Secret of Mana

one of the best!

After much time spent with this game and lots of hard thinking, I've decided that I simply cannot recommend this de-make.

The only thing about the original game that arguably needed reworking was some of the hit detection. It seemed that swings on enemies would often miss for no reason and you never got a real positive feedback when you thwacked them. This is fixed in the remake, and hitting stuff with the sword finally feels like it should. But at what cost...

What do you look for when you play a remake of the game? Upgraded graphics? New music? Better controls? Modern QoL improvements? If you said yes to any of these things, you're probably gonna be disappointed with this one.

The graphics are an arguable downgrade from the original. There is no style whatsoever to them; they remind me of a lifeless Saturday morning cartoon made on the cheap. The original pixel art looked much more timeless.

The remixed music is horribly annoying and you will immediately toggle back to the original music within five minutes of booting up the game.

The cutscenes and voice work are trash. No new writing or plotting is included to flesh out the story. The voice actors are terrible and annoying, and the lips don't even move when the characters speak. You will be fast forwarding these from the start.

There are not even cloud saves or any other QoL features to bring this game into the 21st century. The item ring menu system is just as clunky as it was in the original.

The game was horribly buggy upon release and although many of them have been fixed, it just feels laggy and janky. Don't know how else to describe it. Every single aspect of this game feels horribly rushed and thrown together on the cheap to make a quick buck. It's a terrible shame and a missed opportunity to give this game the face-lift it deserved to reach modern audiences.

Emulation is as simple as pie (or raspberry pi) these days, so there's no reason to cheat yourself out of experiencing the original game, which was a paragon of 16-bit game design in the Super Nintendo era. This remake could be a fun diversion for fans of the original who just want to see the game through a new lens, but it would be a crime if this was your first impression of this classic masterpiece. Do not support lazy business practices by donating your money to this project. If you're interested in remakes, the Seiken Densetsu 3 remake "Trials of Mana" is much more lovingly crafted and much more worth your time.

Very cheap remake, the UI is so ugly
They fucked up the combat system, there's problem with actions being tied to frame rate
Animation is bad, half of characters are not animated
Do not buy, it's so buggy

get your hands on the original, what ever dev team got there hands on this took out some important AI settings for the characters ( it had like a 5x5 grid you could set your characters to. The left was avoid/defense, to right was aggressive/attack, they now have some very generic and broken settings instead (attack what controlled character attacks, attack what isn't being targeted by allies, or you can set any of them to assist on of the others). I find them #1 doing nothing and dying, #2 killing everything before i can get a few hits in preventing me from leveling weapons, #3 attacking what i don't want them to or not attacking what i want them to. They Changed Drop rates and what drops, IE#1 farming equipment i use to farm on snes has me aggravated because they either added a common drop to the enemies pool that drops 75% of the time and/or they added more traps to said chest. IE#2 prepare to get candy, chocolate, or fairy walnuts over and over and something called "shadow zero" alongside the normal death trap that use to happen mainly if your health was low when opening a chest instead of the normal equipment you use to get like 95% of the time. I'm lv50 all 14 Mana Elementals are at lv7 (7 for each character)at mana palace under 25 hours of gameplay most of that gameplay is skilling up weapons and mana, about say fk the achievements and and just finish the game and go play my snes copy which looks a lot better than the childish art they changed it to. They even were to lazy to add mouth movements of any kind (except for one spot) with the voiced dialog but added changing facial expressions wtf? how hard is it to make a mouth open 1 close 0 open 1 close 0 (hex lol),
They made accuracy an issue too.. a lot more misses in combat (way more over 50% of hits seem to be misses now) on the plus side they added a option to use the classic soundtrack..

This game is the worst thing I've played in 2024. Full of bug and with a lot of input lag and various problems. After 3 hours I've ask for refund.

DO NOT BUY THIS!!!

Nothing more to Add, read and believe on negarives reviews!

Still my favorite game of all time since I was a child. ♥ ♥ ♥
My only criticism is the Action Grid is not a true action grid like the original release had, so you are limited on what your computer-controlled allies are tasked to do.

Game is bugged and will not let me progress further into a cave in Gias Naval towards the start of the game, there's an invisible wall that just won't let you pass.

Played the original on SNES when I was a kid and loved it, so for me there was a touch of nostalgia throughout the remake and it was great, felt great. Glad Square Enix didn't change one bit in the plot, which is brilliant, the puzzles, the battles, the music, all do a very good job keeping you on the edge of your seat.

Granted, to be honest, I did go back and forth between the original and the remake music theme several times, because some of the original tracks were better in my opinion, but the remake has a few gems in there too, particularly in the Pure Lands and the Mana Fortress. The re-orchestrated track in the Pure Lands deserves an oscar! The graphics are largely improved of course and work well with the atmosphere.

