people are brutal on this game nowadays, and they aren't wrong to be, but it does deserve some grace. remember that it was supposed to be the killer app for the vaunted hardware collab between nintendo and sony. remember that when that fell through, up to 40 percent of its content (by some accounts) got left on the cutting room floor. remember that they had originally planned to implement multiple endings. remember that ted woolsey suddenly had 30 days to rework a sprawling novel's worth of dialogue using a fixed-width font. remember all of that when you fight one of the game's many palette-swapped bosses, or walk into a weirdly lifeless town, or encounter yet another completely empty room in a cave or dungeon. if you can, you might well see that the fact that the final product retained any degree of cohesion at all is nothing short of an absolute miracle.
all the points I've seen about combat and boss fights are fair, so I won't attempt an apologia for them. there's not anything riveting about hitting an enemy, falling back and waiting a couple seconds for your weapon to charge back up, then hitting it again, or about spamming bosses with magic. this came out just before I turned 9 and I've been playing it since then. I have decades of understanding about its inner workings, and I can get through the game in about 20 hours because I know which weapons and magicks aren't worth taking the time to level up. but if you don't have all that knowledge and muscle memory (and if you're just coming to this in 2023, then how on earth would you), then yeah it's really easy to waste your time on things you hope will come in handy later and walk away with a load of feel-bads
the multiplayer really was exciting back then—jrpgs were perceived as somewhat of a loner's pursuit, and being able to play an rpg with two other friends or even just one was bracing and singular
secret of mana is a three-legged dog. it's not fair to put it up against complete specimens like final fantasy III/VI and chrono trigger, but one also shouldn't be so quick to put it down without acquiring a fuller understanding of its particular deficiencies
all the points I've seen about combat and boss fights are fair, so I won't attempt an apologia for them. there's not anything riveting about hitting an enemy, falling back and waiting a couple seconds for your weapon to charge back up, then hitting it again, or about spamming bosses with magic. this came out just before I turned 9 and I've been playing it since then. I have decades of understanding about its inner workings, and I can get through the game in about 20 hours because I know which weapons and magicks aren't worth taking the time to level up. but if you don't have all that knowledge and muscle memory (and if you're just coming to this in 2023, then how on earth would you), then yeah it's really easy to waste your time on things you hope will come in handy later and walk away with a load of feel-bads
the multiplayer really was exciting back then—jrpgs were perceived as somewhat of a loner's pursuit, and being able to play an rpg with two other friends or even just one was bracing and singular
secret of mana is a three-legged dog. it's not fair to put it up against complete specimens like final fantasy III/VI and chrono trigger, but one also shouldn't be so quick to put it down without acquiring a fuller understanding of its particular deficiencies