Brian 5
Sami PetrosSecret of Mana
I’m going to be featuring reviews of a few old games on SNES, PC and whatnot in the next few weeks.
Definitely of my favourite SNES games of all time, Secret of Mana, is an RPG from Squaresoft (arguable one of the best producers of this genre of game).
The game puts you in control of a young man whose past is shrouded in mystery, his mother having come to the small village of Potos and, on falling sick, gives her baby into the care of the village elder. When out fooling around at the falls with his friends the hero slips and falls into the lower forest. On waking he can find no way through the dense scrub, conveniently he finds a sword stuck in a stone and is told by a ghost in armour to remove the sword from the stone. Upon fighting his way through monsters in the forests outside the town the hero returns to find the town under siege – one thing leads to another and we find out that the sword was responsible for protecting the village, after a fight with a boss (a big ant/mantis thing) the elder reluctantly banishes the hero from the village. A stranger advises the hero to go to the water palace south of town and there the guardian informs him that the sword he is carrying is the mana sword, a sword created by the goddess of the world to defend it from being destroyed by the mana beast, a creature that appears to destroy civilization if it ever starts to drain the energy of the world.
Along the way you meet two other adventurers who will help you on your quest and will be able to utilize different magic to aid you.
The game lets you roam freely; monsters appear on the map rather than Squaresofts’ usual random encounter method. The game is real time, you press the attack button to attack and a meter will run from 0 to 100% after making an attack to signify that you can do full damage again (a bit like a stamina meter). Holding the attack button will charge up a power attack if you have the skill and holding the attack for longer will progress the power attack to higher levels, a sure fire way to inflict large amounts of damage. Pressing select will allow you to interact with your inventories and cast spells.
Along with great graphics and music for it’s time, I much recommend Secret of Mana to any RPG enthusiast.
To look for information there is not better source than this site. You will also be able to get an emulation of the game from there, or you could go out and find a SNES for pretty cheap.
Alskreek, out.
Definitely of my favourite SNES games of all time, Secret of Mana, is an RPG from Squaresoft (arguable one of the best producers of this genre of game).
The game puts you in control of a young man whose past is shrouded in mystery, his mother having come to the small village of Potos and, on falling sick, gives her baby into the care of the village elder. When out fooling around at the falls with his friends the hero slips and falls into the lower forest. On waking he can find no way through the dense scrub, conveniently he finds a sword stuck in a stone and is told by a ghost in armour to remove the sword from the stone. Upon fighting his way through monsters in the forests outside the town the hero returns to find the town under siege – one thing leads to another and we find out that the sword was responsible for protecting the village, after a fight with a boss (a big ant/mantis thing) the elder reluctantly banishes the hero from the village. A stranger advises the hero to go to the water palace south of town and there the guardian informs him that the sword he is carrying is the mana sword, a sword created by the goddess of the world to defend it from being destroyed by the mana beast, a creature that appears to destroy civilization if it ever starts to drain the energy of the world.
The game lets you roam freely; monsters appear on the map rather than Squaresofts’ usual random encounter method. The game is real time, you press the attack button to attack and a meter will run from 0 to 100% after making an attack to signify that you can do full damage again (a bit like a stamina meter). Holding the attack button will charge up a power attack if you have the skill and holding the attack for longer will progress the power attack to higher levels, a sure fire way to inflict large amounts of damage. Pressing select will allow you to interact with your inventories and cast spells.
Along with great graphics and music for it’s time, I much recommend Secret of Mana to any RPG enthusiast.
To look for information there is not better source than this site. You will also be able to get an emulation of the game from there, or you could go out and find a SNES for pretty cheap.
Alskreek, out.
