Let's rediscover a great title from the past.
Years go by but loves remain. At least that remained for Secret of Mana, role-playing video game that now has its good years behind it. You may not have realized it, but 25 years have passed since the first Super Nintendo release from Square Enix: it was 1993. A certain relationship with Final Fantasy Secret of Mana has always had: just think that his previous chapter, Mystic Quest, was born just as a spin off of the Final Fantasy series.
Anyway, only Secret of Mana made it to Europe: the previous chapter was relegated to North America, the sequel to Japan. And while in Japan already on Nintendo Switch they can delight in all three remastered chapters, we must be content with only Secret of Mana, on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. Not bad: we tried the first of the two versions for you, and we are ready for the verdict.
The new conflict
Even then, the gameplay of Secret of Mana allowed you to make your way into the cauldron of RPGs present on consoles. To those who did not go down the system of turn-based and random battles, two paths remained open: The Legend of Zelda and (in fact) Secret of Mana. With a view to the anniversary of the series, a remake made from scratch and in 3D makes perfect sense.
The world of Secret of Mana is so called because it is permeated by an incredible source of power, called precisely Mana. Many years before the events told the thirst
of power of men prompted them to manipulate Mana to create the ultimate weapon, a flying ship. The gods to punish them sent monsters to earth, sparking a huge conflict. Years later, it seems that the men, as always, have not learned anything, and that they are preparing a new weapon recovering the Mana seeds scattered around the planet.
Randi, the protagonist, is chosen as the bearer of the Mana Sword, the legendary sword that already at the time interrupted the conflict between men and monsters. In a plot all in all devoid of great twists, the boy will travel the territories in search of the seeds of Mana in the company of his friends Primm and Popoi.
There is no shortage of moments full of tension and pathos (as long as you are careful and master the English language at least a little). The total of hours of play required to complete the adventure is around thirty going very calmly. To find all the treasures and see everything Secret of Mana offers instead it will take you at least 50 hours.
Still relevant
Secret of Mana is an action-RPG title that sees us all caught from the exploration of more or less large dungeons, full of monsters and objects to grab, until the moment of the final battle against the bosses. The weapons with which we will start the game are always the same and incredibly limited, but every character can literally equip any object he will find on the way during the exploration.
The combat sees all three protagonists of the adventure on the field, but the player can only control one at a time. The other two will act in complete autonomy, fighting in real time, mechanics that allowed Secret of Mana to be appreciated even today, even by today's public.
Too bad for the artificial intelligence of the supporting actors, which in most cases either get stuck in some absurd point of the dungeons, or (especially during boss fights) they lose any will to live and commit suicide. Square Enix legitimized the mechanics from a conservation perspective: apart from the graphics, it didn't retouch anything of Secret of Mana, for better or for worse. This choice doesn't always make sense.
A few problems too many
Technically speaking, where Secret of Mana should spark by virtue of updating to modern times, the situation is quite fluctuating. Many polygons don't convince, like aliasing, and a few small slowdowns don't help an overall feeling of sluggish title response.
Paradoxically, the version that benefited most from the remake was PlayStation Vita, where the user certainly does not expect performance at the level of PlayStation 4 and in this case tends to be less disappointed. Good rediscovery of the original Secret of Mana column, properly rearranged.
Final Comment
Since it seems increasingly unlikely that the original trilogy will be published on the Nintendo Switch in the West, too, Secret of Mana Remake is probably the best opportunity you have available to replay a great classic of the past in its new guise. Only the graphic-visual sector was created from scratch, everything else remained unchanged, for good but above all for bad, with the defects that existed at the time. Those who have never had the opportunity to know Secret of Mana, however, cannot miss the opportunity, perhaps at a budget price. And perhaps even for the elderly it is time for a family reunion.
