Secret of Mana (2018)

I feel like I'm basically alone in this sentiment, but I thought this remake was great. It looked how I wanted, was a fun, nostalgic play through, and I honestly couldn't have asked for more. People complain about the music, but I didn't mind it. It was like playing to a remix album with several contributors. And if folks don't like it, the original soundtrack is right there for you.

I ran into two small issues when playing - crashes, which were annoying, but I remember being patched pretty quickly (and at least autosave was there); I'm not totally sure if this is the culprit, but I played the entire game with two friends, and some of the camera angles for boss fights were not ideal.

Otherwise, I found this an enjoyable, upgraded trip down memory lane, clunky ring menus and all.

In the latest line of disappointments from SE, Secret of Mana does not disappoint. Their cash grab for the memories of our childhoods is really beginning to smart. It makes being an SE fanboi really hard lately.

I digress

The game is a faithful remake of the classic we enjoyed and loved. Right down to its infuriating bugs and odd combat mechanics that, while endearing in 1995, are less so in 2018.

I started the game super excited and planned on getting all the achievements, but several hours in I realized I just wanted to play the story and beat it, cheevos be damned.

Combat is relatively straight forward, hack and slash. The enemy damage 'cool-down' is still in place and feels horribly outdated. I'd have liked to have seen the charge mechanic be a little faster as well. Leveling up your weapons is all well and good, but taking a minute and a half to charge to lvl 8 means that ability never gets used in practice.

Still, it scratched that itch I wanted scratched, but I think the SE team could have given us a little more for a money - perhaps some cut scenes or other story devices to enhance the story experience.