Secret of Mana

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Secret of Mana (聖剣伝説2, Seiken Densetsu 2^?) is the second video game in the Seiken Densetsu series of role-playing games, the first game of the series on the Super NES and the only Seiken Densetsu or Mana game released on this platform outside Japan. Released in 1993 and 1994 by Squaresoft, most players outside Japan were introduced to the series through this particular game.

The main protagonist of Secret of Mana is the knight, who is supported by the spell-casting girl and sprite child. While the three release versions of the game do not have a default name for each of the characters, the Japanese instruction manual refers to the knight, girl and sprite respectively as Randi, Purim and Popoie (or variants thereof). The origin of the heroes' names is somewhat cloudy: they were possibly bestowed by the Japanese Gamest Magazine previewing the game, then followed upon by other magazines and subsequently by Square. Regardless of origin, the gaming community tends to refer to the three protagonists by these names, as does this article.

Rather than use the traditional turn-based battle system of games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, Secret of Mana uses real-time battles akin to the Legend of Zelda series' games, but with the statistical-based elements of the RPG genre and a unique "ring menu" system. In addition, with its brightly colored graphics, expansive plot, and soundtrack by Hiroki Kikuta, the game has been called one of the greatest video games ever made.

Gameplay

Generally, Secret of Mana uses a top-down view common with role-playing games of the 16-bit era, with movement governed by the directional pad and the game's other functions by the other buttons (however, the game allows an unusual, if somewhat impractical, upside-down controller configuration). However, unlike its companion turn-based RPGs, Secret of Mana uses a pictorial ring menu system. It is from here that the player can change what weapons the main characters use, cast spells, use items, equip armor, change game settings and control the behavior of the computer-controlled main characters. The ring menu is used again in later Seiken Densetsu games and the spin-off Secret of Evermore.

Read more at Wikipedia.org