The good old Super Nintendo favorite. The classic above all classics.
Secret of Mana is about a boy (with the official name Randi, I think) who accidentaly finds and takes the Mana Sword, a powerful weapon used to defeat evil long ago, and by doing this he removes the protection set on his little village Potos, and releases evil from its long rest. His task will obviously be to save his village and the world from evil, and when he has done so, put the Sword back.
On his way, he meets the Girl (Purim), and the little Sprite Child (Popoie), who join him on his quest. They travel through the entire world and meet characters like the Cannon Men, who run the Cannon Travel Center, and Neko, the merchant cat, and Dyluck, Purim's love, who is captured by evil. There are so many important characters that play big roles in this game that it would take an age and a half to describe them all.
In Secret of Mana, 8 is the magical number. There are 8 magic spirits you'll have to find, one for each of the 8 elements. These spirits live in 8 different palaces, and there are 8 different mana seeds, one in each palace. And there are 8 different levels on the 8 weapons, and so on.
This game has in-game combat, like in the Zelda games. And it is perfectly done. The gameplay in Secret of Mana is nothing short of legendary. Hordes of interesting and sometimes humorous enemies, along with 8 different weapons with various range/power/advantages that can be charged up for more power, and 8 different magic spirits that come with many damaging/status changing spells. All this is combined with ease. The amount of options you have in combat won't pick on the gameplay like in many other games, it enhances it.
The graphics are nice to look at, the perfect Super Nintendo graphics. Of course, it isn't like the X-Box 360 or Play Station 3 games, but it doesn't have to be to be good. Secret of Mana is just perfect. And the music on this game is great. Among the best soundtracks on a game ever, if you ask me.
The one and only downside with this game is its difficulty. New players may find it so easy that it isn't even funny. But many of those make it easy by leveling up and leveling up all the time, and by doing so they are removing the difficulty. I'm not saying you shouldn't level up, but you shouldn't advance five levels each time you move into a new area.
This game is awesome... for most people.