The Secret of Mana remake is launching in mere hours. You’ll notice reviews are starting to pop up, but ours isn’t ready yet. I’ve played a large chunk of the remake, but feel I need more time to assess how it measures up to the original and what it offers modern gamers. I adore Secret of Mana, but this remake has me conflicted over the design decisions.
The colorful world and music still are alluring, but the voice acting leaves much to be desired, often making scenes feel unnatural. I would recommend playing without the voice acting. The A.I. has also been a problem for me, as I’ve had to babysit them constantly and even watched them run into walls on a few occasions. I’ve also had some technical stutters interrupt the action. I’m planning to play more co-op to see if that eases some of my frustrations, but you should always be able to play alone without the A.I. becoming an obstacle. I’m also taking time to go back to the original to see just how directly it's ported.
Some positive changes include being able to assign shortcuts for items, weapons, and magic. It cuts down some of the menu heavy elements of the game, although you still go into them quite a bit. I still love what the world offers, from imaginative baddies to huge bosses that are satisfying to take down. It’s been an interesting trip down memory lane. Secret of Mana is my favorite game of all time, but so far this remake doesn’t appear to make it better, and in some areas, makes it worse.
Stay tuned for our full review coming in the next few days.
In the meantime, you can check out our New Gameplay Today to see the game in action.