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Trials of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 3 )
Super Nintendo (SNES)
My Life as a Contrarian
2.5/5 stars
It seems so long ago, but the 4th Generation and the mid-1990s was the last time I really felt aligned to the general gaming zeitgeist. It was easy to consult with fellow gamers on the early Internet on what was good and what was bad, what to avoid and what was a must-play experience. Everyone loved RPGs, everyone loved Squaresoft, and everyone loved Nintendo – only the worst, most degenerate troglodytes even thought about wasting their time playing “DOOM” or “Sonic the Hedgehog.” But even then, the first cracks began to form in my solidarity with my fellow gamers. For some reason, my fellow SNES-loving Squaresoft fans thought “Secret of Mana” was somehow good. I really didn’t like “Secret of Mana,” as I found the bastardized Action/RPG gameplay unpleasant, the AI companions moronic, and the story completely forgettable. Perhaps it was the 3-player coop, or perhaps it was an early push-back against the overwhelming dominance of Turn-Based RPGs by the twitchy Action-obsessed that made it so popular. Regardless, the irrational love of “Secret of Mana” (a.k.a., “Seiken Densetsu 2”) led to a great deal of angst when Squaresoft decided to pass on localizing the sequel, “Seiken Densetsu 3” (“SD3”). After both “The Final Fantasy Adventure” (a.k.a., “Seiken Densetsu”) and “Secret of Mana” made it out of Japan, it seemed insane that Squaresoft wouldn’t release the 3rd title in the West. Even stranger, Squaresoft went on to release the 4th game in the series, “Legend of Mana,” outside Japan in subsequent years, making “SD3” the only unlocalized game in the franchise.
Lack of access to and information about something can often lead that something to attain a legendary or mythical status. Such a thing happened with “SD3,” with bilingual gamers importing it and singing its praises all over the early Internet. Unlike many fanslations, which take a decade or more to materialize, an early (and now defunct) ROM-hacking group known as LNF Translations, started work on localizing “SD3” in 1998, a mere 3 years after the game’s Japanese release. The fanslation became available as early as 1999, demystifying the game, yet inexplicably earning it accolades as ‘The Best SNES Game Ever Made,’ and other hyperbolic superlatives. With our supply of local co-op games to play running desperately low, the MeltedJoystick Crew decided to take a chance on the ‘Best SNES Game Ever Made’ and found it to be a decidedly mediocre experience.
Presentation
Presentation is definitely the strong point of “SD3.” It brings all the power of the SNES and 1995 technology to bear, with big, well-animated sprites; detailed, multi-layered environments; snazzy spell effects featuring early use of polygons; gigantic, screen-filling boss monsters, and (eventually) a Mode-7 overworld. Despite the quality of the visuals, though, “SD3” does lean on some old crutches, like heavy use of pallet-swapped enemies. Like its predecessor, magic, both from the player’s team and the enemies, pauses the action, which seems much less like a gameplay decision than a concession to the hardware’s inability to handle real-time combat and flashy special effects at the same time.
The soundtrack is pleasant, and features a variety of thematically-consistent tunes that both match the environments and the overall tone of the ‘Seiken Densetsu’ franchise. Sound effects are likewise thematically consistent, partially because they seem to have been recycled from the previous game.
Technically, “SD3” isn’t exactly the greatest. It has noticeable input lag when doing something as simple as using a menu, there’s frequent graphical corruption when too many characters, backdrops, and spell effects are stacked on top of each other, and, in a huge step backward from “Secret of Mana,” doesn’t support the SNES Multi-tap for 3-player coop, instead limiting official coop to 2 players. Fortunately, another ROM-hacker by the name of Parlance released a patch for the fanslation, enabling somewhat buggy support for a third player.
Story
“SD3” for the first time in the series allows the player to make choices about the cast of characters. The game has 6 playable characters with widely disparate skills, and the player is given the choice of whose story they will experience at the start of a new game. In addition to the main character of that particular playthrough, the player is allowed to choose the two companions who will join in their quest (and whose stories will receive a cursory glance).
Because the only time I came close to enjoying “Secret of Mana” was when I was dropping rocks on enemies’ heads as the Sprite, I chose Angela as my main character in “SD3,” a pointy-eared, purple-haired female mage (who apparently CAN’T use magic). Joining me in my quest were Chris as Lise, an Amazon-like female spear-wielder; and Nick as Carlie, a friggin’ loli Cleric. The other characters, Kevin, Duran, and Hawk, may have appeared once or twice during our characters’ story, but were never fleshed-out, providing “SD3” with plenty of replay value, since the only way to learn the backgrounds and fill in the plot-holes revolving around the other, unselected characters is to replay the game from the beginning with a different cast.
Angela’s story begins with her mother, the Queen of Reason making the drastic decision to access some ancient, sealed Mana Magic by making a human sacrifice: Angela. Fleeing her mother’s insanity, Angela joins forces with other companions who are fleeing destruction or curses in their homes, and who, after encountering a Fairy, decide to unseal the 8 Mana Stones and vanquishing the Mana God Beasts sealed within in order to awaken the Sword of Mana and do… something. Magic fixes everything, I guess.
