as a he, though.

So...using that as a springboard, this is where the remake starts to suffer. They added voice acting which is...ho boy. It's not great. Most of the voices themselves sound fine, but the acting is a mess. I feel part of that is due to the original script being very very dated, and I feel the other part of that is due to bad directing. People like to harp on the actors being bad, but being within the industry a lot of the time it's just bad direction, limited recording time/budget, and just saying "good enough" and using whatever. I'm not saying that is the case here, but it feels that way.
But here's the interesting thing. This game adds some extra scenes at the Inns that are decently acted. Scenes that were not in the original game. It helps flesh out the characters more, making them a bit more likable. But the point being that these scenes are mostly decently acted and fun. This is what leads me to believe that the original's script may have contributed to this game's voice acting being pretty bad.

The other glaring issue is the graphics. Personally, I don't think they are bad. They're fine...but in comparison to the original? They're bland. The original has gorgeous sprites that are bursting with color and charm. These graphics? They're colorful, but...also not? It's hard to explain. People say it looks like a cheap phone game, which I think was the original intent. They released Adventures of Mana, which is another remake of Final Fantasy Adventure but for mobile phones, a few years prior. The graphics are the same. AoM's graphics were praised, but that was for mobile standards at the time. SoM's remake was for standard platforms (and Vita), so people were expecting more. Also, they have no lip syncing. No mouth flaps at all. So the graphics fall flat, but they aren't bad. Just...flat.

The music? The remake's music is WORSE. Some remake songs are either fine, or HORRID. Which is weird because the amount of remixes or arrangements for the original you find online are usually really good. I have no idea how they botched it up, but at least they give you the option to use the original sound track.

From what I remember, the dungeons are in-tact and not changed...except the last one. In the original, the last dungeon has different areas you have to fight through, but they were usually big sprawling areas. In the remake? The areas are there, but each room is its own screen. Meaning every time you enter an archway it needs to load the next area. I have no idea why they did this, but it slows down the pacing of this dungeon. This dungeon is suppose to be a gauntlet, making you think quick, choosing whether to fight or flee. But this version is just...boring with too many loading screens.

So given how much I complained, why did I give this game 4 stars? Because it still plays like the original with gameplay improvements, you can turn off the voice acting, and switch the soundtrack to the original. This game, gameplay wise, is technically superior to the original. So I like it. But the rest was botched. I don't feel the same "magic" that I do with the original.

But is the game good? Yes. Are the remade things in this game good? Mostly meh. So just turn them off/switch them to the original. However, I will still recommend the original with the re-translation patch than this one. But this one isn't as bad as people make it out to be.

Secret of Mana is, hands down, my favorite game of all time. Jank and all.

I played this game when it first came out. I was born in '89, and this came out in '93, so I was really young when I played with my brothers and dad. So there are some nostalgia goggles, but the prescription lenses are thin.

I hear a lot of people say that the story is very generic, but most of these people are saying this after playing it for the first time 15+ years after release. So I think some of these people may have seen this type of story enough times that it's gotten tiring. Which I get. But when I played it? It wasn't generic to me at all. It was actually quite different from the stories I was used to hearing at that point in my life. Namely a hero defeats big baddie and saves the princess. Compared to that (and my tiny brain) this was a grand adventure! Not just a specific country, but the entire world! SoM's story involves an accidental hero teaming up with two unlikely partners initially in it for selfish reasons, but then they slowly realize the bigger picture. They travel around, deal with an evil empire and a few other hooligans, and try to stop the revival of an ancient weapon and save the Mana Tree. Again, when I first played it this type of story was new to me. That said, looking at it now it's still fine as it is. It's not as bad or boring as people make it sound, but I do get where they come from. There is a re-translation patch that fleshes out, and puts back in some dialogue that was lost in translation if that helps. Which I think it does. Normally I would tell people to play vanilla, but I think this patch will make your experience much more enjoyable.

