A preview of Secret of Mana Remake [spoiler: it's not so good as expected]

[Deleted member 8106]

https://www.everyeye.it/articoli/pr...make-del-classico-jrpg-square-enix-36411.html

I just read this article and...well, it was expected honestly.
It seems the game is disappointing, it fails to express on the screen the change of mood (let's say, between a very dark and creepy location and a sunny one) because the new graphics flatten all of that.

The combat system is pretty much the same one of the original game, but it got worse because bad collisions, input delay etc.

There's a cooperative mode but it's only local, no online coop.

And there's also the price question, in my opinion. SE is asking for 40€, while the value is not here. Other remakes/remastered of FF games were around 20€ on iOS and Steam, while this one is double that price.

In the end, the writer of the article suggests to boot the original game on a SNES MINI in the case you never tried the game and you want to give it a shot.

 

[Mister X]

No online coop? Damn

 

[KainXVIII]

And i don't expected anything good from this effort

 

[JustinBailey]

I'm not an artist, but when I first saw the gameplay / music combo I recoiled as an artist would to bad "everything". It just feels off / wrong.

 

[Eolz]

Disappointing but expected, didn't look good from the start.
Shame we'll never get the Switch collection in the west too.

 

[Escalario]

Welp. If this is anything to go by, the Seiken Densetsu 3 remake is gonna be trash. Guess I'll keep playing the SFC version, even with its dozens bugs and glitches.

 

[Etrian Darkness]

Seeing as it just looks like an evolution of the mobile remakes, I'm not surprised.

 

[varkuriru]

Damn, I wanted to get this but I guess will wait on a sale now :(

 

[BlueManifest]

I wasn't confident about this one after seeing the trailer, just making the original in HD and cleaning it up a bit would have been better

 

[Deleted member 2809]

40€ price tag ? fucking hell man

 

[Comic Obsessed]

Man, I didn't think the artstyle looked that great but at least I was expecting some effort in terms of gameplay.

 

[Don Fluffles]

Yeah. I thought this would be the case. This doesn't look so much like a remake as a barebones remaster in a 3D engine.
I don't like to throw the word around much, but it feels like SE was just too lazy to produce a more ambitious title.

 

[Kouriozan]

That was pretty evident it wouldn't turn out as good as we wanted, a bit sad for that.

 

[Deleted member 426]

I'm going to wait for a few more previews to make a decision. The criticisms sound like those someone who was upset at the art style and was looking for things to criticise. If these kinds of comments come up frequently then that will be fair enough.

 

[TheZodiacAge]

No Online Coop is a neckbreaker
The game isn't that great playing it alone and the person i played it together with as a kid and wanted to play the remaster with obviously doesn't live around the corner anymore + no one these days has time to visit someone cause of work etc.

I hope someone mods it into the PC Version at least lol

 

[John Bender]

No online co-op? For 40€??
GTFO!

 

[cnrm]

For all intents and purposes, it always felt to me like this is basically a "sequel" to the mobile game Adventures of Mana, which in itself was a remake of Final Fantasy Adventure (albeit the SoM remake has higher-fidelity graphics, voice acting, and more cinematic scenes but the art direction still makes it pretty evident). I don't have high expectations for the SoM remake but I appreciated Adventures of Mana for what it was so I can probably look past this remake's faults, personally speaking. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Square Enix outsourced this remake to the same ad hoc group as Adventures of Mana (MCF et al).

At least the art HACCAN has been making for the Secret of Mana remake looks amazing.

Also, the music team that they gathered to arrange music for this remake seems really promising (including Yuzo Koshiro!).

 

[Nintendojitsu]

Switch dodged a bullet.

 

[Dark_Castle]

This series is cursed. Almost every title since Legend of Mana, remake or new games have been trash.

 

[HeisenbergWW62]

mildshock.gif

 

[Einbroch]

Meanwhile there are countless other previews from the past week that say the opposite.

 

[Tizoc]

Meanwhile there are countless other previews from the past week that say the opposite.

Click to shrink...

Mind linking them then?

 

[Einbroch]

Mind linking them then?

Click to shrink...

http://www.player.one/secret-mana-hands-demo-preview-122289

http://atomix.vg/hands-on-las-primeras-horas-del-remake-de-secret-of-mana/

http://m.gamedots.mx/secret-mana-remake-primeras-impresiones

I mean, those three plus the one in the OP are the top three results from the past week. Seems like he OP just picked the one negative one and posted it without looking at any other impressions. I didn't cherry pick, those three are quite literally the top three from Google.

