RPGamers Network > Reviews > Game Reviews > Secret Of Mana 2 - Seiken Densetsu 3
Shame on me! This game is one of those games I've never been able to play on SNES console. I have to say that I played this entirely on ZSNESWin emulator. I didn't use any emulator's cheats such as game shark codes, or snapshot saves. So, I played pretty much as if I were playing in the SNES. Secret Of Mana 2 has a speacial feature: it supports up tp 2 players, each of them controlling one of the characters, although the second player can only take effective part in the game after at least the second character get into the party. As long as ZSNESWin is also multiplayer capable, and it supports up to 5 players through IP connection, me and a friend decided to play it together.
Concerning Multiplayer Feature:
It's important to say that both players share all items, XP sharing method isn't messed up, and as not all characters are controlled by players you can hit R or L buttons to take over other chars. Hitting SELECT button switches between the characters, so players aren't bound to their own chars, but if they'd like to, they may never switch chars. Only player 1 is able to open the item storage screen (by hitting START button), but all players are able to use items from the inventory, use the save menu, and the status/equipment/options menu. Some features of the game can only be accessed by the last player to control the main char. All players can walk and talk to any NPCs, but the camera will follow the main character. The first character to leave the screen carrys everybody out.
ZSNESWin provides the players with a way to chat while playing: just hit T on the keyboard and type your message on the black line that will appear, then hit enter. I suggest that players use a controller rather than the keyboard, but if a player wants to use only the keyboard to play, it's good to remember not to assign buttons to the T key.
Setting UP!
Now i guess you want to hear about the game itself... Here we go...
After watching the intro, you'll have to select your party. There are 6 available chars, and yet, you can only choose three. Be careful! There are three different plots available, and choosing the party will select the plot, depending on who you choose for your main char. The other two chars are also important, not only because they will be valuable fighting force in the game, but also because they will have their own rolls to play in the plot. I would say: don't try to judge the chars, or do stuff like thinking "I need a mage, a thief and a fighter"... just choose them. At least on your first time playing it.
The Battle System:
This game has the most interesting battle system I've ever seen! It's a mix of the Zelda-like battle system, where you can see the monsters walking on the screen and attack them or avoid them and that Final Fantasy-like battles, with a cut scene changing from walking mode to battle mode. Whenever you are walking and you get near to monsters, all chars in party would prepare their weapons, which means you are now in battle mode, but you see where the monsters are, and attack them zelda-likely. while in battle any char has access to the inventory by pressing Y button, and you are able to use any items there, but you can't access the item storage system (START button) while in battle mode. You can have only 9 items of each kind in inventory, but you can store up to 99 items of each kind using the storage system. Remember to take items out of storage at the end of each battle, so you wont run out of healing items.
It's also good to remember to spend some time leveling up whenever you think the enemies are hard to beat. Well the enemies are not supposed to be hard to beat, except for bosses and some monsters... In fact, its easy to keep up with them, specially in the beginning. The monsters will level up, once in a while, though. If you think the enemies are suddenly beating you too much, it's time to look for new armor and weapon and maybe stop and level up a bit. Whenever the monsters had leveled up, there will be new armor and/or new weapons available. The mosnters will get able to learn techniques, as deadly as the techniques your chars can learn, what makes the battles unfair. Why it's unfair...? Because the monsters are software controlled and they auto-counter the techs you use, without casting time delay. If you are patient enough, you can level up enough.
Learn the elemental weakness of every kind of enemy. Watch the death animation for every enemy, and you'll soon realize which kind they all are, as same kind enemies die the same way. And this way to die shows the element for that enemies. Attacking an enemy with an opposite elemental power (techs or spells) will make attack stronger, while attacking one enemy with its own element will result in a rather weak attack. Also, learn to watch the week days. You can check the week day out in the menu screen (press START). The week days are named after the elemental entities that controls Mana's 6 elements, plus a neutral day (the Mana Holy Day). Mana Holy Day is like a Sunday, and you get free rooms in any inn. In this day, there are no changes into enemies/chars powers. On the other days, enemies and elemental powers matching the current day will be stronger. So, on Salamado's day, you shouldn't try to fight fire-based enemies, plus your fire-based attacks will be at maximum power.
