Secret of Mana

aka: Seiken Densetsu 2
Moby ID: 6645
SNES Specs
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Description official descriptions

Long ago, people lived in harmony with the natural world and used the power of Mana to help their nations grow. But when evil forces took control of the Mana Fortress, seeking to use it to conquer the world, a terrible war began which destroyed much of civilization but brought peace to the world once more. Over the long years, the events of the past became but legends to the new generations of humans. But history repeats itself...

One day while exploring a forbidden valley near his village, a young boy finds a rusty sword stuck in a stone. He does not realize that this is the Mana sword of legend, used in the great war of the past. By drawing the sword, the boy unwittingly summons hordes of monsters, and is expelled from his village for breaking the ancient taboo. A mysterious knight Jema who is passing through the area recognizes the sword and gives him instructions for the future. First, he must repair the sword, and then, with its help, take control of the Mana seeds which can be found hidden around the world to prevent them from falling into evil hands.

Secret of Mana is an action RPG, featuring real-time hack-and-slash style combat, in which up to two computer-controlled companions can accompany you. The protagonist has a stamina gauge: the more stamina he has, the more powerful his strike is. The player also has access to a growing arsenal of spells with various effects. It is possible to upgrade weapons, armor, and magic to higher levels.

Spellings

  • 聖剣伝説2 - Japanese spelling

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Credits (SNES version)

63 People · View all

Executive Producers
Producer, Concept / System Design, Scenario Message Data
Director, Chief Game Design, Animation / Monster Design
Battle System Design, Monster Logistics
Map System Design / Data
Map Data
Lead Programming
Monster Control Programming
Boss Monster Programming
Message Programming
"Ring" Menu Programming
Calculation Programming
Sound Programming
Demo Programming
Chief Map Graphic Design
Map Graphic Design
World Map Graphic Design
Map Design
Player Character Design
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 89% (based on 50 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.1 out of 5 (based on 170 ratings with 6 reviews)

A game that's designed to make casual gamers crazy

The Good
Epic final battles. The last three bosses have 5000, 6666 and 9990 Hit Points. Your characters have about 500 Hit Points. You really gotta work hard to beat them. The soundtrack is also wonderful. I now have the soundtrack album on my iPod device and the tunes are good.

Occasionally a good piece of dialog comes up as well. But these are rare, and hardly worth the effort to read through the text.

Secret of Mana uses a real-time battle system, later found in Chrono Trigger. So you can avoid enemies or choose enemies to fight with much more easily than in Final Fantasy games. Enemies don't just pop up out of nowhere; you can actually see them when you walk around.

The Bad
iPhone games are mostly designed to be user-friendly. Tutorials are carefully laid out to make sure you know what to do. Everything about Secret of Mana is the opposite. I had to read four diffferent guides on the Internet to beat the game. Not knowing where to go next is annoying but it's nothing compared to the battle mechanics. For example, when you touch a Spell icon, which is meant to cast spells, there's a chance that you will not be able to cast the spell. It's hard to know beforehand. This is ridiculous enough, and the game forces to touch two more times to exit the "Spell Menu". So, a failure to cast spell will waste you three screen touches, which is about 5 to 7 seconds.

It's also an expensive iPhone game. The World Ends with You: Solo Remix, another iPhone port from the same company (Square Enix), received criticism for its high price ($17.99). Secret of Mana currently costs $8.99, and cost me about $14 when I bought it.

The Bottom Line
All the annoyances result in a difficult game, compared to most RPGs. A difficult game like this does make one feel accomplished after finally beating it. It took me about 26, 27 hours. If I knew better I definitely would not have purchased this game in the first place.

iPhone · by Pagen HD (146) · 2013

A great early Action RPG

The Good
Aside from the highly arbitrary statement of "This is my favorite SNES Action RPG," there a lot of good things about Secret of Mana. It's storyline is well-written, though the script is quite plain, since a lack of cartridge memory caused much of it to be stripped down in the English localization. The graphics are bright and colorful, and show what the SNES was capable of at the time. The music is nice and upbeat, but not too "out there" to the point where it takes away from the game's underlying dark atmosphere. The gameplay is fun and fast-paced, making level grinding actually enjoyable, for once, and the addition of multiplayer is even better!

