Secret of Mana

tl;dr: The original base game is great. This remake is *okay,* but it is far too flawed to be worth the 40 bucks they're charging for it. Only buy this if it's on sale, but if it is on sale for a price that you find agreeable, by all means snatch it up if you are a fan of the original (or even just the genre).
I first played the original Secret of Mana in like 1995 or something when I was but a young lad. It's a very very solid 16-bit era action RPG, and it is widely regarded as one of the great classics of that era; Secret of Mana has been one of those games that I re-play once every couple of years for the last three decades. Thus, imagine my surprise and excitement upon learning of this remake of one of my all-time childhood favorites.
So, naturally, I bought this game, and I played through it. My feelings about this remake are... Mixed. Do I like it? Yes. But while it does many things right, it also has so, so, so many flaws. Fortunately, many of the flaws lay in the details, rather than in the meat of the game itself.
I'll start off with the most important part gameplay. The gameplay is good! It plays well with a controller, which is, in my opinion, really the best way to enjoy these kinds of games. The updates to the feel of gameplay are very minor, so it still mostly feels like the old classic--movement and combat are no longer limited to strictly orthogonal and diagonal axes, which seems like a minor detail, but does kind of make things overall feel a bit more fresh and updated (compared to the original). I do think it feels just a bit easier than the original game for some reason, which is saying something, because Secret of Mana was never a difficult game at all. I'm not sure exactly why it feels a bit easier, but the slight reduction in challenge does not really make the game any less fun; I'm giving Squenix a pass on that one. I do like a challenge in my games, but they don't always need to be ball-breakers either. Sometimes it's nice to just kind of breeze through something and have a more relaxing experience.
One thing I've seen in the reviews here is a few comments about bugs. Personally, I didn't really have a problem with bugs. The game did crash like once or twice on me during my play-through, but it was quick enough to just restart, load the last save, and pick back up where I left off. I think there was a patch early on that fixed a lot of the bugs, so I may have just missed them. Of course, your mileage will vary based on hardware, such is the nature of the beast in PC gaming.
Now... The graphics. Ooh boy, the graphics. I will say they got the art style right. The colors, the character design, it all comes together quite nicely and works very well as a refresh of the original game. However, the graphical fidelity seemed out-of-date even for the time that this remake came out. Now mind you, I started gaming in the NES era and I'm still quite fond of that style, I'm really not one to be super concerned about top-of-the-line graphics or anything; hell, a lot of the games I play are quite low-rez, and I still go back and play a lot of old classics and I very much appreciate the style of classic games, and I do love a good low-fidelity graphical style when done right. But this isn't really what I expect from an industry powerhouse like Squenix, especially when they're asking for $40 for the game. I'm not expecting a visual masterpiece or anything, but I really do feel like they could have just done a bit more here, the visuals, while not horrible, just really have an unpolished feel to them, which is a real shame. It just feels like they didn't quite give it the love it really deserved and the visuals were an afterthought; they did one of their classics dirty, which is a bad look for the company. It's a $40 game with $20 visuals (and I'm being really generous there).
And finally... The sound. We'll start with the good parts! All dialog is updated from the original. I do think the writing tweaks actually work quite well, and based on my understanding, the writing is brought a little closer to the original script. Also, all lines are voice-acted. Is the voice acting amazing? No! In fact, it's a little corny at times! But that's fine, it doesn't need to be a masterpiece; the voice acting is perfectly cromulent, and a welcome addition to the game that adds a little bit more personality. Every single line is voice acted, and you can tell the voice actors are, in fact, professionals.
They did add some extra content in the form of additional dialog. Most of this triggers when you use an inn to restore your characters. And by "some extra content," I do mean *quite a bit, actually.* It's a little cheesy at times, but that's fine, and there really is quite a lot of new dialog. It's fun, it helps flesh out the characters a bit more, and I enjoyed it.
The sound effects are all fine, nothing really major to talk about there, they sure are sound effects and get the job done. No complaints there.
And... The soundtrack. The music. The thing that can add ambiance and soul to the gaming experience. You have the option of choosing between the original SNES soundtrack or a new updated soundtrack. The original SNES soundtrack was quite good for its time and and the technology that supported it. It still has a huge following and if you go on YouTube and search for it, there are a ton of videos of people covering the Secret of Mana soundtrack with real instruments, and some of them are just fucking awesome. Like, really, awesome. And, unfortunately, the game also includes a "new" "improved" "updated" soundtrack... And it sucks. Like it REALLY sucks. They did actually manage to nail a few of the tracks, but most of them are just... No. So bad. They tried to modernize it too much and it completely escapes the original feel of the classic soundtrack. They really should have just gone with a classic orchestral rendition of the soundtrack rather than absolute shit show they served up. They fucked up the soundtrack so badly that it really felt like a punch to the gut.
So, overall... Is this worth getting and playing? Yes, I think so, very much. This is a decent remake of the classic which breathes a little bit of new life into the title and provides some much-appreciated updates to appease modern gamers. But is it worth $40? Is it worth a whole forty USA freedom bucks? Is it worth forty of your hard-earned smackeroos? No, pardner, absolutely not. Too many corners were cut, too many details were overlooked, too many bits were just a little too flawed. Do get this game, absolutely, but only get it when it goes on sale, it is not worth the full listed price. It was not worth the full listed price when this remake released, and it *sure as hell* isn't worth it now.