The Game Play:
Well... Secret Of Mana 2 gives you a lot of a good plot, with no excessively difficult mazes. Okay, okay... you get mazes, you get to think of what you should next, but it simply won't stop the pace of the game. Yet, it's a game of patience. Don't expect to beat it in a simple 4 hours straight play... It's long, but but it doesn't get boring. You get to visit all places more than once, so once you learn the ways through out the map, it won't be difficult at all to walk around. In the beginning, you are rather driven to what you should do, but later on you get a lot of freedom and the right to choose where to go.
Talking about freedom, as you level up you have to choose the path your characters will follow. All of them will be required to choose Light or Dark path. The magic world of Mana is a neutral place. That means, choosing Light path won't make your char act as a good person, and choosing Dark path won't make your char evil. It only controls what kind of techs/spells your char will learn. Choosing the path is as important as choosing your chars. Paths won't have effect on plot, but it helps you in building a strong and effective fighting party, once the path controls what techs/spells the char will be able to learn.
The Visuals, The Music and Sound:
As it's very usual to Squaresoft games, you'll play as you listen to some cool awesome music... The music in this game mixes well with the plot and background/animations/effects. It doesn't get annoying in any part and it helps a lot to build the atmosphere in the game, changing the mood of the place and situation you are going through. Some places have their own music and you'll find some of the songs in more than one place. The sound effects get mixed in the music too, and they very important to make you notice your chars engaged battle mode, for instance. Monster's attacks and tech have their own sound effects, as your chars attacks and techs have their own, too. Those effects make the game exciting and lively, and sometimes funny or cute (as the rabites snoring). The places to visit are very beautiful and cute... Well some may find it too cute maybe... The backgrounds are cool, and the colors were selected in a way that it's not tiring to the eyes. Everyplace is different from the other, so it's very easy to learn the ways around, and if I think it's easy to walk around and learn the ways through out the map, it's because it must be trully easy, because I get lost easily, and it's something that makes some games really hard to me (yeah... right... i know I suck in that). Well, walking by following the world map can be confusing, at least for me...
Originality, Plot and Replay Value:
First of all, let me explain why I decided to talk about all those things together. The originality in this game is just one more feature that makes it amazing, and it's undoubtedly linked to the plot. Why? What makes Secret Mana 2 a very cool and original game is it's capability to change the plot according to which three chars you chose in the beginning. You get to see all other three chars you didn't choose around during the game, as your own way will cross somewhere with theirs. Depending on the combination of chars you chose, you'll be playing one of the three plots available. So, after playing it once, it's almost impossible not to curious about the other two plots. it's not like Chrono Trigger, where depending on the things you do, the ending sequence will be different... The WHOLE plot is different. So... if you are curious enough, and I'm sure I am... You'll surely want to play it at least three times, and don't worry much about it, because there aren't things you'll regret having to do again.
Final Words About Difficulty:
As said above, this game is not so challenging when it comes to mazes and finding out what you have to do. There are mazes and things you'll need to think a bit, but it won't stop the pace of the game. What makes this game long is the amount of things you have to do, and the time you'll surely love to spend leveling up your party, and not exactly it's difficulty. It will demand much more time from you then wits. I'd say it's challenging and surprising enough to be a good game to play. I think the most difficult part of it is paying attention to the week days and monsters weakness, because there are 6 kinds of monsters, 6 week days and 6 kinds of spells. My hint: never avoid a battle, and the game gets really easy, even if you have to spend lots of money in healing items.
