What RPG are you playing right now?

[dunpeal2064]

It's okay, Secret of Mana isn't that great anyway.

Burn the heathen!

I hate to say it, but I sorta feel the same way. The game starts out great, and the style of combat feels really fresh.

However, I don't think the game grows very well as you go along. You start out with a cool weapon... and then just get weapons that don't really feel to different, and are usually just used in a really gimmicky way. Same with the magic, it starts out cool, and then just rinses/repeats. Oh boy, another element, another buff, another set of crap magic I have to level.

The gear is entirely store-bought until the very end of the game, where you are supposed to assume that NOW enemies will drop something useful, but at a pretty low rate. The story couldn't even move along without just sending you on a wild goose chase after a Sage, which while looking for him you play through probably 50% of the game with no story.

I enjoyed some of the boss fights, but other than that, I just do not see what makes this game so great. I still really wanted to finish it, just in case the ending redeemed it, but anything short of the characters pulling cheetahmen out of their asses would still leave the game pretty bland.

I know a lot of these complaints are common to the genre, but usually I get hooked to the characters and their unique abilities (Finally seeing a triple move in Chrono Trigger with characters I love, or pretty much anything from Final Fantasy 6). In SoM, I never found myself thinking, "Oh man, can't believe I just got that skill", or "Holy crap, I wondered off and found a chest with the coolest equipment evar"

... geeze, ddin't mean to type that much

[Valkyrie-Favor]

I played through the game to see what was so great about it, but I liked it even less than that. The combat wasn't much fun for me either. How can you have such poor hit detection in an action RPG? Whenever I got damaged, it was because of the ridiculously long recovery time after being attacked. That means a huge portion of your time fighting involves getting stunned over and over and over again. And those flying enemies!

I didn't like it as a multiplayer game. That didn't really improve the experience. Better than the AI, but it's a pain to keep everyone on the same screen.

I agree with your comment about all the skills being useless too. I solved all of my problems with heal magic and the axe. I did not have one high level magic at the end of the game because it would take longer to grind than it would to just win. Despite those annoyances it was actually a really easy game.

The art didn't do it for me, the animation was poor. I really disliked the music, it was either mediocre or downright horrible (remember that song when you hang out with the dwarves? ugh...) Story is not worth commenting on. I understand if you liked this game, but how can you praise the story?

There is one thing about this game I will praise, and that is the dungeon design. It wasn't brilliant, but it was different and interesting enough that I actually looked forward to seeing what the next one had to offer. Especially for its time, that's impressive.

So, SoM fans, what do you like about it? You probably disagree with me on the music, I've heard a lot about that.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Secret of Mana is fantastic!

I may be the only person who likes Secret of Evermore better though.

[Nemoide]

I've been playing Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun.
I got this game when I was in high school, but the save battery had already died. I finally got it replaced and so I'm D&Ding it up, Genesis-style!

I can't honestly say that it's a good game. Compared to other 16-bit RPGs, it's primitive, buggy, repetitive, and has feels limited in many ways. But for some reason, I really like it. I know there aren't many games based on the old 'basic' D&D so Warriors of the Eternal Sun feel like it's kind of special in a dumb way.

[tlandon5]

Wilds Arms 2 on epsxe!

Beautiful music in this incredibly easy game. Nice to play at night when tired and not much thought is required....

[Xeogred]

Secret of Mana is fantastic!

I may be the only person who likes Secret of Evermore better though.

Combat is insanely fluid in Evermore, that was an improvement. I love it as well but SD3 is the true peak of these games, greatest combat system ever.

I'm going to have to instantly defriend several of you guys now after stepping on my SoM. This is like the seventh time I've seen you completely rip apart a game Valkyrie-Favor, tough to please or something.

Hiroki Kikuta > Uematsu / Mitsuda (alright Xenogears is glaring at me now...)

