Secret of Mana (PS Vita) Review

Those unlucky enough to have not experienced the original can prepare for a top-down adventure RPG in the same vein as Zelda, although with some significant differences. Secret of Mana told the story of a cliché young boy named Randi pulling a sword from a tree and… unleashing evil upon the world. He then embarks on a quest to give power back to the blade while being pursued by an evil empire ruled by a secret ancient force. Along the way, Randi recruits Primm, an Elfish girl who acts as the healer to the team, and Popoi, a Dwarfish caster who acts as the group's mage.

Square Enix is somewhat notorious for taking any chance it can to make an extra couple of quid; always happy to re-release its fan-favourite games on generation after generation of consoles and handhelds. Fans of this Zelda-like action RPG, though, hoped for a little more with this remaster. The original was well-loved with good reason, but anyone who has revisited it can attest to the flaws that are evident throughout. A remaster is a chance to revisit these flaws, to address them, to make something good great, and to make something great fantastic. Sadly, that's not what this remaster does.

The most obvious and significant change here is obvious from starting up the game. The classic, rich, 2D sprites are long gone. In their place is a 3D overhaul. This is, in itself, not necessarily a bad thing, but the presentation here is not good. The animations of the models look stunted and during combat the hit-boxes can regularly feel off. Worst of all, they all feel hollow, floating through the world instead of feeling part of it. Ultimately, it all just looks… wrong… and so much less than the original.

Another big change in this version is the inclusion of voice acting, and true to the generation it comes from, this game has some comically bad performances. Also on the audio front, this release includes both the original soundtrack and a brand new remastered version. That original soundtrack is absolutely superb. It was then and it is now. The remaster is horrendous. The less said about this absolute butchering of a musical piece of art, the better.

Then there's the combat. In the original, there was a system called the "Ring Command," a menu that would pop-up in the middle of the screen upon a button press, where the gameplay would freeze and give the player a chance to pick a spell or ability. Improvements in this new version move the ring to hover above the player it is for and also stores the last used ability in memory to allow for spamming of heals or effective combat abilities. Oh… wait... that's the opposite. Those "improvements" were part of the original and inexplicably this remaster completely does away with them! The Ring Command forgets the last used ability, making every combat experience more clunky and choppy.

One of the big innovations of Secret of Mana was the inclusion of multiplayer. Two-player and even three-player drop-in and drop-out sessions were available on the SNES thanks to the Super Multi-tap. Again, it's a bit harder here. Those options still exist, but it means a separate PlayStation Vita and copy of the game for each person who wants to play.