| Game Stats | |
|---|---|
| Genre | RPG |
| Platform | Super Nintendo |
| Format | Cartridge |
| # of Players | 2 |
| Released Jap | 09.30.1995 |
| Released US | N/A |
| Released EU | N/A |
| Aprox. Length | 30-50 hrs. |
| Reviewer Rankings | |
| Battle System | 10.0 |
| Gameplay | 8.0 |
| Music | 9.0 |
| Originality | 11.0 |
| Plot | 9.0 |
| Replay Value | 9.0 |
| Sound | 8.0 |
| Visuals | 9.0 |
| Difficulty | Easy |
| Overall | |
| 9.1 | |
Secret Of Mana 2 - Seiken Densetsu 3
By: SquaresoftReviewed By: Elehisie
Introduction:Shame on me! This game is one of those games I've never been able to play on SNES console. I have to say that I played this entirely on ZSNESWin emulator. I didn't use any emulator's cheats such as game shark codes, or snapshot saves. So, I played pretty much as if I were playing in the SNES. Secret Of Mana 2 has a speacial feature: it supports up tp 2 players, each of them controlling one of the characters, although the second player can only take effective part in the game after at least the second character get into the party. As long as ZSNESWin is also multiplayer capable, and it supports up to 5 players through IP connection, me and a friend decided to play it together.
Concerning Multiplayer Feature:
It's important to say that both players share all items, XP sharing method isn't messed up, and as not all characters are controlled by players you can hit R or L buttons to take over other chars. Hitting SELECT button switches between the characters, so players aren't bound to their own chars, but if they'd like to, they may never switch chars. Only player 1 is able to open the item storage screen (by hitting START button), but all players are able to use items from the inventory, use the save menu, and the status/equipment/options menu. Some features of the game can only be accessed by the last player to control the main char. All players can walk and talk to any NPCs, but the camera will follow the main character. The first character to leave the screen carrys everybody out.
ZSNESWin provides the players with a way to chat while playing: just hit T on the keyboard and type your message on the black line that will appear, then hit enter. I suggest that players use a controller rather than the keyboard, but if a player wants to use only the keyboard to play, it's good to remember not to assign buttons to the T key.
Setting UP!
Now i guess you want to hear about the game itself... Here we go...
After watching the intro, you'll have to select your party. There are 6 available chars, and yet, you can only choose three. Be careful! There are three different plots available, and choosing the party will select the plot, depending on who you choose for your main char. The other two chars are also important, not only because they will be valuable fighting force in the game, but also because they will have their own rolls to play in the plot. I would say: don't try to judge the chars, or do stuff like thinking "I need a mage, a thief and a fighter"... just choose them. At least on your first time playing it.
The Battle System:
This game has the most interesting battle system I've ever seen! It's a mix of the Zelda-like battle system, where you can see the monsters walking on the screen and attack them or avoid them and that Final Fantasy-like battles, with a cut scene changing from walking mode to battle mode. Whenever you are walking and you get near to monsters, all chars in party would prepare their weapons, which means you are now in battle mode, but you see where the monsters are, and attack them zelda-likely. while in battle any char has access to the inventory by pressing Y button, and you are able to use any items there, but you can't access the item storage system (START button) while in battle mode. You can have only 9 items of each kind in inventory, but you can store up to 99 items of each kind using the storage system. Remember to take items out of storage at the end of each battle, so you wont run out of healing items.
It's also good to remember to spend some time leveling up whenever you think the enemies are hard to beat. Well the enemies are not supposed to be hard to beat, except for bosses and some monsters... In fact, its easy to keep up with them, specially in the beginning. The monsters will level up, once in a while, though. If you think the enemies are suddenly beating you too much, it's time to look for new armor and weapon and maybe stop and level up a bit. Whenever the monsters had leveled up, there will be new armor and/or new weapons available. The mosnters will get able to learn techniques, as deadly as the techniques your chars can learn, what makes the battles unfair. Why it's unfair...? Because the monsters are software controlled and they auto-counter the techs you use, without casting time delay. If you are patient enough, you can level up enough.
