Go away! The sage is out!

I finally finished something I started back in... probably high school... maybe late middle school? I can't remember. I borrowed a copy from Ian's best friend at the time and managed to defeat the spirit of Christmas, or, rather, it's mascot, before returning the cartridge to him. He then lost it, or maybe lied to me about losing it. We weren't directly friends, after all, so I was relatively grateful with what I had experienced. Maybe better to have not loved at all than to have lost the love that only loving a JRPG could be, you know, platonically typing. Now that I think about it, perhaps it wasn't really my place to love anyhow, because it wasn't my game to direct my love towards in the first place. It was a borrowed love from a fifth-tier associate (family > friends > co-workers > friends of friends > friends of immediate family members). People shouldn't love inanimate objects from the fifth-tier anyhow. It would complicate the whole system, spanning its significance across the second, third, and fourth tiers, wearing the love thin, creating strife between me and everyone else, because we're not even typing about a bond between individuals, but of a man and interactive art, and, really, can that truly be considered love? Can it? Truly? Mur? Probably mur.

Secret of Mana isn't merely some poor substitute for Chrono Trigger. Yeah, I mean, it kinda is now, but the game's a predecessor, a learning lesson, a crucial stepping stone that was necessary for the successful development of Chrono Trigger's successful success to succeed. Su-su-su sussudio. The battle system, the way your party travels across the world... with their feet, enemies with personality, and a story that is semi-serious. Actually, I bet there are a few light-hearted moments in the NES/SNES Final Fantasy titles, as well. I just can't really think of any, but I'm not a major fan of two of the four I've played thus far and I've suppressed most of those experiences ...or I've just forgotten. I forget stuff. I still need to play V and VI. They look promising.

As for SoM, it's fairly obvious how much of an influence this game has been for the genre.

Two years can make a difference. 

Sometimes in the wrong direction.

I may not remember, but from what I've taken the time to research, no other RPGs for the SNES have this particular look and feel to them. Generally typing, Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma (released in 1993 and 1995 alongside SoM and Chrono Trigger respectively) do provide similar action RPG gameplay, but both come off as being relatively crude in execution. I'd recommend both, though Terranigma lacks a US release. It is available in English, however, and in Spanish, German, French... so... maybe an official localization in the states is in order, yeah? As for Trigger, it utilized ideas cut from Mana due to limitations. Had it been released in '95, perhaps SoM could have become the greatest, most beloved JRPG ever! EVER! Then again, we'd be without something special and... I don't know. This is pretty hard to top.

Secret of Mana centers around a trio of relatively charismatic teenagers... sigh, it's an assumption for Popoi, since his mouth and attitude kinda fit the age group... who travel across a disconnected world to restore the balance of Mana being consumed by the resurrection of an ancient flying warship to help represent the might of the Empire. Villains love ancient flying warships AND calling their kingdom the Empire, don't they? The main character is kicked out of his hometown of Popos to.... Wait, was that its name? Popos? ...or was it Pobos? Poros, maybe?

No! STFU Sam! I didn't ask you!

I'll just call it Vault Iselia 101... ahem, for removing the sword that had always protected the village from attacking swarms of dangerous monsters. 

Hey, those swarms had waddling mushrooms and biting flowers too, you know!

It's an unnecessarily harsh punishment that sticks with Randi until the player successfully finishes the game, since the existence of Mana was diminishing, and Knight Jema was already there with intent to retrieve the sword for himself in order to stop the Empire. Regardless, you're sent out to the Water Temple in hopes of finding the hero destined to wield the Mana Sword.

What becomes fairly obvious is that -spoiler alert- Randi is that chosen hero and he needs to visit each temple in order to restore the sword's power while being pursued by the Empire as they unseal each Mana Seed. It's not the sort of story to inspire much more than a page on the TV Tropes website, but this game does introduce co-op play in a genuine JRPG. Two additional players can join and leave as they please with the AI taking over when necessary, while player one may swap party members at any point with the AI. By comparison, Chrono Trigger sticks you with the red-headed southpaw until... well, until it's not able to. Two points for Mana, right? Wrong! I'm deducting one for scrapping the option to kill townsfolk. It's available with the first game, and that sold very well, so why remove the feature? The Fallout series is proof that one can never have too much freedom in a RPG.

