Secret of Mana is a direct attempt to transfer to mobile devices the cult Japanese RPG action game of the same title, which was originally released in 1993 on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). As in the case of the original, we are dealing here with the work of Square Enix (formerly Square).
The action of the game takes place in a magical fantasy world, the most important element of which is the title Mana – a powerful energy that allows you to create and destroy on a large scale. It once penetrated through all lands, but the war that broke out between people and gods after the first in their mouths constructed Fortress Many almost exhausted the sources of magical energy and ruined human civilization. The adventure begins many years later, when the main character, Randi, a simple boy from a small village, finds Mana’s Sword, a legendary artifact that years ago prevented the destruction of the world by the war. The protagonist must fill the weapons with energy in eight temples and prevent a repetition of the Fortecy Mana story and the wrath of the gods.
Randi’s warrior is helped by two companions – the healer Primm and the offensive magic of Popoi – as well as the white Flamma dragon, making it easier for the heroes to travel around the world. The game, shown in a top-down view (from a bird’s eye view), focuses on traversing various locations and fighting with enemies. Unlike most classic Japanese cRPG games, the clashes are played in real time and have an arcade character. At any time we can switch between the three heroes, taking direct control over them (the rest of the team then goes under the care of artificial intelligence).
In addition to dangerous locations, from time to time we also find ourselves in cities and other places of this type, where we obtain helpful items (e.g. healing potions). Heroes can use a variety of weapons, which, in addition, have different upgrades to unlock more attacks. There is also a classic system of character development, based on improving their coefficients. It is also worth mentioning the implementation in the mobile version of Secret of Man of one of the most characteristic elements of the console prototype, i.e. the selection of actions and objects used during fights, known as Ring Command.
The creators did not introduce any changes in the graphic design compared to the original version on SNES. So we have here full of vivid 16-bit 2D graphics.
Unfortunately, the conversion to smartphones and tablets was deprived of the cooperative multiplayer mode, for which the original was famous.
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