The Bad
While I truly love this game, there are a few problems that players make come across while playing it. First and foremost, the AI in this game is a bit primitive, and often causes the party members you aren't playing as to get themselves in fatal situations. Bugs are also plentiful, especially when it comes to sprite interactions and collision detection (that's the only term I can associate the phenomenon with). And finally, some players make not like the "Ring Menu" system in the game. Personally, I found this feature rather convenient, but many players who are used to a generic menu system find it a nuisance.

The Bottom Line
Secret of Mana is a great Action RPG, and should be played by anyone interested in RPGs from the 16-bit era. With nice aesthetic touches, a great plot, and multiplayer, it really offers a lot of fun for a 16 Megabit game. I highly recommend trying it out, and for those of you who never owned an SNES, I urge you to stop using emulators and buy this game on the Virtual Console.

SNES · by Idkbutlike2 (18) · 2010

Best action -RPG Squaresoft game of this generation hands down.

The Good
- Amazing and very powerful soundtrack - Engaging combat system - Multiplayer co-op ( Multitap 3 player support )

The Bad
- None that I can think of but I might be biased.

The Bottom Line
If you haven't played this game but enjoy such classics as Chrono trigger or Terrinigma then you must try this game.

SNES · by Hobb-San · 2023

[ View all 6 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
So what else has changed? CrankyStorming (2927) Nov 6, 2011

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The SNES version of Secret of Mana appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Development

One of the first games announced for the then-announced CD-ROM addon for the SNES. Nintendo eventually gave up trying to get the peripheral off the ground after the deal with Phillips to make the drive fell flat. Square eventually released a tooled-down version, which pushed the SNES hardware constantly (hence the slowdown and lack of multiple enemies onscreen), and overall left Square bitter for having to go through the process of downgrading its game. This probably was one of the reasons Square decided to bail on Nintendo (and its then-upcoming N64 console) and take its multimillion seller, Final Fantasy VII, with it (which was first announced for the N64).

Ironically, Square signed the deal to bring the game to the PlayStation with Sony, which was the original partner for the SNES CD drive, but was publicly stabbed in the back by Nintendo with the Phillips deal. The CD drive technology that Sony had been working on for the SNES, was then used to create the PlayStation itself.

Enemies

Due to technical limitations, only three enemies can ever be on the screen at one time. Sneaky players can use this to their advantage and keep 'easy' enemies alive to block the spawning of more powerful ones. The merchant cat Neko, is also affected by this and may not always appear during busy combat.

Killroy

In the original Japanese version, Killroy has a chainsaw when fighting him the second time. In all Western versions, he is just a re-coloured version of the first encounter.

Multiplayer

Secret of Mana is quite possibly the first RPG game to support 3 Players. It is certainly the only one on SNES that does (along with it's sequel, which was never officially translated). A multitap is required for the third player.

Slime

The Slime bosses are the trickiest enemies in the game, not because they're difficult, but because they're so buggy. When fighting one of these bosses it's possible to slow the framerate to a crawl, freeze the game or in extreme cases, wipe the contents from your saved battery backup.

Awards

  • Electronic Gaming Monthly
    • December 1993 (Issue 53) - Game of the Month* FLUX Magazine
    • Issue #4 - #40 in the "Top 100 Video Games of All-Time" list
  • Game Informer
    • August 2001 (Issue #100) - #77 in the "Top 100 Games of All Time" poll
  • GamePro
    • Vol. 6, Issue 2 - Role-Playing Game of the Year 1993
  • Retro Gamer
    • September 2004 (Issue #8) – #74 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)

Information also contributed by Big John WV, CaptainCanuck, PCGamer77 and WildKart

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Trials of Mana
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Children of Mana
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Final Fantasy Adventure
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Heroes of Mana
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  • MobyGames ID: 6645
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Unicorn Lynx.

Wii U added by Michael Cassidy. iPad added by Rik Hideto. Android, iPhone added by Sciere. DoJa, BREW added by Kabushi. Wii added by gamewarrior.

Additional contributors: Satoshi Kunsai, Apogee IV, MaiZure, Alaka, Patrick Bregger, Thomas Thompson, CrankyStorming, FatherJack.

Game added June 7, 2002. Last modified February 10, 2024.