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LTTP: Secret of Mana

StarEye said:
Unfortunately, I don't have anyone to play co-op with, so I'll have to stick with single-player.
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If you ever wonder why Square-Enix went the GBA connectivity route with Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles you should play Secret of mana co-op.
 
Oh, please. Having to wait a few seconds while one of your friends navigates a menu is going to make you want to kill him? It's a good tradeoff for being able to actually play the game multiplayer (whereas many people simply couldn't with FFCC unless they+thier friends all bought GBAs). SoM multiplayer is one of the best co-op gaming experiences around if you're not a hyperactive 10-year old kicking his feet around, shouting "c'monc'monc'monc'mon!" every time someone wants to change a weapon.

And yeah, Hiroki Kikuta is an amazing game composer. His work on this game and Seiken Densetsu 3 is phenomenal. Too bad shortly thereafter he was banished to doing h-games :/
 
Actually, I hated the fact that FFCC used GBA. Don't remember much menu-navigation in that game, but I really enjoyed the game, DESPITE the GBA requirements.
 
I've been replaying it lately aswell, but im wondering, seems like when you make a sound effect by attacking or opening the inventory that it kind of cuts into the music, like the music itself stops playing a few notes in the layers, as if it was sacrificing music channels to make place for SFX? Been a long time since i played the original but was that problem in the original too?
 
StarEye said:
I've never played any of the Mana games, and I reckoned now would be a good chance to fix that - so I bought Secret of Mana from the Wii Virtual Console. First impressions are above average, really enjoy the graphics and gameplay is decent. Haven't got so far yet
SPRITE just joined me and I'm going to the Haunted Forest
, but it's a quite enjoyable little game. I'm not a big fan of the music so far, though, it's annoying and I feel brainwashed after running around on the map. Story is very typical japanese rpg from that time, but I like that - as long as it's interesting enough for me to keep going. The game as a whole certainly has that "just a little more to see what happens next" thing going for it. At least to me.

Anyway, it seems like a great game, and I can understand why it has such a following. I assume this is the first game in the series? And are the sequels directly related in story (continuation or otherwise), or are they individual like in Final Fantasy? Either way, here's a short summary:

+ good graphics, reminds me of Chrono Trigger
+ gameplay is fun, although simplistic. Is there magic later on?
+ classic story, I like that.
+ reminds me of a mix between Chrono Trigger and Zelda. Obviously a plus.
- music is grating and tiring
- old game, means I don't have the stamina to keep playing for more than an hour or two max.

How many games are here in the series, and which one do you consider the best?
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It's not the first one in the series. Secret of Mana = Seiken Densetsu 2.
The first one was released on the GB, under the titles Final Fantasy Adventure in the US and Mystic Quest in PAL land.

So there are 4 games in the main series (SD 1 to 4) and 4 other ones.
SD1 (GB)
SD2 (snes)
SD3 (snes, never released outside of Japan)
SD4 aka Dawn of mana (PS2, Japan and US only)

Then:
Legend of Mana (PS, Japan and US only)
Sword of Mana (GBA)
Children of Mana (DS)
Heroes of Mana (DS)

Haven't played the handheld ones, so I dunno if they're any good.
The best ones are definitely SD2 and SD3. While a lot of people prefer SD3 over SD2, I really prefer SD2 mainly because of its characters. It was my first jRPG too, so I guess the nostalgia factors in :p
I had great anticipations for SD4 but it turned out to be crap :/

AFAIK all those games just share the same universe but there's absolutely no link, story wise.
Oh, there was also a spin-off (Secret of Evermore) developped by Square USA. It's not a "canon" SD game, it just uses the same gameplay. It's garbage IMO.

Tis a shame you don't like the music. IMO It's one of the best RPG OST ever. If it's just because it sounds "synthetic"... well it's a snes game. MIDI music lulz.

And yes, you'll get magic a bit later (noo too far from where you are know IIRC). It's really great. My favourite part of the gameplay still is the "overdrives" that you level up with the weapon orbs.
 
Raist said:
It's not the first one in the series. Secret of Mana = Seiken Densetsu 2.
The first one was released on the GB, under the titles Final Fantasy Adventure in the US and Mystic Quest in PAL land.

