- Spoiler: show
- 02/01: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past [SNES Classic]
04/01: Oxenfree [Switch]
13/01: Axiom Verge: Multiverse Edition [Switch]
14/01: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim [Switch]
15/01: Super Mario World [SNES Classic]
20/01: BioShock Infinite [360]
23/01: The Fall [PSN]
26/01: Celeste [Switch]
31/01: Super One More Jump [Switch]
05/02: Night in the Woods [Switch]
08/02: Dandara [Switch]
14/02: Dragon Quest Builders [Switch]
20/02: Bayonetta [Switch]
21/02: Puzzle Puppers [Switch]
23/02: Fe [Switch]
24/02: Old Man's Journey [Switch]
26/02: Portal Knights [Switch]
28/02: Bayonetta 2 [Switch]
07/03: Subsurface Circular [Switch]
14/03: Coffin Dodgers [Switch]
15/03: OPUS: The Day We Found Earth [Switch]
18/03: Tesla vs. Lovecraft [Switch]
22/03: Fear Effect Sedna [Switch]
23/03: Destiny 2 [PS4]
31/03: Devious Dungeon [Switch]
31/03: Warp Shift [Switch]
01/04: Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap [Switch]
02/04: Paper Wars: Cannon Fodder Devastated [Switch]
09/04: Attack on Titan 2 [Switch]
11/04: The Bunker [Switch]
14/04: Streets of Red: Devil's Dare Deluxe [Switch]
16/04: Slayaway Camp: Butcher's Cut [Switch]
18/04: L.A. Noire [Switch]
23/04: Rayman Legends: Definitive Edition [Switch]
01/05: Saturday Morning RPG [Switch]
05/05: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze [Switch]
06/05: God of War (2018) [PlayStation 4]
13/05: Secret of Mana (2018) [PlayStation 4]
Much has been made of the supposed-necessity of this remake, with the original being a veritable genre classic and freely available through Virtual Console, SNES Classic, and mobile ports. I liked the look of the updated graphics (an opinion I seem to be in the minority on), so I decided to give it a look. The updated graphics are quite good, adding a lot of substance and personality that the original didn't possess. The trio gathering at Inns to discuss the events of the plot also adds a lot to their characterization that was absent in the original. Some quality-of-life additions, most notably the ability to hotkey two spells, are also welcome sights.
But everything else about the Secret of Mana remake has been a crushing disappointment.
The original Secret of Mana is a sonic masterpiece. From the moment the game turns on and you hear the whale-like cries of the Mana Beasts over the Square-Enix logo, fading into the title screen where a song plays that's frankly difficult to believe is coming out of the SNES hardware, you know you're in for something special. My expectation—and isn't it always the case that it's our own expectations that are most likely to predict our enjoyment of something—was I would get the same soundtrack, reorchestrated with live instrumentation. I imagined it as the kind of soundtrack I might listen to at a night out at one of those touring orchestras that specializes in videogame soundtracks. What I discovered was the orchestra is being conducted by Skrillex, who has replaced most of the live instruments with synthesizers, and he's been listening to a lot of metal and 80s pop music lately. The Secret of Mana soundtrack should be one of Square-Enix's mostly closely-guarded treasures, and I can't fully put into words my frustration with how they've treated it in this production.
The remake should've been an opportunity to overcome many of the weaknesses of the original, and it does attempt to fix some: The trio are no longer required to stay on the screen, which does reduce the frustration of having to hold their hand through some sequences, but the pathing hasn't been improved at all so sometimes you need backup from a character only to discover they're too far away. The combat has been "updated," which means you can attack from any radial direction now. This makes hitting enemies with ranged weapons much harder. Some enemies, especially in the final hours of the game, seem to have monstrously high evasion ratings that result in less than half my physicals attacks connecting. I have no memory of this happening in the original release; the result is Popoi, the offensive magic-using Sprite, becoming even more of a crutch than they already were in the original title.
On more powerful hardware, one of the original's biggest problems should've been fixed, but wasn't: While a character is acting (usually, attacking), they cannot be interacted with or commanded. This means when the computer is doing its job of fighting enemies, you may need to fire off a spell, only to find that you can't access their menu. This means opening the menu, finding you can't access the character and closing it again, waiting for them to finish their action, and trying again. This was a headache in the original game. On the PS4 and Vita, it should be conceivable for actions to be queued. You can't. It's the exact same headache-inducing system as in the original.
The game crashed at least once an hour while I was playing it. The only thing that made this tolerable was a generous autosave system; if the game retained its original save system, I would have given up long before beating it. I got the physical edition from Gamestop, so it's possible this issue is exclusive to the disc version of the game, or unique to my console.
Playing the Secret of Mana Remake has had the worst possible result: Making me question my love for the original, which I credit, along with Super Mario RPG and Final Fantasy Adventure, with getting me into RPGs at all. I haven't played it in almost fifteen years; is it possible I remember incorrectly and the combat in that was just as tedious as I found it here, with my supposed-legendary warriors whiffing 50% of their attacks against monsters three times their size? I don't know. Some day, I will tackle Secret of Mana on my SNES Classic free of the nostalgia filter.
But not any time soon.