At its core, Secret of Mana is about the imaginative backyard adventures any kid could find themselves in. The kind where you stumble into a grassy area with 3-4 tall trees, maybe with a pond nearby, and something about it inspires magic in you. Then you notice it's getting dark out and you have to get home before your parents get worried. Straddling that line between fantasy and reality is part of being a kid. Secret of Mana leans into that, as its core gameplay loop guides the player from cozy villages through bustling forests into dank caves and then back again.

Hiroki Kikuta's soundtrack reinforces that feeling by effortlessly merging modern jazz/prog-inflected pop sensibilities with folk guitar and… More