Difference between revisions of "Secret Of Mana"

Revision as of 12:58, 25 June 2014

Secret Of Mana was an early action-RPG for the SNES known for its unique gameplay style and sense of humor. Visually, the game is regarded as one of the most beautiful of the era, emphasizing highly detailed and often verdant scenery. Players take control of the protagonist, Randi, "The Boy," and his two allies, a Purim, "The Girl" and Popoi, "The Sprite", as they progress together through this world battling evil in real-time using a variety of weapons and magic to defend the world from a power-hungry empire that seeks to use the world's natural magic for ill. The majority of enemies are magical monsters summoned by magic, and are often portrayed cartoonishly, ranging from floating birds in poorly-fitting robes to ducks in army-helmets that drop explosive eggs.

Aquatic Violence

The Sprite’s backstory involves it being torn away from its home by a flood, causing it to lose its memories. This scene is not shown. Most water that the characters have to interact with is neck-high, and the characters do not swim in it. Some of the aquatic monsters are fought while in this water, but the characters are always touching the bottom and are not in danger of drowning.

Bones

When monsters classified as demihumans (most humanoid enemies) are defeated, they disappear into a puff of smoke, leaving behind only bones which crumple into a pile and quickly disappear. Insect-type enemies turn into a bone-like pile of exoskeleton upon defeat, quickly disappearing like the demihuman bones. Skeletons sometimes appear as background tiles in caves. There is at least one skull-shaped switch in the game that must be hit with a spear to unlock the way forward. Dark Lich, a boss at the end of the game, is a skeletal torso and skull wearing a fancy robe. When player characters die, they “see the reaper” who appears as a cartoonish, skeletal grim reaper momentarily over the PC’s ghost. Chests can be booby trapped with a “Doom Trap” which will also appear as a cartoonish, skeletal grim reaper hovering over the chest and will either kill the character or reduce them to 1 hit point.

Brainwashing

Dyluck and Phanna, friends of the Girl, are brainwashed by Thanatos. The “evil” witch Elinee is also revealed to have been brainwashed in the same way.

Cannibalism

Goblins attempt to eat the Boy early on in the game, but the girl rescues him from the pot in which they plan to cook him. The scene can be skipped by dashing through the square that triggers the cut-scene or by using a charge attack to jump over the trigger square. Biting Lizard and Snap Dragon enemies also eat the player characters briefly before spitting them out.

Claustrophobia

The bosses Wall Face and Doom’s Wall are both possessed walls that will shrink the room you are fighting in as the battles progress. If you don’t defeat them in time, the characters will be (non-graphically) crushed against the opposite wall and have to return to the last saved point. The walls will not move immediately, so this can be avoided simply dumping spells on them to defeat them quickly.

Dead Bodies

Zombie and Ghoul enemies are animate corpses. Skeletons of enemies classified as demihuman (most humanoid enemies) appear during their death animations. Skeletons sometimes appear as background in caves. There is at least one skull-shaped switch in the game that must be hit with a spear to unlock the way forward. When a character’s HP runs out, they are briefly a dead body which has the same sprite as would appear if the character is unconscious and disappears when the character turns into a ghost.

Death of Family/Friends

The Sprite’s entire village, save for his grandfather, is missing and possibly dead. There is no resolution for this plotline. Flammie’s family was killed by the Great Viper, before he is taken in by King Truffle and later joins the party. (Endgame Spoilers) The Mana Tree turns out to be the Boy’s mother and is destroyed shortly after the party meets her. Dyluck is possessed by Thanatos and dies. The Sprite disappears at the end of the game, and it is implied that he has died.

Disease

While not strictly a disease,when the player first visits the town of Pandora, many of the villagers are mysteriously silent and seem to be suffering some sort of mass depression. There is much unrest over the cause of the problem. It is treated as plague-like.

Explosions

Salamando (fire), Shade (dark), and Dryad (life)’s magic, which can be wielded by both the player and various enemies, have explosion-causing spells. When bosses are defeated, their colors change to shifting reds and oranges, and they explode in a bright flash of light. Several enemies will shoot explosives at the characters. The bosses Tropicallo and Boreal Face, for example, shoot exploding pumpkins at the characters during the boss fight. Other enemies shoot missiles or exploding eggs. Chests containing monster drops can be booby-trapped with bombs which will damage the character who opens the chest. These mostly appear in the early-middle portions of the game. A common mode of transportation in the game involves being fired out of cannons. Most explosion sound effects are very synthesized, in the way that many SNES games sound effects are, which may make some of the explosions less triggering than an explosion in a more modern, realistic game.

Eye Horror/Eye Trauma

Eye Spy and Wizard Eye enemies are little eye-stalks that will attack the characters or send monsters after them. One of their moves involves opening a vertical center slit their eyelids as they cast a spell, which results in the eyelid being splayed back in quarters. This move is not terribly graphic, and the eyelids fuse back together normally when the enemy finishes casting its spell. Attacking them is not graphic but it could be triggering for someone sensitive to this tag.

Fire

The Salamando spirit gives the player fire magic. Fire magic can also be wielded by enemies against the player. The game features a few different lava-themed areas.

Ghosts

Ghost and Specter enemies are specifically ghosts. When certain haunted-inanimate-object enemies, like Polter Chairs, Evil Swords, or Doom Swords, among several several others, are defeated they will emit a ghosty squeal and a small ghost will appear where the enemy was before spiraling around and disappearing in a puff of smoke. When characters are defeated, they will “see the reaper” and follow the controlled character as a semi-transparent ghost until revived.

