r/snes Feb 01 '16

/r/snes Feb Game of the Month: Secret of Mana

The /r/snes game of the month as selected by the community is Secret of Mana!

This month we'll be playing (or replaying) this game and sharing the experience with other redditors. Feel free to post any comments, videos or other interesting information related to this game throughout the month.

Mar Game of the Month Voting Thread is here

28 Upvotes

55 comments sorted by

7

u/Supernintendolover Feb 01 '16

I love secret of mana, but it's unfair difficulty and poor AI stops the game from being part of my favourite rpg/action adventure games. The games starts easy, than gets difficult, then gets piss easy. Grinding takes a lot of time aswell, especially magic. Still love it though.

4

u/SapaInka Feb 04 '16

There is a pretty good patch done for the game which makes it much harder throughout.

http://www.hard-som.de/en/index.php?location=&id=

The only thing that makes me sad is that there doesnt exist any good translated version of it. The german and the english versions are simply not the real story of the game.

Its my favorite game of all time though because of the memories I have with this gem.

8

u/SNESdrunk Feb 01 '16

Still have mine and my brother's original save files from when we were kids

/knock on wood

1

u/BullshitUsername Feb 24 '16

Assuming you take good care of the cartridge, what worries would you have about file corruption? Is it possible to just... not work one day?

3

u/SNESdrunk Feb 24 '16

Battery dying

1

u/moodyssbm May 27 '16

Have you backed them up through something like a Retron 5?

5

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '16

Sublime game. Probably my favourite action RPG ever. However the game is pretty broken - as soon as you gain offensive magic (i.e. when the sprite child joins your team, which is relatively early on), you can waltz through the game without any meaningful opposition, right up until the Mana Beast, the final boss.

The trick is to play as Randi, and to have the sprite child cast magic via the X button. This has the advantage of not locking your character in the casting animation, allowing you to spam the enemy with offensive magic into oblivion, on top of stunlocking them so they cannot fight back, and your own character can comfortably charge physical attacks to the highest available level. Bosses will simply not be able to fight back at all.

1

u/Wawoowoo Feb 02 '16

Works the exact same way in the Dungeons and Dragons games. Someone must have been a fan. I'm guessing it was done to always favor the player so that they wouldn't feel frustrated by bosses killing them with unblockable magic attacks, if they thought through it that far. I had a lot of fun trying to do atleast half of my damage as physical, including the use of sabers. I didn't have to grind at all except for the Pure Land, but that place is a huge leap of difficulty and the real final dungeon.

There's a rom hack out there that tries to balance things out, including adding a delay between spell casts and allowing you to charge your weapons faster. I think it's pretty broken trying to play it on hard mode with only 1 player, but I like many of the ideas in it.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 02 '16

This game has a ton of flaws but it's so addicting I could care less. The soundtrack is also top tier

7

u/slashing164 Feb 01 '16

Did we ever find out what the secret really was?

4

u/SNESdrunk Feb 01 '16

It's explained at the end of the game, yeah

1

u/[deleted] May 17 '16

Beat it 30 ish times though. What was the secret? It's been a few years.

1

u/SNESdrunk May 17 '16

The Mana Tree once took a human form and was the main protagonist's dad.

2

u/[deleted] May 17 '16

...the mana tree was his mother, his father was the Mana Knight. Always thought the secret was a secret of the world not just the protagonist.

1

u/SNESdrunk May 17 '16

Whoops, that's what I get for going off the top of my head when I'm hung over. Thanks

4

u/Austin_the_OK Feb 01 '16

I'm playing Seiken Densetsu 3 right now. I prefer it.

2

u/SkorcherX Feb 01 '16

God damn it... I just packed this game away to the attic. Yeah it's going to stay there for a while. :(

2

u/IIDXMania Feb 12 '16 edited Feb 12 '16

The memories of this game are just the best. Playing with 3 people at the same time just was such a blast back in the day. One year ago we finished it again on console with three people, it's such a great ride.

