The Remake isnt bad but I feel like 40€ is a bit much to ask for it to be honest

Seems like it was made for ipad/iPhone but got ported to ps4 for more money

The original is a much nicer looking game.

Congrats John, your wish at the end of the video has came true, Seiken Densetsu 3 (now Trials of Mana) iscoming to the west both as remake and in its original form. Hope DF will be covering it as well when the remake releases!

Reminds me of that mobile remake of Final Fantasy Adventure: Adventures of Mana which ended up getting ported to the Vita. It was pretty underwhelming.

I still prefer the charme of the original.

Going from gorgeous pixelart to bland, generic 3D remake.. looks like a great iPhone remake

Nothing can beat those beautifull handcrafted sprites ;-)

OK, I get it. Square put the game on a small budget and the team did what they could. But how is Square gonna charge $40 for this remake when I got a remake of Shadow of the Colossus right there for the same price? 2 different genres but when there is more love put in one colossi than the whole Mana world, I don't want to hear any excuses. This should be a $20 game at most. I'll wait til it gets down to $5.

I'm surprised the secret of evermore isn't as popular, I loved the different eras to play through and the dog/sniff/ingredients/spells/call beads/leveling my bone to lvl 3 before the dinosaur etc. I loved it :)

wow, loading screen. that what i expected from a rivisitation of a game. WAITING TO PLAY.

As simple as it is, I love the minimap representation. We get a reminder of that old school look on top of new grahpics. Best of both worlds. Cool stuff.

I have this game. The textures are very low res, there are no graphics options, fullscreen cuts off your health bar. Runs fine. 10/10

Ok... I'll stick to the original then

Great take on it. I just love being able to have it on modern systems with some great new features like hilarious character development scenes at the inn, voice acting for every npc and other gameplay improvements. I'm also so glad that they kept so many little details that I loved about the original. It's a dream come true for me.

*EDIT:* Wait why is a comment I posted on a video about Final Fantasy VII here, on a video about Secret of Mana? I mean sure, it’s a got a like on it, so I won’t delete it, but I’m confused as to why it’s here. So I started this for the first time today. I never played it back in the day, in fact I wasn’t around back then. But I brought the game recently, and placed the disc into my PS2 because my PS1 is out of action, and turned on my incredibly sexy Sony KV-21X5U Trinitron CRT. The. Game. Looked. Stunning. Like holy crap, it’s amazing! The models look way better than I thought they would, I was expecting them to look awful and pixelated like 3D 240p games often do when upscaled, but no, on the CRT they look great! They are still only okay models, with weird arms most of the time, but they don’t look pixelated at all. And the backgrounds, no dithering is visible even over RGB, and the everything looks awesome and devoid of compression artefacts. Additionally, if you watch the FMV on a modern TV, it looks super compressed and awful. But if you watch it on a CRT like I did, it looks awesome! Very few compression artefacts, and the low resolution doesn’t damage the picture at all, if anything the scanlines make it look better. Honesty the game just looks and feels amazing, I don’t like the combat system and I think it needs more save points (I spent 3 hours looking for one earlier, that’s why I’m posting this at 5AM, I couldn’t turn the PS2 off until I’d saved.) but the game has aged brilliantly, at least when you play it on a CRT. The controls kinda suck too, but pressing select makes things a million times better by giving you a big arrow that points at yourself, and red or green triangles on doors, transitions, and ladders.

the original looks better...

The gameboy game was called mystic quest on my continent.

I'm really enjoying this remake. Sure, it could have benefited from having World of Final Fantasy level visuals, but I don't mind PS2 quality visuals and honestly find them refreshing in this day of overblown budgets and microtransactions. Quaint is a good description for this game, I think.

Kudos for using Soukaigi songs on the video! Best OST ever.

Starting playing this on the snes mini, by god does the Remake look ugly in comparison.

SNES Version > PS4/Vita Version

So much love for this channel. You may be the first patreon i support as I enjoy all of your videos.

Considering tales of the abyss holds a big place in my heart as one of my favorite JRPGs, the new art style for secret of mana is something I really love.

Never played the game because I wasn't around back then yet. I'd like to try it as I've heard a lot about it, though 40€ for this is waay too much.

Not surprised how the Vita version runs, considering it uses the native 960x544 mode. It's also far from the worst I've seen on the platform (that honour goes to the port of Jak and Daxter 1 to the system - constant 20FPS with sub-native resolution). I think the style of the remake was partly inspired by A Link Between Worlds on the 3DS, and Square's own ports of the Final Fantasy series to the DS. I don't have any preference one way or the other, both styles look good in my opinion.

Really good analysis/impressions, I like how in-depth it was while trying to stay as much objective as possible. I never played those original games but it looks pretty intriguing, although the original art style certainly has more appeal. Thanks.

I can’t believe we went from this to the Trials of Mana remake in a couple of years. One looks like a PS2 game and the other is on par with Dragon Quest XI on PS4 visually. I hope we get a DF of that game when it comes out next month on PS4, Switch and PC.