 

[Ferulci]

and for 40$ ? No thanks.

 

[ShimshonNehorai]

Well, I've still got my SNES cartridge.

Good thing I never sold it.

 

[Marukoban]

It somehow doesn't surprise me SE manage to fuck this remake.
I already got bad feeling from when it was revealed.

Maybe SE should just forget about worldwide release of this remake.
They should port and localize Seiken Densetsu Collection from Switch to other platforms.

 

[Koren]

Totally expected...

I'd even say the Seiken 1 remake on GBA, which got a real effort, isn't as good as the original GB game (and yes, I replayed the GB game after).

So when this update seemed like a cash grabber from the start...

 

[Deleted member 4093]

The only thing about this game that look good is the limited gamestop box

 

[entremet]

That's one opinion. Spoiler not so good makes it sound like a concensus reaction.

 

[vereor]

Based Square Enix

 

[Dinjooh]

I read the title as "Secret Santa Remake" and was confused as to how I managed to miss the original Secret Santa.

 

[Chocobo115]

And I preordered physical...

Oh well let this be a lession to learn from...

Spoiler

I never learn

 

[PattonFiend]

I'm not an artist, but when I first saw the gameplay / music combo I recoiled as an artist would to bad "everything". It just feels off / wrong.

Click to shrink...

Joostin? Who helped with Trinux?

 

[Treasure Silvergun]

The combat system is pretty much the same one of the original game, but it got worse because bad collisions, input delay etc.

Other remakes/remastered of FF games were around 20€ on iOS and Steam, while this one is double that price.

In the end, the writer of the article suggests to boot the original game on a SNES MINI in the case you never tried the game and you want to give it a shot.

Click to shrink...

The article is quite poorly written. It's pretty much a long-winded, rose-tinted-glasses rant just to say "if you have nostalgia for SoM, you won't like the remake. If you don't, the game is basically the same, minus an artstyle you won't find particularly impressive".

I didn't catch the part where it would say that it's worse in the gameplay department. Bad collisions and input delay were in the original version, too.

But you know, y'all, the sad truth is that Secret of Mana wasn't a gameplay enfant prodige even then. The story and graphics pretty much carried the game and made it wonderful to our younger selves. American SNESers probably only had FF4 and Breath of Fire to really compare SoM to, and SoM being maybe the first (and one of the very few) Square JRPG to come to Europe, it really made an impression. But the gameplay was never very good.

It sounds like the remake is pretty much the same game, bad collisions and all. So, for a newcomer, it should basically be the same experience, but with graphics up to par with current expectations. You won't find many 20-somethings that can bear 16-bit graphics anymore, so for them, the remake is probably the better choice anyway.

About pricing, you should take into account that most of the Square games that eventually made it to mobile/Steam were previously already remade/remastered for DS or PSP. This easily justifies the prices you mention, OP. SoM is brand new, hence the higher price point.

Also, I'm pretty sure if they remade the game from the ground up, a lot of people would be bitching about every single change. Secret of Mana is all about nostalgia. I should know, I have very fond memories of it, but I can't really say it holds up very well.

 

[Viale]

I thought it looked decent at least, and there are other places saying that it's coming along well with some smaller issuees. 40 dollars feels like a decent bit for it though, considering I already have the original to play on a few different platforms, so I may personally wait for sale.

 

[Tizoc]

http://www.player.one/secret-mana-hands-demo-preview-122289

http://atomix.vg/hands-on-las-primeras-horas-del-remake-de-secret-of-mana/

http://m.gamedots.mx/secret-mana-remake-primeras-impresiones

I mean, those three plus the one in the OP are the top three results from the past week. Seems like he OP just picked the one negative one and posted it without looking at any other impressions. I didn't cherry pick, those three are quite literally the top three from Google.

Click to shrink...

Thanks will read through them.

 

[ronin_cse]

Is this site reputable at all? Not being Italian I have obviously never visited it so just curious. Regardless I'll at least wait for more than one opinion before judging the game too harshly.

 

[mudai]

Looking at graphics (or in-game art style) it feels to me like the project started as a mobile game remake (similar to the remake of the first Seiken Densetsu) but during development Square-Enix decided to release it on PS4 and Steam instead. While I got used to the style of the remake and actually found something I like (I think Popoi looks good, they're my favorite character of the 3 playable too), I don't think this remake looks particularly good or anything. I do believe the part of the preview about it failing to express changing moods. Secret of Mana had some great moody and dark scenes, which I just don't see getting captured by the style of the remake. That being said: bad collision and input lag sounds absolutely horrible, even when part of that was already present in the SNES version. It's a remake, so I hope they can fix that...

