Board 8 > I'm having a very difficult time getting into Secret of Mana

(+) Yeah! (+)

Isn't this supposed to be one of the easier SNES games to enjoy? I'm really finding the menu to be particularly horrid.

Secret of Evermore tbqh

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How far are you? Are you playing the remake or the SNES version? I hated the menu in the remake.

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SSJSephirothGokuX123 posted...

How far are you? Are you playing the remake or the SNES version? I hated the menu in the remake.

SNES version (in the Switch collection), only maybe an hour in. This guy's rant kind of captures a lot of how I'm feeling:

https://www.reddit.com/r/snes/comments/cueb0s/hot_take_secret_of_mana_sucks/

You get used to menu eventually, a lot of stuff was explained in the instruction booklet.

What weapons are you using?

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It's not a good game!

Trials has a lot of the same issues, but it's basically better in every way. Feel free to skip to that.
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It takes a while to get better. An hour in you haven't really gotten good attacks and the story hasn't really gone anywhere.

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Yeah, it's just not great

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I played it for the first time last year and enjoyed the PS4 remake thing

Not amazing, but not bad. Was worth playing. Have Trials on my to play pile

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The graphics and music are fantastic. The gameplay is alright, but I can't say I ever really cared about it that much. But it's probably one of the most beautiful looking SNES games. It's kind of mind boggling that they would remake it with different visuals, given how nice its pixel art is.

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the menus and magic system are just bad. It's not as amazing of a game as many claim, but it's still alright. Also the way you're supposed to always charge up your weapon attacks later in the game, which makes a constant sound effect, hurts the game

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I never used charged attacks, they're too slow and inaccurate. Just stick to 100% attacks.

Late in the game you should be using Moon Energy anyway.

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ChainLTTP got whacked!

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Secret of Mana is made for multi-player. Granted, if you don't like it at all on 1P, then 2P/3P might not be that much better for you.

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I'll give you that the menu sucks and really hurts the gameplay, but I think it otherwise plays fine. I will say I have never played the game single player (except the opening scenes before you unlock a partner) and that probably makes a big difference. Local multiplayer is practically a dead art these days, but nothing enhances a game's fun factor more than having a buddy right there with you for the whole experience.

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yeah that's what I am gathering because the AI is absolutely horrendous

alas, maybe I will save it for when I have a child to co-op with

ChainLTTP posted...

Isn't this supposed to be one of the easier SNES games to enjoy?

who told you that

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maybe secret of mana is having a difficult time with YOU

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ChainLTTP posted...

yeah that's what I am gathering because the AI is absolutely horrendous

alas, maybe I will save it for when I have a child to co-op with

That makes no sense. If you can't find someone to play the game with now, how do you think you'll have a child in the future?

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I also hate Secret of Mana. This was one of my first forays into online ROM playing back in like 2009, and nothing appealed to me at all. The story was all over the place, the battles weren't remotely fun, and I know this is gonna be blasphemy, but I hate hate HATE the music. It's so grating; I'd rather listen to complete silence than this game's soundtrack.

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Secret of Mana was one of the SNES RPGs I played a long time ago that at the time I could not figure out why anyone liked it.

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ChainLTTP posted...

SNES version (in the Switch collection), only maybe an hour in. This guy's rant kind of captures a lot of how I'm feeling:

https://www.reddit.com/r/snes/comments/cueb0s/hot_take_secret_of_mana_sucks/

This guy's rant is ridiculous. There are plenty of reasons to dislike Secret of Mana, but he's just making shit up at this point. "Why do I use candy to heal, but then the actual heal is a teardrop??"

I played this game in '93 when it released. It was fantastic then. I'm sure it's far less so now when we come to expect certain things like comparisons of upgrades. The charge meter mechanic is a quixotic quirk that you come to get used to, but never really added much. Would have made more sense if they just didn't let you attack before you could get a full hit, but it's really not that big a deal once you're used to it.

Speaking of used to it, the ring system was very innovative for its time. Is it better than a menu with tabs? On a low resolution CRT television, probably. Yes, again, it takes some adaptation, but it's easy enough to work with.

The biggest problem is the early game pacing, which that guy mentioned, and that claim is legit. Up until the point when you get the first set of magic, the game is incredibly uneven and all but forces you to power-level. This is evident in particular at two points -- the werewolves fight at the entrance to the witch's forest, and the Spikey Tiger battle at the end of it. Spikey Tiger is hands down the single worst point of the game, and is a game design massacre that I could write an entire thesis about. Right after that, you get called to the water palace, where you have to fight some incredibly difficult regular enemies and a boss fight of sorts with a future normal enemy. And then you finally get healing magic. The game becomes so much simpler after that.

The second biggest problem is the amount of effort it takes to level magic, particularly white magic. The sprite's spells you'll tend to use on their own, but the girl's take more casts to go up. Considering the MP pool is rather limited, it promotes sleeping at an inn, spending her MP, and then sleeping again.

The third problem is that magic is completely busted. There's an issue with hit locking in this game, and this is especially evident when it comes to spellcasting, since many spells hold their target in place, knock them back, and leave a long enough window for it to happen. It's possible for you to spam a boss to death, or in some cases, for the boss to spam you.

Oh yeah, and then there's the character AI, which gets stuck at very awkward annoying points in certain dungeons and -- surprise surprise -- tends to be worst in Elinee's castle.

These are all incredibly legitimate problems. If you want to hate on the game for any of those, I won't bat an eye or think for a second to tell you that I think you're wrong. But I disagree with pretty much all the other arguments presented.

MrSmartGuy posted...

I know this is gonna be blasphemy, but I hate hate HATE the music. It's so grating; I'd rather listen to complete silence than this game's soundtrack.

Especially this. Dear god, this. With the exception of the boss battle music, Danger, which can suck my <insert body part here>, this is my favorite soundtrack of all time.

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ninkendo posted...

Secret of Evermore tbqh

This^

One of my favorite SNES games to this day.

Also I have fun memories of teaching myself arbitrage at an early age in the Nobilia Marketplace

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https://clips.twitch.tv/DeterminedIncredulousWaspCoolCat

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azuarc posted...

Especially this. Dear god, this. With the exception of the boss battle music, Danger, which can suck my <insert body part here>, this is my favorite soundtrack of all time.

1-15

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Yay for Angel's Tear~

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SoM has a lot of jankiness gameplay-wise, but: 1. As a kid I didnt fully notice it, and 2. I love everything else about the game so much that the jank is worth it. I even kind love the weirdass ring menus.
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also Danger is my secondary alarm noise for when I sleep through the other, gentler alarm

I dont get how anyone could hate the soundtrack. Theres so much kick-ass SNES percussion, it rules.
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snare drums for days

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ChichiriMuyo posted...

That makes no sense. If you can't find someone to play the game with now, how do you think you'll have a child in the future?

haha what

It was decent for its time. My biggest problem was that the magic you get during the late game was far outclassed by the time you got it, so unless you spent time grinding it there wasn't any real reason to use it. I chalk that up to the cartridge limitations.

It doesnt hold up super well, but when it first came out it was a game that hadn't really been done before and that made up for a lot of shortcomings.

Since then it's been done much better so it just feels outdated and clunky.
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