Secret of Mana is a nostalgic classic to many. However, I believe that its great soundtrack has done a lot of the heavy lifting in this department, and that many of its significant flaws are at odds with its pristine legacy and beloved reputation.

Its gameplay is serviceable and gets the job done, but the combat is often a rather tedious waiting game, technically still making you wait your turn more than its "Action RPG" label would imply. Its plot is very generic and its protagonist, as well as the two party members you’re limited to during your quest aren’t particularly interesting. If you’ve played the game and this doesn’t ring true, simply try describing, in your head, what sets the three apart from any other stock, cardboard JRPG characters.

You may already know of the game’s majorly ambitious original concept and the huge amount of cut content that ended up (in some form) as Chrono Trigger . SoM is regularly mentioned as one of the SNES’ best RPGs alongside Chrono Trigger , but I really feel that it’s not even remotely in the same league. SoM is simply unpolished and basic in comparison.

Now, despite what SoM ’s original lofty goals were, when Squaresoft pared down the game considerably and chose to re-purpose what was cut for Chrono Trigger , the game's goals likely changed. SoM , as we got it, may have had some of the development team mourning "what could have been" (and an infamously rushed localization to get it out here in time for Christmas), but ultimately it was the product of that rather major goal change from a five disc-spanning epic to a quaint, minimalist, colorful storybook-like experience, offering players a different atmosphere than their increasingly dark and dystopian Final Fantasy franchise. Its combat, too, regardless of its quality, was admirably different from their endless parade of turn-based games with random encounters. It could even be played with a friend in co-op! Because of all of this, it's definitely unfair to compare SoM to Chrono Trigger. I initially did so only to express that one should not go into SoM expecting a deep ocean, only to be disappointed by a puddle. Instead, if one desires to experience this fondly-remembered game for themselves, expectations should be suitably tempered.

Generic or not, SoM still has a lot of charm. Much of its presentation is indeed, at times, magical. While many might consider it the Mana series’ peak (and for a long time, in North America, at least, it undeniably was) to me it’s really just the world's first true small taste of the series' true potential. FF Adventure was a trifle, but filled with series firsts that were cool to see in such primitive presentation.

Secret of Mana was a rare co-op RPG, helped popularize Action RPGs (even if it only sort of was one), had beautifully timeless music, simple but iconic enemy designs, and just overall warm and pleasant presentation. For these reasons, it definitely deserves some of its extremely respected reputation and praise.

Some, but not all.

The sequel's much better.

Where all of the beauty began…
….only it’s on the original Gameboy.

This makes playing Final Fantasy Adventure (a.k.a. Seiken Densestsu 1), as a fan of the later Mana games, akin to a lover of Fantasia watching Steamboat Willy. It’s quite easy to appreciate, and even fun! Those parts aren’t an issue. Once you’ve been spoiled by Fantasia, however, experiencing even the most charming mouse (or, in this case, rabite)’s roots is always going to sadly feel primitive, basic, and bare bones.

Had I not been under a year old upon Seiken Densestsu 1’s release, though…Oh yeah. I’d have adored its eschewing of turn-based battles and its fusion of Squaresoft magic and Zelda elements. Playing it in 2023 may be doing this important game (Koichi Ishii’s first try at a Mana game!) a disservice, but hey, here we are.

Worth sampling to see familiar aspects in an embryonic state. Just don’t expect the same magic of later entries. They were just getting started here, and that’s okay.

I still experience some sort of imprinted sense memory of existential dread whenever I find myself in a mall before all of the stores have yet to fully open and it's still largely empty.

Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not mentally ill, as that is a sin. So, when this happens, I don't literally see the physical manifestations of materialism and greed that took the form of chilling, floating heads in Saints of Virtue, gliding through the food courts and the atrium.

Those surreal, grim reminders of the earthly sins of consumerism and product-worship were, of course, sine that I myself was guilty of as far back as even my very conception, a fetus in the womb with corrupt, sinful fantasies of playing "Supermarket Sweep" in an "OshKosh B'gosh" dancing through my over-sized, unborn head.

Speaking of over-sized heads, I'll return to my point. While this game has indeed now created some form of PTSD reaction within me when in an empty mall, I don't see these symbolic, floating "sin heads" when I'm in an empty mall, because, again, I'm not crazy.

I simply feel their presence, embrace the vibrations, and ready my Sword of the Spirit as any sane person would.