Player Two Start: An SNES-CD Timeline
- Thread starter RySenkari
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Hopefully, there will be a better fate for Gunpei Yokoi, who IOTL was behind Virtual Boy, which flopped and caused him to leave the company (after his death, which is likely butterflied away ITTL, Nintendo honored him and didn't even mention Virtual Boy's failure).
Waiting for more, of course...
Waiting for more, of course...
Hopefully, there will be a better fate for Gunpei Yokoi, who IOTL was behind Virtual Boy, which flopped and caused him to leave the company (after his death, which is likely butterflied away ITTL, Nintendo honored him and didn't even mention Virtual Boy's failure).
Waiting for more, of course...
If you see the date of several interviews is obviously what happened so far, will not spoil but yokoi manage to get something good soon(that or takeda, depend)
So apparently this interview popped up: http://gaming.moe/?p=331
It's with a producer who worked with Enix USA during the NES/SNES era. He says there were plans to release one of the SNES Dragon Quest over, but Enix USA closed up shop before it could. There are other tidbits to, like how Actraiser became action oriented in the sequel.
And he mentions how there were rumors that Nintendo were looking at purely 3D graphical titles from third parties. While I don't know about that, I know about the rumors regarding Sony America and a bias against old/2d games. Will there be something regarding what gets published in America? Not based on content, but design?
It's with a producer who worked with Enix USA during the NES/SNES era. He says there were plans to release one of the SNES Dragon Quest over, but Enix USA closed up shop before it could. There are other tidbits to, like how Actraiser became action oriented in the sequel.
And he mentions how there were rumors that Nintendo were looking at purely 3D graphical titles from third parties. While I don't know about that, I know about the rumors regarding Sony America and a bias against old/2d games. Will there be something regarding what gets published in America? Not based on content, but design?
Well, he died in September 1997 so that interview doesn't QUITE butterfly his death just yet...but as you can see he's still with the company, soooooo....
I've already got Dragon Quest V (well, Dragon Warrior V at this time) coming to the vanilla SNES in 1994 sometime. As for the anti-2D bias, I'm thinking there will be plenty of room for 2D games considering that Nintendo did have games like Yoshi's Story releasing on the system as late as 1998 IOTL.
Interesting, since that interview I posted said that Enix Japan was the one making things difficult for DQ5 being localized, but they were allowing DQ6 to becomes Dragon Warrior V.
Speaking of Yoshi's Story, we will still see Yoshi's Island, right?
And I just remembered something else. Ever heard of a game called Croc: Legend of the Gobbos. by the makers of Star Fox? The original plan for it was a 3D platformer staring Yoshi, but Nintendo rejected it. This was apparently after Star Fox 2 was canceled.
I got that interview too, seems as enix was unable to got good numbers(their best product was Illusion of Gaia and they have to share profits as nintendo was the one who pushed the game) unlike square who all their game break 300K+ At premium price when Enix ailed a lot.
Here cost will be slower thanks to CD and both Nintendo and sony pushing rpg and mature games in their system, Enix will be far happy here.
About that 3d bias, that is bullshit, as nintendo published both kirby dreamland 3 and konami frogger as late as...1998 in USA!!!!, that is a lie how they feel the hype for n64 would drag their product when was publisher lack of confidence.
Again Nintendo did got busy during that time(that is why we lost Star Ocean when Nintendo was interested, the same Tales of Phantasia)
ITTL, since RPGs are more popular and there's less competition on the vanilla SNES, Enix decides to fix the problems in DQV and localize it here, where it actually does fairly well.
Yoshi's Island does come to the vanilla SNES in 1995 (without the Super Mario World 2 label obviously). It's Nintendo's last major first-party game for the standalone SNES and as well received ITTL as it is IOTL.
Croc is butterflied away by Argonaut's TTL franchises.
A bit of a tease for the next post, quoted from Secret Of Mana's Wikipedia article...
Will the next update also have an update how the Super Famicom and the CD addition is faring in Japan in comparison to its competitors?
It won't, but I'll try to squeeze that into one of the next two updates after this one.
Hopefully the increased capacity for Secret of Mana will also solve the problem with the equipment limit. My biggest pet peeve with the game was that I kept losing items from chest when my inventory was full, and sometimes I needed to keep several poison-neutralizing items on hand so my party wouldn't get poisoned.
More teasing! The following are select tracks from Secret of Mana: Genesis, a Japanese album from the original composer of the game, featuring selected tracks done in full arranged instrumental glory. This is what I imagine these songs would have sounded like in Super Nintendo CD Mana:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g54I_1RMXJU (Title Theme)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czj0QzbQ564 (Overworld Exploring Music)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIxb8EWdr40 (The Mana Fortress)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jou948WpD04 (Pure Land/Mana Holyland)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g54I_1RMXJU (Title Theme)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czj0QzbQ564 (Overworld Exploring Music)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIxb8EWdr40 (The Mana Fortress)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jou948WpD04 (Pure Land/Mana Holyland)
November 1993 - Secret Of Mana
“This is, without a doubt, the greatest video game I've ever played. It far surpasses Final Fantasy II and III, and even A Link To The Past. It's a perfectly polished, truly epic, and all-around brilliant video game that absolutely justifies the purchase of a Super Nintendo CD. It touched my heart on a level that a video game has never done before, and I'm telling you right now, go out and buy this game. It is a flawless video game and one hell of an adventure.”
