Poll of the Day > Replaying the "Secret of Mana" trilogy (of sorts) (spoilers?)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Seems the other topic has already purged.

Finished Sword, that was a rather disappointing difficulty curve, final set of bosses went down too quickly. The guide I half-followed even suggested to train 10 levels higher... (Level was basically Ninja Master after Wishbone +1 or so.) (If that is the effect of the Brownie Ring, then the game really isn't balanced for it...)

Normal enemies were actually giving me more of a problem at this point, all those self destructing enemies kept 1 to 2-shotting my companions...

Next up, Secret of Mana (second part of the trilogy of sorts), I really have no memories of it, so even if I played a bit of it before, it should be a fresh experience.
---

I'm not aware of any good mods for SoM, but when you get to SD3, take a look at InsaneDifficulty's overhaul. You don't have to change the difficulty to be brutal, but it redesigns the classes, makes equipment choices matter, and you get your final class change for a lot longer.
---

Found the forum, interesting.
---

Also, general pointers on Secret concerning leveling, classes, equipment etc?

Anything I could permanently mess up on. Like the class systems of the other two games?
---

Oh boy, that old save file, couldn't resist to take a peek.

Really shows how long ago I tried it and didn't understand and just messed around a bit before calling it a day.

Did manage to have all three characters, level 11, way to fancy weapons, at the Water Palace, I suppose I never figured out the whip thing...

Seems I also never figured out the Sprite was a boy as I apparently gave it my sister's name...

But now, second village, all going well enough so far. Any way to see stat increases in the store though, or should I just assume anything new is better?
---

I think the only missables in SoM are the item drops in the second last dungeon. Haven't played that in ages, so I may be forgetting something else.
---

Nah, Secret of Mana doesn't really have a class system. But what it does have is each element(and also weapon, but that's less important) needs to be leveled separately on each character. So if you care about having maxed magic on both characters, you'll need to prepare for a TON of grinding.
---

Guess I'm further than my original file before, never figured out to use the axe there I guess. (Instead of the whip which came afterwards as a shortcut, not entry into the forest...)

Otherwise, the difficulty seems a lot better when compared to Sword until know. Enemies do not yet tend to unexpectedly kill me and bosses do put up a challenge (when they feel like doing something, that latest boss just stopped doing anything after it healed itself for the third time...)
---

Spoke to soon, those Goblins are really good at cornering characters and only then becoming competent and start spamming attacks to perma-stun them...

ai's rarely do anything useful though, which is actually better than 99% of the time in Sword, where ai's tend to spam attacks on enemies they cannot hurt and since only one attack can land at any given time...
---

What just happened? Did the game mess up on me, one moment I am underground the next moment on some kind of airship, facing Time Bokan level villains... I just wanted to leave the underground because I remembered I had forgotten something, how do I leave this place?

Edit: Still not sure on how those areas were connected, but I went back for what I wanted and eventually defeated that boss. Mooglification is nasty...
Next boss was remarkably simple, did one poison spell and then nothing. The whip seemed to allow me to hit it from outside of its range...

Some more canon travel later and I'm looking for an inn because those owls did a real number on me...
.
---

Nichtcrawler X posted...

What just happened? Did the game mess up on me, one moment I am underground the next moment on some kind of airship, facing Time Bokan level villains... I just wanted to leave the underground because I remembered I had forgotten something, how do I leave this place?

Edit: Still not sure on how those areas were connected, but I went back for what I wanted and eventually defeated that boss. Mooglification is nasty...
Next boss was remarkably simple, did one poison spell and then nothing. The whip seemed to allow me to hit it from outside of its range...

Some more canon travel later and I'm looking for an inn because those owls did a real number on me...
.

Nope, that's just a strange boss battle that isn't explained properly. Also if your AI characters aren't doing jack, they probably haven't been assigned proper commands. By default they hide and don't do shit, you have to manually adjust that in one of the menus.
---

Interesting, most games come with a default ai setting that is decent, oh well, it did make a difference, so thanks for the hint.

Spent some time wandering about, levelling some weapons and magic and found some dead ends...
Will I really need to find an obscured path or something? (After the Jinn silver crystal)
---

Sounds like you're at the Kakara/Fire palace part. Good times good times. I liked the ice forest the best.

Did you know that SoM was originally intended to be released for the SNES disc drive that never happened?
---

Firewood18 posted...

Sounds like you're at the Kakara/Fire palace part. Good times good times. I liked the ice forest the best.

Nope, still stuck in the forest.
---

Really, using an axe to break stalagmites? How the heck does that make sense?
---

That snake took a lot of effort, but got it on the first try after I got that hammer...

Now, I think I'm going to the Kakka/Fire Palace part, the King just told me to cannon there.
---

This magic system is a lot better than the Sword one, even if the casting is a little more awkward.

Some of the recent bosses went down rather quick to some magic...

Just found Waltz to forge those four orbs I got.

Now, if I know anything about Fantasy plots, the Empire is about to backstab big time, which means finally proper fights with the head honchos?
---

Nichtcrawler X posted...

This magic system is a lot better than the Sword one, even if the casting is a little more awkward.

Some of the recent bosses went down rather quick to some magic...

Just found Waltz to forge those four orbs I got.

Now, if I know anything about Fantasy plots, the Empire is about to backstab big time, which means finally proper fights with the head honchos?

Magic is hilariously, outrageously overpowered in SoM. It only gets worse as you progress, being able to spam more spells, and get the MP Steal with the Sprite.

Kind of!
---

That was, rather disappointing.

Such a seeming climax and then the 2 bossfights are palette swaps... That went down very quickly, even without magic...
---

Somehow, despite being in the middle of absolute nowhere, that Darkness Dungeon was way more fun than the palace...
---