Heights

The opening of the game features the Boy falling off of a high bridge. The Cannon Travel network shoots the player up into the air to get to their destination. Flying on Flammie involves heights, though the player cannot fall. The Lofty Mountains region gives the impression of being high up, though the player cannot fall. There is a portion of the Mana Fortress final dungeon which takes place outside the fortress which floats high up in the sky, though the player cannot fall.

Insects

Buzz Bee and Bomb Bee enemies are based on Bees. Crawler and Metal Crawler enemies are silverfish- or caterpillar-like. The Mantis Ant and Metal Mantis bosses are based on mantises.

Kidnapping

The Boy is stolen by goblins at the beginning of the game who intend to cook him. He is quickly rescued by the Girl. Dyluck is captured by Elinee and transported to Thanatos early in the game; he is then brainwashed and forced to travel with Thanatos throughout the rest of the game.

Mind Control

Dyluck is then controlled by magic and forced to travel with Thanatos, the big bad, throughout most of the game. The Girl’s best friend Phanna is also mind-controlled by Thanatos for much of the game.

Needles

The game does not feature medical needles, but chests can be boobytrapped with Poison Needles, which will temporarily poison the character who opened the chest. The bee-based enemies, Buzz Bee and Bomb Bee, and the scorpion-based enemies, Sand Stinger and Steelpion, fight with their stingers.

Nudity

The game is nudity-free, save for one easter-egg: Two book type enemies (called National Scar and Mystic Books) open onto their pages to cast their spells. Both books will occasionally open onto a side-view image of a nude woman lying on her belly, before quickly closing up and acting embarrassed. The image is not terribly detailed and does not show nipples or crotch--merely the pixilated shape of the woman's posterior and breasts.

Parental Abandonment

The Boy was abandoned at Potos Village as a baby. After pulling the Mana Sword from the stone at the beginning of the game, the Boy is banished from the village by his adoptive father. In the town of Pandora, where the inhabitants are being drained of their energy and rendered silent, one home features two young children who plead with the player characters to save their parents who have succumbed to the condition and are standing motionless and silent in the house’s kitchen.

Psychological Trauma

The people of Pandora suffer a mass depression while Thanatos is draining them of their energy; notably, the king is described as suffering depression due to the fate of his kingdom. The Sprite suffers amnesia at the beginning of the game, thanks to being swept away from his home by a flood; when he returns home, he finds his home destroyed. (Endgame Spoilers) The Girl’s plotline with Dyluck leaves her emotionally damaged at the end of the game when Dyluck dies.

Rats/Rodents

Chobin Hoods and Robin Foots enemies have rodent-like faces. Rabites and Silktails are based on rabbits. Pebblers and Needlions are based on hedgehogs or Porcupines. Blats and Grave Bats are based on vampire bats. The Vampire and Buffy bosses are based on vampire bats.

Reptiles

The enemies Shellblast and Turtlance are based on turtles. The Biting Lizard and Snap Dragon bosses are based on small lizards or salamanders, as are the Basilisk enemies. The Snow Dragon, Red Dragon, and Blue Dragon bosses are reptilian dragons. The Salamando spirit of fire, which appears whenever fire magic is used, is based on a salamander, though his features are mostly disguised by flame. The party’s mount, Flammie, is a dragon, however he is the furry variety of dragon and therefore non-reptilian.

Sexual Harassment

When the party is lost in the desert and finds their way onto a sandship, they are taken in by the crew, and the party is split up. The Boy and Sprite end up trying to rescue the Girl, who was taken by the ship’s young commander, Morie, for a “special assignment.” When the pair arrive, they find Morie trying to make the Girl massage his back, which she vehemently refuses. She is chosen for this role specifically due to her gender, which definitely gives sexual-harassment undertones to the situation.

Slavery

Thanatos enslaves Dyluck, Phanna, and the other people of Pandora by stealing their energy, making them his puppets. When the party is lost in the desert and finds their way onto a sandship, they are taken in by the crew, and the party is split up. The player first controls the Boy who locked up in a cargo room, where one of the other people locked in with him tells the Boy that the crew treats anyone they rescue from the desert like slaves. The Sprite had been put to work in the kitchens, but ate all the food instead, and the Girl is taken by the ship’s young commander who tries to make her massage his back, which she vehemently refuses. At the “tropical” resort in the Ice Country, one of the Boss’s Boys in the town claims that he and his companions there are treated like slaves, though there is little evidence of this.

Snakes

Great Viper and Dragon Worm bosses are snakes. The boss Hexas has snake tails.

Spiders

The enemy Spider Legs is a spider-like enemy, though its body is not depicted, such that just its pincers and the tips of its legs stick out. Sand Stinger and Steelpion enemies are scorpion-based.

Supernatural Evil

Imps and Gremlins have the appearance of Western demons (pitchforks, horns, etc). Fierce Head and Fiend Head enemies have the appearance of demons from Eastern religions. (Endgame Spoilers) Thanatos is a lich.

Undead/Zombies

Zombie and Ghoul enemies are zombies. Vampire and Buffy bosses are vampires. There is a class of enemies labeled undead, though many are hard to identify as undead or are indistinguishable from their living counterparts. Beast Zombies are a color-shifted version of the living Howler enemies, for example, and the Werewolf and Wolf Lord enemies have nothing about them that would indicate that they are undead beyond the label. (Endgame Spoilers) Thanatos is a lich.

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