You think this is bad? Try XCOM on the Vita. That is true horror.

As soon as I saw the loading screen in place of the cannon zoom yeah... I'm out. Lazy.

I think it has some charm to it. It reminds me of the mid PS1 era aesthetically (although obviously, with a much higher resolution and cleaner textures).

The reason my Wii is still hooked up to my TV is I have Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy III, and Secret of Mana on it. The 2D pixel art of the 16-bit era is timeless, and has a charm that is difficult to match with 3D graphics.

This is so visually unappealing, i've never played the original but would rather play that on my SNES mini. I've never played Chrono Trigger or Super Mario RPG either, which one should i play first?

BREAKING: The first third party game running at native 4k on the Pro is a PS Vita game!

Your Snes footage was from an emulator and zoomed in (looked nothing like it does played on an original SNES! ). Secret of Mana still looks good even today on the real hardware, espevially on a 100+ hz CRT and RGB Scart cable!

I'd love to hear more audio comparisons for videos like this (and really just more audio analysis in general on Digital Foundry).

They still make games for the vita? I thought it was dead Tbh I forgot it existed until now

No switch version though? Would seem logical since the first one was on the SNES.

I appreciate the fact that you indicated support for high refresh rate monitors on PC :)

Great analysis! And thank you for including ultrawide info there as well! This was one of the biggest upgrades to my PC last year. Hope the trend of 21:9 support will continue on PC and maybe with the next-gen consoles as well!

Well, so they could ditch the vita and enhance the visuals more for PS4 and PC.

Secret of Mana runs at: 2160p60fps on PS4 Pro 1080p60fps on PS4 544p30fps on PSVITA PSVITA runs at it's native resolution so it looks good and has pretty much the same graphics as PS4/Pro version but lower franerate with some dips below 30fps.

They took out the mode 7 overview of the cannon travel... I loved that as a kid because you could see places that you haven't been yet. The vast world waiting to be explored. This was a lazy cash grab, but if it gets us talking about SoM than that's the silver lining.

"And it's not TOO bad..." pretty much summed up my opinion of the remake. Although on PS4 I am experiencing tons of crashes (at least 7 so far) and a fun bug where the spell MP drain reacts as if every enemy is undead and drains all my remaining mp 100% of the time regardless of what enemy I try to use it on. Fun times.

Was planning to buy it but not for $40. Should have been $20, and at most, $30.

Majority seems disapointed. I am a huge fan of the original, one of my TOP 3 games overall, I have finished it 25 times, I know the game by heart, almost every dialog, I know every HP of all bosses and the cost and name of all equipments. And yes : I do like this remake and I am happy to play it. The only one serious default : more than half of the bosses have been 3D modelised into a ridiculous form. Many of them just looks....small.

Fun fact: in the secret of mana remake; when you're told to go into basement when youre banished, you'll see a picture of the hero from the remake of final fantasy legends

Online 3 players coop ? BTW nice use of Soukaigi's sound track.

Legit looks like a ps2 game lol

I love Digital Foundry!

Remember to upload a similar video for Trials of Mana on PS4, PS4 Pro, PC, and Switch.

Awesome! Proper ultrawide support! I love seeing this getting popular. Kingdom come deliverence even gives black bars to the top and bottom to 16:9 users during cutscenes, while perfectly fitting the whole screen on a 21:9 display.

Who else thinks this game should come to the Switch?

This game is better on the Switch.

If storage space was such a concern, why didn’t they string the game out over multiple cartridges like PS1 games did with discs?

I can't believe they didn't notice that cloth belt clipping issue on Randi's idle animation (when not in combat)

I dislike the fact that it was a lazy remake for a great game (never did finish it), and i would take the pixel art over this one any day also, why the hell do the characters not speak/have talking animation, what is this ps1 days Quick side note, they should remake Seiken Densetsu 3, imo that game was way better and innovative compare to Sercet of Mana

Why is it on Vita but not on the Switch, that's really strange.

They should've thrown up an ISO file of the original in the menu. Give you the option of toggling back and forth. I don't mind the new art style myself, but it never hurts to have more options.

This remake only exists because the similarly styled Adventures of Mana remake for mobile and Vita was successful enough on Vita to warrant an equivalent undertaking. So it was likely created as a mobile and Vita game, then dropped for mobile and hastily moved to PS4 + PC, with remaining resources being spent on optimization for those platforms. You essentially have a port of a Vita game which was compromised in order to facilitate it's own port to PS4 + PC. The alternative would have essentially been a complete redevelopment and subsequent cancellation of the original Adventures of Mana-style production... which was likely nearly completed and served as the catalyst for creating a remake in the first place. Kind of a paradox.

Where is bayo 2 complete analysis?

if you have a hacked psvita,you can actually overclock it to get somewhat better performance.

