Both enemies and heroes are animated beautifully, and the occasional Mode 7 perspective from a friendly dragon – a precursor to the airship view found in Final Fantasy VI – serves as the icing on the cake. There are all sorts of unique biomes to explore, each home to unique creatures and inhabitants. Graphics and Soundįortunately, thanks to the new hardware platform, Secret of Mana surpasses the graphical and audio achievements of its forebear, setting itself up as one of the greatest presentations of the SNES RPG scene. Regardless, as it stands, the narrative in Secret of Mana barely advances from its predecessor, Final Fantasy Adventure, which was released on a technologically inferior system two years before this SNES title. Outside of the Thanatos, I couldn’t tell you the names of any of the other villains shown off in Secret of Mana, whereas Gestahl, Kefka, Leo, and Celes all are likely to ring a bell to those that have played Final Fantasy VI. When compared to Final Fantasy VI, another game in which an evil empire is up to no good, with a multitude of supporting characters under its banner, the difference is night and day. The Empire, more or less, acts as the ultimate bad guy here, but the Emperor himself has lots of lackeys beneath him, most of which aren’t developed beyond their sporadic (and ill-fated) attempts to derail the plans of the hero. Even the twist towards the end, which has one antagonist superseding another, lacks emotional impact because both characters weren’t that compelling to begin with. The team is introduced to numerous key baddies along the way, but none of them are portrayed in a way as to make them truly memorable villains. Randi has the most reasonable motive for the adventure, considering he forced himself into the situation with the whole “sword in the stone” deal (among other reasons revealed later), but he doesn’t really get fleshed out until the very end of the game. The heroes and villains of Secret of Mana suffer greatly from the poor writing. The exploits of a certain spoony bard two years prior are leaps and bounds beyond the average conversation here, which is a bit of a disappointment in itself. I wouldn’t be surprised if some context was lost in translation, seeing as some of the dialogue sequences are quite rough around the edges anyways. In a way, and as to not spoil the story, the hero and his Sword feel like the pointless “third wheel” to the conflict between the Mana Fortress and Mana Beast.
Collection of mana series#
The series is no stranger to the idea of a “holy sword against darkness” – that in itself is fine – but I feel that the team over-complicated this point for no apparent reason. The narrative found in Secret of Mana, while certainly passable, is nothing to write home about either. Randi’s only hope will be to grab some friends and set out to the eight mana palaces, sealing the eight seeds within to prevent the Mana Fortress from rising once more. Unbeknownst to Randi, removing the sword spurs on a chain of events which will have antagonistic powers, once again, seeking to revive the dreaded Mana Fortress. In the present, a young man named Randi stumbles upon the ancient Sword of Mana, now drained of power, trapped within stone. The world would eventually recover, but history does have a way of repeating itself. Wielding the holy sword – a blade imbued with the power of Mana – the hero ended the conflict, but at a great cost. This conflict however, if left unchecked, would ultimately destroy the world, and that would have been the case if it weren’t for the efforts of one selfless hero. This blatant abuse of Mana caused the gods to retaliate with the Mana Beast, a divine being whose sole purpose was to destroy the Mana Fortress. A gigantic floating battlestation, the Mana Fortress, was the ultimate product of this endeavor.
There once was a time where a powerful civilization used Mana in order to become even more of an unstoppable force.
Secret of Mana, like Final Fantasy Adventure before it, uses the finite, godly energy source known as “Mana” as the focal point of its narrative.
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