So there are 4 games in the main series (SD 1 to 4) and 4 other ones.
SD1 (GB)
SD2 (snes)
SD3 (snes, never released outside of Japan)
SD4 aka Dawn of mana (PS2, Japan and US only)

Then:
Legend of Mana (PS, Japan and US only)
Sword of Mana (GBA)
Children of Mana (DS)
Heroes of Mana (DS)

Haven't played the handheld ones, so I dunno if they're any good.
The best ones are definitely SD2 and SD3. While a lot of people prefer SD3 over SD2, I really prefer SD2 mainly because of its characters. It was my first jRPG too, so I guess the nostalgia factors in :p
I had great anticipations for SD4 but it turned out to be crap :/

AFAIK all those games just share the same universe but there's absolutely no link, story wise.
Oh, there was also a spin-off (Secret of Evermore) developped by Square USA. It's not a "canon" SD game, it just uses the same gameplay. It's garbage IMO.

Tis a shame you don't like the music. IMO It's one of the best RPG OST ever. If it's just because it sounds "synthetic"... well it's a snes game. MIDI music lulz.

And yes, you'll get magic a bit later (noo too far from where you are know IIRC). It's really great. My favourite part of the gameplay still is the "overdrives" that you level up with the weapon orbs.
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How dare you !!!!!
Evermore is better than every game in the series besides SD2 & 3. It's even better than Secret of Mana on single player mode. Sure the story is cheap, but the gameplay is great.

It lacks a multiplayer mode, that's all.

So, to sum up: SD3 >>>>>>> SOE = SOM.
 
Aru said:
How dare you !!!!!
Evermore is better than every game in the series besides SD2 & 3. It's even better than Secret of Mana on single player mode. Sure the story is cheap, but the gameplay is great.

It lacks a multiplayer mode, that's all.

So, to sum up: SD3 >>>>>>> SOE = SOM.
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Of course its gameplay is great, it just is a clone of SD2 and 3 :P
The other elements stink IMO.
 
Raist said:
Of course its gameplay is great, it just is a clone of SD2 and 3 :P
The other elements stink IMO.
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The graphics are good and the music is great.
Only the story is cliché.
 
Oh man, I can't fathom how anyone can hate SOM's soundtrack, it's like one of the best soundtracks ever...
 
bkw said:
Wait, what, how? Just hacking away at the flowers and rabbites? :lol How long did that take?
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Well to be completely honest I probably got as far as level 15-20 on my own. Yes hacking away at rabbites, there are no flowers yet before you get to the town.

I wanted to see what it would be like to get to an impossible level so I loaded up an emulator and made a little program that would simulate keyboard input :P It would move left to leave a certain screen, then move right to reenter it, attack a couple of times to kill the rabbite that sits next to the exit and then repeat the whole progress. I'd leave it on day and night :lol

I'm not crazy! >_>
 
DevelopmentArrested said:
"music is grating and tiring"

AHHAHAHA are you fucking insane?
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No, I just have good taste. :)

Seriously though, it's not The Beatles we're talking about here. Not liking The Beatles is insane.
 
I love this game and replay it so much. Unfortunately I rarely finish it (but as of a few weeks ago I have!). I think I've started the game at least 20 times, usually quitting sometime after
Spike
, not because the game slows down but because I get busy and then when I return I forget where I was so I just decide to start over!

Still, great game, too much fun. Needs a remake with a superior UI though, it is atrocious for cooperative play. :lol
 
Don't listen to the haters, Legend of Mana is not only the best in the series, but the best Playstation game there is. It is ridiculously great and manages to be incredibly unique. Few games manage to capture the sense of adventure it does.
 
Dreavus said:
The music is excellent, except for that one song that plays in the Dwarf Village. For some reason that I can't quite place, the song annoys the hell out of me. Maybe the loop is too short or something. =/

EDIT: Here's the one.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=biaFj0S1jcs
Oh god make it stop!
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That was just horrible. It was the last place I visited before saving, but I'm not a big fan of the overworld theme either.
 
Although it's already been said countless times in his thread if you don't like SOM's music you probably hate sunlight, babies and everything else that's good in this world.
 
You know, the pure ignorance and close-minded foolishness in this thread (yes, I'm looking at those who can't fathom that someone doesn't like the music in SoM) actually makes me want to spit on the game and delete it, never to play it again.
 
StarEye said:
You know, the pure ignorance and close-minded foolishness in this thread (yes, I'm looking at those who can't fathom that someone doesn't like the music in SoM) actually makes me want to spit on the game and delete it, never to play it again.
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Goddamn, what a broad-minded, generous, magnanimous person you are. Fine specimen of the enlightened and liberated man.
 
StarEye said:
Hey, I'm not the one having trouble with different tastes.
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You're not the one having trouble with different tastes?

What about the fact that you're having trouble with the fact that people have trouble with different tastes?

It's not a semantic trick, you're just another one full of shit.



Good day, sir.
 
gantz85 said:
You're not the one having trouble with different tastes?

