Overall, a lot of battle lines were drawn in the gaming industry during the last decade prior to the turn of the millennium.
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Same can be said of the Square/Enix merger…which I feel generally hurt things in the long-run. One can only ask “what if” when thinking back to the Nintendo/Sony saga and how it would have affected the future of the industry…which I feel we benefitted from in the long-run overall. As with nearly every Square title, compelling storytelling and full-fledged characters are present and in force. It’s all over the place and it’s wonderful. And the music…ah, the music! Composer Hiroki Kikuta mixes one of the finest 16-bit soundtracks of all-time in SoM with quirky, upbeat tunes, low-tone serious melodies, and fully-orchestrated anthems.
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SoM also showcases some of the best use of the SNES’s Mode 7 graphical scaling capabilities (the flying dragon sequences are breathtaking). The character designs and animations are fluid and precise. Graphically, SoM is one of the most beautiful, vibrant, and artistically realized games ever available for the SNES. SoM was eventually launched as a cartridge game, but there was certainly no perceivable loss of quality or scope in the final product. This contentious episode is what is believed to have precipitated Square’s eventual move away from Nintendo and toward Sony in the late 90’s. Initially believing there was no way they could adapt the game to fit on an SNES cartridge, the game’s programmers were eventually overruled by Square corporate and the project was forced to move forward. Midway through production, Sony and Nintendo went their separate ways and the SoM project was nearly scrapped. Before the dissolving of the Nintendo/Sony relationship, Square was programming SoM with the intention of it being a massive release on the CD format. The lesser-known story, however, is that Secret of Mana was originally intended to be a launch title for the SNES-CD…perhaps even the pack-in game. By now, everyone probably knows the Nintendo/Sony story about how their proposed partnership would have spawned the SNES-CD, but instead eventually led to Sony breaking off and creating the first PlayStation console. It was always more fun to have a friend or two jump in and help, but it certainly didn’t detract from the overall experience when going it alone. As discoverable allies join your party, a buddy can actually take control of the other two additional characters! Otherwise, a single player could adapt the other characters’ logic so that they could act independently and would react accordingly in various situations. But, perhaps what makes SoM most unique is that it’s actually a multi-player co-op game. Another fantastic element is the menu system which utilizes scrolling wheels and sub-menus for quick and intuitive selections.
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Instead of cutting away to randomized turn-based battle sequences like Final Fantasy, SoM uses real-time battles whereby you can see advancing enemies and choose how to engage or flee. Visually, it takes cues from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past as it’s presented in 3/4 perspective. I’m a lifetime RPG fan, but SoM is special in a lot of ways. I received SoM for Christmas in 1993 and it blew me away from moment one. While Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI are predominantly considered to the two best Square titles for the SNES, my personal favorite has always been Secret of Mana.
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Square had a proven history of producing high-quality titles which tapped into the full potential of the technology available at the time no matter the console. By 1994, Square had become the undisputed dominant force of the genre along with Enix in a close second…a company with whom Square would merge in 2003 to form Square Enix.
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There was a time when SquareSoft could do no wrong, especially when it came to RFGs… the most obvious example being the Final Fantasy franchise.