I'm always perplexed about Secret of Mana. I could never get into it, personally. I borrowed it from a friend once in high school, and I didn't get far into it before I got frustrated and returned it to my friend. The same friend later let me borrow Secret of Evermore, a game I not only finished but liked enough to request my own copy of for Christmas that year.
I can see why Mana was popular back in the day. It's an ambitious game. I don't know if it's the first game to do this, but it seems to me that Mana's hook was that it was supposed to introduce a lot of elements mostly exclusive to turn-based RPGs to more of an action RPG formula. I won't dispute the fact that Mana was something special upon its original release on SNES, but the game is a trainwreck from a technical perspective.
The game runs really poorly, and it feels like it's barely holding together at the seams at times. There's TONS of slowdown, and the color palettes and sprite work glitch out a lot, especially when spells are being cast on-screen. Your party's A.I. is TERRIBLE, as you'll either find yourself struggling to advance in dungeons as your party members get stuck on EVERYTHING, or you'll find yourself whisked away to the next area you can't return from because the entrance to that area got between you and one of your party members, or one of your party members will flat-out get stuck to the point that you have to just reset the game and try again. And the lack of feedback with respect to why you're not able to hit many enemies is just infuriating.
Evermore doesn't seem to have these problems, yet it doesn't seem to get anywhere near as much love as Mana. I mean, sure, maybe there're some light performance issues, and I'm sure the color palettes get a bit weird at times. The partner A.I. in Evermore at least seems to benefit from various other features to ensure you don't get stuck so often, and you're not tethered to your dog in Evermore as you are to your party members in Mana. Plus, your dog gets to cheat and go right through stuff blocking its path if you get too far away, anyway. And whiffed hits look like whiffed hits, because you're told when you missed, even if you connected with the enemy hitboxes.
Now, I'm currently playing through Mana, and I think I'll finish it this time. I think I just want to have it as a point of comparison for when I play the remake, as well as for when I play through Trials and its remake. I do think Mana is an important game, but I think it's odd that it's left without a "definitive" version, even in the form of a fan-made rom hack or something, that doesn't fix its very clear issues. Or maybe something more ambitious, such a total conversion of Evermore that makes it play like Mana, but with a presumably much more solid foundation. I mean, games with far less egregious issues have been overhauled with bug fixes and quality of life improvements, so why does this gem not get the same treatment?
EDIT: Interestingly, there IS a supposed improvement rom hack of Secret of Mana called Secret of Mana Turbo, but it makes a LOT of changes to game play instead of outright making improvements to what's there. You can, at least, supposedly toggle individual changes on/off, but certain improvements (such as party battle A.I.) disregard in-game settings at the moment.
Anyway, does anyone else here prefer Evermore to Mana? Who prefers Trials? And what're your thoughts on Evermore?
I can see why Mana was popular back in the day. It's an ambitious game. I don't know if it's the first game to do this, but it seems to me that Mana's hook was that it was supposed to introduce a lot of elements mostly exclusive to turn-based RPGs to more of an action RPG formula. I won't dispute the fact that Mana was something special upon its original release on SNES, but the game is a trainwreck from a technical perspective.
The game runs really poorly, and it feels like it's barely holding together at the seams at times. There's TONS of slowdown, and the color palettes and sprite work glitch out a lot, especially when spells are being cast on-screen. Your party's A.I. is TERRIBLE, as you'll either find yourself struggling to advance in dungeons as your party members get stuck on EVERYTHING, or you'll find yourself whisked away to the next area you can't return from because the entrance to that area got between you and one of your party members, or one of your party members will flat-out get stuck to the point that you have to just reset the game and try again. And the lack of feedback with respect to why you're not able to hit many enemies is just infuriating.
Evermore doesn't seem to have these problems, yet it doesn't seem to get anywhere near as much love as Mana. I mean, sure, maybe there're some light performance issues, and I'm sure the color palettes get a bit weird at times. The partner A.I. in Evermore at least seems to benefit from various other features to ensure you don't get stuck so often, and you're not tethered to your dog in Evermore as you are to your party members in Mana. Plus, your dog gets to cheat and go right through stuff blocking its path if you get too far away, anyway. And whiffed hits look like whiffed hits, because you're told when you missed, even if you connected with the enemy hitboxes.
Now, I'm currently playing through Mana, and I think I'll finish it this time. I think I just want to have it as a point of comparison for when I play the remake, as well as for when I play through Trials and its remake. I do think Mana is an important game, but I think it's odd that it's left without a "definitive" version, even in the form of a fan-made rom hack or something, that doesn't fix its very clear issues. Or maybe something more ambitious, such a total conversion of Evermore that makes it play like Mana, but with a presumably much more solid foundation. I mean, games with far less egregious issues have been overhauled with bug fixes and quality of life improvements, so why does this gem not get the same treatment?
EDIT: Interestingly, there IS a supposed improvement rom hack of Secret of Mana called Secret of Mana Turbo, but it makes a LOT of changes to game play instead of outright making improvements to what's there. You can, at least, supposedly toggle individual changes on/off, but certain improvements (such as party battle A.I.) disregard in-game settings at the moment.
Anyway, does anyone else here prefer Evermore to Mana? Who prefers Trials? And what're your thoughts on Evermore?
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