Of course, the villains, of which there are three different, competing groups, are also after the Sword of Mana, and in Angela’s storyline, the God Emperor comes out on top. But then the big TWIST ENDING is that every non-villain who acted badly was being mind-controlled by one villainous faction or another.
“SD3” features three distinct story paths, each with two possible lead characters. We only played through the one, and we felt like that was enough. None of the heroes, villains, plot points, or background lore are particularly interesting or well-done. The entire game feels fairly aimless despite being horrifically linear for the first half and ‘complete these objectives in any order’ for the second half. With each playthrough taking 25-30 hours, it would be possible to sink 90 hours into this game in order to experience absolutely everything it has, but it wouldn’t be particularly pleasant.
Gameplay
“SD3” is a ‘true’ Action/RPG in that character ability and stats completely trump player ability and reflexes, despite the fact that the combat takes place in real-time. Characters need only swing in the general direction of an enemy in order to score a hit – or a miss if the game’s behind-the-scenes number crunching determines the attack will miss – and it’s even possible to simply hold down the attack button to send the currently controlled character into an Auto-Attack mode. AI companions are completely moronic, however, so having other members of the MJ Crew (and a handy 3-player ROM-hack) along for the ride made the game feel rather easy (despite Lise frequently standing stock-still in a corner because Chris was literally asleep at his controller). I’ve seen plenty of fans gush over how ‘challenging’ “SD3” is, and I even consulted a FAQ a few times only to learn that we were under-leveled by 5 or so for the entire duration of the game, yet we found the challenge to be middling except for a couple of annoying difficulty spikes and one gameplay mechanic that was drastically changed from the way it was in “Secret of Mana.”
There are two major differences between “Secret of Mana” and “SD3.” The first is that, instead of squatting and waddling around like a constipated turtle in order to charge up special attacks by holding a button, characters’ normal attacks charge a meter, which can be emptied in order to unleash a special attack by hitting a different button. The other key difference, and the one that nearly ruined my day, is the fact that a huge portion of enemies – specifically any human-sized, human-shaped enemy – will counter magic attacks with their own unavoidable magic attacks. In “Secret of Mana,” I struggled playing solo as the melee-based main character, but once I switched to the Sprite and started spamming magic, the entire game became a joke. Magic counters in “SD3” seem to be an overzealous reaction to this imbalance in “Secret of Mana,” but in the process make dedicated offensive spellcasting rather unappealing. There were plenty of times where I, as Angela (the game’s dedicated offensive caster) had to suck it up and beat on enemies with my staff (dealing 1 damage, naturally) since any spell I attempted to cast would result in a complete party wipe from the counters it would provoke. Thankfully, none of the Mana God Beasts are small or humanoid, so Angela does get her opportunities to shine, but damn, magic counters were an unpleasant surprise.
“SD3” generally feels slower and clunkier than “Secret of Mana.” The fact that dodging or blocking enemy attacks is not an option combined with the previously mentioned sloppy swinging of weapons really makes me wonder why this game had to be an ‘Action’/RPG in the first place.
“SD3” features three main systems for character development. As anyone would expect from any kind of RPG or Action/Adventure game, “SD3” allows for leveling-up as well as purchasing equipment (PURCHASING, not FINDING, as there are no item chests in the game that don’t drop from enemies and contain consumables). For the vast majority of the game, we never felt the need to grind, as we always had enough Lucs (money) to buy new gear as we came across it and never felt under-leveled. That changed near the end of the game when we reached the final weapon/armor vendors and suddenly had to grind for what felt like eternity in order to finish equipping the group. This massive grind point also coincided with the second/final occurrence of the third character development system in “SD3”: Class Change. Each character starts as a basic version of themselves. At level 18, each character has the opportunity to upgrade to a new class by choosing either a Light or Dark affinity. At level 38 – and with the help of a randomly-dropped item – characters can upgrade to another new class, once again choosing Light or Dark (based on the item required). Thus characters can go Light/Light, Light/Dark, Dark/Light, or Dark/Dark, providing lots of different – often vague and confusing – options. There’s no preamble that explains what a given Class Change will do to a character, meaning it’s up to ‘Guide, Dang It!’ or tiresome trial-and-error to figure it out.
Trial-and-error doesn’t end with the Class Change system, though. While toward the midway portion of the game, the player gains access to the overworld (and an accompanying mini-map) via a pair of ridable animal companions, the early game (and indeed all dungeons) feature claustrophobic and overly-convoluted layouts that frequently lead nowhere. Every dungeon features far too many rooms for its own good, and since there are no treasure chests or hidden goodies anywhere in the game, the large, roundabout dungeons and outdoor mazes merely serve as an irritating test of patience.
Overall
If you’re easily wowed by 16-bit 2D graphics, maybe you could look at “Seiken Densetsu 3” and think it’s the ‘Best SNES Game Ever Made.’ If your standards are a bit higher than that, though, and you value a cohesive story, character development, and polished gameplay in addition to pretty pictures, “SD3” comes up drastically short. Much like its predecessor, “Secret of Mana,” “SD3” is best experienced from a cooperative perspective. However, the lack of official multi-tap support, overall crummy gameplay, and character options so opaque they literally require a guide make it easy to skip this game altogether.
Presentation: 4.5/5
Story: 2/5
Gameplay: 2.5/5
Overall (not an average): 2.5/5
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