Not only will you end up micromanaging them in battle but also while wandering through dungeons. The AI controlling your companions isn’t very aggressive and won’t attack an enemy until you do they also won’t use magic unless you direct them to. You control one while the other two are controlled by AI. Add to that your lack of any ability to dodge or parry and this means that Secret of Mana’s battle system is less of a fluid hack-'n'-slash and more of a hack-'n'-run-around-in-circles-until-fully-recharged.Īfter playing through the opening parts of the game you’ll be given access to three different party members. You can attack before it reaches max but your chances of successfully hitting an enemy and the amount of damage you can dish out will be reduced. The action feels a little slow as after attacking you’ll need to wait for a gauge to recharge before attacking again. It’s a simple enough tale but it’s sweet and tugs on the heart strings in all the right places.Ĭombat feels mostly the same as the original but the 3D style now means you can attack in all directions. A young boy wanders outside of his village, finds a magical sword, and is soon swept off on a grand adventure, making friends with a gutsy lady and amnesiac sprite along the way.

The game begins with all the typical tropes from this era of gaming. When characters are talking their lips don’t move this is particularly off-putting in the opening scenes of the game where one of your childhood friends seems to have his face frozen into an angry grimace regardless of what he’s actually saying. There’s also the inclusion of some rather amateur sounding voice acting which means that the cast not only look a bit odd but sound it as well. The beautiful sprite-based graphics have been replaced with 3D polygonal models and have unfortunately lost some of their charm along the way. The first big change you’re likely to notice is the art style and character models. However this 2018 remake feels like its stripped away some of the magic of the original and instead made its shortcomings much more obvious. It was widely praised at the time for its fun hack-'n'-slash combat, beautiful music, and vibrant graphics. Secret of Mana is a remake of one of the SNES’ best loved JRPGs.

Secret of mana ring menu