Secret of Mana is one of those games that routinely gets included in top 10 lists for RPGs, SNES RPGs, even overall SNES library. Nintendo even included it in the SNES classic released in 2018. A remake of the game was even released last year, and the game and it's siblings were rereleased on Switch under the Collection of Mana. It's one of those games that I rented as a kid, but never had the chance to complete.

It's probably one of the biggest cases of nostalgia goggles I've ever played. It's an early action-RPG, where you play as a spikey-haired kid who inherits a sword and is forced to save the world. Right off the bat the game sets it's pace. There is a meter at the bottom of the screen that reads 100%, and each time you swing your sword that puppy hits 0%, and over a few seconds counts back up to 100%. Your first swing is a normal attack, dealing a moderate amount of damage. Every swing between 0% and 100% does piddle and resets the counter back down to 0%, forcing you to pace your swings in order to do any reasonable amount of damage.

This sounds kinda nice as I type it out, like you can imagine developing a cadence and that fighting enemies would feel satisfying. But there are absolutely no options of defense besides running around the arena hoping the enemy's tracking is bad enough that they don't decimate you. See when you hit an enemy, they sort of just, take it. Your character will stop and ask for more. Most normal enemies are so dumb and slow you can get a hit in, run away, and come back when your meter is back up, but bosses are a special hell where your success depends on having enough healing items or getting lucky enough that the enemies don't stun-lock you.

You're eventually joined by two other party members who are beyond useless. The game actually has multiplayer support, where up to two other players can control 2P and 3P to help fight. This might have actually made some of the fights more enjoyable, but most devolve into the dumb AI getting stuck somehow, forcing the screen to lock while the enemies keep pegging you.

There is one saving grace that I was somewhat ashamed to abuse. The game eventually grants you the ability to use magic, which is so overpowered it actually evens the playing field. Most enemies and bosses will get stun-locked by repeatedly casting magic spells just like you do when they do… well, anything. If you cruise ancient and modern internet forum posts criticizing the game, you'll find most fans of this game masochistically accept that the game's difficulty is unbalanced, and magic-spamming is just a viable "strategy," while offering no insight as to tackle combat gracefully, as there is none.

I understand that standards for these games were probably much lower back in 1993, so I can see why some people might revere this game if they played it as kids. It's bright and colorful, the world, enemies, and boss designs are somewhat cool. The multiplayer aspect would have greatly increased my enjoyment of the game, although my brother and I did try to play it one time many years ago and we had the same frustrations. The story is pretty basic, and some areas feel rushed. I've mostly forgotten everything about that game. It really left little impact on me besides frustration, and I wouldn't put it anywhere near the top if the SNES library.