Secret of Mana

Secret of Mana is an action role-playing game developed and published by Square for the SNES. You control a young hero who pulls the legendary Mana Sword from a stone, unknowingly breaking the seal that keeps monsters at bay. Banished from his village, he must journey across a vibrant fantasy world with two companions—the princess Primm and the sprite Popoi—to restore the sword's power and prevent an empire from conquering the world. The gameplay features real-time combat with a unique power bar mechanic: waiting for the bar to fill before attacking delivers maximum damage. The Ring Command menu pauses the action, allowing weapon swapping and spell casting mid-battle. Up to three players can play simultaneously using the SNES Multitap, a groundbreaking feature for RPGs at the time. The soundtrack was composed by Hiroki Kikuta.

SNES

Released in Japan on August 6, 1993, and in North America on October 3, 1993. The game was originally planned for the SNES-CD add-on, but after Nintendo and Sony's deal collapsed, it was adapted to a cartridge, resulting in approximately forty percent of the planned content being cut. The English translation was completed in only thirty days by Ted Woolsey. Contemporary critical reception was highly positive. Critics praised the brightly colored graphics, expansive plot, innovative Ring Command system, and the cooperative multiplayer. The soundtrack was also lauded as exceptional. However, some reviewers noted flaws: the combat can feel clunky with hits sometimes failing to register, boss difficulty is brutal, and AI partners have pathfinding issues. Retrospectively, Secret of Mana is widely regarded as one of the greatest games of all time and a landmark title in the action RPG genre.