-from Martin Alessi's 10/10 review of Secret Of Mana in the December 1993 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly
“I can't say all video games are bad. I got the opportunity, thanks to some of my younger interns, to play a game that I thought was really fun and really well made. I had an hour or so to kill and some of my interns invited me to play this game, it was called, I think, Secret of Mana. And it wasn't a really violent game, you had a sword but you were fighting monsters, it was a lot like the Lord of the Rings books I read as a kid and I really loved those. And you could play with two other people, and they let me play it for about an hour and it was a lot of fun. It had....it had the kind of music you wouldn't expect to hear in a game. I mean, not bleeps and bloops like in the old games but real music, like in a movie. And everything was so colorful and I had a lot of fun playing it. You could tell the people who made it put a lot of heart and work into it. So I do think that there is a redeeming value to video games. I mean, if all of them were more like that Secret of Mana game, I don't think there would've been a problem.”
-Al Gore, Larry King Live, November 22, 1993
“Oh yeah, one of my very first acting gigs was in this video game called 'Nightfall'. It was like this fantasy game, I think, like a medieval slasher type game, REALLY cheesy and campy but it was a lot of fun to work on. I played this witch who helped the main character, and I wore all these outfits that kept showing off my boobs. I mean this was around the time that Nintendo was in trouble with the government, so one of the games that got a lot of press was this Nightfall game because it was all violent and sexy. Of course compared to some of the games now it was REALLY tame, but I have good memories of working on it.”
-Kelly Hu, from the September 2010 issue of Maxim
“Sheex, no matter what happens to me I am not letting you go, not again, do you hear me? Dammit...the Empire's closing in....stay with me, I'm sorry I pulled you back into this but stay with me!!”
-Jerrica, boss of the “Scorpion Army”, Secret of Mana
“This was, without a doubt, the work I'm most proud of in my entire career. This was the translation I'd waited my whole career to do. I poured my heart and soul into it, but the game deserved nothing less and I'm glad Squaresoft gave me the time I needed to see it through to completion. I still get praise for it to this day and it warms my heart to know how much people appreciated the work I did.”
-Ted Woolsey, recalling his work on Secret of Mana in an RPGamer.com interview, March 3, 1999
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November 8, 1993
Secret of Mana is released in North America for the Super Nintendo CD, three months after a blockbuster release in Japan. In Japan, the game was critically lauded, receiving only the second 40/40 ever from Famitsu magazine (with Super Mario World 2 receiving the first earlier that year). The game was three years in the making, an enormous undertaking of time and energy from Squaresoft, the collaboration of dozens of talented game makers. Simply put, this game was the reason that Squaresoft lobbied so hard for Nintendo and Sony to come to an agreement, with a large chunk of its development already completed before pen was put to paper. Its North American release was accompanied by a large promotional push by Nintendo, who was somewhat determined to make the public forget about the Mortal Kombat controversy. Secret of Mana was as critically praised in North America as it was in Japan, perhaps even more so. It scored a 37/40 from Electronic Gaming Monthly, 5s across the board from Gamepro, a perfect score from Gamefan, and was awarded Game of the Month in nearly every magazine where such an award existed, even over Sega's massive November release Sonic CD. The reviews used words such as “epic”, “brilliant”, and even “masterpiece” to describe the game. The game sold 46,000 units on the day of its release in North America, which paled in comparison to smash hits like Super Mario World 2 and Mortal Kombat, but for the genre it was an unprecedented number. It would top 100,000 North American sales by the end of the week, and the coming holiday season and glowing reviews kept its legs strong. Eventually, after several years of sales and “greatest hits” reprintings, it would become the first JRPG to achieve one million sales in North America, an absolutely incredible milestone. But more importantly, it, like Super Mario World 2 and Mortal Kombat had done before it, would sell SNES-CD systems. Lots of them.
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Secret of Mana – The Basics
Secret of Mana's status as a CD-ROM game provided it with graphics that mildly exceeded those of its OTL counterpart (mostly in backgrounds and animation quality). What the CD medium truly allowed was that it made Secret of Mana a much bigger, longer, more epic game. The Empire and the Republic were fleshed out massively, with several large areas added to each. The game didn't have any voices or animated cutscenes, instead, the majority of data on the CD was actually taken up by its sprawling, epic musical score, now in full CD glory without any of the audio glitches that plagued the OTL game. It could also have much more text, especially in the North American version, which did away with the fixed width font that Squaresoft had used for previous English translations. This gave Ted Woolsey incredible flexibility with the translation quality, making it much more accurate to the original intent of the script. He was also given three months time to complete the translation, unlike the one month afforded to him IOTL.
The game's battle system, involving active attacking and defending by the player, was the same as IOTL. However, because of the additional boss battles, the player was given enough weapon orbs that weapons, including the Mana Sword, reached level 9 as a matter of just playing through the game instead of hunting down secret orbs for the final level (with enemy difficulty in the final dungeons rebalanced to keep pace). The item and equipment ring system was kept the same as OTL. You were limited to five of any one item at a time, but you have a reserve that you can access outside of a battle at any time by pressing Start to switch items/equipment into your active inventory (a system introduced IOTL by Seiken Densetsu 3).
