29th June 2019, 9:14 PM
The Secret of Mana remake suffers from the same issues as the FF Adventure remake, namely that the art somehow looks less "alive" than the 2D sprites (the models don't deform and reshape enough during animations, so most monsters simply don't seem "animated" as they do in 2D). What makes Secret of Mana feel worse though is the voice acting draws a lot more attention to that fact, since no one's mouths are animated (not that characters even had mouths in the original art, but again if there's no voice acting you don't notice little things like that).
The controls are superior to the original, I'll give it that. Quick commands on the shoulder buttons make magic and item use a lot more streamlined. That said, the menus are somehow designed worse than the original. That's especially true of the AI configuration menu. What used to be a 2 Axis grid you moved the character around on has instead become a boring single dimensional drop down text list, which is both less customizable and harder to navigate.
There's also the matter of the music. I have a hard time really complaining all that much, but rather than do a pure remaster of the tunes in the way Adventures of Mana did they opted to completely reimagine them. Some do well enough, but most manage to miss the mark and intended tone of the original tune rather dramatically and many come off overproduced. There is fortunately an option to use the original SNES soundtrack, which is why I can't complain too much, but it's very telling all the same. Oh, and that voice acting is pretty painful to listen to. Switch it to Japanese and it's more tolerable.
Adventures of Mana has one odd detail, in that they picked two very out of place and rather dumb sounding "default" names for the hero and heroine. In the Japanese version, the defaults are just "Hero" and "Heroine". In newer games in fact they even went with names given to the characters in a Japanese comic adaptation (Duke and Elena). However, in the US version of Adventures of Mana they went with Sumo and Fuji. I think I understand the train of logic here. I think the localizers were desperate to find any trace of an official name from the original Gameboy game, and since the game itself never gives it, they scoured the manual. The manual never gives them names beyond "Hero" either, but if you look at the various screen shots demonstrating how to play the game, the hero and heroine were given the placeholder names "Sumo" and "Fuji". Those were clearly placeholders, not meant to be taken as official names, but the localizers didn't seem to understand that. Now the whole fan community seems dead set on accepting those names as canon when they make about as much sense as naming them Crash and Spyro. You're tossed into a gladiator's arena to fight for a dark lord and his right hand, Julius. Oh of course, your character is named Sumo. Fits perfectly. When in Rome do as the Japanese do, isn't that the expression?
The previews I've seen so far of Trials of Mana's remake surprise me as a result. I was expected a bare bones lazy "mobile cash in" style remake, but they really seem to actually be putting in effort this time. It may end up being the one to get.
The controls are superior to the original, I'll give it that. Quick commands on the shoulder buttons make magic and item use a lot more streamlined. That said, the menus are somehow designed worse than the original. That's especially true of the AI configuration menu. What used to be a 2 Axis grid you moved the character around on has instead become a boring single dimensional drop down text list, which is both less customizable and harder to navigate.
There's also the matter of the music. I have a hard time really complaining all that much, but rather than do a pure remaster of the tunes in the way Adventures of Mana did they opted to completely reimagine them. Some do well enough, but most manage to miss the mark and intended tone of the original tune rather dramatically and many come off overproduced. There is fortunately an option to use the original SNES soundtrack, which is why I can't complain too much, but it's very telling all the same. Oh, and that voice acting is pretty painful to listen to. Switch it to Japanese and it's more tolerable.
Adventures of Mana has one odd detail, in that they picked two very out of place and rather dumb sounding "default" names for the hero and heroine. In the Japanese version, the defaults are just "Hero" and "Heroine". In newer games in fact they even went with names given to the characters in a Japanese comic adaptation (Duke and Elena). However, in the US version of Adventures of Mana they went with Sumo and Fuji. I think I understand the train of logic here. I think the localizers were desperate to find any trace of an official name from the original Gameboy game, and since the game itself never gives it, they scoured the manual. The manual never gives them names beyond "Hero" either, but if you look at the various screen shots demonstrating how to play the game, the hero and heroine were given the placeholder names "Sumo" and "Fuji". Those were clearly placeholders, not meant to be taken as official names, but the localizers didn't seem to understand that. Now the whole fan community seems dead set on accepting those names as canon when they make about as much sense as naming them Crash and Spyro. You're tossed into a gladiator's arena to fight for a dark lord and his right hand, Julius. Oh of course, your character is named Sumo. Fits perfectly. When in Rome do as the Japanese do, isn't that the expression?
The previews I've seen so far of Trials of Mana's remake surprise me as a result. I was expected a bare bones lazy "mobile cash in" style remake, but they really seem to actually be putting in effort this time. It may end up being the one to get.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)