I was WRONG About the Secret of Mana Remake - Casp

You're wrong about the shoulder buttons not being used in the original secret of mana. You could hold either L or R while charging a weapon to strafe. It was pretty useful honestly.

It's probably been mentioned by people already, but those hexagonal columns are clearly modeled after real-life basalt columns. Which while looking somewhat "artificial" at a first glance indeed are fully naturally formed. The "Giant's Causeway" formation in Northern Ireland is perhaps the most famous basalt formation, but there are thousands of them around the world.

A Link Between Worlds showed how angling the 3D models makes for a much better viewing experience overall, I wish this remake had taken that approach.

Actually the graphics are from a low budget mobile game. They used already existing 3D assets from mobile versions of Secret of Mana to make this remake. There is an Entire video dedicated to the comparison, exact same character models and everything.

I'd still recommend the original more than the remake. One of many reasons: it wasn't lazily made.

Could have done what they did with A Link Between Worlds. They actually slanted every model.

No mention of the ring menu system here? (Or was that covered in the previous episode...) Choosing to center the ring onscreen instead of around the character it belonged to breaks the VERY THING that made the original ring menu so intuitive. In the remake it's basically just "another menu but circular".

The perspective in 3D "I see only heads" thing was solved brilliantly in Zelda A Link Between Worlds, where they made all the models in an obtuse angle, so when you see from a top-down perspective, all the character details are very visible. And I love your critique and subtle sarcasm, your content is amazing.

I was disappointed in Elinee (the witch) character model. When I played the original, I always assumed she had transformed herself into a young looking, attractive sorceress, and THEN became a gnarled old hag once the magic wore off. In this game, she is an ugly old hag in both forms.

The graphics are from a budget mobile style. Using the Adventure of Mana style that came out on mobile before this remake.

regarding the whip-posts, they could have just made it have some form of "smart equip" system, where if you don't currently have the required weapon equipped, pressing either shortcut button would automatically swap to the whip, do it's function, then swap back to the weapon you had prior...

The original didn’t give you very much indication if your attack was evaded or simply didn’t connect so I would imagine that the remake adding a miss indicator would make it feel like more of your attacks missed but I don’t really have any experience with the remake so I can’t be completely sure.

She is the one! Sailor Moon!!!

My issue with the artstyle is exactly how it lacks any detail. RPGS are great at making people be in awe at their surroundings, but in here there's just some bright colors in greenery and that's it. And besides that the character designs being cutesy is perfectly fine, but nothing significant makes the cast stand out to have their own unique identities (excused with the original I guess, but still.)

RE: Your missing with weapons: You are simply too low level. Your AIs are stronger/smarter because they are much more aggressive and this gives you the illusion that you can push further into the game at lower level, so you do that (because hey, who likes grinding?). BUT, the Remake has the exact same attack/defense/accuracy/evasion values as the original did. Judging from your HP meters in the clips (those values are the same between versions), you are severely under-leveled so yes you will miss like crazy. I mean, c'mon, the Sprite only has 197 HP Max while fighting the guy before Flammie? Try killing something now and then. You should not be taking 40 damage hits every couple seconds from that guy. The game is designed in a way that if you kill everything you come across as you journey, you will be at a "sweet spot" -- just enough XP/levels that you will comfortably kill everything in your way. If you start skipping enemies because that's easier to do now, you will fall behind and you will be weak as crap. But yet there is some variance where you could skip a few enemies (such as ones that require magic to kill, or incredibly annoying ones like slimes), but you can't skip entire dungeons worth of enemies and expect to be strong enough to handle the next. RE: Stunlocking Bosses with Magic: They actually reduced this in the remake. You can't do it as easily or as often as you could in the original. Certain spells like Freeze and Gem Missile could stunlock a boss until it dies. However, in the remake, there's a split second pause where you can't cast another spell on the enemy and this split-second pause can cause some bosses (such as Gigas) to enter their immune phase. For example, the Flame Gigas in the Gnome Temple. You can stunlock him in the original by just casting Freeze, all you need to do is press the menu button as soon as the screen darkens a little and just keep doing that. However, in the remake, the split second pause gives the Gigas time to split up into its cloud form, guaranteeing that it will at least get to attack you at least once or twice. RE: Weapons: Whip/Axe needed? I always give the Axe to Primm and the Whip to Popoi and have Randi use whatever I want to use, and I control Randi full-time. If I run into a whip-gap, I'll switch to Popoi. If I run into some stalactites, I'll switch to Primm. This has the added bonus of keeping Popoi (who has the weakest defense) away from enemies as the AI is rather smart about how to use a whip. No weapon swaps needed. Now, granted, yes, they could fix the hot swapping system, but until/unless they do, this is just a tip. That way you can set your shoulder buttons to Cure Water + Whatever Attack Spell Next Boss is Weak Against like I do.

It doesn't tell you when Buzzbee gets Whacked. 1/10. Literally Unplayable. But seriously, great review, and the remake makes it a much more playable game in 2018.

The better editing seems to coincide with an increase in sarcasm. Good work Casp!

It's nice to see someone giving the remake a fair shake. The original, though it may be a classic that is dear to my heart, was definitely rough around the edges. It's obvious that the developers were still learning to program with the new hardware; Secret of Mana 2 was far more solid in many regards. I guess it's only appropriate that the remake is also rough around the edges. It would've been nice to get something better, but I guess it is what it is. At around 8:03, you mention the remake's very big artistic problem of the camera angle giving you a bad angle on all of the 3D models, and that you're not sure how they would've solved it. There is a game that solved that exact problem! The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, which similarly remade many characters and environments from A Link To the Past on SNES, solved this problem by designing the environments in an inclined fashion and tilting all of the 3D models with the camera angle in mind. The result looks fantastic, and you can only notice the visual trickery if you're able to view the world from an angle that the game normally doesn't let you.

Lets wait for the ff7 review when all the interviewers say: "I wish they stuck to the old formula, the graphics the way they were made the game the way it was and now they have changed everything for the remake."

Finally somebody calls out the camera in SoM. I thought I was the only one who was really bothered by the choice to only scroll when you're near the edge of the screen.