Secret of Mana

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Secret of Mana

Developer(s)	Square Co., Ltd.
Publisher(s)	Square Co., Ltd.
Release date(s)	^JPN August 6, 1993 ^NA October 3, 1993 ^EUR November 24, 1994
Genre(s)	Role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	OFLC: G
Platform(s)	SNES
Media	16 megabit cartridge

Secret of Mana (聖剣伝説2, Seiken Densetsu 2^?) is the second video game in the Seiken Densetsu series of role-playing games, the first game of the series on the Super NES and the only Seiken Densetsu or Mana game released on this platform outside Japan. Released in 1993 and 1994 by Squaresoft, most players outside Japan were introduced to the series through this particular game.

The main protagonist of Secret of Mana is the knight, who is supported by the spell-casting girl and sprite child. While the three release versions of the game do not have a default name for each of the characters, the Japanese instruction manual refers to the knight, girl and sprite respectively as Randi, Purim and Popoie (or variants thereof). The origin of the heroes' names is somewhat cloudy: they were possibly bestowed by the Japanese Gamest Magazine previewing the game, then followed upon by other magazines and subsequently by Square. Regardless of origin, the gaming community tends to refer to the three protagonists by these names, as does this article.

Rather than use the traditional turn-based battle system of games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, Secret of Mana uses real-time battles akin to the Legend of Zelda series' games, but with the statistical-based elements of the RPG genre and a unique "ring menu" system. In addition, with its brightly colored graphics, expansive plot, and soundtrack by Hiroki Kikuta, the game has been called one of the greatest video games ever made.^[1]

1 Gameplay
- 1.1 Weapons and Spells
- 1.2 Multiplayer
2 Plot and setting
3 Development
4 Reception
- 4.1 Legacy and sequels
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Gameplay

The knight Randi faces off against the game's first boss monster

Generally, Secret of Mana uses a top-down view common with role-playing games of the 16-bit era, with movement governed by the directional pad and the game's other functions by the other buttons (however, the game allows an unusual, if somewhat impractical, upside-down controller configuration). However, unlike its companion turn-based RPGs, Secret of Mana uses a pictorial ring menu system. It is from here that the player can change what weapons the main characters use, cast spells, use items, equip armor, change game settings and control the behavior of the computer-controlled main characters. The ring menu is used again in later Seiken Densetsu games and the spin-off Secret of Evermore.

[edit] Weapons and Spells

Secret of Mana offers the player eight weapon types to choose from, including Randi's initial sword. These include a spear, bow, axe, whip and a javelin. As a default setting, Purim joins the party using the glove and Popoie with the boomerang. Weapons can be upgraded through the use of orbs, generally obtained after the successful completion of a boss battle or found as treasures in dungeons. In order for the upgrade to be performed, the weapons must be taken to Watts the Dwarven Blacksmith, who is a staple of the series. One major annoyance of this system is the apparent absence of two of the weapon orbs, for the axe and the glove respectively - this can be remedied by searching for orbs randomly dropped by specific enemies, but they are very rare. Collecting eight orbs for each weapon in this way allows the player's weapons to reach a secret ultimate level.

Secret of Mana also introduces the elementals concept to the Seiken series. The eight elementals can be found on different locations of the game world, and each has a distinct personality and provides the player with specific spells. Both weapons and magical powers are given a proficiency scale of nine levels (ranging from 0:00 to 8:99), which are raised according to how much the player makes use of them; higher levels allow for more powerful attacks or stronger spells, but each new level takes longer to achieve than the last. Weapons are granted a new, more powerful attack with each level, but with these comes the downside of an increased cumulative charge-up time - the more powerful the attack the player wishes to unleash, the more time he or she will have to spend charging up for the attack and the more vulnerable to enemy attack they are. Even without starting a special attack, the player has to wait momentarily for the character to recover from each attack they make, otherwise they will strike the enemy with minimal damage. Spell animations change approximately every two levels, and once an element reaches above level 8:00, there is a chance that a super-powered version of any spell of that element will be performed when cast. The closer to 9 the element is, the more often the special version will trigger.

[edit] Multiplayer

Secret of Mana can be played simultaneously by one, two or three players. In order to support three players, a Super Multitap accessory must be plugged into the second controller port of the gaming console. Otherwise, the game's artificial intelligence will exercise limited control over the one or two supporting characters. The AI is known for having a notoriously weak path-finding system, which quite often results in supporting characters getting stuck, forcing the player to switch control to them to unlodge them, as an invisible barrier prevents the player from becoming too separated from the other two characters. It is possible to adjust the aggression level of each AI-controlled character, but spell-casting must be performed manually.