For both good and for bad, it's a faithful recreation of the original game.

Combat clunk and all.

Everything else is either an upgrade (Animations on enemies mean less sudden cheap shots, UI is far more readable than SNES), an option (The remake OST is hit and miss, SNES version always available to swap) or a genuine appreciated effort. (There are now hotbar assignments, literally every single NPC is differently voiced.)

If you liked the SNES, here's a decent remaster. If you're new, the clunky combat engine can be difficult to put up with.

In the dwarf village, after the show - the blacksmith door still wont open. You need to dash against it. Seems to be a year old bug. Maybe this one helps a few people.

I played and loved the original on the SNES and played through it several times and was looking forward to the remake. I had a lot of fun with the remake despite some minor flaws, but the nostalgia was very intense.
the same story, locations, weapons, level maps as in the original: This means that the game has not been artificially stretched at any point.##no quality-of-life features, like in the original: This means a lot of running back and forth, especially at the beginning (until you get the dragon, then you'll be flying back and forth a lot, which actually becomes a bit idle, especially with the Sage Lunar). One might think that the game has a “fast travel” function in the form of the cannons. In reality it is a level change. The remake has been given a minimap that consists of the bitmap overview of the original. Nostalgia bonus.
The graphics have been completely redesigned in 3D, which I think is very aesthetic and appropriate. But it could have been a little nicer, especially the camera in some places, it can happen because of the angle of view that you can't see the opponents
Original combat system: And if you don't know this from the original, you'll probably shake your head, because the ARPG title uses a combat system that's more reminiscent of turn-based games. Attacks have to recharge, the probability of a "miss" is extremely high. Enemies only accept a single hit at a time, and the follow-up hit (if) occurs after a short knockout animation. Spells activate very late, but if, for example, a healing spell kills the player while casting it, they will be revived afterwards. Admittedly, no title today is so confusing and confusing. Anyone who knows it from before can look forward to a slower pace of fighting with time for reflection. This still makes the fights unnecessarily long.
Save Points: There's a real change here - the automatic save. You just don't know when it will trigger. Because the save points in the game are very (!) far apart, you can't save everywhere, but (usually) only in cities. That used to mean: Died? Then all over again. That could have been two hours ago. Today it means: Died? Damn, do I have to replay everything? Oh no, the automatic save was triggered. Half an hour ago. Anyway.
The "love for the original" makes the game just as good as the original, but not really better. A clear recommendation for me.
Secret of Mana is Pure Love
The Opening is Love

its fun, now that its been a few years since the remake came out all bugs are fixed. you can enjoy an old school rpg adventure

7/10

Still decent, though not a "true" port. Some of the Art is just painful.
The main chars i think are pretty good, but the Lullabud looses all its value... it was identical to the normal flowers and thus could "blend in". now it sticks out like a sore thumb.

otherwise, i feel like its easier.

the biggest downsides? they did not fix / TLC the important grind stuff.
You still need 4k kills for weapon mastery and you still need 4k casts for magic mastery.
you still dont have indexes for the tree armor pieces, even though you have "get all x armor" achievements.
AND they still not have fixed the menu bugs (switch direction, unavailability of the menu if ANY action is occuring).

I’ll start this review by saying I only played about an hour of the Original SNES game and I didn’t see any huge differences so I went forward with the remake preferring the improved graphics and voice acting.
I find the art direction to be a strange choice, the not moving mouths while characters are talking. But it didn’t take away from the experience. The combat is a bit bland and I only died like 3 times in my 28 hours of play.
The story is minimal but hits deeper than I expected toward the end. Overall I think this is a good game with some choices made in the art and story direction that I simply do not understand. I will say though that the character interactions at the inns made this game worth playing. Very charming.