 The more I do these videos and the more reading I do, the more research I do, and the more reviews I read, I get the impression that Secret of Mana is considered one of the most overrated games on the Super Nintendo, and that really seems weird to me. I mean, let's start as basic as we can get. What is Secret of Mana at its core? Well, it's a non-linear beat-em-up. You wander around a huge map using all sorts of different weapons to destroy enemies from a top-down perspective, much like Link to the Past and Illusion of Gaia. So how can that be overrated? It's pretty simple and pretty satisfying. It does the fundamental things really well, like hit detection, sound, colorful graphics, a variety of enemies, huge challenging bosses, and the sheer amount of weapons that you can use. I think the problem comes from skewed expectations. It would seem people are expecting a big, ginormous sweeping story along the same lines as like Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy VI, but that's really not the case. In other words, I think this game suffers from hype the same way that Super Mario RPG does. You get lumped in alongside all the big name, heavy-hitting RPGs. When they're not like those games at all, they're meant to be different experiences altogether. Anyway, I didn't make this video to slag on the story. It's a perfectly okay story anyway, but the problem with it is twofold. Number one, it starts out very, very slowly. It's not until the last hour or so when it really starts to get interesting. And number two, the characters have the depth of cardboard cutouts. These people just aren't interesting. You got your standard hero who says and does nothing of notes. You got your token female and you've got the sprite who's kind of a smart ass, I guess. And that's really about it. While the characters aren't the most dynamic, what really makes the game great is the very sly way the game reveals the scope of its world. When you start out, you're just a kid that gets kicked out of his village. Then you're on a finite path where you can visit a couple more places. And then you can travel via the can and travel system, which fires you way up into the air and from there you can get kind of a hint of how big the world is. But then you finally discover Flamie the Dragon and then you get to see just how huge this game is when you zoom up into the air and view the world from a dragon's eye view. This moment right here when the music kicks in and you see that you can fly anywhere that you want. Man that's one of my favorite moments in any game ever. It's brilliantly done and it really says a lot about the thought they put into the planning and the structure of Secret of Mana. Another major strength this game has is its soundtrack and I don't mean that in an off-handed way like, oh yeah the music that's pretty cool, you know, for a SNES game. No, it's way more than that. The music is technically, conceptually, and compositionally the best on the Super Nintendo. Take the Ice Country stage here. The music here is so haunting and beautiful that you just want to wander around and squash random enemies and just hang out here just so you can listen to the music. And yeah I know music is subjective by nature, but even technically speaking from a hardware point of view, how on earth was the Super Nintendo able to squeeze out music so lush and detailed sounding? Just listen to this. It does sound like real instruments. Every time I hear this theme my jaw hits the floor. The level of detail in this track is just astounding. In my opinion the soundtrack is really what takes Secret of Mana from merely a good game to a great game. And yes I do think Secret of Mana is a great game, although I'll preface that by saying it's probably the most flawed, great game on the Super Nintendo if that makes sense. The story is limited, the characters are flimsy, and the magic system is kind of ridiculous. You essentially have to pause the game just to access it, and believe me you can abuse the hell out of being able to pause in the middle of a battle. The ring menu system in general isn't done very well at all. It can be really confusing at times with multiple characters, but while its flaws are prominent, Secret of Mana's strengths outshine them. Its core gameplay is really fun, the loud thwack of thrashing a rabid is addicting, the way the game's world is revealed to you is enticing, and the music is what truly makes the game an experience. So make sure to just manage your expectations. Secret of Mana is not on the level of the big named Super Nintendo RPGs, it's on a level of its own, it's its own kind of experience.