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Fun Fact: Secret of Mana was originally designed on the Play Station. Much of the game's content had to be cut to get it to fit onto a standard Super Famicom ca

Fun Fact: Secret of Mana was originally designed on the Play Station. Much of the game's content had to be cut to get it to fit onto a standard Super Famicom cartridge after the add-on was killed.[0] [0]https://v1.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/columns/pixels-and-bits/13744-Secret-of-Mana-Could-Have-Been-Great-With-Its-Missing-Content https://v1.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/co...

jmkd 7y ago
Such a beautiful and accomplished soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGK3usiX31s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGK3usiX31s
- jtaft 7y ago
  NeoTokyo has an awesome soundtrack too. It's a free HL2 source engine mod. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=408tWOubRDM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=408tWOubRDM
  - throwaway77384 7y ago
    This is ridiculous. I have never even heard of NeoTokyo, but this soundtrack just blows me away. Thanks, man. I love stumbling upon completely random recommendations like this.
    - kevingadd 7y ago
      The NeoTokyo composer also did the soundtrack for Deus Ex's Breach mode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RET2PzWKzNw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RET2PzWKzNw He also released an album recently called tgr fuel: https://edharrison.bandcamp.com/album/tgr-fuel https://edharrison.bandcamp.com/album/tgr-fuel
    - m1gu3l 7y ago
      oh man i remember loving that game when it was in beta. do people still play this?
- virgil_disgr4ce 7y ago
  I've always thought so too. So many memories.
SkyBelow 7y ago
Do they have any further details of the cut content? Like images of cut content, what plot was removed, etc.? I've seen numerous applications mention the cut content but the descriptions are always very high level, like in this article.
- AdmiralAsshat 7y ago
  In my experience, Squaresoft is pretty secretive about their development process. Their staff will talk on the record about the process and drop tidbits, like the interview above, about stuff that might have been cut, but it's pretty rare that they'll go into any great detail or provide "beta" screenshots. That stuff rarely happens unless we happen to find it dummied out in the game code somewhere.[0] For the rest, we sorta have to look at what came later and work backwards from there to try to envision what the features might have looked like. For example: > One of the most significant changes was the removal of the option to take multiple routes through the game that led to several possible endings, in contrast to the linear journey in the final product. [1] Since this system eventually showed up in the game's sequel, Seiken Densetsu 3 (Now called "Trials of Mana" after its Switch port localization), we can probably assume that it would have worked something like that. It's also probably safe to assume that some of the other unused concepts from Secret of Mana eventually found their way into SD3. But I'm always hesitant to get too specific, since game developers change their mind all the time during development. One of the best examples I can think of for this would be the Soul Reaver series, where the original title had a huge amount of content cut in order to deliver the game on time[2], instead ending on a cliffhanger and with the intention that Soul Reaver 2 would finish it up. We have a pretty good idea of what was supposed to happen in the original conception of the story, because we found a ton of leftover assets, voiceovers from unproduced cutscenes, and design documents. There's even a sequence of the main character "gazing into the future" with pieces of sequences that never occur (presumably they would have if the game had been finished as originally designed). By the time the sequels Soul Reaver 2 and Legacy of Kain: Defiance were produced, however, the story veered off into a much different direction. Some of the boss fights that were planned for Soul Reaver 1 ended up eventually happening in SR2 or LoK:D under very different circumstances, or were scrapped altogether. [0]https://tcrf.net/Final_Fantasy_VII#The_Red_Man https://tcrf.net/Final_Fantasy_VII#The_Red_Man [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_of_Mana#Development https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_of_Mana#Development [2]http://thelostworlds.net/ http://thelostworlds.net/
gdubs 7y ago
Such a beautiful game. I recently checked out the book “SNES Omnibus” from the library and it provided for some nice nostalgia: https://venturebeat.com/2018/08/01/the-retrobeat-the-snes-omnibus-is-a-great-way-to-explore-the-classic-console/ https://venturebeat.com/2018/08/01/the-retrobeat-the-snes-om...
shaunxcode 7y ago
Secret of Mana is my favorite game of all time and I always suspected it had been “edited” or “condensed”. When I first learned about the above it all made sense. The first 1/4 of the game is the pacing and intention that the rest always deserved. I have played sd3 and look forward to trials of mana BUT a “directors cut” of the original is my holy grail.
Phillips126 7y ago
Thanks for sharing, I never would have expected that. As a kid, I spent a ton of hours completing everything there was to do in Secret of Mana. Recently I purchased a SNES Classic and threw that game on it to play with my daughter. We are both enjoying it greatly :)

