Anime Game Review:Secret of Mana

Game Review: Secret of Mana (Seiken Densetsu II)
Genre: RPG
Created by Squaresoft

Rating:

Gameplay: 10
Graphics: 8
Music: 9
Story: 8
Replayability: 7
Overall: 10


Gameplay: Perhaps SoM’s strongest point, the gameplay was a bit different than most RPGs. Instead of having turn based battles, this game featured real time gameplay. It was almost like Zelda mixed with Final Fantasy. There were no battle modes, you would fignt the enemy on the world screen like in Zelda, however enemies had HP, and everytime you would hit them a number showing how much HP they lost would show up around them. (much like Final Fantasy) Needless to say the game was very fun to play,and was a refreshing change to the typical turn battles that RPGs have.

Graphics: This game is from 1991,so don’t go in there expecting FFX graphics, these graphics are nowhere near it. However they are good. The spell animations look nice, to me, they exceeded the effects of the future RPG, Final Fantasy VI. Actually, this game does look better than some PS1 games, so its not bad graphically. But then again, its not about the graphics,right?



Music: This game had a very good soundtrack. It sounds dated, and that’s because it is, it is never the less good. I find it better than some of today’s game soundtracks. The music this game had was always fitting for the time it played, for forests it had a peaceful tune and for boss fights it has a very heavy tune. The music was good, and it was fitting, so it got a 9.



Story: The game starts out with a boy who comes across an ancient artifact, a sword, the “Mana Sword”, when this happens, monsters begin to appear, and the boy is blamed for this and is banished from his hometown, from there the story develops.



This games story was pretty good, it’s not complex like many recent games such as Xenogears or Metal Gear Solid 1 and 2,but it was good enough for this game. It develops slowly, and some may find that annoying , but all things considered I give an 8 for the story ,its not all mind boggling, but hey, still a great story!


Replayability: Like any RPG, once you get through this game once ,it wont have the same effect as the first playthrough, but you will find yourself liking another playthrough, especially if all you’ve been playing since you beat it were turn based RPGs. I’ve played through it several times and I still do, so I’ll give it a 7.


Overall: This is a great game. Perhaps one of the best ever. It was a great game for its time and still is. This game is an RPG everyone should play, most RPGs now are turned based, that’s not bad ,but it is nice to have something different. With the exception of a slowly developing story, this game is perfect, and any RPG fan will like it. It gets a 10,it deserves it.


Oh,did I mention its a two player game?

-Kaneda

 

If it weren't for the magic leveling, I would have loved it all the more. Thats what Seiken Densetsu 3 was for... until I deleted my roms...

 

I actually liked that feature.It allowed you to have more control of where your strengths an weaknesses were,rather than having the game randomly generate them for you.

 

Yes, but most of the time, if you built your magic up, you also built levels, which made the game too easy to a point. Unless, of course, you built magic levels on weak enemies.

 

SOM was my all time favorite RPG for SNES, i thought that there was nothing wrong with the game althouh there was a few glitches. at one point when you get flammie (the dragon) if you go to the ice country and land on the round island and save there you might never beable to load you file again. although you need that place to do the LV.9 sword trick.
anyway i thought the magic system was good, although you can't level up any higher then your current mana power, i really like the weapon tempering thing. that was fun. there were only a few negitives about the game. it reset itself a few times (my SNES was old though), the whip spots (in some areas, if your team was fighting while you were whipping across, you might end up in a wall, this really sucked in the MANA frotress because you can't use the escape rope.), and


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the poor sprite he died at the end that was sad but it did make the game good......



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but any way i loved at the end fighting in the mana fortress for all the Level 9 weapon orbs. that took a lot of time but it was well worth the effort. also after you beat the pure land, you can get to lv 8/99 magic it has cool effects like fire ball becomes a dragon.
and then the screen stops miving so you can see all the effects of the spell. pretty cool

also the mutily player function was freakin' awsome nothing was better then have 3 people cntroling your characters while fighting a boss.

yeah this game was the BEST
yeah i have mastered this game and i still love to play it.
mog's rating- prefect 10/10 **********

KUPO

 

s coo but i think i will stick with animal crossing...

 

Yes... this game is GOOD! I've had it a long time now.
Although, i actually found the 2nd game (secret of mana 2) even better !! With better music, gameplay top-notch...

you should try the 2nd--it's even better!!!

 

Actually, that's the third. Secret of Mana is the second.


(The game's real name is Seiken Densetsu, Secret of Mana was Seiken Densetsu II.)