The RPG is now a diverse genre spread across multiple platforms with its own sets of sub-genres, but believe it or not, there was a time when RPGs were relatively unknown. There were a few series of RPGs that had managed to gain some recognition in the West by the end of the 8-bit era: Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Phantasy Star, but to most controller-wielders, these games remained a mystery. 

An RPG sub-genre, known as the Action-RPG was even more elusive. Titles like Final Fantasy Adventure, Soul Blazer, and Crystalis had been released during the late '80s and early '90s, but they failed to pull in most 'shroom consumers and Mega Man junkies. The fate of the Action-RPG should have changed with the release of the successor to Final Fantasy Adventure, called Secret of Mana (the second of the Seiken Densetsu series), but it didn't.

It really is a shame, because Secret of Mana is one of the finest co-op multiplayer games available even to this day. As a kid, whenever I needed a game to play with a friend, Secret of Mana would be there.  Some of my most cherished childhood memories are with this game, and they didn't falter a bit with each subsequent play-through. Nostalgia can taint one's perspective of a game however, so recently, I made it my mission to replay Secret of Mana along with the other early Mana titles.

It had been a good seven or eight years since I played the title to completion, so I wondered if it'd still draw me in. Seiken Densetsu 3 disappointed me during my second play-through, so I felt that Secret of Mana might do the same. 

After playing upwards of fifteen hours, I was ready to describe my first solo experience with Secret of Mana. On previous journeys, I'd played with one or two friends, but this time, I experienced its quest as I would a standard RPG. Despite having journeyed alone, you're welcome to join me as I reminisce about my experience.

When I began my journey, I first noticed Mana's gorgeous visuals. I witnessed roaring waterfalls and lush forests teaming with wildlife. Something else that caught my eye was the detailed character models that were larger than those found in any 2D Final Fantasy game. These more realistically proportioned characters that were well-animated really drew me in to the experience.

One reason why Secret of Mana's world looked so convincing was because of its vibrant colors. The monochromatic world of Final Fantasy Adventure may have looked fine for a Game Boy title, but its sequel, Secret of Mana is in a league of its own.

You'll find few titles on 16-bit systems that are as colorful as Secret. Even its sequel--Seiken Densetsu 3, doesn't have quite the vibrancy of its predecessor, despite having more detailed visuals. Secret of Mana's lush outdoor environments and inner sanctums provide for a unique feeling that is nearly unrivaled on 16-bit systems, and this is in part due to its amazing use of color.

Secret of Mana's environments ranging from crystalline ice flows to floating mechanical fortresses sustained by Mana are all quite beautiful, but its inhabitants are equally amazing. I already mentioned the more realistically proportioned humans, but the monsters and bosses are also worth mentioning. 

In Secret of Mana, you won't find your stereotypical assortment of RPG fiends. Instead, you'll fight agile mushrooms, cute rabbit-like creatures called rabites, and mobile flowers. As you can see, much of the game's monsters feel like natural inhabitants of the world. You'll also fight fearsome dark knights and assassins, so not everything you kill is cute and cuddly.

What's even more impressive than Secret of Mana's creative enemies are its massive bosses. You'll do battle with an enormous Mantis Ant sporting deadly pincers; you'll fight a knight riding a hover bike; and you'll do battle with Death himself. The variety of monstrous creatures you encounter is astounding, so I didn't mind that you'd occasionally fight palette swaps of former bosses.

These bosses not only look impressive, but they're also mobile and well-animated. Secret of Mana's sequel's bosses may have looked more impressive, but I prefer the mobile enemies featured in the original over Seiken Densetsu 3's stationary behemoths. Fighting massive creatures that moved around made it hard to believe that Secret of Mana was in part, an RPG.

Secret of Mana's monstrous bosses may look impressive, but they would be nothing without the game's excellent combat. During the period in which it was released, Secret of Mana brought numerous innovations to Action-RPGs, many of which have yet to be fully capitalized on.

The first aspect of Mana's combat worth mentioning is its three-player multiplayer gameplay. In previous RPGs and Action-RPGs, players could usually only control one character. If they had the ability to control a second character, he could usually only be used in certain situations. Secret of Mana changed everything.

In Secret of Mana, three players could play simultaneously the majority of the time (with the exception of its initial hour of gameplay). Players could move around together in towns, the overworld, and in dungeons.  Future Mana titles like Children of Mana would allow players to battle together in dungeons, but they could no longer travel together in towns. It's a shame, because this is one of the best aspects of Secret of Mana.

