This game's art style was heavily used in Legend of Mana for PS1 as well. Another great game that gets quite over-shadowed by a lot of other games on that system.
donbasuradenuevo Top 3 best SNES RPGs and titles that should be on any Top 10 games ever made. Always thought this was the "Holy Trinity of the SNES", hehe
Those game systems were so well thought that they were way better than games nowadays. Nowadays we have shit, not a system. And you do not need to think. Sadly.
I miss arcades. Back when I ate fast food with no issues and didn't give a shit about germs on the arcade buttons. I'm 33 now and am basically ready to die at this point lol nothing gets better. Games look prettier today but they're not more fun.
The open world genre is being done to death now. Emphasizing quantity over quality, designing worlds so big that you actually spend an even amount of time if not much more time, just walking/running from place to place over engaging in the core gameplay. Not appealing to me. And yeah, being an adult does kind of suck, it has its benefits but eh lol. Last "happy" era for me personally was the GC-Ps2-Xb days.
the trials of mana remake celebration is still going here in the comments. I'm playing this game in the collection of mana and my party is Duran-Kevin-Riesz, full attack + support. With so much going on, it's great to have a party that's all about physical attack
Took a minute to realize you just changed the video title. Was wondering how it was using the Trials of Mana name 2 years before it'd even been announced. :p
Ah, yes, Seiken Densetsu 3. One of my favorite SNES games of all time, even to the point where I used to hype over it way too much that I ignored other amazing titles on the system. That was back at 2005, though. The story is good, the graphics are outstanding at that time, the gameplay is pretty solid, and the replay value is high for I have played the game so many times since 2005 with different character and class combinations. And the music. Hoo, boy, the music is just as amazing as Secret of Mana. So many memorable tracks. Unfortunately, SD3 is riddled with some bugs and glitches, such as nearly non-existent critical hit rate, Agility stat not working properly (in a similar case to evasion bug in FFVI), and some others. But still, this is definitely one of the best SNES games I've ever played to this day. Neil Corlett and his team did an amazing job at translating this game.
No, I don't have Switch. Besides, like I mentioned before, I've played the game since around 2005 (it should've been since 2004 but whatever), the same way as many others did back in the day - through emulation.
The only major difference between the fan-translated version and the Collection release is the translation. The Collection release suffers from the poor localization formula we saw on Secret of Mana, mainly on everything except (maybe) the script.
I made numerous improvement hacks for SD3 (snes), to make the experience more enjoyable. For example, ability to fight Black Rabite in all paths. Or Class Balance that balances out classes for all characters (and has the option to disable the enemy skill counters to make Angela more useful). Another guy created a bugfix patch that really improves things a lot too.
Square Enix has finally released this game outside of Japan as Trials of Mana. It is available on the Mana Collection & remake will be released in 2020.
So I have been picking up a few Super Famicom games here and there that have translation patches so I can try them out on my Retron 5 (I also have a SNES). I have been digging through all your videos and picking out the games that look good to me. This game looks awesome, but the addition of having a friend play your second character in an RPG is mind blowing to me! Just wanted to say thank you so much for helping out this noob.
If you guys like this and Secret of Mana then you definitely need to check Legend of Mana on the PSX, it's an amazing game. Artwork is gorgeous and aged very well, the music is just gorgeous [Yoko fucking Shimomura, she's amazing], gameplay is great albeit a bit too streamlined for my taste [you get full health after every battle] and you have multiple main storylines like in SD3 [although you choose them in a different and interesting fashion]. Oh, and if you like customization... oh boy. You can customize BLOODY EVERYTHING in this game. Your weapons, your armor, your magic, your pets, you can create golems which you can then customize... if you like min-maxing and guide-diving then you'll go crazy with the amount of stuff you can do in this game. And the combat system is awesome, your character can learn a bunch of different abilities like counter-strike, somersault, backflip, slide, etc and use them in battle, although to be honest a lot of them are pretty useless. But the main purpose of those abilities is to enable you to learn weapon specials. There's a lot of different weapons you can choose from [sword, 2H sword, axe, 2H axe, staff, bow, gloves, etc] and each weapons has A TON of different special attacks ranging from "do a combo on one enemy with your gloves" to "BLAST THE ENTIRE SCREEN WITH RAINBOW ENERGY". tl;dr - Play Legend of Mana, it's amazing.