The game also fleshed out and expanded upon a number of minor characters, particularly those of Emperor Vandole's lieutenants, Sheex, Fanha, and Geshtar. It also greatly expanded on the “Scorpion Army”, particularly its boss, now given the name of Jerrica and a much nobler purpose revealed late in the game. Dyluck was given more of a personality and the player was given more time to get to know him and the nature of Thanatos' dealings with the underworld were revealed. In brief, here's how some of the characters were expanded in game.
Dyluck- Remains the true love of Purim (the girl), though the prophecy surrounding him (“one born in darkness and raised in the light of Mana”) gets explained in game: The god of the underworld created him with the express purpose of serving as a body for Thanatos, but Thanatos was attacked by knights of the Republic before completing the ritual and was raised as Jema's son with Luka serving as a surrogate mother to him.
Geshtar- Trained since birth to be the Empire's perfect fighter, though we later find out that he seeks a destiny other than being the Empire's lap dog. We also eventually learn that he and Fanha are lovers.
Fanha- Born a sorceress in a Republic village that rejected her because of her strange powers, she joined the Empire for the purpose of getting revenge.
Sheex- Originally born in the Underground City as one of the last members of Silvira, the ancient futuristic civilization that once dominated the planet, he rejected a life in hiding and used the cybernetic implants given to him to serve the Emperor. However, he still holds lost feelings for Jerrica, leader of the Scorpion Army (aka the Keepers of Silvira)
Jerrica- “Boss” of the Scorpion Army, ostensibly seeking out Mana energy for their own nefarious purposes but in truth her group is attempting to keep the Underground City of Silvira going, since without Mana energy their technology will fail and the lives of her people depend on her group's work.
Krissy- Still the leader of the Resistance but we see a bit more of her as the Empire part of the game is expanded. She develops a very close friendship with Purim's friend Phanna.
Phanna- Purim's best friend, though the two are currently fighting because Purim stole Dyluck from her. Phanna later restores her friendship with Purim and is also deeply close with Krissy, to the point where fans suspect that the two of them may be a couple (indeed, it's confirmed by the game's creator in 2013 that Krissy and Phanna indeed do become a couple, with Phanna being revealed to be bisexual, of course it couldn't be confirmed in the actual game itself, only very VERY vaguely alluded to)
The plot of the game itself is greatly expanded from the OTL game, with the possibility for three different endings. The game is essentially divided into three main parts, which are...
Part I: The Early Quest
This is the part of the game most similar to the game IOTL, with only a few minor differences. It essentially consists of the hero Randi's journey beginning with him pulling out the sword, being banished from Potos, teaming up with the sprite Popoi and the girl Purim and gathering up the powers of Undine, Gnome, Sylphid, and Salamando. Again, it's very similar to how this part of the game was IOTL with a few minor differences (the first visit to Pandora is somewhat longer, you meet Dyluck and Purim first there, see the tension between Purim and Phanna, and even spar with Dyluck). Another part that gets expanded a bit is when the heroes pass out in Kakkara Desert and are taken aboard Morie and Meria's ship, you get some more background on the war between the Republic and the Empire, and Fanha tags along with Geshtar, you also see him actually getting into his motorcycle armor to fight you for the first Mech Rider fight. Morie also acts like a bit less of a jerk and we see that he genuinely has feelings for Purim, this will come into play later on.
Part II: The Empire Wars
Here's where things start to change significantly from OTL's Secret of Mana. The Southtown/Northtown segment is largely the same, though there's a boss to challenge you in the sewers instead of you just emerging into the Resistance's headquarters. Instead of the Emperor's palace being in Northtown, it's just a fort, Fort Vandole (named after the Emperor), and Geshtar doesn't burn it down because he's crazy, he burns it down because he legitimately considers the minor fort expendable. After Flammie rescues you, King Truffle points you to Tasnica instead of to Sage Joch, and in Tasnica, you're given the task of liberating three villages from the Empire. One of them is controlled by Sheex whom you fight in his Dark Stalker form after a brief quest, the second is controlled by Fanha (it's her childhood village and we get some sympathetic background on here), and the third is controlled by Thanatos. It's during this third quest that you actually free Dyluck from Thanatos and he joins the Republic Army here. Once the villages are liberated though, this is when you notice the King acting strangely. Indeed, the power of Lumina has taken a hold of him, and he and the Republic become hostile for a time, causing the party to seek out help from the Resistance. You're pointed to the Lofty Mountains, which are also greatly expanded, as an old Silviran city used to be on the mountain (those mysterious radios from the OTL game, this expands on those). You run into the Scorpion Army, who has kidnapped Sage Joch and wants Shade's power in trade for him, but instead of giving them what they want, the party fights them and they run. Joch points you to Shade as the only power that can contain Lumina, but that the party must be strong enough to contend with the darkness within their souls, leading to the maze from the first game where you fight your dopplegangers. After getting Shade's power, the party then visits a lighthouse (this was