It really feels like each player has an important role in the game, because everyone can talk to villagers, buy items, and equip their purchases themselves. Occasionally, this can lead to chaos if one player won't cooperate with the rest of the group, but this issue matters little when you have the option of full control.

Playing with two other people has other benefits. Later in the game, two of the characters will obtain magic, so it's handy having people to cast your assortment of spells. One character gets offensive magic, while the other has mostly defensive and healing spells. Both are essential for progressing through the game, but thankfully, each character is also skilled when it comes to fighting.

In Secret of Mana, each of the three characters can wield eight different types of weapons, all of which can be upgraded eight times. These weapons range from whips to swords, and all are fun to use.  Each of these weapons are useful in battle, but they also have out-of-battle purposes. The sword can be used to cut through vegetation; the axe can break through solid rock, and the whip can be useful for crossing gaping chasms.

Besides having some additional non-battle purposes, Mana's weapons can all be upgraded and equipped on any character.  With each upgrade, each weapon changes in appearance (and strength), so it's fun to collect orbs to witness this change in real time. Some weapons don't have such drastic changes, but it's awesome seeing a simple wooden boomerang transform into a deadly disc-shaped chakram. This is a nice added bonus, when Square could have gotten away with simply upgrading attack power.

Not only do your weapons change in appearance--they also provide you with charge attacks. Each time you upgrade your weapon, you'll now have the ability to learn a new charge attack. You simply have to fight enough monsters to gain your new ability. Once you've obtained it, all you have to do is hold down the attack button until your meter charges. Depending on the level of your weapon, you can charge it up to eight times.  To charge it that high, it can take several seconds, but each charge will perform a more powerful attack.

Each charge provides for a deadlier attack, but they also have different attack animations. For example, with the glove equipped, a level one charge will make the player do a couple punches followed by a vicious uppercut. A higher level charge might make the player shoot fireballs or do a flying kick followed by a spinning-crescent kick. These charges are fun to watch, and provide you with another incentive to gain levels.

Clearly, your weapons can be upgraded numerous times, but so can your spells. Two of your characters can learn spells from eight different elementals. Each elemental teaches a character three spells, so by the end of the game, you'll have 48 different spells at your disposal--many of them useful. Future Mana titles would include these elementals, but they were often rendered useless due to design flaws.

Secret of Mana's magic is fun to cast not only because of the quantity of spells available, but also because each elemental can gain up to eight levels. As your elementals gain levels, not only does the effectiveness of their spells increase, but the spells also change in appearance. 

For example, Salamando's fireball move starts out by shooting three puny fireballs, but by the time it's at level 8.99, three fire dragons will appear on screen to torch your foes. It's the little details like this that make Mana's combat system a blissful experience.

A good combat system like Secret of Mana's could be bogged down by a poor interface, but thankfully, that's not the case here. Secret of Mana pioneered a "Ring System" that would allow players to select moves without having to enter a detailed menu. If a player needs to cast a spell or use an item, all she needs to do is press Y, which brings up a ring.

The default ring has your inventory of a dozen or so items that you can access by pressing left or right on the d-pad. Once you've selected an item, you'll use it quickly and the other players can resume attacking.  There's a second or two delay, but this system is quick in comparison to that found in Secret of Mana's successor.

It's also easy to use magic or change weapons. Once you've entered the ring, just press up or down and you'll access a magic ring, weapon ring, and menu ring. The magic ring contains all the available elementals; the weapon ring allows you to switch weapons on the fly; and the menu ring allows you to set ally AI, outfit your characters with armor, and see how they're progressing.

This system might sound complex, but it's actually quite efficient. On a modern controller, it could be made a bit quicker by assigning a move or two you use regularly to a hot key, but otherwise, this system is nearly flawless.

Controlling characters in Secret of Mana is a breeze if you're playing with other folks, but it's also easy if you're playing by yourself. The nice part about playing by yourself is that you never have to compromise.  Say you want to fight and cast magic--you can easily switch to any character of your choice by pressing select, but an easier method would be to press X to access another character's menu. 

Let's say I want to fight with the boy who lacks magic the majority of the time, but I also want to access the girl's cure spells.  I can charge up my attacks with the boy and I can press X to access her menu and cast "Cure Water" in less than three seconds. If I would like, I could also press X again to switch to the other character's menu to cast a fire spell. This system is quite efficient, and allows you to have complete control over your party without sacrificing precious seconds of your life.

