Secret of Mana, what am I missing?

[crackoaf]

So I recently got reinvigorated to play my old 16 bit favorites after softmodding my xbox. Shining Force was great, I just wrapped up Chrono Trigger, did a little Zelda. After the typical run-through, I arrived at a game I had nearly played to completion as a teenager but had struggled mightily with since. That game was Secret of Mana.

Now, its been about 6 years since my brother stole the super nintendo from our family home, and since then I've probably made a couple attempts at emulating the game on my laptop. They both fizzled out pretty quickly. I decided to give the game one more chance because I figured maybe the hack and slash just wasn't translating very well to the keyboard.

Well, I'm just really frustrated playing this game. I'm going to fight the witch and my two backup females die like its their job. I really wish I was just alone foraging ahead. Is this game just not for me or do people have insight into some fun I a m missing here.

[extrarice]

Make sure you have set the fighting style of your CPU-controlled players appropriately. Personally I keep all CPU-controlled players at a distance using distance weapons, and have them casting magic almost constantly. It can be hard keeping track of everyone's health and MP, but the game is worth it. Fantastic music.

[corn619]

You should try Secret of Mana 3 for the SNES it never came out in america but you can download the translation patch at romhacking.net. Just patch the rom its name in japan is Seiken Densetsu 3. The battle system is much better and balanced and the graphics and story are the best I highly recommend it. Its easily one of if not the best game on the SNES, shame Square never brought it over the pond it boggles my mind.

[marurun]

Holy crap Corn619! That was like 6 or 8 sentences and you had it all divided up into only 2. I can't say anything about the content because I couldn't read it. You made my eyes hurt. Please, please edit for readability. I promise I'll even read the post all the way through if you do.

Crackoaf, I kinda agree with you on Secret of Mana. It's midway between an action game and an RPG and the attacks just feel... off. It's hard to manage all 3 characters, particularly since the AI is bad and the delayed response controls really hurt playability. Music was great and all, but the plot kinda goes to hell later in the game. At the time it was decent, but it just doesn't hold up well.

[crackoaf]

I just can't believe I made it to the final dungeon when I was like 15 and now I can't make it through the damn witches castle without wanting to destroy my tv with the controller.

Btw, I basically sorta ignored magic for most of the game because its not that necessary when I played way back when. Only to find out that in the last dungeon you basically can't beat any of the bosses without magic. Gah.

[ott0bot]

yeah. after you level them up a bit and get a few more wepons they survive much better. I hate when they get stuck on a shrub or a wall and you have to go back and help them get unstuck. annoying! I played throught the first few dungeons recently and put it down for a couple months. now i can't figure out where the hell to go. i think it was the cannon, but that guy won't do anything for me. hmm...

[Drakon]

honestly secret of mana has a terrible battle system. I found it very confusing as a kid. Now as an adult I can deal with it. In fact.....I abuse a flaw in the engine that lets you keep casting attack spells over and over without the enemy being able to do anything. But it only works on some bosses because not all of them are weak against magic. And there's one part in the game where you HAVE to buy armor from the cat thing who's hiding behind a building. And there's no indication that the cat thing is hiding there. And if you don't buy that armor you're pretty much toast. All I have to say is yay for internet walkthroughs... Personally I never get mad at secret of mana though. Something about the music and gameplay makes this calming experience where I just get fun out of running around killing things.

And when your cpu controlled teammates get stuck behind a wall or something use this trick. If you hit the select button you change the character you control. So just hit select until you get to the character that's stuck and move that person out of there yourself. The system in this game is totally NON user friendly. But if you have the patience to figure it out this's actually an amazing game.

[glynnahab]

yeah. after you level them up a bit and get a few more wepons they survive much better. I hate when they get stuck on a shrub or a wall and you have to go back and help them get unstuck. annoying! I played throught the first few dungeons recently and put it down for a couple months. now i can't figure out where the hell to go. i think it was the cannon, but that guy won't do anything for me. hmm...

The exact same thing happened to me with this game.

And I agree with all the complaints about this game. I know it gets lots of accolades, but for me it wasn't very remarkable. Maybe multiplayer is where it's at with this game. It could be much more enjoyable with competent comrades.

[missyrelm]

My wife and I tried this in our endless search for co-op games.
It's supposed to have a co-op option a while into the game.

We got bored, and never quite made it to the point where it became co-op.

We do plan on giving it another chance though, we were hoping to play it before playing a translated version of Seiken Densetsu 3, but we may go straight to Seiken Densetsu 3.

[MrPopo]

In all honesty, the Cat boss in the Witch's castle is a very evil part of the game. It's likely because of the mecahnics of that fight (not being able to hit with weapons half the time, no magic yet), but it's one of the most frustating fights in the game. If you can get past it, the game goes back to being fun.

Yes, the battle system is clunky, but once you learn how to work it it is actually pretty enjoyable. The trick comes down to patience, and leveling your magic a bit. If you have your magic leveled up properly you can use it against non-bosses, as you can cast a single target all and wipe out all enemies on the screen, which gets around the mana issues.

If you're playing solo, you should be controlling the hero directly. Magic is always best to cast using the AI's menu, as you can either chain it, or at the very least fire and forget. If you have two people, I'd recommend you two play the hero and the girl, to leave the attack magic still being easily castable through the AI menu. But whichever character you play with, you need to get familiar with the reach of your weapons, and the length of invincibility of enemies. And don't neglect the buff spells.