Can a game actually bring a tear in your eye out of pure joy? It sure can! Here is my review..
So how does the game play you might ask? Well secret of mana is a action/rpg game. Meaning if you are in a battle it's in real time, unlike the final fantasy series were you have to take turns to make your move. The game has the most perfect battle system, if at any time you want to switch a weapon, pick a potion or do anything to change your character, a new rotating menu screen pops up stopping the action until you make your change. Unlike other games weapons can't be bought but are actually awarded to you, however you can still buy your armour and healing items. A nice addition is that you can also upgrade your weapons by finding orbs in treasure chests. If you find enough orbs you can bring your weapon to a black smith who will then make it more powerful. The controls themselves are perfect and since the journey is long and filled with enemies luckily you won't be alone in your journey, early on in the game you will meet up with 2 other characters who are actually also playable by a second player once you find them.
The boss battles in secret of mana are hard. I'm not kidding I often had a cold sweat while battling these huge bosses, often dying in the process, the trick is you want to come in prepared and to know what weapon to use on them. The sensation you feel once you defeat them is huge a "Take that you weirdo freak" was my victory line as a kid often followed by my parents heads poking into my room to make sure I was ok.
The game world is huge and sometimes as you get further in the game is requires you to go back to places you already visited lucky for you, you don't have to walk your way back there are some other forms of transportation. One of them is a dragon that you can use to fly yourself over the gaming world in seconds. While you are flying the dragon the game actually switches to a 3d mode so you can rotate at will and see the world from above in 3d, a nice addition.
If you have never played secret of mana before this is a must buy and I hope my review convinced you to get it. One memory stands out while playing the game after many hours and many nights playing I reached the last boss battle, however the idea I got in my head was that I should power up a bit more first before heading in so I saved and went to bed for the night, when I woke up and got back from school I was shocked to learn the game was gone. Apparently my brother gave it to one of his friends to play and "borrowed" it from my room. Once I got the game back my nightmare became a reality because the "Friend" saved his new game over mine... I had to start all over again. I'm sure my brother to this day still remember the smoke coming out of my ears and the words that followed, but once I calmed down and start playing the game from the beginning I realized that this was such a powerful game that even it took me months to reach the end I had no problem playing it again and do a better job, I don't think you can say that of many games out there. Secret of mana is a classic, I still have that original box with the original plastic wrapper to this day, it will never leave me, what a game! :)