Gameplay wise this was familiar yet different. It's a fast-paced action RPG that plays like Zelda, but with a bit of turn-based mechanics. The idea is if you attack with your weapon, you attack at full strength. Once you do, a little counter will quickly go up from 0%-100%. You can still attack as much as you want, but if you don't let it get to 100% then your attacks will be weaker. This encourages a get in, get out type of approach in some fights, but can also leave you open to attack from the enemy. Avoiding attacks are pretty easy, minus magic (which I'll discuss later). It's not a painful wait for that % to fill up. It's about a second or two. Some people really don't like it, but it's really not as bad as they make it sound. I get what the developers were trying to do, and I think they succeeded. It's even in the sequel, though the wait time is significantly shortened to the point of barely being noticeable. Which is interesting since the sequel's gameplay is arguably slower than SoM, but more on that on my eventual ToM review. For those of you who really don't want to deal with the %, there is a patch that removes it and re-balances the combat, but I feel it makes the game way too easy. Try vanilla first, but the option is there.
I also think this was the first game to introduce the radial menu? The menu is great and simple, but it does sometimes slow down combat when you need to swap weapons, or use an item/spell.

The music and the graphics are amazing! I mean it when I say that back in the day, this was the most colorful game I ever played. I am fairly certain this is the game that sparked my creativity and lead me down the path of an artist/animator. The art for this game is gorgeous, but the MUSIC?! The music is fucking BUMPIN! Every song absolutely fits each setting and scenario perfectly. Highly recommend listening to some of the music if you have not. Meridian Dance, What The Forest Taught Me, A Bell is Tolling, Fear of the Heavens, and The Oracle are some of my favorites.

As an adult learning about what this game could have been like on the SNES Disk System, and how much they had to cut to make it fit on an SNES cart gives me an even deeper appreciation for how well this game turned out.

Right! All the positives out of the way, I'll get into the jank. Again, I love this game even with the jank, but it wouldn't be fair if I don't at least mention them.

Magic is broken. Once you unlock magic, bosses are significantly easier. So long as you have walnuts, you can basically just win every boss fight without much effort. And if you level up your magic to 8, you can unlock even stronger version of the spells you have. It's fun to use those level 8 spells and completely DESTROY everything in your path, but it's broken. There is a patch that re-balances the magic to make it less broken, which I do recommend. But I would still say play vanilla just to experience it.

Stunlocking can happen. Be it by you, or by the enemies. It doesn't happen often, but it can happen and it. Fucking. SUCKS. It mostly happens from the quicker enemies, but you can also get ganged up on. There's suppose to be invincibility frames when you're knocked down, but...they don't work. Again, it doesn't happen OFTEN, but it does happen and it can be frustrating. I personally see it as a challenge, and find it satisfying to come back stronger and then stunlock THEM. Still, stunlocking sucks.

Weapons and Magic have a level up system that looks like it's simple and to the point: Every monster you kill with your weapon, and every time you use a certain type of magic it will gain points and eventually level up. Every time you temper your weapons, or touch a mana seed, you have the option to level each up a bit further. However it starts getting complicated. From level 0, every monster you kill with a weapon is worth 9 points. Your weapon levels up once you get 100 points. Now that weapon is level 1 every monster is now worth 8 points, and so on as you level up. Weapons are arguably quicker to level up, but if you think you can level up every weapon to level 9...you'll find you can't. You can TEMPER your weapons to 9, but you can't level all your weapons to 9. There is more to the system than I know of, and when I looked into it...it's a headache. So pick your favorite weapons, and level those up and you'll be fine.
All your magic, however, can level up to the max. You gain spirits as you progress, and each spirit gives you access to 3 spells. The points work the same way, but it is directed towards the spirit not the individual spells. So using any spell under Undine will level up all of Undine's magic. Instead of gaining points per enemy defeated, you gain points per use. However, leveling magic is PAINFULLY slow. You have very limited MP, and you'll find yourself grinding for hours. It's my least favorite part of the gameplay.
However, you can get on just fine if you ignore all of this. It's just annoying if you're looking to 100% the game.

Finally, I want to end this review with trying to describe how this game feels. This game has a feeling that I haven't felt in any other game ever. And every time I come back to replay this gem, I feel it again. That feeling isn't nostalgia. I feel nostalgic replaying Ocarina of Time on my N64 during Christmas time, or hearing any songs from Mario RPG. This feeling? I don't know what it is. It's just this little type of magic I feel that no game has ever come close to replicating. Maybe it's the colors, maybe it's the music, maybe it's the gameplay, maybe it's the jank, maybe it's the story...or maybe it's a combination of all of them. There are loads of games that are arguably better than this, but not a one of them fills me with the sense of joy and wonder and creative energy like Secret of Mana does.

I'm sure there are some things I am missing which I'll add in if I remember, and I may try to clarify things a bit better later, but even then...this is my favorite game of all time. Thanks for reading.