I've often wondered whether to pick up Legend of Mana, but been consistently stymied by the 70% ratings. Funny; I like the way of thinking about games, that some really are best meant to be played by people who have too much time on their hands. As adults, that sadly no longer applies to any of us.
I recently played through Secret of Mana 1 and most of the way through Secret of Mana 2 on the Collection of Mana for Switch. I had played the first as a child and enjoyed it, and I still think the first game works on its own merits and I'd gently suggest you're being a bit hard on it, though I can't say whether I'd feel the same way if I'd never played it as a kid.
Admittedly, the game feels a bit empty, especially compared to the extraordinarily verbose Final Fantasy games released alongside it – there are very few speaking characters and not much dialogue, and clearly that's a result of its development history. But as a capital-A Adventure game, released the same year as Link's Awakening, it's breathtaking: the art and music are absolutely gorgeous, the character designs are consistently creative. The first time you travel by cannon, you realize that this is a game that will surprise you even if you've played other games in the genre. And from the opening moments of the game, thwacking rabites is deeply satisfying.
(Many like Secret of Mana 2 better; for me, it's more of the same, with some improvements but not much change in formula. Still a very fun game to play.)
The apogee that Squaresoft reached with its pixel art and game music from 1993-1995 remains a high-water mark that award-winning games continue to try to reach. And as flawed Squaresoft games go, I find Secret of Mana *much* more satisfying than Final Fantasy 8, released six years later, whose inventive gameplay is for me totally overwhelmed by a story I found insultingly incoherent.
I've often wondered whether to pick up Legend of Mana, but been consistently stymied by the 70% ratings. Funny; I like the way of thinking about games, that some really are best meant to be played by people who have too much time on their hands. As adults, that sadly no longer applies to any of us.
I recently played through Secret of Mana 1 and most of the way through Secret of Mana 2 on the Collection of Mana for Switch. I had played the first as a child and enjoyed it, and I still think the first game works on its own merits and I'd gently suggest you're being a bit hard on it, though I can't say whether I'd feel the same way if I'd never played it as a kid.
Admittedly, the game feels a bit empty, especially compared to the extraordinarily verbose Final Fantasy games released alongside it – there are very few speaking characters and not much dialogue, and clearly that's a result of its development history. But as a capital-A Adventure game, released the same year as Link's Awakening, it's breathtaking: the art and music are absolutely gorgeous, the character designs are consistently creative. The first time you travel by cannon, you realize that this is a game that will surprise you even if you've played other games in the genre. And from the opening moments of the game, thwacking rabites is deeply satisfying.
(Many like Secret of Mana 2 better; for me, it's more of the same, with some improvements but not much change in formula. Still a very fun game to play.)
The apogee that Squaresoft reached with its pixel art and game music from 1993-1995 remains a high-water mark that award-winning games continue to try to reach. And as flawed Squaresoft games go, I find Secret of Mana *much* more satisfying than Final Fantasy 8, released six years later, whose inventive gameplay is for me totally overwhelmed by a story I found insultingly incoherent.