I have no problem admitting the hit detection is wonky, the game was hard my first run but is super easy to me now and it's not necessary to grind for -anything- in the game really, levels or magic. The charging system is the only thing I dislike about it, which is still in Evermore if I remember right but they luckily got rid of that in SD3. The storyline in ALL THREE of these games is not amazing, but I think they all have a lot of charm, the Mana's in particular. What games aren't flawed? The worlds just pull me in, the music is downright some of my favorite stuff in JRPG's period, and the combat system even with its flaws is still tons of fun to me (and for the record I've never played them via multiplayer, don't think I'd like that since I like to have full control).

I like SNES games that tell their story through the music and imagery, so go figure my other favorites aren't story centric at all in the long run (Link to the Past and Super Metroid). They're just fun simple games I can sink into.

Complaining about both the art and music in SoM just blows my mind though. Wow.

[o.pwuaioc]

I like SNES games that tell their story through the music and imagery, so go figure my other favorites aren't story centric at all in the long run (Link to the Past and Super Metroid). They're just fun simple games I can sink into.

Complaining about both the art and music in SoM just blows my mind though. Wow.

Agreed 1000 times. In fact, I can't see how anyone can play an action game on the SNES and complain about the story. LttP, Super Metroid, Contra III, Super Castlevania IV, Mega Man X, Kirby's Dreamland, Gradius III, even other ARPGs like Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia - none of these have deep stories. What they do have is atmosphere, amazing music (less so on Soul Blazer but it still is agreeable), imagery and enemies that just pull you in, and ooze both charm and awesomeness.

Like with Dave and FFIV earlier, I cannot fathom how anyone cannot like Secret of Mana.

[BoneSnapDeez]

SoM is one of those games that gets by on atmosphere, music, artistic direction, and overall experience. Yes, if you try to break it down to the sum of its parts the flaws become apparent (though this is probably true for many great games).

The combat system isn't as smooth as Link to the Past of even Ys IV/V, but it's not unbearable. I'll concede that the magic system is broken as hell. Yeah, the story is "bad" just like every other JRPG (or nearly every other video game for that matter). But I find these things easy to overlook, the game is fun as hell.

I have no idea how someone could dislike the music. It is godly.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

All right, that menu theme is pretty good and I love it too. But there are some songs in this game that truly deserve what I said. They're really grating. I've listened to most of the soundtrack again since my first post against this game, and there are like five good songs in this game. The art isn't bad, I just don't like it. The style they pulled off was pretty impressive for the time.

I don't play JRPGs for story. There are a few exceptions, but I'm usually there for the gameplay or atmosphere. I love the idea of SNES RPGs for the same reason. The FF games are super awesome. I just couldn't enjoy playing SoM because it was so broken as a game and the art/music wasn't nearly enough to make it worth it. Every other fight, an enemy spawns from nowhere and knocks you down, and then you have to wait fifteen seconds for a horde of enemies to stunlock you before you ever have a chance to fight.

Imagine the reception if this was a modern game. I don't think the gameplay flaws would be forgiven so easily. Even if you like it, I just don't understand how you can call it one of the best of its generation.

Maybe I'm being too harsh on games I don't like, but Elfen Lied wants revenge. Yeah, I've already forgotten which games I've ripped on and which I haven't...

[dunpeal2064]

I liked the music and story... but what else is there to like? You just walk around using the same attack on the same enemies with very little strategy for the entire game. I really don't get what it is that has people saying, "How could someone possibly not like this game?"

Is it just atmosphere? Music aside, the atmosphere seems pretty generic to me, nothing like Terranigma, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, all those great games that claimed a feel of their own.

The battle system isn't bad per se, but nothing about it makes me think, "Man, I can't wait to get out there fighting again, so that I can kill things like Link, but in slow motion, or like Samus, but with just the gun, and in slow motion"

Its hard to compare it to an action game, because its a slow action game, so I tend to compare it to turn-based games, as their pace is a little more similar. When a game has slow combat like that, yes, I do look to the story/character development, which I found none of here.

What is it? So many die hard fans here, someone explain to me what it is about this game that just takes the cake, when we have stuff like Terranigma on the same console, which DOES have a really cool story, and is a great action game?

I coudl rant for days about why I like Final Fantasy 6, so I expect a nice rant from someone about why they love SoM :0 and no "It just draws me in" I can't relate to that, give me the juicies!