Lost Classics: Secret of Mana (SNES)

Square’s Secret of Mana (or Seiken Densetsu 2 as it’s called in Japan) is an action RPG similar to Gauntlet. In fact, it could have almost been considered an early dungeon crawler even before Diablo (of course while Diablo focused on level grinding, SOM focused on story and exploration). Despite its simplicity, SOM managed to be every bit as engaging as a Final Fantasy or Chrono Trigger, and it became every bit as memorable as other games from the 16-bit era.

You take the role of your typical mute hero. After you pull a sword from a stone, you are banished from your home village after monster are unleashed upon the location. You travel around the world, eventually meeting a girl and a sprite and joining together to find the eight temples of mana in order to re-energize the sword.

You and your two companions wield a selection of weapons which can be upgraded. You can pull off short attacks, or charge for more powerful attacks. The sprite and the girl can also use magic. Each of the spells are grouped under one of 8 elements. The sprite uses attack magic and the girl uses healing and defensive magic. Like the weapons, they are also upgradable. After you meet the girl and the sprite, a second and third player can take control of them (of course a multitap is needed for three players). Instead of going to a menu to swap weapons and use magic, the game uses an on-screen ring selection system which makes equipping weapons and using items quick and simple, thus keeping you in the action for longer. I never quite appreciated how intuitive this system was until I played other such games, even Mass Effect, that had me wading through several menus just to equip items.

The soundtrack is excellent. It has the same orchestra quality that the other 16-bit Final Fantasy titles had. The graphics are bright and colorful, and they make use of mode 7 for the flying segments. It’s also used in a particularly chilling scene when the mana base rises from below the ground, thus signaling do-or-die time. Few RPGs at the time contain water cooler sequences this cool, and not many RPGs released today do either.

Since there was only one Zelda title on the SNES (minus the BS Zelda games from the Japan-only Satellaview anyway), Secret of Mana did a good job of serving as a spiritual successor. After the sequel (which was NOT released outside of Japan, and is NOT Secret of Evermore contrary to belief) however, subsequent entries in the Seiken Densetsu series simply weren’t as well relieved as this entry. Secret of Mana However, remains one of Square’s all time classics. It’s available on Virtual Console, so check it out.

Oh yeah, here’s a little trivia: This was originally set to be called Final Fantasy Adventure 2 (which makes sense, as the U.S. version of the original release was called Final Fantasy Adventure) and was set to be a launch title for the aborted Super Nintendo CD add-on.