Except when it involves children (hopefully).

Unlike the Final Fantasy titles before this, the story and its characters are not heavily developed. It's all there, but each aspect feels incomplete. This is partially due to the loss of the SNES-CD as a result of Nintendo replacing Sony with Philip, forcing the devs to cut back significantly on content that couldn't possibly fit within the cartridge. This happened a second time with the localization, resulting in the removal of a rather large chunk of dialogue for the same reason. 

Oh well!

As is, the game's not bad. It's just that SoM could have been so much more.

For example, I appreciate how Primm spits in the face of the damsel-in-distress trope (she's still a princess, however), overcoming nearly every obstacle through sheer determination to save the man she loves (all while wearing a tiger bikini). Too bad that's about it for her. Same for Popoi. He/She has amnesia, because someone in Japan made it illegal to create a video game story without it, and acts like a clown. As for Randi, you could replace the central figure of roughly 90% of all JRPGs with him, and no one would spot the difference. The NPCs just kinda exist with exception to Thanatos, the main antagonist, and Jehk, the flimsy excuse-giver to travel across the globe. You'll grow to hate him more than Thanatos.

Magic levels up with continued use, especially during combat. The difference in damage is mostly irrelevant as one can just keep casting low-level spells to reach the 999 cap without allowing a boss to retaliate (like spamming gold knives into Dracula). The only spirit I'd recommend actively grinding is Dryad.

Weapons are like magic. They level up with use, but they don't actually become more useful. It takes forever to charge them, a second forever to watch your fighter spin a lot, and a much shorter forever to watch them vomit on themselves. Best of all, if one of the AI party members swings first, then that enemy will be in a state of shock and all that time you spent will result in a miss.

Enemies of all kinds are heavily recycled, and they respawn constantly. I'd suggest running past them to avoid getting suckered into a grind, but your AI members will frequently get stuck, if not repeatedly knocked down, in the attempt, and clearing the area becomes the faster alternative. 

Finally, the world map sluggishly moves in its 2D form. You're better off memorizing locations in the default 3D form. I appreciate its inclusion nonetheless. Also, the necessity of cannon travel for the first half of the game does little to create the illusion of a single, unified world as I watched my party fly over so much empty terrain between areas. 

Ok, so if the story and gameplay both suffered during its development, then why is Secret of Mana such a memorable game? Is it just nostalgia filling in the gaps of its mediocrity? Maybe a little, but it still reached a level of quality rarely seen in the industry at the time. The soundtrack is fan-fucking-tastic, but that was to be expected of Square. Here's the proof, and here's a free fanmade album, just in case you want some more. (Clearly, I did.) Again, I find it to be much more cheerful/colorful than its Final Fantasy counterpart, as is proven with moonwalking zombies, duck soldiers, lewd books, and Yatterman cosplayers, just to name a few. Ring menus and strict inventory limits are welcomed changes to the genre, along with the variety of weapons shared with the party (even if the whip is impractical in a fight). Up until the finally battle, I had Randi alternating between a spear and an axe. Popoi and Primm would swap bows, boomerangs, and javelins. They have magic. They didn't need to be in the fray.

Obviously, the box art is difficult to ignore.

And, lastly, Cid isn't half as adorable as Flammie.

And he's so fluffy, too! Seriously, who needs an airship?

Secret of Mana was followed by Seiken Densetsu 3, which, to my limited knowledge, has never officially left Japan, but, from what I've read, it is amazing. Of course it is. Instead, the rest of the world was treated to a sad serving of sequels beginning with Legend of Mana, followed by Sword of Mana (an extended remake of the first game, so it's not really a sequel), Children of Mana, Dawn of Mana, and Heroes of the Storm Mana. They are to the Mana series what every fucking arc after Aincrad is to Sword Art Online. There's a few free-to-play Mana mobile titles, complete with microtransactions, but I know little more than that about them since they are Japan-only. Also, it's because I use a flip phone, so I know very little about every mobile game. 

Despite its flaws, I'm glad to have finally completed this game, and I only spent $43 on my SNES copy. I think the cheapest on Amazon right now is $58 with an additional $4 for shipping. Not a bad deal for me. Now, if I could just get my hands on a reasonably-priced cartridge of Earthbound.