I'm not really fond of RPGs (still I really like games like A Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger, FFVI, Earthbound) but Seiken Densetsu 3 is simply a masterpiece. I love the garphics and sounds, the story and, overall, the gameplay, with its real-time battles. I think this is one of my top 5 favourite games of all time.
sadly yes..because it is to "risky" for them..to not be a financal success..i am still going to wait for remakes of the following: Chrono Trigger, Terranigma, Secret of Evermore, Lufia and Illusion of Gaia/Time
I love your channel. I just watch all your videos and plan my next retro game cause of you! I just finally finished this game. Gonna go for a 2nd run thru with the other 3.
This game is getting closer as I slowly work through my backlog. Secret of Mana is my favorite SNES game and my number 2 or 3 favorite soundtrack in any game. I use the title them for a ringtone and Oracle for my alarm. I never get out of bed dragging. Great video good sir!
I played the patch as a kid and this is what I really wanted Octopath Traveler to be like. So happy we have Trials of Mana and the Mana Collection on the Switch now.
This game has been on my wish list to play since I learned about it via AOL Dial-Up in 1996. Your video convinced me to load the English ROM onto my SNES Classic, and I've put over 35 hours into it over the past 2 weeks. Growing up on SNES and PSX JRPGs, this feels like a distant relative I just discovered. It's phenomenal. Thank you for making the video that finally made me get into it. btw - I'm Hawk, Lise, and Angela.
@@enshk79 It was worth every second. Played through the Trials remake when it came out and LOVED it as well. I wouldn't recommend one over the other, but I think they're both excellent takes on the concept.
08:12 But does this game make you FEEEL like Mana? Jk but I've always been fascinated by this game and I'm really happy they've finally brought it to the US officially! Can't wait to play this via that Collection of Mana!
It still baffles me that Square would put out a sequel to Secret of Mana without 3-player support... If they released it in the west back then, I probably would have gone berzerk on their asses. So whoever made programmed the 3-player patch, you're officially my hero forever!
Are you ever going to make a video to compare this with the new remake? Sure there are lots of people who have done videos about that, but I have a different level of trust with your opinion.
I am so glad you covered this. Nobody else has done this game the justice you have, and I've been replaying this over and over since 2005ish. And yeah... that intro segue music... I've replayed that section alone numerous times with each character for that epic feel
Die Hard fan of the original especially the music!🎹🎧💫😵👌 thanks for mentioning this bro!👍 I always wanted to get the Japanese only sequel to Secret of Mana but never could😔 I'm dying to play it!?
It's too bad this never came state side. It has cult classic status, but it doesn't get the same treatment despite being just good as Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy VI because people didn't have general access to play it back then. It still took forever for them to actually release the game officially in the Switch Mana Collection. I don't know why they never had the confidence in this game to port it to PS1 or something like a lot of late SNES games, but they finally acknowledged this gam with a stellar remake.
I am glad this is officially avaliable nowadays we have two choices, the original in the collection of Mana (nintendo switch) and the remake in Trials of mana
I always liked the game, but somehow it took me until the remake to finally finish it. I think I started it like 3 or 4 times, one time I actually played until the god beasts, but then stopped for whatever reason. I'm still hopeful that I'll finish the original at some point, probably when I buy the Collection of Mana at some point.
Thank you for highlighting this all-time classic. I started playing sd3 around 15 years ago on emulators and it still remains 1 of my favorite games ever due to the exact reasons you mentioned. It's CERTAINLY a must play for any self-respecting snes fan!
When you begin this game the title say very clearly SECRET OF MANA 2. I don't understand why when I look for the Secret of Mana 3 all the posts in you tube don't show the real 3 and instead maintain the confusion.
This game has what I consider to be the WORST plot twist in all of video game history. It involves having to rescue the faerie, that the game establishes CANNOT be removed from you until you die. There is no scene when this happens or explanation. You must surrender the sword to the bad guys, who will use it to summon the beasts of legend to destroy the world, all to rescue this faerie, that isn't even alive to begin with. She is a spirit that manifests in our world due to mana.
Tried it twice, bored me to non-completion. I loved Secret of Mana, and I like how this game has more classes, some alternate storylines, useful charge moves, and better presentation. But the combat is sluggish. And the enemies are in your face making it hard to make choices in combat. Half the time I just feel like holding down the attack button. All the weapons feel the same, too. I guess the magic system is better, strategy wise, but I had more fun in Secret of Mana just blowing everything up with overpowered spells. I don't recall any of the bosses in SD3 having any interesting bosses, either. Didn't care for any of the stories either, but that's probably me, as anything less than FF6 has me falling asleep.
I guess it isn't : ) But I love Secret of Mana, Diablo, Secret of Evermore, Brainlord, Ginormo Sword, Zelda 3, Crystalis, among others, so it is the kind of game I normally enjoy.
