Being a retro game fan, my pants get all tight when I hear the words “classic” & “remake”. Put them both together and you might as well turn on some Sexual Healing and light me a cigarette. So, naturally, I had to buy myself some new pants and a pack of cigarettes when I heard that the SNES classic, Secret of Mana, was being remade for the PS4.
Unfortunately, the game just doesn’t hold up for the current generation.
You’re teased at the intro of the game as it begins with a beautiful cut scene seamlessly put together with beautiful music, then, as soon as you start the game, you realize it was all a lie.
The few noticeable differences as far as the upgrades go is the music (which is as beautiful as ever), the ability to play 3 player more seamlessly than the original and the auto save ability. The music happens to be my favorite part of the game. It takes me back to the good old days of gaming.
The battle sequences however, are very repetitive and dated. The major issue is that the game is that it feels exactly like the original, just with updated graphics. The voice over work is mediocre at best, and doesn’t really add to the gameplay value.
However, I will admit that it was really cool that they offer the ability to play the game in so many different languages.
What made this game different than most rpgs at the time was that it was real time battle as opposed to turn based. Unfortunately this mechanic isn’t fresh in today as most games now are super fast and intricate, while the battles in Secret of Mana are frustratingly repetitive and pointless. Some enemies are able to touch your hit box even if you’re no where near them as well. I’ve seen many remakes that take the time to modernize gameplay while staying true to the original.
With a higher budget and a bit more love this could have been a knock out of the park but for me. I feel like they didn’t put enough love into the remake of this game and tried to slap a new coat of paint on it and re-box it. The biggest issues were that while it had the greatest state of the art technology at the time used on it during its original release, unfortunately, it didn’t do the same the second time around.
A lot of the things that made it great during its original release just didn’t age very well.
While still a fun game to play, this will only really appeal to fans of the original game. Die hards will play it just for the nostalgia factor alone, but I think if you really loved Secret of Mana, you’re better off just playing the original again.