Secret of Mana

Game won't stop crashing on the first boss. When I first played it like 10 years ago it worked, but now it doesn't

マナの神殿　メガゾーン戦後にフラミーで脱出の際の暗転 リトライごとに神殿脱出から暗転までの時間に差異があったのでいろいろ試した結果、メガゾーン撃破後種子の共鳴をする前に神殿内と神殿野外で歩き回った時間分暗転までの時間が延長されているようだったのでメガゾーン撃破後マナの種子の部屋に入ってから出て各フロアを数分歩き回ってから種子共鳴したら暗転までの時間が延長されフラミーで移動が可能になった。暗転する前に近くの町へおりたら大丈夫でした。 同じ症状の方試してみてください。

If you played this game as a kid like I did and it imprinted it's fantastic, unique and ethereal music and colorful world on your mind, you were probably at least somewhat interested in this game when it was announced some years ago. The lukewarm reception upon release gave me pause to at least wait for a while and lo and behold when it came up for sale I decided to take the plunge. I was expecting the worst based on the few videos that I saw, but actually, I was pleasantly surprised ... for the most part. Adopting the original music and graphical style I would say would be a tall task. Both were so beloved, so tinkering with them too much would surely draw the ire of fans. I can safely say both music and visuals were done with careful craftsmanship. Small details on character models gave new life to the characters, and some of the designs which caused me confusion as a youngin (the Pandora soldiers for one) make a lot more sense in the third dimension. I would say that the rendered CG scenes had the strange decision to not animate mouth movements. Like really, would that have been too much to ask? The music has been remixed and remastered. Some tracks have some additions like choral backing tracks. I enjoyed most of them, though occasionally I felt a longing to switch back the SNES tracks for some areas (which is an option in game). Yet that feeling went away over time. Voice acting originally felt unwelcomed, but actually I started really to enjoy it as the game went on. Every single line of dialogue is voice acted. The three cast members are especially good in the JP version, with Popoi's VA as a standout. There are a few additions to this game over the original - a (bare bones) bestiary and a welcome guide as to where your next objective is as they have not improved the confusing in-game guidance, but the best is the conversations your party will have at inns. These cutscenes flesh out the characters, their relationships, and world build all at the same time. Especially for a player of the NA release of Secret of Mana, the story felt stilted and confused with the double-sized text and translation issues. With a proper translation and these extra scenes, the story and world feel much fuller. Now onto the most baffling choice made, and something that despite recommending this game on Steam I would understand if you did NOT play because of this. It seems to me like much of the original game's code was ported over to this version for combat (and for a few other things like character placement - why is so awkward when talking to a shopkeeper and everyone has to stand in the right spot? Why did they have to include that?!). That may not be a factually true statement, but bizarrely, it was at least made to feel like the original combat engine from the 90's game. The blend of free movement and the "%" based action gauge is a unique combination, which I do like, and found as an adult playing the game to be pretty cool. But the charging system for weapon attacks, especially for advanced attacks is so tedious in this day and age. Lumbering around hamstrung trying to unleash a special attack (for it to inevitably miss, or your charge be interrupted, while you cannot spellcast on single player) is boring and slow, and it's a shame because each weapon has such cool moves hidden behind this sluggish mechanic. There's a dozen more examples of this - stuff which was not good in the original game and got ported over to this remake to it's detriment, IMO. I would have appreciated a more agile and less musty combat system to go with my remake. That dovetails into an overall questioning of why the developers didn't either clean up the existing game, or maybe add a few more zones/modes/etc. That could have proved controversial to the fans, I don't know - but this is a full 3D remake. I would have probably appreciated some rebalanced spells and bosses, a few more zones to go through, etc. The base Secret of Mana game is pretty short, and there was a good opportunity here to extend the game and world a bit which went unanswered. Finally we have to address the Square Enix PC game issues. For non-AAA titles it seems they are willing to overlook some pretty big issues. This game has strange issues with frame rates and full-screen combinations causing really buggy issues (like not being able to open Watts' door, for example). The game crashed and black screened for me a few times - this is rendered moot mostly by autosaves, but still. Annoying. There are various other bugs and issues that don't belong in a remake of a beloved title like this, but this is where we are since these games get abandoned rather quickly after release. I found myself enjoying not just the nostalgia hit from this game but the beautiful graphics and music, along with the cutscenes. If you were fan like me, or just wanting to see what a classic Square game from the 90's would look like today, this (probably) won't disappoint.