Time may flow like a river, but history does NOT repeat.

Secret of Mana is hands down my favorite game of all time. I loved it as a child. I've played it dozens of times and play it at least once a year. I preordered this the day it was listed. If you are like me and love Secret of Mana, go play the original release. This release is a huge let down that I cannot recommend.

Gameplay is WORSE
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The gameplay is a dealbreaker, even if everything else was great (spoiler, its not). The prerelease claim was the gameplay was improved, the reality is anything but. Distances, timing, and hitboxes are changed for the worse. Advanced combat techniques like dash attacks, strafing, or magic stacking, are removed. Enemy and ally AI are worse. The action grid is gone. The ring menu system is worse, you can't tell whose ring is open and there is no memory of last open ring or last selection. The combat just feels awful compared to the original, much less precise. I hate every second of it.

*EDIT* As pointed out by Sniperfox47 and C4RNIVOR3, "the currently open ring is indicated by the cursor color. Blue is The Boy, pink is The Girl, and green is The Sprite." Still harder to identify then drawing the ring around the character, and lack of ring memory remains.

Graphics
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I despise the graphics, both artistically and technically. To give a tiny bit of credit, within the restraints of the art direction some things are done well, such as the main characters and mana spirits in cut scenes. Secret of Mana was one of the most beatiful and technically impressive SNES games, only surpassed by its sequel. It deservers so much better then this.

I don't oppose the move to 3D. It could have been done right. But it was not, the game has the look of a PS2 game, extremely low quality models, textures. and effects.

There are so many ways this could have been amazing. They could have stayed 2D, gone with an amazing look like Ori or other high quality 2D. They could have had a toggle back to the original graphics like Wonder Boy or other games.

Going to 3D they could have done the game justice, having the same level of quality today that it did when it was released.

What they did was make it on the cheap, low quality, low tech artstyle. They don't even animate talking.

Music and Sound
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The music is remixed. I'm not a big fan, but its good they tried. There is a toggle to switch back to the original music. Some sound effects are the same, others are changed inexplicably. Overall, music and sounds is a letdown.

Story
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The original USA Secret of Mana release had some large issues. The translation was extremely rushed, and due to the information density and font differences between kanji and English huge portions of story were discarded.

This remake is a great opportunity to bring a lot of this back. The game has voice acting, and thankfully they give an option between English and Japanese voice acting. The English voice acting is mediocre. They do expand the story, but its a really mixed bag. I knew I was in trouble when the opening was missing the classic "Time flows like a river...and history repeats...". Staying at an Inn can throw additional story cut scenes, and again these are a very mixed bag.

The PC Port
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Generally it's a decent port. Haven't had any major issues. Have had some framedrops and slowdown which is astonishing given the artstyle and my PC, but its a competent port.

*EDIT* Have had two instances of needing to force quit, once dialog stuck looping and one animation glitch preventing combat.

Ending Words
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I am glad this port exists, even if I hate it. I'm glad new people will be exposed to this classic game. I'm glad they ported it to PC with decent quality.

But I can't recommend this game, on the gameplay problems alone. The art style is atrocious and cheap.

I will continue playing this game until completion. As the worlds biggest Secret of Mana fan, its like a train wreck, I have to see it through. Once its over I will go play the original as a palate cleanser.

It's a rare occasion when I get to turn a negative review in to a positive one. I try to always do so to reflect the good work of the dev/publisher. And it's never too late to correct a game.

And correct this they have! The entire previous port (by DotEmu, always bad) was thrown out for a new bu Code Mystics. The emulation is top notch, and the netcode is sweet, sensual rollback (configurable even, can blend it with delay based!)

Garou is the finest 2D fighter ever made, the magnum opus of SNK's NeoGeo fighters. Garou deserved better then the previous port. THANK YOU SNK for listening and investing in making this right. Thank you Code Mystics for a job well done.

Original Review:
Garou is the finest 2D fighter ever made, the magnum opus of SNK's NeoGeo fighters. This "port" is classic DotEmu, meaning terrible. Input lag, bad online, bad keymapping, avoid this like the plague!