also a location expanded on from the OTL game, it's now a dungeon) to sever the King from Lumina's power. After doing that, the party returns to Tasnica, where Lumina tests you by sending out a boss monster (that's weak against Shade's magic) before also joining your group. With the King restored to normal, the final assault on the Empire can begin. There's a big battlefield that the party must traverse to reach the Empire's City of Gold (no longer a random island as IOTL but instead it's the Empire's capital city), as the party crosses it, fighting the empire's troops along the way, you can actually see the Empire's and Republic's troops fighting one another, it's a pretty epic scene. Finally, the party reaches the capitol and climbs up the Emperor's palace, a huge tower of gold to face the Emperor (another boss monster). Defeating the Emperor seems to take out the Empire for good, but in fact it's just a diversion, the Emperor was a fake and the huge battle a farce to divert attention away from the Moon Palace, where Thanatos is once again trying to collect more Mana energy (you learn the Empire's true goal here, to break the seals and raise the ancient Mana Fortress). Dyluck has already gone out ahead in an advance team to try and head off the Emperor. The party returns to the desert only to see Admiral Meria's ship under attack, there's a brief quest where the party helps him, then it's off to the Moon Palace. After a fight at the palace gates with the party vs. Sheex, Fanha, and Geshtar (all in their normal human forms but still a very tough fight with Sheex using speed, Geshtar straight up brute force, and Fanha powerful magic), the party manages to reach the Moon Palace staging room where Thanatos is waiting, the party stops him from breaking the seal but he manages to re-capture Dyluck. Next it's off to the Forgotten Continent where the Tree Palace awaits, here the party battles a transformed Sheex (as a giant plant monster, as IOTL), but in this game defeating him here doesn't kill him, it just opens up the rest of the palace (which is an actual dungeon), the party can't stop Thanatos and the Emperor from breaking all the seals and as IOTL, the continent and the Grand Palace are raised, thus ending part two of the game.
Part III- The Hero's Decision
After the events in the Tree Palace, Geshtar and Fanha confront the heroes outside, demanding to know what happened to Sheex. It seems that some masked people have abducted him and the two lieutenants blame the heroes, who decide to flee. During the course of their fleeing, they fall down a trap door to the Underground City. Unlike the game IOTL, the Underground City is not just one quest or dungeon but a series of them, during which you learn the full truth behind the Scorpion Army and its leader, Jerrica, and also the truth behind Sheex, whom Jerrica is trying to convince to return to helping them. You also learn the truth about the Mana Tribe...it's not entirely as benevolent as it seems, it in fact was somewhat of a quasi-religious organization, keeping technology down all in the name of preserving the power of Mana, and they heavily persecuted the Silviran civilization, leading it to ruin. Eventually, the Empire's troops invade the Underground City, though Jema and the forces of the Republic bravely clash against them. The party is presented with a choice...help Sheex and Jerrica defend themselves from Thanatos, or help save Jema's army from being routed.
Saving the Republic Army (Ending 1- “Harmony”): Saving the Republic Army immediately locks you into the first ending path. Sheex sacrifices his life to save Jerrica while the Republic army is saved from destruction after the party wins a boss fight. This leads to the ending most like the original game. You go on to the Grand Palace, where Fanha meets her end transformed into Hexus and Geshtar meets his transformed into the final Mech Rider (though in this version of the game, their deaths are tragic and noble, Fanha dies confronting Thanatos and Geshtar dies trying to avenge her). You move on to the Mana Holyland (the Pure Land IOTL), fighting five of Thanatos' monsters along the way, Thanatos wipes out the Mana Tree, you then go to the Mana Fortress and battle two more of his monsters before the final confrontation. Here, however, things once again divert from OTL's game. Instead of fighting Thanatos as the Dark Lich, you fight Jerrica as a huge scorpion monster (in her grief over Sheex's death, she hunts down Thanatos but is transformed by him and you have to fight and kill her), and then Thanatos in Dyluck's body. Despite being in a normal human body, this is probably the toughest final boss, with an incredible array of powerful magic and physical attacks. Once you defeat Thanatos, the hero, Popoi, and Purim manage to heal Dyluck, saving his life. The game ends with humanity free to choose its own destiny, with Dyluck and Purim as king and queen of a free and victorious Republic, and Randi as their loyal knight. It's considered the “canon” ending and probably the best ending as well. Though Mana is depleted, it's not entirely gone, and humanity is free to progress its technology, embrace the light of Mana, or both. Popoi's fate is left somewhat ambiguous but it's implied he'll eventually return as well.
However, if you go to save Sheex and Jerrica instead, you're locked out of Ending 1 and instead fight another boss before progressing to the Grand Palace. Here things progress as somewhat normal, but in the room where the Snapdragon would normally be, you're confronted by Jema instead. His entire army was killed by the Empire's troops and he barely made it out alive. He demands to know why Randi seems to have rejected his destiny. It's then that Jerrica shows up and says that Randi should fight Jema, that Jema is just like those self-righteous Mana Tribe people who decimated her civilization.
