Technical Information

Developer: SquareSoft
Publisher: SquareSoft
Release Date: August 6, 1993

Secret of Mana is an action JRPG where your objective is to prevent a powerful magician named Thanatos from creating a new world.
In Japanese, Secret of Mana is known as Seiken Densetsu 2.

Final Thoughts – Analyzing the Game as a Whole

Graphics and UI

I really liked the art, including Randi, who looks similar to Crono (from Chrono Trigger), and Primm, who looks like Marle (also from Chrono Trigger).
Perhaps it’s not a coincidence, since Secret of Mana was called Chrono Trigger during development.

I only found out that Popoi was male at the end of the game! hahaha

The environments are well-diversified and colorful, just like the enemies, which are creative and varied… even later in the game.
I thought they recycled many bosses, maybe to make the game longer? I don’t know, but I found it repetitive.

Soundtrack and Sound Effects

Some songs remind me of those from Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. A great example is Whisper and Mantra.
These songs are pleasant to listen to, and they’re generally quite relaxing.

An interesting observation that only obscure JRPG fans would notice… The song Mystic Invasion is very similar to Village in Danger from the game Power of the Hired. Since Power of the Hired was released a year before Secret of Mana, I believe there may have been some inspiration, or even plagiarism.

Gameplay

Combat wasn’t very intuitive to learn, and neither was the battle strategy configuration screen.
When hitting an enemy, there’s a delay before the damage you caused appears. This was quite confusing for me at first, as I thought I wasn’t hitting anyone.

It took me a while to realize that certain weapons can be used in dungeons (e.g., breaking rocks).

When you have more than one character on your team, it’s common for them to get stuck in some area of the map, and you need to select them to move.
This happens very frequently in the last two dungeons of the game, and I got frustrated many times because of it. You need to have a lot of patience not to lose your temper! hahahaha

Save points are found at inns or with cats scattered throughout strategic locations. When you die, you start from the last save point.

There aren’t many save points near bosses, which greatly increases the game’s difficulty.

In RPGs, I usually don’t flee from enemies, I always defeat them all to try to stay at a comfortable level for fighting the next boss. In Secret of Mana, this strategy worked well.
I didn’t have any difficulties with the bosses, except for one that drove me crazy and made me use a continue: Dread Slime.

You can play with two other players in co-op mode. I played the entire game in single-player mode, so I have no opinion on whether the game is easier in multiplayer.

Replayability and Game Retention

I have mixed feelings about Secret of Mana.
It’s a good game, but there are some aspects that really annoyed me. It’s very frustrating every time you need to “rescue” a character who got stuck in the environment, as well as the delay when hitting enemies, which gives the impression that the game wasn’t fully polished.
I completely understand that it’s a 1993 game, and many things have changed since then, but I’m not obliged to like it.

I plan to play the remake, but I don’t intend to play the original version again anytime soon.
Does this mean it’s a bad game? No. It just might not be suitable for my peculiar tastes.