A playthrough of Square's 1993 action-RPG for the Super Nintendo, Secret of Mana.
This is the first part of a two-part video, showing from the beginning of the game through to the party's leaving for the sunken continent. You can find part two at https://youtu.be/0EBBd6kNTqI
Secret of Mana, or Seiken Densetsu 2 as it was called in Japan, is the direct sequel to the 1991 Game Boy game Final Fantasy Adventure (https://youtu.be/dTUYbI1pkf4). It's a top-down action-RPG that was hailed for its graphics, music, and its three-player co-op game play, and it's still regarded as one of the SNES's best in its genre.
While at first glance it does look a lot like a stylized Zelda-style game, Secret of Mana does several things to differentiate itself. Using the multi-tap peripheral that was originally packed in with Super Bomberman, three players can play at the same time once the entire party has been assembled. It was a massive amount of fun to play this way, and coordinating attack strategies with a couple of buddies really gave the game a unique flavor compared to the usual single-player fare that RPGs typically offer. Of course, you can play alone or with one friend, and the remaining character(s) will be taken care of by the AI. It's not always intelligent - the computer-controlled guys tend to get stuck behind walls and trees - but it works well enough most of the time. Better than you'd expect for a game from 1993, at least.
Even though the story takes some pretty dark turns later on, Secret of Mana manages to maintain a cheerful, upbeat presentation through the majority of the adventure. The graphics are impressively detailed, and there are a lot of little background animations that make the world come alive, like the way the wind blows around the flowers and grass in the opening area. It might not seem like much now, but such attention to detail was something that you didn't see often in the early years of the 16-bit generation. The enemies are extremely memorable, imaginative, and often quite goofy - I always liked the waddling "mushbooms" that spray spores at you, and the little teddy bears that dress up like Robin Hood to shoot arrows at you. The bosses are usually impressive and huge, and the spell effects become progressively flashier throughout the game.
The music is one of my favorite parts of Secret of Mana. The soundtrack has been praised time-and-time again over the years, and it has held up well. It's generally orchestral in nature, but it sounds very different than what'd you get with Uematsu's Final Fantasy scores, especially in how many genres the soundtrack spans. The composer, Hiroki Kikuta, deserves major props for how well he managed to nail so many styles. Apparently, he sampled the instruments himself as he was composing to ensure that the in-game tracks would sound the way he intended, and the effort shows. The quality of the samples is a substantial jump over what you'll find in most cart-based titles, and it does an awful lot within the confines of eight sound channels. (Sometimes a bit too much given how often instruments drop out in battle.)
The gameplay holds up well, too. Granted, the game was always fairly glitchy, but after you figure out the game's quirks, it usually works just fine. The battle system is an interesting hybrid of old and new - though it's all played out in real-time, the accuracy and power of your hits relies more on your stats than it does on making sure that your character's weapon visibly connects with the enemy. It can lead to a few annoying whiffs, but it does make sense once you've acclimated to it.
I absolutely love Secret of Mana. I always have, and it's hard to imagine that I'd ever feel otherwise about it. From the story to the gameplay to the aesthetics, this sequel improves in just about every way humanly possible over Final Fantasy Adventure.
It might not be perfect, nor is it even among Square's best on the SNES, but Secret of Mana is an amazing adventure, and it's one that you'll never forget once you've played it. There's a good reason that Nintendo included it with the SNES Classic. It is a classic.
With Visions of Mana due out at the end of the month, I thought this would be a great time to roll out this brand new Secret of Mana playthrough in razor sharp 4k60. Hope you enjoy the ride as much as I did!
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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