Defeating Jema (Ending 2: “Silvira”): Defeating and killing Jema locks you into this ending. After Jema's defeat, you confront Thanatos on the roof of the Grand Palace, and he decides to initiate the ritual to send himself into Dyluck's body. Dyluck fights him off but Thanatos is able to transform him into a monster before fleeing. Defeating Dyluck breaks Purim's heart but she steels herself and it's off to the Mana Holyland where the hero is to confront the Mana Tribe. After battling through six bosses sent by the holy power of Mana (the same bosses as IOTL's game), the hero finds the Mana Tree and learns the truth about Mana from his mother, that the women of the tribe are forced to become the tree, that they didn't volunteer to do so as Randi was once told. She says that the power of Mana is worth protecting and preserving but that the Mana Tribe has become corrupt and that is what led to the rise of the Mana Fortress and the world's downfall. Before she can say anything more, however, she is struck down by Thanatos' magic. The heroes, along with Sheex, Geshtar, Fanha, and Jerrica, journey to the Mana Fortress to liberate it from Thanatos. In this ending path, the final bosses are the same as in IOTL's game, you fight Dark Lich Thanatos, followed by the Mana Beast (this time a vengeful being sent by the Mana Tribe to destroy the fortress and human civilization). Defeating the Mana Beast leads to the second ending...the return of Silviran civilization will mean a great flourishing of human technology, and you have successfully redeemed Sheex, Geshtar, Fanha (who forgives the people of her old village), and Jerrica, but Mana is dying out and without it the world faces an uncertain future. In addition, Dyluck and Popoi are dead and gone for good.
Sparing Jema (Ending 3: “Mana Knight”): If you spare Jema's life, Jerrica angrily lashes out at the heroes, piloting a large mech in an attempt to kill them. After a boss fight, a dying Jerrica forgives the party and apologizes to them, but it's too late, her wounds from the battle prove fatal. The party goes on to confront Thanatos on the roof of the tower. This time, Dyluck sacrifices his life, and Thanatos confronts the party in human form (but still wielding formidable magic). After Thanatos' defeat, the party goes to the Mana Holyland, but after they leave the palace, the underworld forces decide to take advantage of an enraged and grief-stricken Geshtar, along with Sheex and Fanha, corrupting their souls for good and compelling them to make war on Mana itself. As the party ventures through the Mana Holyland it comes face to face with dangerous mechanical creatures attacking them, culminating in the Mana Fortress, controlled by the trio, opening fire on and destroying the Mana Tree. The Mana Tree still tells of corruption within the Mana Tribe, but her tone is more forgiving and it's revealed that there were many good people in the Mana Tribe as well, including the hero's brave father, and that without the Mana Tribe's measures, the Silvari would have taken over and destroyed the entire world. The party then goes to the Mana Fortress. After fighting a boss powered by stolen Mana energy (that takes the form of each of the eight elements in turn after one is defeated), the final boss is an enormous mecha controlled by Sheex, Fanha, and Geshtar. After the mecha is defeated, the ending takes place. Mana flourishes in a world ruled by the hero, influenced by the Mana Tribe, who even may be able to restore his mother to life in human form. However, though the natural world flourishes, human innovation and freedom are somewhat suppressed and even Jema questions the hero's choice.
The three endings are presented with their own pros and cons. Though there is one ending considered by fans to be the “good” ending, all three can be considered happy endings with their own caveats, letting the player truly choose their own path according to their own actions.
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“Thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart for letting me make this game the way I wanted to make it. Secret of Mana wouldn't have been possible without you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”- Koichi Ishii, while bowing repeatedly to Ken Kutaragi during a private meeting in Kutaragi's office shortly after the Japanese release of Secret of Mana. Kutaragi would later recall this as one of the three moments that most justified his work on creating the Super Nintendo CD in a 2004 interview.
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Actraiser 2:
Steve: 9 (quote: “The SNES-CD really shows off its ability to create great music in this game. It's incredibly tough, but the atmosphere tops pretty much any other game on the system.”)
Ed: 9
Martin: 9
Sushi-X: 9
Nightfall:
Steve: 8
Ed: 6
Martin: 6
Sushi-X: 7 (quote: “This is an FMV game actually worth playing. It's gritty, though cheesy at times, and you'll find yourself actually wanting to play things through to the end and find all of the hidden scenes.”)
Secret Of Mana:
Steve: 9
Ed: 9 (quote: “Three years of hard work from Squaresoft is worth the wait. This is the best RPG on the system, hands down, and one of my favorite games of the year. It features one of the best soundtracks ever and it's a long and rewarding journey. You won't want this game to end.”)
Martin: 10
Sushi-X: 9
Ninja Warriors:
Steve: 5 (quote: “This silly beat-em-up by Taito features some nice character detail, but as far as actions goes it's pretty repetitive and the music can be annoying at times.”)
Ed: 4
Martin: 5
Sushi-X: 3
The Simpsons:
Steve: 7
Ed: 8
Martin: 9
Sushi-X: 9 (quote: “I love seeing faithful arcade translations and this game is as faithful as they come. It's right up there with TMNT IV as one of my favorite beat-em-ups on a home console. Forget Bart's Nightmare, this is THE definitive Simpsons game and you can take the whole family for a spin with three of your friends.”)
Cliffhanger:
Steve: 3 (quote: “It's a shame that this game couldn't be as good as the movie was, and the movie itself was pretty bad. I guess The Terminator spoiled me on movie-to-game adaptations because this is just awful.”)
Ed: 6
Martin: 6
Sushi-X: 5
Neighborhood Wars:
Steve: 5
Ed: 7 (quote: “A pretty fun game that puts you in the role of a kid trying to hit other kids with water balloons and various other implements of mischief. I know the humor's pretty juvenile and the sound bites are dumb, but the gameplay was still pretty solid.”)
