Secret of Mana

[Taisen]

The two things I hate the most are it feels like you are dragging along the other members in your party, and getting in the right spot to use the flail for crossing a pit. That last problem was non-existant in Final Fantasy Adventure.

Do you feel that FFA wasn't as cutesy as the rest of the mana series? Did you use the sprite's magic against almost all the bosses as soon as you got it?

[Bgnome]

getting in the right spot is easy. just move around until everybody just groups together. and ive always found that the balance between the 3 characters was pretty good and makes the multiplayer aspect more fun

[Kane]

The boy was really powerful, which was helpful when the bosses were resistant to magic.

[Taisen]

I found it too hard to hit the damn creatures with the weapons and then the charging up after missing was quite annoying until much later on.

[Bgnome]

thats why you knock em down and then time it right so they never get back up :p

[Kane]

You have the sprite and the girl pin them with a couple of spells, then hit em while they is down.

[Taisen]

thats why you knock em down and then time it right so they never get back up
Back then it seemed easier to do that for the little guys. I was usually too afraid to do that for anything bigger.


I am not looking for winning strategies. I have been done with this game for awhile. I thought this was the right place to post any type of game comment.

[Kane]

Well, I haven't got round to playing FFA yet, so I couldn't yet comment on that.

[Taisen]

Maybe it was only the missing pastels that made FFA seem less cutesy than Secret of Mana.

[The Vagrant]

SD3 was the best of the series anyways...

[Ninjaa]

I always liked the second one better. I am probably the only one though. I prefer a more linear storyline.

[Exodus]

so you probably wouldn't like Baldur's Gate much then. :D

[Ryos]

Originally posted by Ninja
I always liked the second one better. I am probably the only one though. I prefer a more linear storyline. I also liked SD 2 the most, although I also think SD is better than SD 3 (especially if you consider the limitations of the hardware for the original). SD 3 is technically the best game from a gameplay perspective, but that isn't a particularly important point in RPGs.

[Auri87]

SD3 was one of my favorite snes games, particually because there were so many characters to choose from

[Demigod]

Originally posted by Ryos
I also liked SD 2 the most, although I also think SD is better than SD 3 (especially if you consider the limitations of the hardware for the original). SD 3 is technically the best game from a gameplay perspective, but that isn't a particularly important point in RPGs.
On the contraty, I didn't really like the battle system in SD3. The characters felt somewhat stiff and didn't always act the way you wanted them to. The attacks and hit effects weren't always in sync so it always felt kinda "loose", if you know what I mean.

I thought SD3 had a very unique plot design. I like how it's linear up to the mana holyland whereupon it splits into one of three scenarios, depending on the character. I've yet to face the dark priest and I'm considering playing it again so I can fully complete the game. There are so many different character classes so the replay value is pretty big.

[fivefeet8]

ahh.. Secret of Mana.. I must've played that game through like 10 times.. I played it through once on Zsnes.. The strange thing about SOM is that you can play through as many times as you want, but you mostly end up with a different amount of weapon upgrades.. I once had a level 10 whip by the end of the game.. :)

[Exodus]

i probably played SoM about 0.05 times... :D ... :(

[Kane]

I much preffered the original to number 2 (SoM labeling). 2 was good, but I agree with our resident demigod; the battle system didn't feel as fast as the original, and that really lowered it's potential.

[RhombusYSS]

By the end of SOM you're SUPPOSED to have only Level 8 on every weapon. Sometimes however weird stuff happens, like enemies drop weapon orbs, or there are enumeration errors (happens on the console, not just emulators). Yeah, for example I had a level 10 sword and a bunch of level 9 stuff, next time through I only had regular level 8 stuff. Haha, and it drove me crazy, cause I kept on thinking I had missed secrets that I found the first time through.

[Lyrai]

Originally posted by RhombusYSS
By the end of SOM you're SUPPOSED to have only Level 8 on every weapon. Sometimes however weird stuff happens, like enemies drop weapon orbs, or there are enumeration errors (happens on the console, not just emulators). Yeah, for example I had a level 10 sword and a bunch of level 9 stuff, next time through I only had regular level 8 stuff. Haha, and it drove me crazy, cause I kept on thinking I had missed secrets that I found the first time through.

You did miss secrets. There are level nine orbs for every weapon except the orb (unless you exploit a glich, but lets not go into that)You have to kill enough of a certain enemy in the mana fortress:

Spear orb: Tsunami (The blue goop things that multiply)
Axe orb: Fiend Head (Floating yellow head)
Whip orb: Terminators (Gold knights)
Boomerang orb: Master Ninja (Black ninja)
Glove orb: Wolf Lord (Upright light blue wolf)
Bow orb: Metal Crab
Javelin: Whimper (A floating eye, I think)

The best armors are also won from enemies. go here: http://mmxz.zophar.net/rpg/mana/som.html

FFA put me to sleep every time I played it
SoM 2 ruled, and SD3 was pretty good

I have a question for anybody who has Level 8 spells. I noticed when I hit level 7 for the elemental, I started getting diffrent animations for the spells (Fire Dragons instead of Fire Balls) Has anyone ever casted Evil Gate (Shade) and got a bunch of Shadow Zeros running across the screen instead of the swirling gates? No one I've talked to has seen this. I'm starting to think I was dreaming.
Oh yeah. THE SPRITE RULES!!