Learn the elemental weakness of every kind of enemy. Watch the death animation for every enemy, and you'll soon realize which kind they all are, as same kind enemies die the same way. And this way to die shows the element for that enemies. Attacking an enemy with an opposite elemental power (techs or spells) will make attack stronger, while attacking one enemy with its own element will result in a rather weak attack. Also, learn to watch the week days. You can check the week day out in the menu screen (press START). The week days are named after the elemental entities that controls Mana's 6 elements, plus a neutral day (the Mana Holy Day). Mana Holy Day is like a Sunday, and you get free rooms in any inn. In this day, there are no changes into enemies/chars powers. On the other days, enemies and elemental powers matching the current day will be stronger. So, on Salamado's day, you shouldn't try to fight fire-based enemies, plus your fire-based attacks will be at maximum power.
The Game Play:
Well... Secret Of Mana 2 gives you a lot of a good plot, with no excessively difficult mazes. Okay, okay... you get mazes, you get to think of what you should next, but it simply won't stop the pace of the game. Yet, it's a game of patience. Don't expect to beat it in a simple 4 hours straight play... It's long, but but it doesn't get boring. You get to visit all places more than once, so once you learn the ways through out the map, it won't be difficult at all to walk around. In the beginning, you are rather driven to what you should do, but later on you get a lot of freedom and the right to choose where to go.
Talking about freedom, as you level up you have to choose the path your characters will follow. All of them will be required to choose Light or Dark path. The magic world of Mana is a neutral place. That means, choosing Light path won't make your char act as a good person, and choosing Dark path won't make your char evil. It only controls what kind of techs/spells your char will learn. Choosing the path is as important as choosing your chars. Paths won't have effect on plot, but it helps you in building a strong and effective fighting party, once the path controls what techs/spells the char will be able to learn.
The Visuals, The Music and Sound:
As it's very usual to Squaresoft games, you'll play as you listen to some cool awesome music... The music in this game mixes well with the plot and background/animations/effects. It doesn't get annoying in any part and it helps a lot to build the atmosphere in the game, changing the mood of the place and situation you are going through. Some places have their own music and you'll find some of the songs in more than one place. The sound effects get mixed in the music too, and they very important to make you notice your chars engaged battle mode, for instance. Monster's attacks and tech have their own sound effects, as your chars attacks and techs have their own, too. Those effects make the game exciting and lively, and sometimes funny or cute (as the rabites snoring). The places to visit are very beautiful and cute... Well some may find it too cute maybe... The backgrounds are cool, and the colors were selected in a way that it's not tiring to the eyes. Everyplace is different from the other, so it's very easy to learn the ways around, and if I think it's easy to walk around and learn the ways through out the map, it's because it must be trully easy, because I get lost easily, and it's something that makes some games really hard to me (yeah... right... i know I suck in that). Well, walking by following the world map can be confusing, at least for me...
Originality, Plot and Replay Value:
First of all, let me explain why I decided to talk about all those things together. The originality in this game is just one more feature that makes it amazing, and it's undoubtedly linked to the plot. Why? What makes Secret Mana 2 a very cool and original game is it's capability to change the plot according to which three chars you chose in the beginning. You get to see all other three chars you didn't choose around during the game, as your own way will cross somewhere with theirs. Depending on the combination of chars you chose, you'll be playing one of the three plots available. So, after playing it once, it's almost impossible not to curious about the other two plots. it's not like Chrono Trigger, where depending on the things you do, the ending sequence will be different... The WHOLE plot is different. So... if you are curious enough, and I'm sure I am... You'll surely want to play it at least three times, and don't worry much about it, because there aren't things you'll regret having to do again.
Final Words About Difficulty:
As said above, this game is not so challenging when it comes to mazes and finding out what you have to do. There are mazes and things you'll need to think a bit, but it won't stop the pace of the game. What makes this game long is the amount of things you have to do, and the time you'll surely love to spend leveling up your party, and not exactly it's difficulty. It will demand much more time from you then wits. I'd say it's challenging and surprising enough to be a good game to play. I think the most difficult part of it is paying attention to the week days and monsters weakness, because there are 6 kinds of monsters, 6 week days and 6 kinds of spells. My hint: never avoid a battle, and the game gets really easy, even if you have to spend lots of money in healing items.
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