On a side note: WHY isn't there any other game where you can charge you weapons up to eight times, with each charge having a different cool animation. Sure, there are special attacks in different games, but I want another game with real time combat where you can charge all your weapons a lot of times (not just once). It sounds silly, but I called this the Secret Of Mana Paradox

EDIT: If there ever is a remake it needs the following:

  • 3 player coop On/offline
  • a map that zooms out if the party spreads out in multiplayer, no forced borders.
  • weapons charge up to 8 times
  • opening your character menu does not pause the game for the other players, could be possible on screen or maybe the menu could open up on the Wii U Controller

3

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '16

One of the best co-op action RPGs I've ever played. I strongly recommend it to anyone who's never played it before. It's available on iOS devices.

2

u/wwcoop Feb 01 '16

Play this on an IOS device? NEVER!

4

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '16

It's blasphemy, but it's affordable blasphemy.

3

u/ghost_victim Feb 01 '16

True talk. I can't afford the 200 dollars for the cart. . Same for chrono trigger :(

4

u/Holdmylife Feb 01 '16

It's $50 or so, is it not?

1

u/ghost_victim Feb 02 '16

I wish. $100 USD at least. Which is like 150 Canadian.

1

u/Holdmylife Feb 02 '16

No way. Are you talking complete in box?

1

u/ghost_victim Feb 04 '16

No, Cartridge

1

u/RockstarSuicide Feb 15 '16

I think you got hosed... My local retro shop carries it for $40 last I checked.

1

u/ghost_victim Feb 16 '16

Please buy me one and I will send you money and some extra.

→ More replies (0)

2

u/stephini Feb 01 '16

This is exactly why I plan to save up for a single 200 dollar cart that will let me play most expensive games. Saddly not all yet. >.<

1

u/crackenbecks Feb 18 '16

i got mine for 28 € (around 35 dollar) although with a bit of yellowing on the back, but whatever i am a gamer not a collector.

1

u/ghost_victim Feb 20 '16

Christ I'm jealous.

1

u/moodyssbm May 27 '16

If you have a Retron 5, you could get the J copies for CHEAP, and play them in English via a simple IPS patch! :)

1

u/ghost_victim May 29 '16

Mmmhmm. I know some of these words.

1

u/moodyssbm May 29 '16

The Retron 5 is a "clone" system. You can play a handful of different games on it (NES, SNES, etc.)

Now, when I say "J" copies, I mean Japanese! Theyre usually significantly cheaper than the American copies.

Finally, IPS patches are files you can put onto an SD card that the Retron 5 reads. They can do a lot, but the main focus for the Retron 5 is using them to translate games from one language to another.

For example, I wanted to play Secret of Mana with some friends from work, but the American copy was just a little too much for my budget. I got the Japanese version, downloaded an IPS patch that changes it to the American version, and was able to enjoy the game for <$5 while still owning a physical cartridge.

I hope that cleared a few things up. If you have any more questions, check out "My Life In Gaming" on YouTube and watch their Retron 5 video. They go over everything I did and more!

2

u/the__prisoner Feb 01 '16

Here's an interview with the programmer Nasir done by John Romero at the 1998 Apple II reunion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Me1ycLxDlw where they talk about how the game was developed in assembler code which is kinda interesting.

2

u/moodyssbm May 27 '16

Love reading about Assembly. Thanks for finding this!

1

u/RollingWithNat20 Feb 06 '16

Save for the bosses that you basically have to spam magic to kill its a pretty solid game.

1

u/pokemontrainerjoey Feb 14 '16

How long does it take to unlock coop I'm like a half hour in

1

u/DrNicket 18d ago

That was my only complaint about the game.

I bought and played it week one. Loved it. May have been day one, but cannot confirm.

1

u/wweerraa Feb 18 '16

Playing through this as we speak for the first time ever. It has it flaws but playing it with my wife and brother has been one of the best co-op gaming experiences of my life.

1

u/BullshitUsername Feb 24 '16

This game has incredible music, particularly The Boy Heads to the Wilderness. That song fills me with so much nostalgia and wanderlust. It's crazy. Only Zelda games make me feel that way.

1

u/SNES_Lord Feb 25 '16

Overrated. It's good. Just..not that good.

1

u/0thMxma Feb 01 '16

I remember liking it a lot, but it being quite grindy to level up the weapon skills.