Is this the best SNES RPG? I think so!
There is a role playing game that is only on the super Nintendo. It is considered by many a dedicated retro gamer to be one of, if not the, best super Nintendo role playing game ever made. This game, The Secret of Mana, had all of the best features of a host of other games and brought some great brand new features all of it’s own to the party. Let’s go through what made this game so special in today’s posting. For those of you not familiar with this game let’s begin with some background.
The game begins with you taking on the role of a bit of a screw about, but before long you’re a royal problem and need to get out of the village. Nice work there Lou! There’s some more story stuff but let’s not ruin that piece and let’s instead talk about the game play. You play from the third party perspective and employ a variety of real time combat attacks. One of the features is the special charging up system which allows you to get more powerful combinations as you pass levels in each weapon. That’s the other thing, you pass levels in the weapons and magic in addition to passing levels yourself. This means the more you use the gear the better you get. What about the multiple characters you may be asking, I was just getting to that bit!
Novel Party System
All three party memebers can participate as PC or NPC
There are a number of characters in this game and your party contains three of them at a time. Each one can use different weapons and has different strengths and weaknesses. This brings in all the party balances and fun dynamics of that nature. The general game play doesn’t get old and there’s a really special bonus. Well, there’s a bonus if you’ve got any friends that is. The multiplayer on the Secret of Mana was superb.
You could play with two of your friends at the same time with each you playing as your own character. It was truly fabulous; all three of you could work in a cooperative gaming environment against the evil critters and bosses in this game. And the best part of the multiplayer mode was if you had only one buddy over, you could do it two playered and if it was just you. Well, you could play the same file with just one person and you could switch modes whenever which comes in real handy if a buddy has to head out while you’re in the middle of fighting a difficult boss character. This game has all kinds of novel features like this and it’s a real shame if you ask me that they never made a second one of these, or at least not for the states. There is one piece of bad news about this game though… The rarity has caught up; I’ve heard it’s quite expensive in the secondary market but its well worth it. Don’t hoard the man people! Share this wonderful game!