What about the fact that you're having trouble with the fact that people have trouble with different tastes?

It's not a semantic trick, you're just another one full of shit.



Good day, sir.
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Are you serious? :lol

Rezbit said:
So how about that Secret of Mana good game right guys
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Indeed! Admittedly, all the arguing about the music in this thread is making me want to play through it again.
 
Raist said:
Oh, there was also a spin-off (Secret of Evermore) developped by Square USA. It's not a "canon" SD game, it just uses the same gameplay and similar graphics. It's pretty good IMO.
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Finally someone mentionned it!
When you have finished SOM Stareye, and want more of that feel (it even uses the ring menu!), this is the way to go.

I quite like the commercial for that game:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dEu8wDAQuDk

gantz85 said:
You're not the one having trouble with different tastes?

What about the fact that you're having trouble with the fact that people have trouble with different tastes?

It's not a semantic trick, i'm just another one full of shit.



Good day, sir.
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:lol

He's enjoying the game, i don't see what's bad about that. If he doesn't like the music, let him.
 
Actually, he can hate on the music all he wants but there are two exceptions.

If you hate the final area's music and the final boss music, you have no soul. This is a fact of life.
 
Easy_D said:
Actually, he can hate on the music all he wants but there are two exceptions.

If you hate the final area's music and the final boss music, you have no soul. This is a fact of life.
Click to expand...

I have a long way to go before I find out (if I ever do, I'm cursed with the "quit-halfways-or-just-before-the-end" syndrom).

I already said that the opening theme music is decent, though.
 
First time I saw Secret of Mana, it was in a small Next Wave preview in EGM Number 45, April 1993, page 90 and it was called Final Fantasy Adventure 2.

icob61.jpg



I know that the first game in the series was released on GameBoy as Final Fantasy Adventure.

Over the years I learned it was meant to be one of the games for the SNES CD-ROM
(don't know which CD system it was for since there were 3 different SNES CD machines, Sony, Phillips and Nintendo). So the 16 meg cartridge version that was released was a scaled down version of the game Square originally intended.

I downloaded the SD3 ROM years ago but never got very far into it, somewhere past the 1st boss.

I really need to get back into the series.
 
^^^ The fuck is a "supersoft?"

Anywho, as said many times here, lots of people think Seiken 3 is the best in the series, but I don't get it. I find the gameplay of that one kind of stunted. It feels like there's no flow like there is in Mana. It's hard to describe...
 
Raist said:
Ok Stareye, don't listen to this guy. He even edits quotes, he can't be trusted :p

SoE is CRAP.

CRAP CRAP CRAP

There.
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:lol just did it for giggles :D

Anyway, the opinions on that game seem to be pretty splitted. Judge for yourself Stareye: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_of_Evermore#Reception
I enjoyed it as far as i played, and i absolutely love SoM. You might just wanna give it a try and see if you like it since it has enough in common with SoM visually and gameplay wise.

camineet said:
Secret of Mana is one of my fav SNES games. It's a real FUCKING shame that Square released Secret of Evermore instead of SD3 / Secret of Mana 2.
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That is not actually true, quoting from http://www.super-nes.com/evermoreinterview.htm via Wikipedia:

Brian Fehdrau said:
CD: Secret of Evermore has often gotten the incorrect distinction of being the game that US gamers received instead of Seiken Densetsu 3, which would have been the true sequel to our Secret of Mana. Why do you think that is and what do you have to say to those who believe this?

BF: Well, you can't really blame people for thinking that. It was a reasonable guess, it just happened to be incorrect. I was also disappointed when Seiken Densetsu 3 didn't get the US nod, but I had a chance to play the Japanese version, so I know it had some bugs. People who have played Seiken Densetsu 3 via emulation might know what I'm talking about. At the time, Nintendo was extremely strict about its zero-bug policy, and even with Square's history with Nintendo, I think they might have had a difficult time getting it through certification. They also might have had trouble getting the American consumer to accept its flaws without returning it to the store, which was much more common then. Of course, then we went and shipped Evermore with some bugs, so who I am to talk?

Anyway, the common belief is that resources were re-allocated to develop Evermore, rather than to bring Seiken Densetsu 3 to North America. I can assure you that no one was re-allocated. The entire Evermore team was built from the ground up with new hires. None of the people involved in North American localizations were tied up by our game. In fact, if memory serves, Breath of Fire, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy 6 were all localized for North America while we were in development.
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camineet said:
Over the years I learned it was meant to be one of the games for the SNES CD-ROM
(don't know which CD system it was for since there were 3 different SNES CD machines, Sony, Phillips and Nintendo). So the 16 meg cartridge version that was released was a scaled down version of the game Square originally intended.
Click to expand...
Phillips and Nintendo were the same machine. So there were only two (significant) machines, Sony and Phillips/Nintendo. Or maybe three machines, if you count the spec upgrade Phillips/Nintendo announced after Sony's version died.