Martin: 4
Sushi-X: 2
-From Electronic Gaming Monthly's reviews of November 1993's SNES-CD games in their December 1993 and January 1994 issues
Sonic CD:
Steve: 9
Ed: 9
Martin: 9 (quote: “The best Sonic game yet is on the Sega CD! With a great CD soundtrack and lots of fun levels, expanded greatly by the game's excellent use of time travel, Sega really shows what this franchise is capable of and it rivals Super Mario World 2 as my favorite action platformer of the year.")
Sushi-X: 8
Ultima Underworld II:
Steve: 7
Ed: 8
Martin: 8
Sushi-X: 7 (quote: “This is a really good dungeon crawler, offering tons of ways to create your character as you explore one of the spookiest dungeons to ever appear in an RPG. Giving us two games in one is a nice deal too, but I did take some issue with how repetitive the dungeon crawling got to be after a while.”)
-from Electronic Gaming Monthly's reviews of Sega-CD games in their December 1993 issue
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*The familiar blue sky with white clouds appears on the screen, followed by a chorus singing that iconic title... “The Simpsons....”*
*Various scenes are shown of Homer, Lisa, Marge, and Bart fighting off enemies with various silly weapons.*
Narrator: America's favorite family arrives on the Super Nintendo CD, and they're fightin' mad!
*Homer is shown fighting off a variety of enemies, only to get hit a couple times and shout “D'oh!”*
Narrator: Now you can play the hit arcade smash at home with three of your friends any time you want! Use Homer, Bart, Marge, or Lisa to do battle against a variety of Springfield's nastiest foes!
*More scenes of the game are shown, featuring Bart and Lisa, we hear Bart shout “Ay carumba!”*
Narrator: It's “The Simpsons”, for your Super Nintendo CD! Take it to the next level of power!
-Advertisement for The Simpsons for Super Nintendo CD, which began airing in November 1993. Along with Secret of Mana, it was one of the first commercials to combine Nintendo's “Take it to the next level” slogan for the SNES-CD with the SNES' classic “Now you're playing with power”, to form a new slogan, Nintendo's subtle marketing attempt to get people who hadn't yet bought an SNES at all to buy the combo pack.
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Out of the games Enix America published during the SNES and SNES-CD era, which were the most successful?
Well, our collaborations with Quintet were fantastic, I mean, you had Illusion of Gaia sold a lot of copies on both, and of course there was the original ActRaiser. That was probably the most popular game. I mean, then we had Terranigma, and that was an SNES-CD exclusive. It was definitely the most complete and probably the best game that Enix ever released on a Nintendo system. It came out toward the end of the SNES-CD's life, of course, but I think it did pretty well and the review scores reflect that. I believe it even outsold Dragon Quest VI, which was pretty amazing.
And which didn't perform as well as you'd hoped?
Well, there was ActRaiser 2, which we decided to do SNES and SNES-CD versions of. The SNES-CD version flopped, despite it being the more complete version. Obviously coming out right before Secret of Mana really hurt us, but that was Enix of Japan's decision, not mine.
I remember that Dragon Quest V was localized around that time and it almost didn't get localized.
Well you can thank Squaresoft for that one. With them focusing a lot on the SNES-CD, and kind of neglecting the regular SNES at that time, Enix saw an opportunity to kind of slide a game in there and we got the go-ahead to localize Dragon Quest V for Spring 1994 despite the expense. It made a profit, if I recall correctly. We did a lot of duel-releases at that time, ActRaiser 2, E.V.O., and Illusion of Gaia were all released for both the cartridge based and the CD-ROM, but Enix kept Dragon Quest V as a cartridge and it did really well in both territories.
-excerpted from a Gaming.moe interview with Robert Jerauld, former Enix USA producer, November 24, 2014 (OOC: inspired by this OTL interview from November 15! http://gaming.moe/?p=331 )
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November 16, 1993
Sonic CD is released for the Sega CD in North America. The game was heavily promoted by Sega in the months leading to its release, and Tom Kalinske wanted it to be the game that put Sega CDs in every household in America. A huge amount of Sega's creative efforts went into the creation of the game and it even went a month beyond its expected release of October, but as long as it was ready for the holiday season, Kalinske would be satisfied.
But despite glowing reviews, many of which called Sonic CD the best Sonic game ever and a sure-fire Game of the Year contender, Sonic CD wasn't doing the one thing Sega needed it to do...sell Sega CDs. Sure, it was selling plenty of copies among Sega CD owners, and would eventually become the best selling Sega CD game of all time. But most Genesis owners were content with waiting for Sonic 3, which was just three short months away. A new Sonic game just wasn't enough to get them to put down 150 bucks. Ultima Underworld II had been similarly disappointing on a sales front, and though it was good on its own, nearly every game critic who compared it to Secret of Mana said it paled in comparison.
Aladdin was coming next month, but even Tom Kalinske had his doubts about the game being able to get people to buy a Sega CD. Sonic CD had been the game that was going to do that, and Sega CD sales were barely showing a minor blip, certainly not the massive spike he'd anticipated. The Super Nintendo CD was crushing the Sega CD in America and humiliating it in Japan. The one tiny consolation Kalinske had was that the Sega Genesis was still beating the original Super Nintendo in sales...though when sales of the Playstation Combo Set were added to the figures, it became a dead heat.
