This is by far the worst example of Nostalgia Goggles I have ever seen for a game. It functions as in it does not crash. But literally every aspect of the game is built on terrible decision making.

I don't think you are wrong for having good memories of it. I also don't think I'm wrong in my experience with it. But I'm going to explain why mechanically, I hate this game and how it's built on layers of terrible decisions.

I'm going to make a compliment sandwich for the review. So I'm going to start out with a good thing then tell you all the bad followed by another good thing.

Firstly, the music is fantastic. It is the best aspect of the game. Maybe only one or two stinkers in the OST. One being the boss music which gets grating after some time.

Now onto the bad. First the story is just so bland. So cookie cutter, so just forgettable. It barely matters. At moments they literally solve problems seconds after they are introduced. There is nothing about this story that is memorable. The game also just doesn't signpost itself well. Sometimes gives you hints on where to go, other times you just gotta magically know where to go and what to do.

Secondly, the circle menu system is horrendous. Not only is it tedious but confusing. Nor do they tell you how to properly use it. It took me hours to understand that Y opens the menus for Player 1 and X opens it for your CPUs. This happened because all my characters were stack onto of each other when I interacted with the menus. Making it look like Y and X did the same thing. That is a huge flaw. Not only that but sometimes you plug in commands and it just decides, "nah not doing it." So you gotta do it again.

Thirdly, lets talk about interacting with the world outside of combat. In order to do certain actions Player 1 must have a certain weapon equipped. Axe breaks rocks/crystals, sword cuts grass, and whip helps you cross gaps. Not only is this tedious menuing but also prevents you from using the weapon you want to use. But the worst part about it is that they simply don't tell you whip helps you cross gaps. And even worse, crossing gaps with the whip sometimes just doesn't activate for reasons unknown. Imagine finding a gap for the first time that you must cross, using every weapon and the whip not working. That's exactly what happened to me.

Now lets move on to how your CPUs interact with the world. They have collision, thus getting stuck and then getting you stuck because you can only be so far away from them. Imagine this, your CPU get stuck but you can't get them out and thus have to reset. Now, I know what you are going to say, "Press Select" to control the CPU. Great idea, too bad the games doesn't tell you that you can do that. I found out about that 2/3 of the way through the game.

Fourthly, lets talk about combat. Like the 100% meter thing isn't my fav and it's greatly flawed but fine. The problem is that it makes you wait to attack but a lot of the time you simply cannot wait or you will be severely punished. For the sake of the argument lets say it's good. The biggest problem how the game calculates everything is terrible. You will be nuking a boss with spells, it's doing aprox 250 each hit for it to randomly say, "nah this time only 50". Same with a full 100% meter physical attack.

Now lets talk about evasion stats. The games just decides if you can hit something with no feedback. You can be directly infront of it. Watch you weapon clearly go over the enemy and its hitbox. Miss. Keep in mind, you are attack at 100% meter. You move to the side, you still miss. But it can sure hit you. Then you land a hit for them to play an animation of it dodging or my fav just saying 0 damage. You and your CPUs keep doing this song and dance until it magically say, "okay you can hit me now". This can last 30 second to a minute on one enemy that normally you would kill easily because you have done it many times before. Now add this same issue to the multitude of enemies that duplicate forever until you kill them all at once. It can be infuriating. Oh right, also all magic is unavoidable.

Fifthly, lets take about the world map. There is no mini map. It's impossible to know where you are. It doesn't tell you the names of the place you are above either. It's very precise where they want you to land.

Other bad design decisions for the map. Controlling your height is unnecessary and tedious. To land you actually have to lower yourself. Another bad decision, the world map once the the final dungeon shows up, flashes every 20-30 seconds. Turns out the the flashing is coming from the final dungeon teleporting randomly across the map. So not only is it hard to find because it's teleports but it's hard to land on because you gotta get above it before it teleports and land. And as explained earlier, the map control are terrible.

Sixthly, let's talk about your inventory and MP. The only way to heal MP is by sleeping at an Inn, using a walnut, or using a late game MP drain attack that only works for 1 character and I don't think is ever successful on bosses. What makes this worse is that you can only hold 4 of any item. That's not enough for late game areas or early game when your MP is low.

Seventhly, lets talk about the UI. No item description. Now way to know if equipment is better than what you are wearing until you buy it. Equipment stats are just numbers that mean nothing to you. It literally is just, this number is higher and equip it. No clue as to what stat it's raising.

Lastly, the finally boss has only unavoidable attacks. It's a gimmick boss that takes way too long to beat. Doesn't really explain the new gimmick. Just expects the player to figure it out. Let's hope you have MP items and you CPUs don't die. You need both alive the whole or I guess you just can't win.

Compliment sandwich end. The art style is nice. however other games do it better.

Nearly every aspect of this game is built on terrible design. Things that were solved before this game came out. Other games told you equipment stats, if it is better, what stat it raises, item descriptions, etc. An Action RPG is literally Link to the Past combat with numbers. They literally could have copied LttP combat and gave it rpg elements and it would have worked. Even add in the meter system to change it up. But no, they made a combat system that literally doesn't work. Other games had mini maps. This game released after other Action RPGs and ignored every single good design decision from them.

I'm going to leave you with 2 examples of how much the devs simply did not care or were terrible at their jobs. Obvious mistakes that are just baffling as to why they exist.

First, a late game boss, it's gimmick is that it expands every time you hit. You have to hit it in the center. Turns out, if you are not positioned right, you can be prevented from ever hitting it with physical attacks because it expanded too much. Then your only option is magic which doesn't do much as it's nearly immune to it. Bad game design.

Second, I cannot stress how much the devs simply did not care. Your characters walk in order of when you got them. But the UI at the bottom of the screen, goes 1, 3, 2. So the third character you earned is in the middle of the UI and your second character is in the last spot. Simple fix. But no one cared to fix it or any other flaws.

This is Secret of Mana. A terrible game made on terrible design. Supposedly the 2nd best or by many THE BEST the Mana series has to offer. I'm not playing any other game in the series if that's the case. You can like what you like. I'm not saying that. I think at the time when the game came out, it was novel and well regarded. I also feel like most people have not played it since it's release. But take your nostalgia goggles off and see what the game actually is. It's easy to tell someone how "it's not that bad" if you know what you are doing. But as a first time playthrough it is a miserable experience.