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I really, really like the Super Nintendo. Despite it being around a decade older than I am, it really sticks with me. I think part of it is that I really like pixel art. 32-bit pixel art and modern pixel art are obviously more detailed, and I love the look of those, but 16-bit pixel art can be just as beautiful with the right artist behind them. I bring this up because I recently beat Secret of Mana. Secret of Mana has some of my favorite pixel art on the SNES, and I feel like I'll always remember it for that. Square really knew what they were doing back then in the art department.
I've been making my way through different RPG series in release order, and lately I've been making my way through the mana series. Mana is an action rpg franchise that started off as a kind of Final Fantasy spinoff. It's also known as Seiken Densetsu in Japan. While people say that it only started as a spinoff in title only, I disagree because moogles are in Secret of Mana lol.
It was an interesting playthrough mainly because the game actually started off being super hard but got easier as the game went on. This is mostly because the magic system is kinda broken lmao. Most bosses could be easily taken care of just by spamming magic spells at them. Before I got magic though, THE GAME WAS SO HARD. I felt like I kept getting stunlocked when enemies would hit me if I wasn't careful, resulting in a whole lot of game overs... The game before magic was just so demoralizing. I felt like I had to grind between every boss so much... And then I got magic and the game was an absolute cakewalk lol. It kinda reminded me of Kid Icarus in that way.
Anyways, wow the pixel art and music was fucking fantastic. The presentation, aside from the UI and textboxes, were some of the best I've ever seen on the SNES. I say the UI could be better mostly because the menu system was rather confusing at times and it was pretty hard to navigate the ring system. The text boxes as well proved to be rather hard to read. Granted, I'm sure that they would've been much easier to read on a CRT, but regardless I wish I could've changed it. The texture behind the text was partially see-through and had a moving texture. Made it so hard to read :(
Here's some screenshots of the pixel art though! I didn't take them myself, I found them on Fantasyanime.com. You should check them out if you like SNES RPGs, they're a very good resource for that kind of thing!
The story wasn't necessarily the best, but I don't think it was trying to be. It was just fine lol. Honestly the gameplay and visuals made up for that. Even though the beginning was rather slow, I really really ended up enjoying Secret of Mana. I think I'd put it in my top 20 SNES games. I think it's worth playing, even today.
Next game in the franchise didn't come out in America until recently, but I plan on playing a fan translation of seiken densetsu 3. Not for a while though. I think I should really finish Oracle of Ages before I tackle another action RPG or else my friends that really want me to play windwaker are kinda gonna get upset at me lamo. I don't think my next game will be an RPG though. I still dunno what game I'm gonna play next. I've been thinking of playing Kid Icarus Uprisng lately so maybe I'll get to that. But we'll see~~~ Thank you if you've read this far nerds.
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Apav
I'm starting to notice in some jrpgs that they love making me power through sections of the game with minimal healing, only to be given a magical healing character later-on who significantly balances the gameplay ^^'
YEAH THEY DO THAT A LOT DONT THEY. I feel like they do it so you really really start appreciating your healer lol im sure otherwise some people would be like "theyre useless! they dont even hit that hard!" Makes their purpose very obvious lmao
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