Long ago, people harnessed the power of mana for varied purposes. In their infinite wisdom, these humans created the ultimate weapon to satisfy their lust for power: the Mana Fortress. This fortress almost destroyed the world, but one man sealed away its power with the might of the Mana Sword. Centuries later, mana has mostly disappeared from the world, and the threat of the Mana Fortress is about to resurface. Can the world be revived, or mana disappear forever from the world?

For someone playing Secret of Mana in the present day, the story within it will not entertain much, as it contains many cliché elements and characters, such as the spunky heroine and the hero destined to save the world. This would matter less in the era of its release, as it would seem somewhat fresh. The game contains a plot twist towards the end of the game, but the story overall does not add much enjoyment to the game.

Since Secret of Mana is an Action/Adventure game, it lets you fight monsters in real time while letting you explore diverse environments. It does differ, however, in its combat system from other A/A games. When your character attacks, he or she will be unable to inflict full damage for a few seconds. While this might have seemed somewhat annoying, I thought that it added some tactics to the game, as it penalized you for button mashing.

Speaking of weapons, each of your characters is more proficient in certain types than others, and it also seems that certain enemies take damage only from certain weapons. These weapons include spears, whips, bows, gloves, and swords. As you use you weapons more, you will gain access to special moves, which you can charge up to inflict more damage upon enemies. Two of your characters can also use magic, which grows in strength as they cast it. I thought the magic in this game was more useful than in other ones, as you can only have 4 curative items of one type, and it also helps with some bosses that are hard to kill with weapons alone.

What good would combat be without challenging enemies? Well, Secret of Mana pretty much has enemies to keep you hooked to the combat. Usually, the enemies will attack your characters at will, opting to attack the character in their immediate vicinity. Some of the bosses are interesting as well, as one tries to force your characters onto spikes at the edge of the room, while another requires you to imbue your weapon with a certain spell in order to damage the boss.

Challenge in the game, however, is somewhat strange. The first third of the game has some challenging enemies and bosses, but the challenge drops off when you receive healing magic. It does not become challenging again until the second-to-last area of the game, as the enemies hit hard and can easily kill your party. This gap took from the game a little bit, but the challenge mostly enticed me to play further into the game.

Dungeons are another matter completely, as they are somewhat hit and miss. Some of these places actually add to the combat, as they prevent you from directly attacking enemies. Secret of Mana contains traps and puzzles like other A/A games, but the amount is quite small compared to other, similar games. One of the prevalent “puzzles” is trying to figure out which magic to use on a crystal ball in order to advance, while another makes you walkthrough a forest a certain way in order to reach the next area. Probably the most prominent trap is the spikes that the aforementioned boss tries to force you upon. Like I said, the dungeons do not entirely get the job done.

Secret of Mana shows that old games can still be fun in this age of high technology. The combat mostly makes up for the slightly boring dungeons, even if the challenge is somewhat unbalanced. No Action/Adventure game should be without this game, so get it if you find it.