This is more just press the Button all the time game. Like a sluggish Street fight. Secret of mana 2 was more fin selecting weapons and training for special moves. However 3 looks better and have a better story. But i miss training for whip moves and loading and loading...
I did enjoy this game, I just wish that it had that feature where your weapons and magic become more powerful the more you use them. Like in other games from the Mana series.
I got a few dozen forum posts worth of bones to pick with this game. Yeah, it has a lot going for it, but it also ruins just about everything that was iconic from the first game, and is altogether generic. I won't get into it here, but if you want to read my rants, head to the gamefaqs message boards.
I played many JRPG's but this one is imho still one of the best, alongside with Chrono Trigger, FF VI and ToB/ToS. Also is Riesz (written: リース (Riesu) - I don't understand this "Li(e)se" translating >
seiken3 is the unique one game. root of new era game. can choose characters. can up classes. can play 2players. rpg + arcade + action in same game. only few bad things i think are there should be more up class more characters more magic and more longer storie
I tried to get into this game, but the differences in combat and having to wade through menus (I miss the ring menus from SoM) is a huge minus for me. In combat, sometimes you'll swing and not hit stuff, but yet stuff can hit you from 15 feet away and you can't retaliate very easily. I tried picking the magician girl and of course, like first few battles, she gets absolutely mauled because of weird attacking angles, and once an enemy gets ahold of you, you are done. Every battle (until you get a couple levelups) is you praying you hit the enemy before the enemy hits you because stunlocking is a thing. Enemies can land 2, 3, 4, 5 hits on you before you can react, but yet you can't really do it to them because there's a delay between your attacks. It just seems cheap and a downgrade from SoM's combat. Even Secret of Evermore had better combat, even with the hit detection problems and that's saying something. Many times I wish that SD3 was just SoM with new areas/story/characters, but sadly they changed too much for the game to be fun for me. I tried multiple times to get into it, but I just can't. EDIT: Also I hate how you CRAWL during battles. Seriously, that gets so annoying for your character to "sense" a "nearby" enemy and pull out their weapon.... and you spend the next 30 seconds slowly inching all the way across the area to get to the stupid thing so you can finally pound it to death (or it pounds you to death, either/or).
Great review mate. I've only just discovered you're channel and you're doing a great job. Intelligent, informative reviews with a dash of humour. Keep up the good work. I'm going to okay this game based on your review.
I beat the game not too long ago and it's fantastic. An RPG with replayability is something unheard if you compare it with other SNES RPGs. I picked the same people that SNES drunk suggested for new players, except my main character was Ryse. Ryse buffing spells + Carlie dark curse in the final classes helps Angela to destroy every boss without much hassle
I think this is definitely in my top 5 snes games. This game is incredible. Top-notch quality for the SNES in every facet. Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 6, Secret of Mana 3, and Super Mario World would probably be my top 5, but I'm sure I short-changed something.
Oh, I remember this so much. Beat it before playing with Lise as my main and having Angela and Duran as my other party members. At first it was a bit hard, but once I got Duran classed up into a Knight things went smoother since I then had someone that could use healing magic. Also, Bill and Ben... Dear God, those two were hard.
I loved this game. Normally, I'd never trudge through an RPG multiple times but the storylines/characters were interesting, the visuals were superb, and the gameplay made the length & grinding tolerable (even enjoyable). I think it's absurd that this never came to the U.S.
I heard this is coming to the Switch in Japan. No region lock on Switch's. I don't speak Japanese but I'll still buy it. Hopefully they'll translate it to English for the Switch. I've been dying to play this game and would spend $100 for this game. Secret of Mana is my all time favorite so I need this sequel!
Drewsefer89 You should emulate it. It's not your fault this was never translated to english. Buy it off the eshop if you want but don't miss out understanding it because you're against emulation.
I recall playing Secret of Mana and FFVI with my mom. i was always second player and that was fine with me lol. She always had trouble with Sabin's moves but they we're a breeze to me so she put me in charge of him. Ahh the good old days but to be on topic, you convinced me to try it out thanks.
I also played rpgs with mum, she never liked sabin becaurse of that she always liked setzer instead. She still plays a lot of rpg on ps4, guess you can do that when you are retired. I don't have much time anymore but i have started playing secret of mana 3 with my daughter.
I'm still going through Secret of Mana, so I can't really say which is better out of the series. But so far this one is my favorite Mana game. If I could get the ROM on my tablet to work, then I would go and replay it. But if we ever get the Mana Collection in the west then I'll try to get a Switch or a repo cart if it doesn't happen.
Love this game so much, yet to play it through fully though. Secret of Mana was a hard game to top, but this game is easily on par. Probably just down to taste whether it's better or not, but technically it's a leap beyond.