[edit] Plot and setting

[edit] Setting

World Map

Like the other Seiken Densetsu games, Secret of Mana's position in the series is cloudy, though other games have given suggestions to it occurring immediately before or after Sword of Mana. The game begins with the words, "Time flows like a river, and history repeats", after recounting the tale of a previous generation of people who abused the power of Mana, the life-giving magical "presence", to create the ultimate weapon known as the Mana Fortress. As the story progresses, one discovers that the blade known as the Mana Sword was used to destroy the Mana Fortress.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Randi, with two friends, is searching for "treasure" in the forbidden woods near his hometown, the village of Potos, when he falls from a bridge across a waterfall. He tries to make his way home, but finds his path blocked by undergrowth. He finds a rusty sword in a pedestal in the middle of a stream and, after being told by a mysterious voice to remove it, he does so and is confronted by a ghostly figure who reveals it was him who asked that the sword was removed. As a result of its leaving the pedestal with a flash of light, unbeknownst to him, monsters begin to roam the land. He comes home, confused by the monsters' appearance, whereupon The Elder of Potos realises that Randi holds none other than the sword which has protected the village from the monsters that now attack it. The attack of the Mantis Ant (which Randi defeats with the assistance of the enigmatic Jema, a knight from Tasnica) is the final straw and the Elder blames the monster invasion on Randi, and subsequently, banishes him from the village. In doing so, he reveals that Randi is an orphan; his mother brought him to Potos and died soon after doing so, while his father was nowhere to be found.

Jema also makes an important discovery: the sword is none other than the Mana Sword, which controls the balance of Mana and thus Randi is charged with its use; but the Sword is weak and must be recharged. He tells Randi to head to the Water Palace, following Jema, to speak with the wise Sage Luka about recharging it, and how an orb he collected from the Mantis Ant can help in doing so. There, on top of this, the sage Luka explains the Sword's history and that a country known only as "The Empire" is seeking to resurrect the Mana Fortress. She further explains that Randi can help counter the Empire's plans by sealing the Mana Seeds housed in the eight Palaces across the world with the Mana Sword. The Seeds themselves come from the Mana Tree, the source of the world's Mana. The other two player characters have ongoing subplots throughout the game.

Purim is trying to save her friend Phanna (Pamela パメラ in Japanese) and her love, the soldier Dyluck (ディラック, Dirakku). She meets Randi after saving him from a band of marauding goblins, but does not leave her name. Later on, she either meets Randi in Pandora Castle, or else is rescued by him (and Popoie) from some werewolves in the Haunted Forest, depending on the player's actions. The people of the Kingdom of Pandora have become zombie-like, so the King charges Dyluck to capture the witch Elinee and to get her to bring the townspeople back to normal. However, Purim has a bad feeling about this and pursues Dyluck, who is captured by Elinee. Once the three main characters arrive, Elinee sends Dyluck to her employer, a mysterious figure known as Thanatos, who is mind-controlling the townspeople from some ruins south of Pandora, so as to build an army to storm the castle and bring down the Kingdom. Phanna is also captured by him and, after he is confronted by the main characters, Thanatos retreats from Pandora to some ruins near Northtown, in the Empire. After some time the characters catch up with Thanatos again, whereupon he releases Phanna but makes another hasty retreat with Dyluck; both are not heard from again until the final stages of the game. Purim's role in the game is mainly the use of support magic, although she also has some destructive spells.

Popoie's gender remains undetermined due to references in the game's script of "he" and "it," but the Japanese version implies that Popoie is indeed male. Popoie is suffering from the separation from and loss of "its" family, and from the effects of changes in Mana. A flood swept it downstream to the Dwarf Village; in the course of the flood, it begins to suffer from amnesia. The sprite then begins to work in a carnival the Dwarf Elder sets up, but once Randi discovers that the Elder and Popoie have conned him into giving money, he apologises and to make amends, the Elder suggests that Popoie travels with Randi to the Underground Palace, where its memories can be restored. After coming into contact with the Mana Seed there, Popoie remembers it came from a village in the Great Forest in the Upper Land. After travelling there, though, Popoie discovers a monster has killed his family and friends save his grandfather, the keeper of the Wind Palace. Popoie's role is predominantly that of the aggressive, destructive spell-caster.

After Randi meets with the other characters subsequent to his banishment, the rest of Secret of Mana's plot is then a quest to seal the Mana Seeds and to try to thwart The Empire's plans, which are enacted by Sheex, Geshtar, Fanha (ファウナッハ, Faunahha) and Thanatos on behalf of the Emperor Vandole (though this is only in appearance). The storyline itself past the initial Water Palace visit has limited variability, notably in the order of collecting the other two playable characters and also in the order in which some Palaces and locations (Kakkara and the Ice Country) can be accessed. This is a precursor to the storyline variability particularly found in Seiken Densetsu 3 and the great liberties of Legend of Mana.