It was going to be a long holiday season. And it was about to get even longer.
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SNES-CD Power Charts – November 1993
1. Super Mario World 2 – 23,669
2. Star Fox – 19,184
3. Final Fantasy III – 17,753
4. Super Mario Kart – 14,041
5. Final Fight II – 12,571
6. Street Fighter II: Arcade Edition – 12,281
7. Super Bomberman CD – 7,571
8. Deadman Sam – 7,215
9. Final Fantasy: New Generation – 6,806
10. The Terminator – 6,664
11. Syndicate – 6,155
12. Lethal Enforcers – 5,445
13. Dune – 4,931
14. ClayFighter – 4,705
15. The Lost Vikings – 4,319
16. Alien 3 – 4,115
17. Clue – 4,090
18. Battletoads II – 3,957
19. Secret Of Mana – 3,224
20. Flashback: The Quest For Identity – 3,155
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TO ALL NINTENDO RETAILERS
MSRP ADJUSTMENT – EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY
SUPER NINTENDO - $99.99
SUPER NINTENDO W/MARIO ALL-STARS+WORLD BUNDLE - $129.99 (FROM $149.99)
SUPER NINTENDO CD W/SUPER MARIO WORLD 2 BUNDLE- $149.99 (FROM $199.99)
SUPER NINTENDO CD PLAYSTATION COMBO SET W/MARIO ALL-STARS+WORLD/SUPER MARIO WORLD 2 BUNDLE - $249.99 (FROM $349.99)
-from a fax sent out to all Nintendo retail partners on November 22, 1993
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“FUCK!” -Tom Kalinske, throwing a crumpled-up sheet of fax paper across his office, November 22, 1993
-from Martin Alessi's 10/10 review of Secret Of Mana in the December 1993 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly
“I can't say all video games are bad. I got the opportunity, thanks to some of my younger interns, to play a game that I thought was really fun and really well made. I had an hour or so to kill and some of my interns invited me to play this game, it was called, I think, Secret of Mana. And it wasn't a really violent game, you had a sword but you were fighting monsters, it was a lot like the Lord of the Rings books I read as a kid and I really loved those. And you could play with two other people, and they let me play it for about an hour and it was a lot of fun. It had....it had the kind of music you wouldn't expect to hear in a game. I mean, not bleeps and bloops like in the old games but real music, like in a movie. And everything was so colorful and I had a lot of fun playing it. You could tell the people who made it put a lot of heart and work into it. So I do think that there is a redeeming value to video games. I mean, if all of them were more like that Secret of Mana game, I don't think there would've been a problem.”
-Al Gore, Larry King Live, November 22, 1993
“Oh yeah, one of my very first acting gigs was in this video game called 'Nightfall'. It was like this fantasy game, I think, like a medieval slasher type game, REALLY cheesy and campy but it was a lot of fun to work on. I played this witch who helped the main character, and I wore all these outfits that kept showing off my boobs. I mean this was around the time that Nintendo was in trouble with the government, so one of the games that got a lot of press was this Nightfall game because it was all violent and sexy. Of course compared to some of the games now it was REALLY tame, but I have good memories of working on it.”
-Kelly Hu, from the September 2010 issue of Maxim
“Sheex, no matter what happens to me I am not letting you go, not again, do you hear me? Dammit...the Empire's closing in....stay with me, I'm sorry I pulled you back into this but stay with me!!”
-Jerrica, boss of the “Scorpion Army”, Secret of Mana
“This was, without a doubt, the work I'm most proud of in my entire career. This was the translation I'd waited my whole career to do. I poured my heart and soul into it, but the game deserved nothing less and I'm glad Squaresoft gave me the time I needed to see it through to completion. I still get praise for it to this day and it warms my heart to know how much people appreciated the work I did.”
-Ted Woolsey, recalling his work on Secret of Mana in an RPGamer.com interview, March 3, 1999
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November 8, 1993
Secret of Mana is released in North America for the Super Nintendo CD, three months after a blockbuster release in Japan. In Japan, the game was critically lauded, receiving only the second 40/40 ever from Famitsu magazine (with Super Mario World 2 receiving the first earlier that year). The game was three years in the making, an enormous undertaking of time and energy from Squaresoft, the collaboration of dozens of talented game makers. Simply put, this game was the reason that Squaresoft lobbied so hard for Nintendo and Sony to come to an agreement, with a large chunk of its development already completed before pen was put to paper. Its North American release was accompanied by a large promotional push by Nintendo, who was somewhat determined to make the public forget about the Mortal Kombat controversy. Secret of Mana was as critically praised in North America as it was in Japan, perhaps even more so. It scored a 37/40 from Electronic Gaming Monthly, 5s across the board from Gamepro, a perfect score from Gamefan, and was awarded Game of the Month in nearly every magazine where such an award existed, even over Sega's massive November release Sonic CD. The reviews used words such as “epic”, “brilliant”, and even “masterpiece” to describe the game. The game sold 46,000 units on the day of its release in North America, which paled in comparison to smash hits like Super Mario World 2 and Mortal Kombat, but for the genre it was an unprecedented number. It would top 100,000 North American sales by the end of the week, and the coming holiday season and glowing reviews kept its legs strong. Eventually, after several years of sales and “greatest hits” reprintings, it would become the first JRPG to achieve one million sales in North America, an absolutely incredible milestone. But more importantly, it, like Super Mario World 2 and Mortal Kombat had done before it, would sell SNES-CD systems. Lots of them.
