Now anyone who knows me knows that I have serious commitment issues when it comes to replaying my favorite games. What seems like a great idea in the beginning becomes dull and arduous later on, picking up old titles only to drop them hours later when my ever growing sense of impatience takes hold.
But this time that didn't happen.
I have not been as pleasantly surprised by and old favorite as I was when I ran through Secret of Mana this past week (Seiken Densetsu 2 in Japan). For a game that launched in 1992 (only recently re-released on the virtual console), almost everything about it was fresher then some of the more recent RPGs I've enjoyed.
Now fortunately for me, I got out my frustration with all of the game's shortcomings long ago, returning to the second Mana installment with a new found sense of appreciation for the title's glaring mistakes. The NPCs are, for all intensive purposes, less helpful then toad stool and the story's translation is at points incomprehensible.
And yet the interface for switching between party members is seamless. One button switches the player's control instantly if the girl or sprite get caught running into walls while another allows you to directly access their action menus (for magic, items, etc.).
As for the story, while I'm sure there's loads of background and mythology I missed out on, the basic plot is there and character motivations are made clear enough. Converted for release in the states in approximately a month, most of the story's fat was cut one the way, over leaving only the meat and bones and driving some gamers crazy. However, in an age of RPG cliches (emo protagonists, evil empires, and disguised princesses) I was more than happy to be told only the bare necessities involved in my quest. As RPGs become cinematic and story driven it was refreshing to play through Secret of Mana without those aspects of the game belabored.
Instead of fifteen minute dialogue exchanges with embarrassing voice acting, a bugged out cannon operator blasts you from one adventure to the next for 150 GP. Less than 15 seconds of text and you're off exploring the next area, getting more magic and battling new monsters (Note: the American translation is notoriously nonsensical, but in some ways this adds to the wonderment of the story).
Due to the genius of Square producer Hiromichi Tanaka and programmer Nasir Gebelli, Secret of Mana sports a streamlined battle system and creates the rich world that later Mana titles have built on. I lavishly applauded FFXII's fluid battle mechanics at the time of it's release, sick and tired of changing between screens and awkward menus in battles past. But Mana accomplished this more than 15 years prior.
Granted, Mana is a homogeneous real-time action RPG, free from many of the burdens of traditional turn based games. But still I wonder how developers could have gotten gameplay so right a decade and a half ago while present teams botch one title after another.
The Mana series itself serves as the quintessential example of this, having progressed from its ground breaking roots to the present misguided incarnations.
Everything from the art style and character design to the gameplay and music fit together to give players something simple but still engrossing. With balanced combat, magic spells can save lives and change the course of a boss fight but a powered up sword combo still packs a punch. And what the game lacks in character and inventory depth it makes up for with its intuitive and natural fighting mechanic. Even the "lost in translation" quality of the story ends up adding a bit of mystery and the sense of a vast explorable world outside of the linear plot line.
In other words: clear up some time on the calender, turn away from the tsunami of subpar JPRGs for a second, and get back in touch with your roots.