I only wish the game was harder, better yet if there were difficulty levels to choose from. It wasn't hard at all if you kept armor up to date, but that being said, there is a way for you to make it a lot more challenging through armor. What you can do is keep a lower tier set for all three characters and switch to it as you progress further, just remember to not overdo it, as it could make the game impossible to beat. Need to find the sweet spot. Sometimes after a boss fight, or a set of new, higher level enemies that hardly touched me, I went back to a previous save and retried on lower tier armor, and it was so much better, cause then I had to add tactics in my play and often had to retreat and heal up instead of full on attacks knowing I was essentially invincible. That's my only and do mean only complaint.

Whether you've played the original or not, this remake is a gem!

Its simply a must play if you enjoyed the original. Amazing.

Game blacks out after MECH RIDER 3 boss fight. I did enjoy it until I get the screen of death after said boss fight....not some much now that I can't even complete the game. waste of money. Even simple games are rushed now a days.

So I waited years to play this game as it was one from my childhood that I wanted to get knocked out of the way so would I recommend it for people? Sure why not...

Do I have my gripes about it absolutely

Pros:
Music
Grafx
Gameplay*

Cons:
Story is lacking
Ending is a joke
Last boss is a joke

Dec 2024- reinstalled on my older PC, with older generic controller. So far it seems stable, also my old save files are back. meh. Will update if something new happens.
at this point WOULD recommend the game, but I still think it should work on my newer set up and controller as well.

-- OLDER review -- it's now 2024 DEC, I loved this game. I still want to.
Can you guys PLEASE fix the Crashing bugs, and the weapon swing cool down timer?>
Till then, I will NOT recommend this.

This game is full of bugs. Its been several years since I bought it and its still unplayable. SKIP THIS ONE.

very bug!!

Wonderful Port. You should also play Trials Of Mana. fantastic game as well :)

classic! good remake!

I've played and replayed the SNES version multiple times. Never at any time through a playback did I think, this feels weird.

Well, Square Enix somehow made that happen with this remake. All it made me want to do was go back and play the original.

Wait for a real remake or just go play the original.

Secret of Mana (2018 Remake)

As a long-time fan of the Mana series, I had high hopes for this remake. Unfortunately, it was a huge disappointment.

Price: With a price tag 20% higher than Cyberpunk 2077, you’d expect an AAA-quality game. It’s far from it.

Graphics:
- Outdated visuals that resemble early 2000s 3D games.
- Characters lack facial expressions during cutscenes, making them feel lifeless.
- Likely developed with handheld consoles in mind and lazily ported to other platforms.

Gameplay:
- Key mapping is unintuitive, and menus are clunky and frustrating.
- Combat feels bland, with delays and awkward mechanics that don’t capture the addictive gameplay of earlier Mana titles.
- Bugs related to high FPS on modern PCs can make areas inaccessible unless you cap the game at 60 FPS.

Audio:
- The remake’s OST feels out of place and lacks the charm of the original. It’s tolerable at best but far from memorable.

Story:
- A simplistic and childish narrative typical of 90s RPGs. It might appeal to younger players (8-12 years old) but lacks depth for veteran RPG fans.

Final Thoughts:
Unless you’re a die-hard Mana fan, this game is not worth your time or money. It’s overpriced, outdated, and poorly executed. If you’re curious, wait for a 75%-90% sale at most.

Maybe I’ll give it another chance purely out of nostalgia for the series, but that’s the only reason.

Just asucker for nostalgic games, get it if it's below 20 and enjoy...

It is worth a one time play through so i suggest getting it on sale.

It was worth a one time playthrough since we are big fans but next time we will play the classic SNES version again which is simply a greater experience in every aspect, even the 16 bit graphics.

Awesome

Sadly, I cannot recommend the remake.. It just isn't the same

I remember liking this on the SNES but the full voice acting, poor keyboard support and janky menus are all too much for me

This is such a great game! The original on the SNES has always been a favorite, right up there with Resident Evil 2 and Final Fantasy 7. I would highly recommend trying this remake out if you liked the original or if you never played it but like adventure games like Zelda. I loved how they remade the music to make it more dynamic and complex but kept it similar to the original. I know some people complain about the art style, but I like it! It's definitely more cutesy/cartoony than the original, but it looks good. I liked the voice acting, and it's very cool how the characters have a conversation before they go to bed when you stay at an inn. The sprite's voice is especially hilarious, especially when he casts mana steal. When he gets even just 1 mp, he goes "whhooohoooo!" all excited like Toad when he rocks a mushroom in Mario Kart. Overall, I think this is an absolutely amazing remake of what was already an absolutely amazing game.

