Secret of Mana has a lot of good ideas that are neutered by the shocking abundance of technical issues and bugs that make this remake almost unplayable. Though the visuals and sound are fantastic, those who want to experience this classic are much better off playing the original game.
Secret of Mana
Developer: Square Enix
Price: $39.99
Consoles: PS4, PS Vita and PC
MonsterVine was provided a PS4 code for review purposes
As I wrote in an article a couple weeks back, Secret of Mana was a prime contender for a modern-gen remake. Secret of Mana is one of the many classic RPGs that made the SNES library so legendary, so remaking and bringing it to a new generation just makes sense. And while the remake has a great deal of potential, the inexcusable amount of bugs present destroys any momentum Secret of Mana could have.
For the uninitiated, Secret of Mana follows a young boy named Randi. Randi accidentally pulls the legendary Mana sword from the rock it was sealed in, releasing a plethora of monsters upon the once-peaceful world. Randi teams up with Primm, a fiery young maiden, and Popoi, an arrogant little Sprite, to save the world. The story is pretty basic by today’s standard, but it’s easy to follow and evokes a real feeling of nostalgia for the more mystical narratives of the 16-bit era. The characters are one of the best parts of the game, especially since they’ve all received some rather lively voicework. While the three playable characters have some of the best and most expressive material, the majority of the cast is quite talented and gives the world a bit more life.
Secret of Mana really trips up in the gameplay department. The once innovative action-RPG gameplay is victim to a painful amount of bugs, from delayed attacks to wonky hitboxes. After hitting an enemy for the first time, all subsequent strikes take seconds to hit. This means your attacks will seem to whiff through or past enemies, only to take effect moments later. This makes it incredibly hard to time your hits, especially when there are a number of enemies around who are all in varying states of taking damage. Sometimes the hit sound doesn’t go off either, making combat into a mess. These delays are such a major issue that combat throughout the game feels awkward and unsatisfying.
Some gameplay features don’t really hold up in the industry today, such as the antiquated fast-travel system (which can’t be used when you have dead party members, i.e. when it is likely most needed), the frequent backtracking, and the sparse save system. These are by no means entirely game-breaking issues, but it’s worth mentioning that you’ll need to prepare for some dated mechanics. The implementation of an autosave feature has definitely helped a bit in this regard, though being able to make a permanent save more frequently would certainly ease my concerns. These were issues in the original game though, so I’m not too bothered overall.
Even outside of combat, Secret of Mana is full of bugs of every shape and size. The game itself crashed and booted me to my Home menu more than once, while characters would frequently get stuck in/behind walls and obstacles. Models sometimes clip into one another, enemy attacks that don’t appear to go near you will somehow hit you, party members will just decide to stop fighting in the middle of a battle, and the list goes on. Secret of Mana feels borderline untested, and I have no idea how it got past any form of quality check before being published.
Visually, Secret of Mana is incredibly faithful. The style and colors are fantastic, perfectly emulating the tone of the original game while simultaneously bringing Secret of Mana into the third dimension. The models are great, and the proportions feel rather accurate to the sprite art of the original game. I do wish that the models’ mouths moved while they talked however, as hearing two models speak to each other with static expressions takes you out of the experience a bit.
Secret of Mana really shines in the soundtrack department, as the remake lets players switch between the original soundtrack and the remastered one on the fly. I’ve always thought that Secret of Mana has a stunning soundtrack, and hearing it once again, both the original and the remasters, has proven this belief to be true. There’s so much emotion in the soundtrack, from somber, reflective tracks to the high-energy, unrelenting boss fight song. Even if you aren’t fond of the game, you have to admit that the soundtrack is nothing short of exceptional.
The Final Word
Secret of Mana is an incredibly broken game. While its story and aesthetics are well done and full of reverence for the original game, the actual gameplay of the remake is far too buggy to be enjoyable. Until Square Enix drops some major patches, the original Secret of Mana is the best way to play this classic title.
MonsterVine Rating: 2 out of 5 – Poor
