I played it early 2000s via emulator for the first time and just did not care for it at all despite being a huge Square/RPG fan. Eventually I tried Seiken Densetsu 3 and loved it though. I think Secret of Mana is a little underbaked, I've beaten it since then and have come to like it just a bit more, but still think it falls pretty short, especially compared to its sequel on the same console.

I have played it 3 times. The last time with a no charge weapon cheat which made it much better. It really should have been an action RPG.

I’m a big square rpg fan but have never played it

It's a top down beat 'em up/hack 'n slash with some very light role-playing elements like stats, spells and items. Looks and sounds great, but it's ultimately extremely vapid and devoid of substance or strategy.

>>12405875
I think it's harder before you get magic, such as that boss fight. Magic kind of sucks in that it's a solution to everything and also that it stops everything on the screen.

I finally played through it beginning to end. The battle system was not satisfying because none of the attacks felt like they were making any connections at any points, and the magic often felt OP. It didn't put me off enough to stop playing, but it did seem like an overly-ambitious game dev experiment

>>12406308
Yeah that improves the game tenfold.

Never played it but I've listened to the soundtrack a lot it's very good

>>12405875
It's a good turn your brain off game. Great music and art, mechanics and story are boring though.

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Secret of Kappa

I thought it was amazing as a kid, but each time I've returned to it I've liked it less and less, to the point where I actively hate it now.

>>12405875
Yes. It's probably my most played games of all time. Got it in October of '93. Beat it with my brother. Got the multitapa and played it over and over again with friends. I've probably beaten it 30 times since then. I still play it every few years all the way through, sometimes with my brother.

Did they ever reveal what the Secret of Mana was?

It seems general opinions are about the same now as always with most finding it pretty middling.

>>12409345
It's weird that even with the wonky hit detection, this game just hits a real sweet spot with me. It's no Beyond Oasis, but up there for 16 bit hack and slash adventures.

This one is better than SD3 for me. I prefer the less convoluted plot and simpler mechanics and menu system.

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>>12405875
Spikey Tiger is probably the peak of difficulty in the game. Powerful boss before you have any magic.

Anyway, I love Secret of Mana. Still one of my favorite games.
>Did you play it back when it was new, or recently Thoughts?
Played it when it was newish. Mid 90s, when the SNES was still getting games released for it, but not when the game was brand new. Replayed it multiple times since then over the years.

>>12405875
Played it as a kid when it was new. It seemed unique at the time because it was a real-time, two-player jrpg. Secret of Evermore is the same style of game but better executed and single-player, maybe give that a whirl.

>>12411551
Had this poster on my bedroom wall when I was a little shit.

>>12405875
I played it when it first came out and absolutely loved it.

Had i only played it for the first time today i would have thought it sucks, because it does have a lot of problems.

So the first one is on Game Boy, right?
Always wanted to get into the Mana series

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>>12417086
Yes, play the original. It has the best gameplay, even if it's simple.

>>12407114
You just unlocked a childhood memory, thanks anon

>>12405875
I got the game for my birthday in 1994. I had wanted to play the game but Nintendo Power's tremendous Days of Mana coverage over the summer put me over the edge - I HAD to have the game. I was absolutely obsessed with it and probably beat it half a dozen times over 2 years.
I think a lot of people who only played the game for the first time recently approach it the wrong way. They try to play it more like a modern action-RPG which is more like an action game with numbers. You have to play it more like a turn based RPG and the game tries to force you to do this with the cooldowns but a lot of people get frustrated by that.
IMO once you get used to the cooldowns the game develops a rhythm of sorts and it becomes very satisfying to play.

>>12421169
I'm at Upper land now and am remembering how much I like the charge and cool down system in this game. Charging an attack while avoiding the enemy waiting for an opening is a lot of fun. It's usually mentioned as one of the flaws but I think it's one of my favorite things about it.

>>12417086
>>12418685
Be aware that is it pretty grindy when it comes to items, and the overworld is a huge fucking maze. I tried playing it again and was amazed that I beat this thing when I was 11-12.

>>12418685
Playing it recently with a magic-centric build and man, shit's pretty wild. You have to play a bit differently, since you don't have the luxury of infinite attacks or attacks that generally hit more than one enemy at once. I'm not autistic enough to ONLY use attack magic once I get fire, so I put a few points into power so I can hit some of the weaker shitters who tend to crowd my balls with teleports and what not, but I do make a point to fight bosses only using magic and items. That's pretty trippy since some bosses now have more limited hitbox accessibility with Fire and Lightning than before when certain weapon attacks and Max Will attacks could pierce through barriers or invulnerable sections and actually deal damage more easily.

>>12423098
That being said, magic can do some crazy fucking damage at times. I'm trying to only kill what I run into and not grind, but even then I managed to use some of the stat boost items and ripped the giant vampire in Kett's manor a new one with like 1 or 2 fire casts, thanks to a "set will to maximum" item and an item that adds like 15 wisdom to your current amount.

I highly encourage anybody who hasn't played it in a while or played it in this manner before to give it a shot in at least a similar way. It's pretty fun at times and is more interesting than just a fighter-centric or balanced-stat build.

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>>12423104
The meter also affects stat boost duration.. and at 100% it boosts spells by 400% and some small random amount.