I remember I first found this game a few years ago while looking at an emulator list. I had no idea that it had even existed for so long then. When I saw it, I was like, "Seiken Densetsu THREE!? What is this!?" Then, once I installed it and started playing, it was, "!!!!". This game is amazing. For me, the combat was a bit more difficult than Seiken Densetsu 2. But it's nothing impossible, and the class system more than makes up for it with making it more rewarding interesting with all the new things you can try out. And everything else is fantastic. Definitely one of my favorite RPGs.
This game is good (and better than I first thought) but the praise for it was a little high. The combat for this game feels so janky it initially turned me off for years. The best thing about it is that the hit detection is a little better, but that's about it. I came back to it and while I never beat the game I did push past the first promotion and stopped somewhere around there. I believe I beat a underground water palace. Now Secret of Mana's story does fall off some and feel rushed after getting to the Empire, but it just made a better impression on me initially. Both have excellent music though. SD3 has some deceptively catchy tunes.
I´ve tried to play SM 2 after loving the "first" one, but couldn´t get too far, I think I felt "overwhelmed" like you said. Maybe choosing the right party would help.
I wonder why this series is called Seiken Densetsu (legend of the holy sword, kind of ) when the stories are centered around the mana tree... I've played FF Adventure and Secret of Mana but I've forgotten I guess, where does any legendary swords factor in..?
This game's art style was heavily used in Legend of Mana for PS1 as well. Another great game that gets quite over-shadowed by a lot of other games on that system.
WE GETTING A REMAKE! TRIALS OF MANA!
Hell yeah!
The original is being released as well.
I'm not getting my Hope's up on the remake until I see more as the secret of mana remake was disappointing and pretty ugly compared to the original
Jezza 6692 idk, it looks vastly superior to the original Trials of Mana, but I understand your fears
@@uchillama8189 depends as Chibi characters generally dont look good in 3D.. specially when compared to 2D sprites
Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, Seiken Densetsu 3... what a time to be alive.
donbasuradenuevo Top 3 best SNES RPGs and titles that should be on any Top 10 games ever made. Always thought this was the "Holy Trinity of the SNES", hehe
Those game systems were so well thought that they were way better than games nowadays. Nowadays we have shit, not a system. And you do not need to think. Sadly.
I'd like to add Secret of Mana & Final Fantasy IV.
aaaaaand earthbound, dragon quest 3 :) any FF games
That's right, and let's add Earthbound, Super Mario RPG, FF4 and Dragon Quest 3 to the "greatests" lists.
SNES era brought so many awesome games.
so many i am still fiding new one
Gamers born in the late 70s to mid 80s grew up with the best games of all time.
Yeah the 16 bit era was amazing, it included Arcade games too.
I miss arcades. Back when I ate fast food with no issues and didn't give a shit about germs on the arcade buttons. I'm 33 now and am basically ready to die at this point lol nothing gets better. Games look prettier today but they're not more fun.
The open world genre is being done to death now. Emphasizing quantity over quality, designing worlds so big that you actually spend an even amount of time if not much more time, just walking/running from place to place over engaging in the core gameplay.
Not appealing to me. And yeah, being an adult does kind of suck, it has its benefits but eh lol. Last "happy" era for me personally was the GC-Ps2-Xb days.
This is in my top 5 all-time games, regardless of console. Probably the best game on the SNES.
the trials of mana remake celebration is still going here in the comments. I'm playing this game in the collection of mana and my party is Duran-Kevin-Riesz, full attack + support. With so much going on, it's great to have a party that's all about physical attack
Took a minute to realize you just changed the video title. Was wondering how it was using the Trials of Mana name 2 years before it'd even been announced. :p
Ah, yes, Seiken Densetsu 3. One of my favorite SNES games of all time, even to the point where I used to hype over it way too much that I ignored other amazing titles on the system. That was back at 2005, though.
The story is good, the graphics are outstanding at that time, the gameplay is pretty solid, and the replay value is high for I have played the game so many times since 2005 with different character and class combinations. And the music. Hoo, boy, the music is just as amazing as Secret of Mana. So many memorable tracks. Unfortunately, SD3 is riddled with some bugs and glitches, such as nearly non-existent critical hit rate, Agility stat not working properly (in a similar case to evasion bug in FFVI), and some others. But still, this is definitely one of the best SNES games I've ever played to this day. Neil Corlett and his team did an amazing job at translating this game.
Did you play the switch version on the collection?
No, I don't have Switch. Besides, like I mentioned before, I've played the game since around 2005 (it should've been since 2004 but whatever), the same way as many others did back in the day - through emulation.