I totally agree with what cnrm said about the HACCAN artwork. For me personally the best what has come out of this remake so far. Looking forward to the arranged soundtrack too. Some great people are working on it, so I'm curious to see how the OST will turn out at least.

 

[The Almighty Tria]

It looks absolutely fine and most of the hate for it comes from rose tinted glasses I've noticed.

I am a huge Seiken Densetsu fan, by the way, and fucking love the original Secret of Mana. But people complaining about bad combat, collision detection and ugly graphics must not remember the original very well. Because that game is clunky as fuck and definitely not a looker.

The complaint about the graphics hurting the atmosphere make sense though.

 

[bane833]

One of my favourite games of all time. Shame they don´t remake it with the effort and care it deserves.

 

[angel]

The real way to remake SOM would have been to hunt down the assets cut out when it was changed from a SNES CD project to a cartridge game, use the CD version of the soundtrack, and add some extra animation, bugfixes (the 10th chests etc), maybe add a NG+ or randomised dungeons, maybe even amiibos of the 3 heroes. An IOS looking cheap dirty port was never going to come out well.

 

[Koren]

The article is quite poorly written. It's pretty much a long-winded, rose-tinted-glasses rant just to say "if you have nostalgia for SoM, you won't like the remake. If you don't, the game is basically the same, minus an artstyle you won't find particularly impressive".

Click to shrink...

If that's the subject, I don't see hiw rose-tinted glasses are involved.

The second part is the problem: it doesn't solve the issues of the original, so it's a failure as a remake. The artstyle is debatable, but it's not something that people praise either.

And for me, the gameplay of the original was great, even if coop was awful for the sprite (menus stopping the action is an awful idea)

 

[Deleted member 8106]

Is this site reputable at all? Not being Italian I have obviously never visited it so just curious. Regardless I'll at least wait for more than one opinion before judging the game too harshly.

Click to shrink...

Yes it is, it's one of the biggest site with multiplayer.it

 

[Treasure Silvergun]

If that's the subject, I don't see hiw rose-tinted glasses are involved.

Click to shrink...

The (overly long) first part of the article is all about how good it was to experience the game when you were a wide-eyed 6-year old.

 

[No Depth]

Those disappointed by lack of online co-op...how could it even work?

Just join host progress and take nothing back when completing a session?
What would one take back from a session? How would that impact your own progress and save games? (I joined a rando 43% through the game, what does that mean for me once I log off?)
I suppose friends that make pacts to schedule playtime together could somehow benefit, but realistically only one benefits while the other?
How does the play experience work for co-op with two unique screens? Guest limited to the host's screen and not allowed free exploration? Completely rewrite the engine to support the guest wandering freely off screen(so both players are not locked together), but to what end? What is the guest allowed to accomplish? Endless "you must gather your host to proceed!" messages?
Is it really worth the expense and effort for the maintenance of servers for the abysmally small number of friends that plan to regulate their lives around a host's progression through the game?

I get online co-op sounds magical and wondrous, because it kind of is a fantasy when it comes to a game like this. Please help me understand how expectations can work through the logistics of reality.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Yikes. Imagine the backlash if they did this with Chrono Trigger.

 

[scare_crow]

No Online Coop is a neckbreaker
The game isn't that great playing it alone and the person i played it together with as a kid and wanted to play the remaster with obviously doesn't live around the corner anymore + no one these days has time to visit someone cause of work etc.

I hope someone mods it into the PC Version at least lol

Click to shrink...

Neckbreaker, eh?

Let's not kid ourselves -- the original had bad hit detection too. But at least the art was solid. The remake looks like mobile game stuff.

 

[Zippedpinhead]

I'll still end up buying it because I want an official translation of SD3, in a remake or not. Until I get that I buy every mana title.

It's all I can do.

 

[Pokémon]

Yeah I am really not a fan of the artstyle as it looks like a cheap mobile game :/

 

[Deft Beck]

I'll still end up buying it because I want an official translation of SD3, in a remake or not. Until I get that I buy every mana title.

It's all I can do.

Click to shrink...

I don't feel comfortable doing this sort of thing if the product I'm buying is just a proxy to one I imagine would be better. That's like buying a slice of pizza from a pizza place and hoping that this encourages them to also serve hamburgers because that's what I'd prefer.