And let’s be clear that this isn’t some kind of unlock that you gain in the regular course of the game. As I remember correctly, the requirements are to buy the 251 purchases in a shop in one go but. So each time you make a purchase, you need to exit and re-enter the purchase screen and buy another item. And you need to do that 251 times. This is what I would classify as a “cheat” or an “easter egg” an not part of the regular gaming experience.

As for immunities. Yes, the game has immunities. Like in many other JRPGs. I don’t think it’s a good system. It requires players to either have clairvoyant abilities to predict what enemies they will face in the future or simply exposes them to frustrating backtracking (the kind of backracking where you need to cancel a dungeon because you realize that you weapons are useless). Personally, I agree with GuyLone: I found the system not transparent enough, over-used, and simply annoying. The best you can ever hope for in that system is to be prepared and being able to kill the mosters. That’s not depth.

Again, Mystic Quest had also monsters with immunities but they were rare, came up only in special dungeons and because getting new weapons was straight-forward preparing for them was not that big of a deal.

But I see you are an enthusiast of the genre, I suggest you give the original a try.

Another feature was potential status that could be inflicted with different material methods. Some materials caused snowman, some caused silence, some caused sleep. Sword of Mana allowed you to choose which of these effects you might like to have. The armour was similar in that different materials created different resistances and stats in areas.

My final point is Niccolo’s best material he sells was Orihalcum for attk pwr but Mithril Silver was a more balanced all element dmg type with a bonus to magic dmg so I always preferred to use that. It wasn’t Crystal weapons but that’s like the equivalent of ultimate weapons, no-one needs weapons that powerful.

The biggest mistake was making Niccolo’s secret menu a secret and hard to figure out (but with the internet most people can easily read about it).

I never bothered with fruits. I had plenty of seeds from fighting monsters so growing them wasn’t too difficult if I cared to. I just wasn’t bothered to create some ultimate weapon when I already found Mithril Silver was easily accessible and overpowered anyway.

I must admit I haven’t played Secret of Mana for too long. It seems to have a strong following but I have the feeling you might be right. The reasons why people enjoy Secret of Mana are very different from the reasons why I (and obviously you) enjoy Final Fantasy Adventure.

Personally I prefer FF: Adventure as it more closely resembles Zelda than later Mana games. Sometimes I think if I could understand why people like Secret of Mana so much, I might be able to understand why someone would like Sword of Mana (which shares many of its characteristics). Not that Secret of Mana is bad, it just seems more like Super Paper Mario in the sense that it tries to combine two genres but fails to represent the strengths in either.

(Typo: there choices > their)

Kind regards

I’m currently playing Children of Mana (NDS) and it seems like they listened to your critique.

The world design is still branching, but instead of the linear progression throughout the game a quest based system is introduced. Sort of like an MMORPG – take the quest you like, or take the main story quest if progress through the game.

The equipment system is simplified – we are back to four categories now. And the customization system is a bit like the materia system from FFVII – a “gem frame” is used to improve your skills. Fill in different gems for different effects.

The starvation vs. abundance of positive feedback is not totally fixed though. You can’t equip new stuff during quests, but at least you have an idea about what the item you receive is worth.

Recently, I played some Secret of Mana and I agree – it doesn’t live up to the expectations. However, it’s not as bad as Sword of Mana. And hey, it even had Co-Op. You got to give kudos for that.

The amazing thing is that Mystic Quest is SOO excellent! It seems like Seiken Densetsu gets worse with every sequel.

Even the much praised Secret of Mana didn’t left an impression on me. Actually I forgot why, but possibly because of the bad attack sounds (hits sound like light slaps, not meaty slashes) and poor animations (FF came away with it, but SoM is a ACTION-RPG, dammit!).

Big and colorful sprites x too few frames of animation = floating billboards. Yeah I mean you too, Guilty Gear.