After sealing seven of the eight seeds, defeating Geshtar in The Empire, desposing of the impostor King of Tasnica (タスマニカ, Tasumanika) (played by Sheex) and becoming strong through the help of the Sage Joch, Randi and his friends travel to the Sunken Continent, the only part of which above the waves is the Grand Palace. There, it is found that the Seeds have been unsealed and The Empire is ready to resurrect the Mana Fortress. The Continent is raised through the powers of the unsealed Seeds and the party defeats Sheex and Fanha at last on their way to confronting Vandole. However, upon reaching him, they discover he has been killed by Thanatos, who is the true evil mastermind. He resurrects the Mana Fortress, which had been sleeping under the sunken continent.

With the Seeds unsealed, the only way the Mana Sword can keep its power is if it is brought to the Mana Tree itself. Once they travel through the arduous Mana Holyland, the party comes into sight of the Mana Tree when Thanatos appears overhead and fires the Fortress down upon the Tree. In the aftermath, the weakened Mana Tree reveals that the ghostly figure who prompted Randi to take the Sword was his father, and that the Mana Tree is his mother.

They then leave to avenge Thanatos' attack and make their way into the Mana Fortress. There, Thanatos' body is weakened by all the magic he had cast, and thus he possesses Dyluck's body, who dies shortly after giving his farewell to Purim. The three then defeat Thanatos's true form, a fearsome specter known as the Dark Lich. After doing so, a dragon-like creature known as the Mana Beast comes to destroy the Fortress, and then the world to prevent further abuses of the power of Mana. Popoie reveals that by slaying the Mana Beast, it will not be able to survive any longer in Randi and Purim's world, but should Randi not defeat it, then the sprite's spiritual world will be destroyed as well. Randi slays the Mana Beast, and the world(s) are saved.

[edit] Characters

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[edit] Development

[edit] SNES Disc Drive

Secret of Mana was originally going to be a launch title for the SNES CD add-on. After the project was dropped, the game had to be altered to fit onto a standard game cartridge. The game received a graphical downgrade and as much as 40% of the original content was removed.^[2]

[edit] Graphics

Flammie flying - demonstrating Mode 7

The first Seiken Densetsu in color (as compared with its Game Boy-based prequel), Secret of Mana uses a rich and vibrant palette in which the characters are seen to be part of the environment, rather than just riding on top. Also notable is that, through its information and settings screens, Secret of Mana uses a 512x224 pixel high resolution mode (one of a handful of Super Nintendo games to do so) so that a smaller text font could be used. However, the smaller size of the text and the lack of contrast between the white text and the moving light green background can make the information hard to read - likewise the lack of clear distinction between the characters and the background (as compared with The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past) can be troublesome for some players.

Another clever use of graphics comes while flying Flammie, the game's main means of transportation. Secret of Mana makes use of the Super Nintendo's Mode 7 capability to create a largely scaled and rotatable background, giving the illusion that the ground below Flammie is rendered in three dimensions. However, this is only viewable after Flammie ascends to a certain height (the automatic default), and not if the player decides to fly with a top-down view.

The English translation of Secret of Mana uses a fixed-width font to display text on the main gameplay screen. However, the choice of this font limits the amount of space available to display text in, and as a result conversations are trimmed to their bare essentials, leaving a good portion of the game lost in translation. An unofficial patch that adds a variable-width font and expands the game's dialogue can be downloaded from here. It must be applied to a ROM image of the North American version of the game.

[edit] Musical score

The game's soundtrack was composed by Hiroki Kikuta, and is perhaps his most famous work. It is known for its variety of tunes which tend to focus on the use of percussion and woodwind instruments, ranging from a lighthearted dwarves' polka to a somber, wistful snow melody to a tribal-like dance. Kikuta also incorporated elements of Balinese music into the score, which include gamelan (metallic, pitched percussion) and kecak (a percussive, extremely fast vocal technique). The most notable section of Balinese style music is heard while fighting the Dark Lich. Secret of Mana's title theme, 天使の怖れ/Tenshi no Ojire (often translated as Angels' Fear) is well known by video game music aficionados for its haunting, echoing piano melody, and was featured in the third Orchestral Game Concert^[3] as well as serving as the base for many remixes. Parts of the game's soundtrack were incorporated into the Seiken Densetsu 2 Shiikuretto obu Mana/Secret of Mana+ compilation arrangement CD.

[edit] Development Notes

On the day Seiken Densetsu 2 was supposed to master, the team decided to watch the ending of the game to celebrate. The game froze. Disheartened, the team continued development. ^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Reception

Secret of Mana was listed at number 86 on Nintendo Power magazine's Top 200 Nintendo Games Ever. It was also rated number 48 on the "IGN's Top 100 Games" in 2005. ^[1]

[edit] Legacy and sequels

Secret of Mana developed a large fanbase, so much so that since Secret of Mana, Square Enix has decided to launch several new games in the series on multiple platforms, along with the possibility of novelizations, films, and manga products being created.