@@TheHarunate ah nice, was just wondering if there were any huge differences between emulating it and their official release.
The only major difference between the fan-translated version and the Collection release is the translation. The Collection release suffers from the poor localization formula we saw on Secret of Mana, mainly on everything except (maybe) the script.
@@TheHarunate did you play the remake?
Excellent video man! I didn’t know anything about this game and now I’m going to buy the Switch collection after seeing this
I made numerous improvement hacks for SD3 (snes), to make the experience more enjoyable. For example, ability to fight Black Rabite in all paths. Or Class Balance that balances out classes for all characters (and has the option to disable the enemy skill counters to make Angela more useful). Another guy created a bugfix patch that really improves things a lot too.
I'm coming back to this video just to say what many comments also say:
TRIALS OF MANAAAAAAAAAAA
Square Enix has finally released this game outside of Japan as Trials of Mana. It is available on the Mana Collection & remake will be released in 2020.
I didn't think this day would ever come, but I'm glad it's here.
One of the greatest games I ever played, I remember finding a walk through so i could play the Japanese version before the patched version came out
Same!
thats dedication...
So I have been picking up a few Super Famicom games here and there that have translation patches so I can try them out on my Retron 5 (I also have a SNES). I have been digging through all your videos and picking out the games that look good to me. This game looks awesome, but the addition of having a friend play your second character in an RPG is mind blowing to me! Just wanted to say thank you so much for helping out this noob.
If you guys like this and Secret of Mana then you definitely need to check Legend of Mana on the PSX, it's an amazing game. Artwork is gorgeous and aged very well, the music is just gorgeous [Yoko fucking Shimomura, she's amazing], gameplay is great albeit a bit too streamlined for my taste [you get full health after every battle] and you have multiple main storylines like in SD3 [although you choose them in a different and interesting fashion].
Oh, and if you like customization... oh boy. You can customize BLOODY EVERYTHING in this game. Your weapons, your armor, your magic, your pets, you can create golems which you can then customize... if you like min-maxing and guide-diving then you'll go crazy with the amount of stuff you can do in this game.
And the combat system is awesome, your character can learn a bunch of different abilities like counter-strike, somersault, backflip, slide, etc and use them in battle, although to be honest a lot of them are pretty useless. But the main purpose of those abilities is to enable you to learn weapon specials. There's a lot of different weapons you can choose from [sword, 2H sword, axe, 2H axe, staff, bow, gloves, etc] and each weapons has A TON of different special attacks ranging from "do a combo on one enemy with your gloves" to "BLAST THE ENTIRE SCREEN WITH RAINBOW ENERGY".
tl;dr - Play Legend of Mana, it's amazing.
After ten thousand years, the official translation and remake are upon us.
Just wish they freakin called it Secret of Mana 2...TRIALS is such a trash name
The Voice of All Things Idk I kind of like it, it’s keeping the naming scheme of every other game in the Mana series, “Name” of Mana
That is some serious replay value.
Available now on the Nintendo switch through the collection of mana on switch
No kidding. I've played the game at least 12 times by now. It just never gets old.
@@Masterlink01 *cough* Class Seed grinding *cough cough*
REMAKE BRO! I KNOW YOU LOVED THAT
I'm not really fond of RPGs (still I really like games like A Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger, FFVI, Earthbound) but Seiken Densetsu 3 is simply a masterpiece. I love the garphics and sounds, the story and, overall, the gameplay, with its real-time battles. I think this is one of my top 5 favourite games of all time.
Link to the Past is an action-adventure game, not an RPG and not to be confused with an RPG.
"I really like Chrono Trigger, FFVI, Earthbound" sounds to me like you kinda like RPGs. At least SNES era RPGs.
You're literally fond of RPGs.
Zelda is NOT an RPG...
I played this on emulation, and its one of my favorite games of all time. its really superb.
I loved this game so much, haven't played it in years, I must have played tons of hours and yet, there is still a replay value for me.
they dont make games like these anymore
sadly yes..because it is to "risky" for them..to not be a financal success..i am still going to wait for remakes of the following:
Chrono Trigger, Terranigma, Secret of Evermore, Lufia and Illusion of Gaia/Time
apparently they remake them though
The only good game they made when they're Square Enix is The World Ends With You.
I love your channel. I just watch all your videos and plan my next retro game cause of you! I just finally finished this game. Gonna go for a 2nd run thru with the other 3.
Thanks for watching, there's a big video on the Romancing SaGa series posting in a few weeks
One summer it was slow at work so I played the fan patch of this on a big projector on the wall. good times.
