Secret of Mana (SNES) review "About as quirky as it gets without being Indie."

If Indie publishing had been well established in 1993, you might have been forgiven for thinking that Secret of Mana was a many-year passion project. Despite its imperfections and quirks, it stands on its own as an unbridled classic that explored mechanics and concepts most console players had never encountered before.

The setting was different enough from others to stand out as memorable. Hiroku Kikuta's melodic soundtrack brought with it some delightful ideas but also some of the most annoying themes in any game. The dwarf theme wins the Instant Mute Award every time. The remedy is a game-provided shortcut that seems aware of this inconvenience.

Secret of Mana, simply put, takes the Legendary Sword myth and adapts it into a violence rich--um, detailed world that is in peril except for your intervention. You'll acquire the Legendary Sword, depleted of its power, and be sent on a quest to overcome impossible odds. Two allies will join you with rather well fleshed-out personalities and amusing events to carry you along.

Combat plays out in real-time: Levelling characters, weapons, and magic depend upon your ability to anticipate, react to, and exploit enemies whose tactics vary with each new area you enter. Secret of Mana is a beautiful game with lush pixel art and clever use of the SNES hardware. In spite of any failings, Hiroku's soundtrack has produced some of gaming's most beloved themes and helped cement the series as a franchise.

At the time, action role-playing games had limited market penetration, so when Squaresoft trotted out three-player real-time combat, we were floored. A multiport adapter was required for this, but it worked flawlessly when you could dedicate enough time and friends to it. Whoever did, though? Secret of Mana's commitment to long-term play meant that you were grinding solo to beat this monster unless you were fortunate enough to have a friend or sibling along.

What we'll call imperfections had a tendency to derail the fun, too. For example, computer-controlled characters occasionally would get stuck around corners. Enemies would spawn at an apparent random rate, and it was possible to trick the system into giving you more weapon upgrade orbs than you deserved. It seems for every instance of amazing, there was a hint that the game lacked polish. We wouldn't learn until much later that it was all a consequence of content intended for media ten times its size being compressed into a teenie little cartridge.

Some things the game did effortlessly, like keeping you in the action with easily accessible items via the now famous ring menu. Likewise, AI-guided allies could be controlled with a button and tactics configured to suit the needs of the situation. You'll notice a distinct lack of tactical depth in boss fights, and levelling magic isn't exactly a cakewalk, but given what the game does well, it's easy to forgive blemishes like this.

In the current climate of games that employ levelling systems regardless of genre, we're no strangers to levelling in RPGs. Characters, weapons, pets, items, magic – if it has a stat, someone has decided that your time can boost its attributes. When levelled, weapons can be charged for massive damage. Magic, on the other hand, works in descending order of gain. From levels one to nine, each level is slower by a fixed percentage. By level nine, you're gaining as little as 1% for each successfully landed use. In retrospect, that system would have fit a game with ten times the world to explore.

You see, magic is acquired by your partners through mana spirits, which you'll meet along the way. As the main character, you don't get any – apparently, you don't need it. More powerful than any magic isn't just a cute phrase, though you won't appreciate it until the end of the game. Your partners, meanwhile, will gain offensive and restorative spells. The rub is that the level cap is determined by the total amount of spirits acquired. The more, the merrier. You'll want to find a static enemy with high resistance to spam near a town so you can hit the inn to restore your MP between grinding sessions.

Secret of Mana's success is that it succeeds more often than it fails. When you tire of a quest, the developers seem to know it and provide you with a nice plot twist or change of pace to ease the tedium. This is an open-world exploration RPG, and after a while, you're let off the leash, so to speak. As you play, it's easy to get invested in the quick pace of events.

Secret of Mana has as many annoyances as it has promises of dopamine rewards for your efforts in saving the world. Perhaps the premise is tired by now, but it's easy to get lost in a word that requires just enough effort to keep you on task. Managing a price-gouging feline is part of its charm and worth considering if you're in the mood to visit one of gaming's premier examples of what open-world exploration was hoping to become before the advent of the next generation of consoles.

Over the years, Secret of Mana has seen new releases on mobile, with improvements that resolve many of the glitches. It's worth picking up at full price as a memorable action RPG. This lesser-known RPG set the stage for many of us and is worth sinking your teeth into.

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Community review by hastypixels (March 19, 2017) Wisdom comes from effort and mistakes.