Secret of Mana: A retro-game review

....or how cute monsters nearly killed me, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

So I just beat Secret of Mana a little bit ago. I mean literally minutes ago (Misti by my side). I had forgotten just how much fun this game was. Everything about it is just great. The colors are vibrant, the areas very well fleshed out, the storyline is straightforward and interesting, the characters are well defined, unique and wonderful music, etc.

When I first purchased this game as a young teen, I bought it because it was a Squaresoft game that looked fun. Little did I know just how wonderful it was going to be. From the very beginning you are just thrown into a world as a young boy trying to grow into a destiny thrust upon him by taking a sword found in the middle of nowhere. And after taking this sword you learn just how dangerous this world becomes as cutesy little rabbits (named rabites in this game) attack you without provocation.

From a technical standpoint, this game was unique all around. First of all, it had a new menu style, which I believe was never before seen in a role playing game. While most games had a series of menu where selecting one would bring up a new one in a list fashion, Secret of Mana boasted a series of rings where pushing up and down brought up a new "ring" of choices and left and right made selections. A very time effective way of doing things, which leads to the next point. Prior to this, most RPG's were turned based. This was a real time RPG where you had to run from enemies to power up your attacks. While the game did "pause" while you selected spells or items or exchanged weapons, all fighting occured without interruption. Finally, this game allowed Cooperative play, making it even more unique. That's right, a buddy could walk in, push start on his controller and control one of your characters. Furthermore, if you had the multi-tap, you could have up to three people playing at the same time.

Versus

For all the good in this game, it did have a few flaws. First, the computer controlled players may have difficulty with "tracking"or "pathfinding", that is, following a path close to what you as the main player decide. As a result, the computer may become stuck running against a wall or running along a different path to try to catch up with you, preventing any forward progress. That being said, this has always been a probelm in games when the computer controls a player character and one that plagues games even now, almost 13 years later.

Another aspect that may turn players off is how unforgiving the hit-detection may be. When you fight with enemies, your attack is compared with their defense (straight-forward, eh?). However the animation of your attack may not connect fully thus causing you to miss, or worse, the enemy may appear to miss, but send your character flying anyway. This can get even more frustrating when attacks are stacked upon you, causing you to continually fly back without being able to defend yourself or run away.

Overall a great game and one that players should pick up, even if it's the re-release on the Nintendo Wii. I guarantee at least 30 hours of pure fun if you just try to do the minimum to beat the game.

Now for the Nostalgia: One of my favorite early gaming memories involves this game. It was actually the first night that I, as a teen, stayed up all night playing a videogame. I had invited some friends over to hang out (it may have been close to my birthday, I'm not exactly sure). My high school best friend Cody and I decided to start a game around 6 or so at night. And we kept on playing. Around 4-ish in the a.m. I started to get a bit nervous about thinking it may be time to sleep, but the game just kept on holding our attention and pushing us forward. Finally I looked over and realized that the sun was coming up and I had just played videogames literally all night long. We decided to stop sometime around 8:00 a.m. to get some food, and to talk about how far we had gotten in the game (all the way to the Sunken Continent before the Mana Fortress is raised). The fun of co-op play was a novelty for most SNES games, so it was doubly fun just hanging with my best friend and playing one of the best RPG's of it's time (and I might argue one of the greatest of all time.

So if your looking for a game with fun graphics, a great story, and most importantly a chance to game with a buddy, look no further than Secret of Mana.

Retro-gaming Review: Ogre Battle

....or revisiting a game of my youth.

So I'm currently replaying through Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen. The game itself is a unique combination of RPG and Strategy (Real Time Strategy). You are the leader of a rebellion against an evil empire. As you travel the land toward the heart of the empire, you recruit several powerful characters to your cause. Seems simple right? However, this is just a cursory explanation. The real complexity of the game isn't apparent until you look at the main map screen and the individual character screens.

On the top right of the overworld screen for each map, you'll see a gauge and a sun dial of sorts that tracks the progression of day to night and vice versa. The gauge is your reputation with the people of the land and the actions you take and the units (a collection of your soldiers) that you use to liberate cities will raise and lower your reputation. Each unit has up to five members, and each member has a charisma/charm rating (CHA) and an alignment rating (ALI) - the higher the alignment, the "holier" or more goodly your character is. Therefore, it is important to show the best side of this rebellion to the people and have good units liberate cities.

On the other hand, some people like myself prefer to have armies of darkness (vampyres, werewolves, liches, etc.). This game allows itself to be played both ways. So in my case, I'd liberate the city with my good soldiers (paladins, knights, samurai, etc.) and then use my werewolves and wizards to hold the city.

It should be noted that this is not an simple, pick up and play. After the first few stages/maps (or "scenes" as they are called in-game), each map begins to take longer to clear. So barring a blitzkrieg on the enemy's capital city, you should expect to take about an hour or so per map. Again, this is purely optional, but to get the most out of the story and all the little sidequest items, you'll have to commit yourself and your time to this game.

For a decent walkthrough, check this FAQ.

As a side note: This game is apparently incredibly rare to find in the United states. According to various articles (you can see one here) , there were only about 25,000 copies released in America. And I just happened to pick up one of them (hey, it was a great summer game). Right now, a complete copy of the game can be found on ebay for about $150 dollars, or around $60 for the game itself (no manual, no inserts). No, I'm not planning on ever selling this game.

Now for the nostalgia -

As I noted, this game took time and commitment to play. I still remember spending hours on a Saturday just trying to clear stage after stage, until finally I beat the game. The ending was spectacular and seemed to nicely wrap everything up (I'll not spoil it). So I restarted and played through a second time, this time trying to get more of the little sidequests accomplished...and this time I got a completely different ending. Yes, there are multiple endings to this game, depending on who you recruit and even if you are male or female.

Another fond memory for this game involves my younger brother. I had just gotten my wisdom teeth removed (they had to be taken out via surgery) and I was home recovering (read also: doped up on anesthetic). I woke up to find my younger brother playing Ogre Battle on my SNES in my bed room. He had come in to check on me and thought he'd play some videogames while hanging out. So I'd get up and mumble suggestions to him every so often and then fall back asleep. Random memory, eh? Well, it was a preview of things to come. While my brother definately prefers sports games and racing games (Gran Turismo, for example), he's always had a knack and a soft spot for strategy games (Lords of the Realm, etc.). Maybe Ogre Battle was that nudge down that path.

So how does this game compare to memory? It is even better than I remembered. Call it age, call it maturity, but I understand more of the technical aspects of this game now that I'm older, and find myself enjoying it even more. If you can get a copy of this, do so! I've read that they just re-released it on the Nintendo Wii virtual console. It's worth playing, especially if you like games that take longer to beat.

Well, that ends this trip down memory lane. Next time, I'll either do Secret of Mana or Kirby Superstars.