I am getting the Collection of Mana, I can't wait to play Trails of Mana
You rule man, I am a RUclips junkie and I absolutely love your channel! Please, keep it up!
Thank you for watching Eric
I remember playing this ROM in the early 2000's. Damn good game.
covering one of my all time faves? AWESOME
This game is getting closer as I slowly work through my backlog. Secret of Mana is my favorite SNES game and my number 2 or 3 favorite soundtrack in any game. I use the title them for a ringtone and Oracle for my alarm. I never get out of bed dragging. Great video good sir!
This game is amazing. I think I've played every combination of characters over a span of like 15 years.
Sprite was comic relief in Secret of Mana until you got hit right in the feels man...
One of the 🐐 games
Great review. I'm gonna have to really give this game a shot. Hopefully we'll get the Secret of Mana collection here in the West.
To this day this game is still one of my best discoveries on the early years of the Internet.
Man, why did Japan keep all the really cool shit for themselves?
quick on that trials of mana update
I played the patch as a kid and this is what I really wanted Octopath Traveler to be like. So happy we have Trials of Mana and the Mana Collection on the Switch now.
Man I'm glad I was lucky to buy an english-patched cartridge for 15 bucks last year
so kevin is john wick
You mean John Wick is Kevin from SD3.
This game has been on my wish list to play since I learned about it via AOL Dial-Up in 1996. Your video convinced me to load the English ROM onto my SNES Classic, and I've put over 35 hours into it over the past 2 weeks. Growing up on SNES and PSX JRPGs, this feels like a distant relative I just discovered. It's phenomenal. Thank you for making the video that finally made me get into it.
btw - I'm Hawk, Lise, and Angela.
holy hell you waited that long to play it? that's incredible
@@enshk79 It was worth every second. Played through the Trials remake when it came out and LOVED it as well. I wouldn't recommend one over the other, but I think they're both excellent takes on the concept.
The Trials of mana rom has been extracted and I have injected it into a virtual console cia on the 3ds, it works perfectly!
08:12 But does this game make you FEEEL like Mana? Jk but I've always been fascinated by this game and I'm really happy they've finally brought it to the US officially! Can't wait to play this via that Collection of Mana!
It still baffles me that Square would put out a sequel to Secret of Mana without 3-player support... If they released it in the west back then, I probably would have gone berzerk on their asses.
So whoever made programmed the 3-player patch, you're officially my hero forever!
Are you ever going to make a video to compare this with the new remake?
Sure there are lots of people who have done videos about that, but I have a different level of trust with your opinion.
I fawkin love this game? So many combinations with teams and powers
I am so glad you covered this. Nobody else has done this game the justice you have, and I've been replaying this over and over since 2005ish.
And yeah... that intro segue music... I've replayed that section alone numerous times with each character for that epic feel
I really need to get around to playing this. I don't have an excuse now I have an SD2SNES with the translated rom on it....
when you pair Duran/Angela, Lise/Hawk or Kevin/charlie you get some extra dialogue lines like Angie hiting on Duran in the end
So I could play a different story for each of the male characters?
Die Hard fan of the original especially the music!🎹🎧💫😵👌 thanks for mentioning this bro!👍 I always wanted to get the Japanese only sequel to Secret of Mana but never could😔 I'm dying to play it!?
It's too bad this never came state side. It has cult classic status, but it doesn't get the same treatment despite being just good as Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy VI because people didn't have general access to play it back then. It still took forever for them to actually release the game officially in the Switch Mana Collection. I don't know why they never had the confidence in this game to port it to PS1 or something like a lot of late SNES games, but they finally acknowledged this gam with a stellar remake.
I am glad this is officially avaliable nowadays we have two choices, the original in the collection of Mana (nintendo switch) and the remake in Trials of mana
Best RPG ever made. Hopefully the SoM remake will lead to an SD3 remake.
Dangit, Square-Enix! Why have you not localized this? You BETTER do so with the Seiken Densetsu Collection on the Switch.
Arguably the best action RPG ever. I mean zelda ATTP is up there too, but this game just has so much more.
Seiken Densetsu 3 is simply a masterpiece, a classic rpg which is not a classic instead because never left Japan.
I always liked the game, but somehow it took me until the remake to finally finish it. I think I started it like 3 or 4 times, one time I actually played until the god beasts, but then stopped for whatever reason.
I'm still hopeful that I'll finish the original at some point, probably when I buy the Collection of Mana at some point.
I had fun with the switch version!!
Thank you for highlighting this all-time classic.
I started playing sd3 around 15 years ago on emulators and it still remains 1 of my favorite games ever due to the exact reasons you mentioned. It's CERTAINLY a must play for any self-respecting snes fan!