@DigitalFoundry Honestly, I think this style of a remake is good. I never actually played the SNES version, and this version on the PS4 is a great way for me to place this. The gameplay and story hasn't changed, but all they did was update the technical aspects to modernize the game and the fact that it has Japanese and English voice option, and the option to swap between original music and the remade ones. Honestly, I wouldn't mind if Square-Enix does more of this style of remake for other games like: - Chrono Trigger - Chrono Cross - Parasite Eve - Parasite Eve 2 - Parasite Eve 3 - Vagrant Story - Xenogears - Brave Fencer Musashi Oh and I wouldn't mind if they remade Seiken Densetsu 1 and 3 as well on the PS4 in this same style.

Yeah if I told my friend who has never heard of Secret of Mana about this game and said it was just a PS2 game running with a higher resolution on PS4 he would totally believe me.

The original was better than this.

I like the graphics. Look good. Looks like a great $20-30 game. But what about the naked chick in the spell book? Is that still in the game?

The HUD elements on those ultra-wide PC clips are all stretched horizontally, and that would drive me insane over a full playthrough.

The Mana team has actually been doing mainly projects on the Vita recently. Wouldn't surprise me if this was originally just a Vita game, and later on they decided to port it to the PS4. It is great that it is on Vita though. Not much else is.

As always i think 2D games have to be remade in 2D, like Final fantasy IV on PSP, that is a proper remake of a 2D game! Still, i like this one, it's not as bad as we see on screens or vídeos, but i always prefer 2D remake of a 2D game.

Feels like I’m the only person who doesn’t mind this art style. 😅

HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY OF YOUR CHANNEL!

"As long as it's not on PS Vita!" :( That makes me sad...

The new artstyle is nothing but distasteful, soulless and flatout repugnant. None of the originals charm has been carried over unfortunately. This game deserves to be remade by someone who can translate the SNES original warm, cozy, lush and inviting feel into a graphic style that does it justice and suites it better.

Best version: SNES. Suck it Sony lol. Jk idgaf

Rose tinted specs are amazing, aren't they! I don't remember any of the issues with the snes version when I played it back in the day. Just happy memories of an amazing game!

+1 for Soukaigi soundtrack! :D

Perfect game for Nintendo Switch!!

Fun fact: the vita is also getting attack on titan 2!

Soukaigi sound track... amazing!

I've currently just started playing this on my PS5. I'm not sure what to make of the game thus far, but I always try to get through my games and not dismiss them.

Love this game. (the SNES version I mean)

It lost its charm with this. Sad that NA never got the switch port of the trilogy

Yeah FYI Megaman: Powered Up > The Original. Actually giving the robot masters some character and some seriously great content was the best thing that ever happened to that game.

It's SO OBVIOUS they built this for the Vita then just upscaled it for HD platforms.

Well to be fair the mobile games that people are referencing style wise are also Square published games. So they aren't intentionally copying it. It's their style they already made regular with their previous releases of some of the older Final Fantasy titles with chibi like bodies and all. I'm not sure why they stick with it. Maybe the sales are better than anyone knows on mobile. Most people I know prefer the rereleases of those on the gameboy/DS systems since they used the pixel art mostly and then improved the experience other ways. Granted I haven't played this. From the looks, I think I would rather replay the older version and especially if they cleaned up a few of the more annoying things with it.

PS Vita definitely needs a hardware upgrade. A cut down version (a full version for Nintendo SWITCH) NVIDIA Xavier would do the job done!

Ultrawide support is really cool. But... something about the textures and models... especially the odd color palette. There's something about Megaman Legends textures, that kept the pixel art appeal, that makes me almost wish that these remakes of older games would sort of follow that style, keeping the same exact color palettes, and a lot of the pixel art just contained within textures on 3D models...

It's nice to see some added benefits in the PC version. As far as the Vita version is concerned, I'm honestly surprised the game was released for it. Shame about its performance issues, too.

PS4 Pro was a rushed mistake.

A tru 4K on a Xbo................. Nope!!

I always enjoy This kind of videos... once again good showing john.

I think this started life as either a PSP remake or a PSVita remake and seeing how the Vita died they decided to port the game to the PS4 and the PC.

it's bizarre they supported a dead platform instead of the Switch...

Snes 》》》》everything else

Legend of Mana theme at the last 2 minutes, sublime!

The cover art pleases me! A sublime view of the fantasy nature of the game, it fits perfectly.

Its ok but rather play the inferior original.

Gamer Logic: Legend of Zelda (a Link to the Past) - "This game is a classic." Legend of Zelda (a Link Between Worlds) 240p/30fps - "An Amazing Return to top Down Hyrule, the Visuals are Amazing!" Secret of Mana - "This game is a classic." Secret of Mana Remake 4K/60fps - "OMG, the original is so much better! This game sucks."

In my opinion i still find the old snes version the best. Purely for nostalgia. Also unlike many, my snes still works and sits proudly on my desk next to my big tv. (I use a decoder box to fit the picture res to the screen)

I love you guys. Thanks so much for all the work.