So, what happens with the AI when you let computer-controlled characters fight on their own? Well, they generally do what you tell them to. In each character's menu, you can choose how aggressive they'll be, and you can make them charge their weapons to certain levels. They can't cast spells on their own, but they'll generally attack how you want them to. This AI system is quite handy, and is much more useful than the one found in Secret of Mana's sequel, but still, it's not without its flaws.

Sometimes, your characters will get stuck behind objects, which will force you to run back to them or manually switch to that character. Secret of Mana's environments are quite complex, so this will happen matter how careful you are, but thankfully, it doesn't detract too much from the experience. It'll be a hassle now and then, but the AI isn't that bad--especially considering that this was on the Super Nintendo.

Even though Secret of Mana still has my favorite battle system for an Action-RPG, it's not faultless.  Besides the minor AI issues I mentioned earlier, there are issues with over-powered moves and spell leveling.

While I love magic in Secret of Mana, sometimes, it can be overpowered. If you don't level your magic, you'll find yourself doing relatively little damage as you'd expect, but when you power-up spells, you'll do enormous amounts of damage to bosses (most of them anyway).  This is an issue because it takes some of the challenge out of the game, and renders many of the boy's attacks obsolete. 

Of course you have to find the correct spell to do massive amounts of damage, but still, it often makes the game too easy.  At least players have the option of not leveling their spells if they're looking for a challenge.

The other battle system flaw I'd briefly like to mention is the grinding. Secret of Mana isn't as bad as many RPGs when it comes to grinding, but it can take a long time to level spells. Unfortunately, when you obtain a new elemental, you have to start at square one, so it can be a  pain to level a spirit that you find towards the end of the game. Thankfully, it's not absolutely necessary to spend time doing this, but leveling your elementals will increase your chances of surviving boss encounters.

It may be in your best interest for me to end this review now, but it'd be a sin to do so without talking about Secret of Mana's phenomenal music. Without a doubt, this game includes one of the best soundtracks of the 16-bit era (if not all time). 

Secret of Mana's music just has such a unique sound that draws the player into its world. The happy-go-lucky village tunes with intense beats make you feel as if you're in a world of purity; Mana's sad songs nearly bring a person to tears; and the tranquil songs of forests and temples are enough to make a madman feel at ease. And let's not forget the amazing boss music that is a bit grating at first, but actually makes you feel like you're having an epic encounter.

The music is wonderful and is definitely worth a listen on its own, but what tops off Mana is its charming story. Its plot revolving around a world full of spiritual energy called Mana that an evil empire is trying to harness may sound cliché, but many of the game's events are so memorable that you won't care.

I mean, who can forget being exiled from your hometown due to pulling out the Mana sword, which would unleash a monster outbreak? Who can forget being made into slaves after being picked up by a Republic sand cruiser? And who can forget flying to the almighty Mana Fortress on the back of a dragon? Events like these that were imitated in many future games make Mana something special.

Sixteen years later, I'm as impressed with Secret of Mana as I was initially.  This time, I didn't have to pick my jaw up off the floor, since I was already aware of the three-player simultaneous gameplay and beautiful soundtrack, but I still managed to enjoy the entire ride once again. It's rare that you can have fun playing any kind of RPG a second time, but Secret of Mana is one I've enjoyed playing during each of my half-a-dozen play-throughs.

Each year, I've wished that an innovative Action-RPG would come along to replace it, but I've been disappointed again and again.  Even if I never bear witness to another Secret of Mana-caliber Action-RPG, at least the original will still be there. Anyone who has yet to play this Action-RPG classic would be a fool not to pick it up for eight dollars on their Wii.  This title deserves to no longer remain a secret.

Score: 10.0

Pros:

• Three-player simultaneous gameplay throughout the entire experience!
• Combat has plenty of variety
• Magic spells and weapons change in appearance when leveled
• Each character can equip all eight different types of weapons
• Charge attacks keep combat fresh
• The menu system is quick and efficient
• It's easy to quickly take control of an AI character
• You can still attack when spells are being cast
• Most bosses are mobile, and many of their attacks can be dodged
• Features a brilliant soundtrack unlike anything else on the SNES
• Gorgeous visuals and character sprites
• The story is simplistic, but charming

Cons:

• AI characters occasionally get stuck
• Secret of Mana has numerous glitches due to its last minute change to cartridge format
• Offensive spells seem over-powered when leveled
• Weapon and spell level grinding can get repetitive after awhile
• Certain locations are difficult to find on the world map