I just wish it wasn't so buggy. 2 stats are basically worthless and Crits have almost a 0% of happening, among other things
How so?
When you begin this game the title say very clearly SECRET OF MANA 2. I don't understand why when I look for the Secret of Mana 3 all the posts in you tube don't show the real 3 and instead maintain the confusion.
This game has what I consider to be the WORST plot twist in all of video game history. It involves having to rescue the faerie, that the game establishes CANNOT be removed from you until you die. There is no scene when this happens or explanation. You must surrender the sword to the bad guys, who will use it to summon the beasts of legend to destroy the world, all to rescue this faerie, that isn't even alive to begin with. She is a spirit that manifests in our world due to mana.
Tried it twice, bored me to non-completion.
I loved Secret of Mana, and I like how this game has more classes, some alternate storylines, useful charge moves, and better presentation.
But the combat is sluggish. And the enemies are in your face making it hard to make choices in combat. Half the time I just feel like holding down the attack button. All the weapons feel the same, too. I guess the magic system is better, strategy wise, but I had more fun in Secret of Mana just blowing everything up with overpowered spells. I don't recall any of the bosses in SD3 having any interesting bosses, either. Didn't care for any of the stories either, but that's probably me, as anything less than FF6 has me falling asleep.
you got some standards, but maybe this ain't your tyoe of game :/
I guess it isn't : )
But I love Secret of Mana, Diablo, Secret of Evermore, Brainlord, Ginormo Sword, Zelda 3, Crystalis, among others, so it is the kind of game I normally enjoy.
This is more just press the Button all the time game. Like a sluggish Street fight. Secret of mana 2 was more fin selecting weapons and training for special moves. However 3 looks better and have a better story. But i miss training for whip moves and loading and loading...
my fav. team Angela rune mage,Lise star lancer,and Hawk wanderer
I did enjoy this game, I just wish that it had that feature where your weapons and magic become more powerful the more you use them. Like in other games from the Mana series.
I got a few dozen forum posts worth of bones to pick with this game. Yeah, it has a lot going for it, but it also ruins just about everything that was iconic from the first game, and is altogether generic. I won't get into it here, but if you want to read my rants, head to the gamefaqs message boards.
I wish they did the Mana remake like Trials oh Mana.
I played many JRPG's but this one is imho still one of the best, alongside with Chrono Trigger, FF VI and ToB/ToS. Also is Riesz (written: リース (Riesu) - I don't understand this "Li(e)se" translating >
30 minutes snes drunk video? sign me up!
seiken3 is the unique one game. root of new era game. can choose characters. can up classes. can play 2players. rpg + arcade + action in same game. only few bad things i think are there should be more up class more characters more magic and more longer storie
I loved this game so much, Cleared it with every possible class combo except 3, so yea, 7 replays.
It's so good. I literally hacked my SNES Mini specifically to put it and the SNES version of Chrono Trigger on there. I love it.
I tried to get into this game, but the differences in combat and having to wade through menus (I miss the ring menus from SoM) is a huge minus for me. In combat, sometimes you'll swing and not hit stuff, but yet stuff can hit you from 15 feet away and you can't retaliate very easily. I tried picking the magician girl and of course, like first few battles, she gets absolutely mauled because of weird attacking angles, and once an enemy gets ahold of you, you are done. Every battle (until you get a couple levelups) is you praying you hit the enemy before the enemy hits you because stunlocking is a thing. Enemies can land 2, 3, 4, 5 hits on you before you can react, but yet you can't really do it to them because there's a delay between your attacks. It just seems cheap and a downgrade from SoM's combat. Even Secret of Evermore had better combat, even with the hit detection problems and that's saying something.
Many times I wish that SD3 was just SoM with new areas/story/characters, but sadly they changed too much for the game to be fun for me. I tried multiple times to get into it, but I just can't.
EDIT: Also I hate how you CRAWL during battles. Seriously, that gets so annoying for your character to "sense" a "nearby" enemy and pull out their weapon.... and you spend the next 30 seconds slowly inching all the way across the area to get to the stupid thing so you can finally pound it to death (or it pounds you to death, either/or).
Great review mate. I've only just discovered you're channel and you're doing a great job. Intelligent, informative reviews with a dash of humour. Keep up the good work. I'm going to okay this game based on your review.
I beat the game not too long ago and it's fantastic. An RPG with replayability is something unheard if you compare it with other SNES RPGs.