jmkd 7y ago

Such a beautiful and accomplished soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGK3usiX31s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGK3usiX31s

jtaft 7y ago
NeoTokyo has an awesome soundtrack too. It's a free HL2 source engine mod. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=408tWOubRDM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=408tWOubRDM
- throwaway77384 7y ago
  This is ridiculous. I have never even heard of NeoTokyo, but this soundtrack just blows me away. Thanks, man. I love stumbling upon completely random recommendations like this.
  - kevingadd 7y ago
    The NeoTokyo composer also did the soundtrack for Deus Ex's Breach mode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RET2PzWKzNw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RET2PzWKzNw He also released an album recently called tgr fuel: https://edharrison.bandcamp.com/album/tgr-fuel https://edharrison.bandcamp.com/album/tgr-fuel
  - m1gu3l 7y ago
    oh man i remember loving that game when it was in beta. do people still play this?
virgil_disgr4ce 7y ago
I've always thought so too. So many memories.

SkyBelow 7y ago

Do they have any further details of the cut content? Like images of cut content, what plot was removed, etc.? I've seen numerous applications mention the cut content but the descriptions are always very high level, like in this article.

AdmiralAsshat 7y ago
In my experience, Squaresoft is pretty secretive about their development process. Their staff will talk on the record about the process and drop tidbits, like the interview above, about stuff that might have been cut, but it's pretty rare that they'll go into any great detail or provide "beta" screenshots. That stuff rarely happens unless we happen to find it dummied out in the game code somewhere.[0] For the rest, we sorta have to look at what came later and work backwards from there to try to envision what the features might have looked like. For example: > One of the most significant changes was the removal of the option to take multiple routes through the game that led to several possible endings, in contrast to the linear journey in the final product. [1] Since this system eventually showed up in the game's sequel, Seiken Densetsu 3 (Now called "Trials of Mana" after its Switch port localization), we can probably assume that it would have worked something like that. It's also probably safe to assume that some of the other unused concepts from Secret of Mana eventually found their way into SD3. But I'm always hesitant to get too specific, since game developers change their mind all the time during development. One of the best examples I can think of for this would be the Soul Reaver series, where the original title had a huge amount of content cut in order to deliver the game on time[2], instead ending on a cliffhanger and with the intention that Soul Reaver 2 would finish it up. We have a pretty good idea of what was supposed to happen in the original conception of the story, because we found a ton of leftover assets, voiceovers from unproduced cutscenes, and design documents. There's even a sequence of the main character "gazing into the future" with pieces of sequences that never occur (presumably they would have if the game had been finished as originally designed). By the time the sequels Soul Reaver 2 and Legacy of Kain: Defiance were produced, however, the story veered off into a much different direction. Some of the boss fights that were planned for Soul Reaver 1 ended up eventually happening in SR2 or LoK:D under very different circumstances, or were scrapped altogether. [0]https://tcrf.net/Final_Fantasy_VII#The_Red_Man https://tcrf.net/Final_Fantasy_VII#The_Red_Man [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_of_Mana#Development https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_of_Mana#Development [2]http://thelostworlds.net/ http://thelostworlds.net/

gdubs 7y ago

Such a beautiful game. I recently checked out the book “SNES Omnibus” from the library and it provided for some nice nostalgia: https://venturebeat.com/2018/08/01/the-retrobeat-the-snes-omnibus-is-a-great-way-to-explore-the-classic-console/ https://venturebeat.com/2018/08/01/the-retrobeat-the-snes-om...

shaunxcode 7y ago

Secret of Mana is my favorite game of all time and I always suspected it had been “edited” or “condensed”. When I first learned about the above it all made sense. The first 1/4 of the game is the pacing and intention that the rest always deserved. I have played sd3 and look forward to trials of mana BUT a “directors cut” of the original is my holy grail.

Phillips126 7y ago

Thanks for sharing, I never would have expected that. As a kid, I spent a ton of hours completing everything there was to do in Secret of Mana. Recently I purchased a SNES Classic and threw that game on it to play with my daughter. We are both enjoying it greatly :)