So for the negatives, I have a few: I really liked the new music, but I also wish there was a way to change it to the original. Most of the tracks were an improvement while a few just sounded like club remixes, but I do miss the original music. Especially that opening song; the original is a nostalgic A-bomb, and though the new version is good, I would have loved to hear the original somewhere in the game. The graphics are very cartoony/cutesy, which is cool, but it would have been neat if they'd gone in the opposite direction where it was an over the shoulder camera like in the Final Fantasy 7 remake where you could look up at the buildings and trees and feel like you were really on this great adventure. I love the overhead camera and don't like how every game these days seem to have to be over the shoulder, but for this game I think it would have been cool. It would have been especially neat to stand in front of the Mana tree and be able to look up at how it towers over everything. That's another thing I didn't care for in the original and the remake - where the mana tree is. In the poster it's a tropical lush forest surrounded by water and plants, but in the game it's just a small rocky platform. That's a big part of the game so it's strange to me how just kind of bland the area is where the tree grows. Also, some of these achievements seem impossible. Like the one where you travel everywhere with Flammie. I seriously spent an hour trying to land in each little place but I still didn't get that achievement. Plus you're supposed to be able to level every weapon up to 9? I think I got lucky enough to get one weapon orb fighting monsters on the Mana fortress. Where are the other ones!?!? Also, the little conversations don't really follow where you are in the game. Like near the end of the game, the characters were still talking about what it'll be like to experience something mid game. I guess the programmers figured players would stay at an inn way more than I did? Also, it's super weird that the sprite is referred to as a "they". It always throws me off every time it happens.

But yeah, fantastic game. The gripes are minor and don't take away from it in anyway. I'll be playing through again sometime trying to get the achievements I missed the first time. I'd highly recommend it if you like adventure games.

Secret of Mana is one of my all time favorites from my youth. Yes, there is a lot of Nostalgia involved, but I played the game a few years ago, so I know what the game is like.

The good thing is, this is really Secret of Mana, no changes to the dialogue, map layouts or enemies. If you still know the original game, you will find every tree, every bush and every enemy at the same location (although there seem to be more enemies in this version)

The new version of the music ranges from kind of okay to just bad. The melodies are sometimes not even recognizable, the instruments for the tracks are different in every track. Someone commented that different composers were involved without clear guidelines regarding style. I don't know if it's true, but the tracks sound like it is.

The graphics are a matter of taste. I don't really like them. They are really close to the original, you recognize everything, but I personally don't like them. Too cartoonish and honestly, it's not really well made. Not a lot of details and some objects or areas really look out of place. Designs worked in 2D but not in 3D. Also the amount of invisible walls and instances where areas just cut off in a black void kind of kill the immersion.

The cut scenes are a nice touch but are more of a gimmick that show the lack of detail in animations and design. I think they wanted to preserve the original look of the faces, but a complete lack of facial animations feels weird.

The combat doesn't really feel good. It didn't have a lot of feedback in the original, and this one is really similar. It feels like you float around the area. Everything moves faster and it is easier to judge how close you have to come to an enemy to hit him, but overall it doesn't feel very good.

If you love the original, stick to it. Especially for 40€, the game feels lacking and doesn't really add something worthwhile.

Childhood best game

Once you get to the Dwarf village, you're done. The boss fight doesn't trigger, and you can't get to the smith, his door won't open (at least on the PC version). Having read the discussion threads, it appears that Squeenix has no intention of doing anything about it either. Disappointed, loved the SNES version and was hoping to see an upgraded version.

An unfortunately flawed remake that does more wrong than it does right. mechanically it plays almost identically to the original for better or worse, but lacks a useful feature that let you lock your facing direction when moving, obscenely useful for aiming charged weapon techs. Grinding magic is still awful too.

My biggest issue though is the soundtrack, which lacked a unified vision and instead tossed different songs to completely different composers and they were apparently told "Do whatever." The result is some songs are great, faithful arrangements of the originals, and some are just...Flat out bad and wrong.

On top of that, a good chunk of the ending is missing (Specifically everything in the SNES credits sequence).

Secret of Mana deserved better than this. Thankfully Trials' remake and the new game, Visions ARE better than this. Go play those instead and stick to the SNES version of Secret of Mana.

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It's not a bad remake. Pretty much passable. If you prefer the older graphics, just stick to the original. The voice acting is fine if you keep it on Japanese, but the English voices are pretty grating. The remade soundtrack is mostly decent and I liked it. You get the option to use the original music, too.

I think they did a great job with the remaster. The extra voice parts and interactions really add some depth to the game. I was 12 when I first played the original (when it came out) and I don't care what everyone else says, this is great. :)