I picked the same people that SNES drunk suggested for new players, except my main character was Ryse. Ryse buffing spells + Carlie dark curse in the final classes helps Angela to destroy every boss without much hassle
I think this is definitely in my top 5 snes games. This game is incredible. Top-notch quality for the SNES in every facet. Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 6, Secret of Mana 3, and Super Mario World would probably be my top 5, but I'm sure I short-changed something.
*I got this! You can buy from Wish or Ally Express today kids!*
Oh, I remember this so much. Beat it before playing with Lise as my main and having Angela and Duran as my other party members. At first it was a bit hard, but once I got Duran classed up into a Knight things went smoother since I then had someone that could use healing magic. Also, Bill and Ben... Dear God, those two were hard.
I loved this game. Normally, I'd never trudge through an RPG multiple times but the storylines/characters were interesting, the visuals were superb, and the gameplay made the length & grinding tolerable (even enjoyable). I think it's absurd that this never came to the U.S.
simple answer: the best action RPG on SNES
Did you update the title? This was never called Trials of Mana before last week
Yes. Yes he did.
Meridian Child is on par with Prologue from Final Fantasy
I heard this is coming to the Switch in Japan. No region lock on Switch's. I don't speak Japanese but I'll still buy it. Hopefully they'll translate it to English for the Switch. I've been dying to play this game and would spend $100 for this game. Secret of Mana is my all time favorite so I need this sequel!
Drewsefer89 You should emulate it. It's not your fault this was never translated to english. Buy it off the eshop if you want but don't miss out understanding it because you're against emulation.
If they made an english translation, I would buy the switch just to get my hands on the SD collection...
Just hack your SNES MINI and put the Fan translation ROM on it. It works^^
I keep praying to the Sun that with the newfound interest in Mana after the PS3 Remake we'll see SD3 FINALLY localized officially for a change!
If you still have the SNES console, then I'd recommend getting the reproduction cart version of this game.
Getting on dat trails of mana ps4. Most definitely now.
Jason Allcreator - Trials
what is? the best square enix game on snes easy
My favorite and best game ever.
I recall playing Secret of Mana and FFVI with my mom. i was always second player and that was fine with me lol. She always had trouble with Sabin's moves but they we're a breeze to me so she put me in charge of him. Ahh the good old days but to be on topic, you convinced me to try it out thanks.
I also played rpgs with mum, she never liked sabin becaurse of that she always liked setzer instead. She still plays a lot of rpg on ps4, guess you can do that when you are retired. I don't have much time anymore but i have started playing secret of mana 3 with my daughter.
Fantastic is a good definition!
I just beat this game for the first time a few months ago and enjoyed it.
I'm still going through Secret of Mana, so I can't really say which is better out of the series. But so far this one is my favorite Mana game. If I could get the ROM on my tablet to work, then I would go and replay it. But if we ever get the Mana Collection in the west then I'll try to get a Switch or a repo cart if it doesn't happen.
Love this game so much, yet to play it through fully though. Secret of Mana was a hard game to top, but this game is easily on par. Probably just down to taste whether it's better or not, but technically it's a leap beyond.
5:57 is like chrono trigger lol
I remember I first found this game a few years ago while looking at an emulator list. I had no idea that it had even existed for so long then. When I saw it, I was like, "Seiken Densetsu THREE!? What is this!?" Then, once I installed it and started playing, it was, "!!!!". This game is amazing. For me, the combat was a bit more difficult than Seiken Densetsu 2. But it's nothing impossible, and the class system more than makes up for it with making it more rewarding interesting with all the new things you can try out. And everything else is fantastic. Definitely one of my favorite RPGs.
I feel legend of Mana does not even get close to this, which is a shame
Trails of Mana? the frick?! This game will only and forever be known to me as Seken...sakien....seconicus? ...
Great stuff, maybe one of your best vids yet
This game is good (and better than I first thought) but the praise for it was a little high. The combat for this game feels so janky it initially turned me off for years. The best thing about it is that the hit detection is a little better, but that's about it. I came back to it and while I never beat the game I did push past the first promotion and stopped somewhere around there. I believe I beat a underground water palace. Now Secret of Mana's story does fall off some and feel rushed after getting to the Empire, but it just made a better impression on me initially. Both have excellent music though. SD3 has some deceptively catchy tunes.
I´ve tried to play SM 2 after loving the "first" one, but couldn´t get too far, I think I felt "overwhelmed" like you said. Maybe choosing the right party would help.
I wonder why this series is called Seiken Densetsu (legend of the holy sword, kind of ) when the stories are centered around the mana tree... I've played FF Adventure and Secret of Mana but I've forgotten I guess, where does any legendary swords factor in..?
In the intro of secret of mana you are able to pull out the mana sword or whatever it's called. Starting the story of the game.