Secret of Mana (PS4)
Nov. 23rd, 2022 05:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroI played both the official re-release of the SNES game and a fanhack translation two years ago, but a copy of the remake fell into my lap and I decided to give it a go. ARR joined me for the latter half of the game.
The obvious changes are to the graphics: It’s much prettier and smoother than the original. It’s much more obvious what some of the more nebulous spritework was supposed to be. I hadn’t ever put together that the leader of the Scorpion Army was female until I saw the new artwork! Characters and enemies never flash, which is particularly noticeable with ghosts (both in the initial cutscenes and when your companions die) which just turn bluish-gray but are otherwise unremarkable. I’m guessing that was some sort of system limitation.
It’s MUCH clearer what’s a “Miss!” because of stats vs. your ability to aim. Enemies more clearly take damage even when downed. The fighting AI for your companions is better, but the pathfinding really isn’t (it’s about on par with the original). It feels faster; both the gaining of spell/weapon levels and the general pacing of the game. It feels somewhat easier than the original—I feel like more hits land (or get registered) and the monsters have fewer invincibility frames. I also spent basically zero time grinding before I left for the Upper Land and had no trouble with anything; and had only a couple of problem spots later on, but did virtually no grinding anywhere.
The translation is very similar to the original SNES version; maybe a little fuller (and they’re consistent with the Sprite’s nonbinary gender and “they” pronouns). The references to “Mavolia” instead of “the underworld” are very close to the fan-translation I played, which makes me wonder if that was something in the original Japanese or if the fan-translator was working from this version.
The voicing and the animated cutscenes aren’t really necessary, but they aren’t bad, except maybe when the characters are making expressive faces but their mouths don’t move for how much they’re speaking. Some of the pronunciations are a little weird: MAN-ah instead of MAH-na, for one. Also DIE-luck and un-DEEN.
The biggest disappointment early on was that there’s no animation for cannon travel: You blast off, and you land. No flying through the air on the world map! The Flammie animations are a lot smoother than the original (and the Collection of Mana port) and add handy labels to everywhere you can land. But the sunken continent rising animation is…there? It’s mediocre, maybe even worse than what the SNES version did because at least that was trying to push the technology. This should have had a cool FMV cutscene. (The attack on the Mana Tree had the same problem.) They really missed the boat with the animated cutscenes, because they just use them for “talking” scenes and they don’t do anything cool for what should be big, splashy setpieces and often were in the original.
I did the full sequence in the beginning (get the girl, go to the forest, need the axe, go to Gaia’s Navel, then back to the forest); but I didn’t do the first trip to the desert and instead did the Ice Country sequence first. I also only visited Joch the first and last times, rather than in-between the various errands. When ARR and I did the Moon Palace and Tasnica, we were both reminded how abbreviated they both are—clearly, there were original designs to expand both into real sequences, but those got left on the cutting room floor decades ago. I wish they’d used the remake as an opportunity to add new material in places like those.
(I managed to miss the Pandora treasure room and the two orbs in it…pretty much every time I’ve played this game. For decades. This time it somehow caught my attention this time and I successfully got it. That had the Sword Orb and Spear Orb that I think I pretty consistently was getting double-chests for later on.)
And Blue Spike did the fake-out death animation thing again! That must be intentional, not a glitch, but for the life of me I have no idea why.
Similar to the Collection of Mana version, I missed the manual. Granted, the in-game equipment details are significantly better, including a character and equipment library; notes on what protections armor offered you on the status screen; and in-store better/worse/equal indicators, but the original SNES manual was extensive and easy to keep handy.
Overall: It’s pretty and smoother to play, but they really missed the boat on a bunch of things that would have made a remake worthwhile: Fleshing out the abbreviated segments in the third quarter of the game, and making the cutscene events look really cool. I’m glad I got it cheap; I would have been very disappointed for full price.
The obvious changes are to the graphics: It’s much prettier and smoother than the original. It’s much more obvious what some of the more nebulous spritework was supposed to be. I hadn’t ever put together that the leader of the Scorpion Army was female until I saw the new artwork! Characters and enemies never flash, which is particularly noticeable with ghosts (both in the initial cutscenes and when your companions die) which just turn bluish-gray but are otherwise unremarkable. I’m guessing that was some sort of system limitation.
It’s MUCH clearer what’s a “Miss!” because of stats vs. your ability to aim. Enemies more clearly take damage even when downed. The fighting AI for your companions is better, but the pathfinding really isn’t (it’s about on par with the original). It feels faster; both the gaining of spell/weapon levels and the general pacing of the game. It feels somewhat easier than the original—I feel like more hits land (or get registered) and the monsters have fewer invincibility frames. I also spent basically zero time grinding before I left for the Upper Land and had no trouble with anything; and had only a couple of problem spots later on, but did virtually no grinding anywhere.
The translation is very similar to the original SNES version; maybe a little fuller (and they’re consistent with the Sprite’s nonbinary gender and “they” pronouns). The references to “Mavolia” instead of “the underworld” are very close to the fan-translation I played, which makes me wonder if that was something in the original Japanese or if the fan-translator was working from this version.
The voicing and the animated cutscenes aren’t really necessary, but they aren’t bad, except maybe when the characters are making expressive faces but their mouths don’t move for how much they’re speaking. Some of the pronunciations are a little weird: MAN-ah instead of MAH-na, for one. Also DIE-luck and un-DEEN.
The biggest disappointment early on was that there’s no animation for cannon travel: You blast off, and you land. No flying through the air on the world map! The Flammie animations are a lot smoother than the original (and the Collection of Mana port) and add handy labels to everywhere you can land. But the sunken continent rising animation is…there? It’s mediocre, maybe even worse than what the SNES version did because at least that was trying to push the technology. This should have had a cool FMV cutscene. (The attack on the Mana Tree had the same problem.) They really missed the boat with the animated cutscenes, because they just use them for “talking” scenes and they don’t do anything cool for what should be big, splashy setpieces and often were in the original.
I did the full sequence in the beginning (get the girl, go to the forest, need the axe, go to Gaia’s Navel, then back to the forest); but I didn’t do the first trip to the desert and instead did the Ice Country sequence first. I also only visited Joch the first and last times, rather than in-between the various errands. When ARR and I did the Moon Palace and Tasnica, we were both reminded how abbreviated they both are—clearly, there were original designs to expand both into real sequences, but those got left on the cutting room floor decades ago. I wish they’d used the remake as an opportunity to add new material in places like those.
(I managed to miss the Pandora treasure room and the two orbs in it…pretty much every time I’ve played this game. For decades. This time it somehow caught my attention this time and I successfully got it. That had the Sword Orb and Spear Orb that I think I pretty consistently was getting double-chests for later on.)
And Blue Spike did the fake-out death animation thing again! That must be intentional, not a glitch, but for the life of me I have no idea why.
Similar to the Collection of Mana version, I missed the manual. Granted, the in-game equipment details are significantly better, including a character and equipment library; notes on what protections armor offered you on the status screen; and in-store better/worse/equal indicators, but the original SNES manual was extensive and easy to keep handy.
Overall: It’s pretty and smoother to play, but they really missed the boat on a bunch of things that would have made a remake worthwhile: Fleshing out the abbreviated segments in the third quarter of the game, and making the cutscene events look really cool. I’m glad I got it cheap; I would have been very disappointed for full price.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-30 05:26 pm (UTC)