I concluded at one point that Square's games (I think there might have been two or three, as the SaGa name was sometimes tossed around) were most likely on the Sony unit, seeing as how Square blamed Nintendo for "killing" the SNES CD, and the Sony version died in like 1992, Secret of Mana came out in 1993, and Nintendo left the Phillips/Nintendo version hanging in limbo until they officially killed it in 1997 (by releasing the model-2 SNES with no expansion port). Also, the Nintendo/Phillips SNES CD was supposed to be CD-i compatible, so if Square had made games for that version, I expect definitive versions would've been seen going to hell alongside the CD-i Zelda games. Also, early Square support for Sony platforms fits in nicely with the great FFVII betrayalton mythos.

Brian Fehdrau said:
CD: Secret of Evermore has often gotten the incorrect distinction of being the game that US gamers received instead of Seiken Densetsu 3, which would have been the true sequel to our Secret of Mana. Why do you think that is and what do you have to say to those who believe this?

BF: Well, you can't really blame people for thinking that. It was a reasonable guess, it just happened to be incorrect. I was also disappointed when Seiken Densetsu 3 didn't get the US nod, but I had a chance to play the Japanese version, so I know it had some bugs. People who have played Seiken Densetsu 3 via emulation might know what I'm talking about. At the time, Nintendo was extremely strict about its zero-bug policy, and even with Square's history with Nintendo, I think they might have had a difficult time getting it through certification. They also might have had trouble getting the American consumer to accept its flaws without returning it to the store, which was much more common then. Of course, then we went and shipped Evermore with some bugs, so who I am to talk?

Anyway, the common belief is that resources were re-allocated to develop Evermore, rather than to bring Seiken Densetsu 3 to North America. I can assure you that no one was re-allocated. The entire Evermore team was built from the ground up with new hires. None of the people involved in North American localizations were tied up by our game. In fact, if memory serves, Breath of Fire, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy 6 were all localized for North America while we were in development.
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I don't think anyone really blames the people who made who made Evermore for making Evermore, it's just that... there were better things they could have been doing (even if that was never their job). It's that Square somehow had an abundance of resources when it came to Evermore, or Breath of Fire (a Capcom game), or FF Mystic Quest, but somehow had insufficient resources when it came to FFV or SD3. It's plainly not be fair to constantly compare these guys' efforts to what might have been, but it's not wrong or uninformed. Actually, I probably wouldn't even care, but the interviewer threw him such a suck-up softball by calling it wrong in the first place.
 
StarEye said:
I've never played any of the Mana games, and I reckoned now would be a good chance to fix that - so I bought Secret of Mana from the Wii Virtual Console. First impressions are above average, really enjoy the graphics and gameplay is decent. Haven't got so far yet
SPRITE just joined me and I'm going to the Haunted Forest
, but it's a quite enjoyable little game. I'm not a big fan of the music so far, though, it's annoying and I feel brainwashed after running around on the map. Story is very typical japanese rpg from that time, but I like that - as long as it's interesting enough for me to keep going. The game as a whole certainly has that "just a little more to see what happens next" thing going for it. At least to me.

Anyway, it seems like a great game, and I can understand why it has such a following. I assume this is the first game in the series? And are the sequels directly related in story (continuation or otherwise), or are they individual like in Final Fantasy? Either way, here's a short summary:

+ good graphics, reminds me of Chrono Trigger
+ gameplay is fun, although simplistic. Is there magic later on?
+ classic story, I like that.
+ reminds me of a mix between Chrono Trigger and Zelda. Obviously a plus.
- music is grating and tiring
- old game, means I don't have the stamina to keep playing for more than an hour or two max.

How many games are here in the series, and which one do you consider the best?
Click to expand...

I played this for the first time a few months back as well. I pretty much agree on all accounts, I didn't really care for the music at all and I never quite got the feeling that I had a good handle on how the deuce I was supposed to be playing the game. Overall a somewhat strange and clumsy but forgettable game for a newcomer without the benefit of the old rosy tinted spectacles.

It is strange that I feel the same for a lot of SNES RPG's from the olden days which I missed out on and which I go back to pay a visit. Unlike a lot of other genres, such as 8bit action or platformers I find that I am at this point just not equipped to enjoy them anymore.
 
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