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Secret of Mana – The Basics
Secret of Mana's status as a CD-ROM game provided it with graphics that mildly exceeded those of its OTL counterpart (mostly in backgrounds and animation quality). What the CD medium truly allowed was that it made Secret of Mana a much bigger, longer, more epic game. The Empire and the Republic were fleshed out massively, with several large areas added to each. The game didn't have any voices or animated cutscenes, instead, the majority of data on the CD was actually taken up by its sprawling, epic musical score, now in full CD glory without any of the audio glitches that plagued the OTL game. It could also have much more text, especially in the North American version, which did away with the fixed width font that Squaresoft had used for previous English translations. This gave Ted Woolsey incredible flexibility with the translation quality, making it much more accurate to the original intent of the script. He was also given three months time to complete the translation, unlike the one month afforded to him IOTL.
The game's battle system, involving active attacking and defending by the player, was the same as IOTL. However, because of the additional boss battles, the player was given enough weapon orbs that weapons, including the Mana Sword, reached level 9 as a matter of just playing through the game instead of hunting down secret orbs for the final level (with enemy difficulty in the final dungeons rebalanced to keep pace). The item and equipment ring system was kept the same as OTL. You were limited to five of any one item at a time, but you have a reserve that you can access outside of a battle at any time by pressing Start to switch items/equipment into your active inventory (a system introduced IOTL by Seiken Densetsu 3).
The game also fleshed out and expanded upon a number of minor characters, particularly those of Emperor Vandole's lieutenants, Sheex, Fanha, and Geshtar. It also greatly expanded on the “Scorpion Army”, particularly its boss, now given the name of Jerrica and a much nobler purpose revealed late in the game. Dyluck was given more of a personality and the player was given more time to get to know him and the nature of Thanatos' dealings with the underworld were revealed. In brief, here's how some of the characters were expanded in game.
Dyluck- Remains the true love of Purim (the girl), though the prophecy surrounding him (“one born in darkness and raised in the light of Mana”) gets explained in game: The god of the underworld created him with the express purpose of serving as a body for Thanatos, but Thanatos was attacked by knights of the Republic before completing the ritual and was raised as Jema's son with Luka serving as a surrogate mother to him.
Geshtar- Trained since birth to be the Empire's perfect fighter, though we later find out that he seeks a destiny other than being the Empire's lap dog. We also eventually learn that he and Fanha are lovers.
Fanha- Born a sorceress in a Republic village that rejected her because of her strange powers, she joined the Empire for the purpose of getting revenge.
Sheex- Originally born in the Underground City as one of the last members of Silvira, the ancient futuristic civilization that once dominated the planet, he rejected a life in hiding and used the cybernetic implants given to him to serve the Emperor. However, he still holds lost feelings for Jerrica, leader of the Scorpion Army (aka the Keepers of Silvira)
Jerrica- “Boss” of the Scorpion Army, ostensibly seeking out Mana energy for their own nefarious purposes but in truth her group is attempting to keep the Underground City of Silvira going, since without Mana energy their technology will fail and the lives of her people depend on her group's work.
Krissy- Still the leader of the Resistance but we see a bit more of her as the Empire part of the game is expanded. She develops a very close friendship with Purim's friend Phanna.
Phanna- Purim's best friend, though the two are currently fighting because Purim stole Dyluck from her. Phanna later restores her friendship with Purim and is also deeply close with Krissy, to the point where fans suspect that the two of them may be a couple (indeed, it's confirmed by the game's creator in 2013 that Krissy and Phanna indeed do become a couple, with Phanna being revealed to be bisexual, of course it couldn't be confirmed in the actual game itself, only very VERY vaguely alluded to)
The plot of the game itself is greatly expanded from the OTL game, with the possibility for three different endings. The game is essentially divided into three main parts, which are...
Part I: The Early Quest
This is the part of the game most similar to the game IOTL, with only a few minor differences. It essentially consists of the hero Randi's journey beginning with him pulling out the sword, being banished from Potos, teaming up with the sprite Popoi and the girl Purim and gathering up the powers of Undine, Gnome, Sylphid, and Salamando. Again, it's very similar to how this part of the game was IOTL with a few minor differences (the first visit to Pandora is somewhat longer, you meet Dyluck and Purim first there, see the tension between Purim and Phanna, and even spar with Dyluck). Another part that gets expanded a bit is when the heroes pass out in Kakkara Desert and are taken aboard Morie and Meria's ship, you get some more background on the war between the Republic and the Empire, and Fanha tags along with Geshtar, you also see him actually getting into his motorcycle armor to fight you for the first Mech Rider fight. Morie also acts like a bit less of a jerk and we see that he genuinely has feelings for Purim, this will come into play later on.
Part II: The Empire Wars
Here's where things start to change significantly from OTL's Secret of Mana. The Southtown/Northtown segment is largely the same, though there's a boss to challenge you in the sewers instead of you just emerging into the Resistance's headquarters. Instead of the Emperor's palace being in Northtown, it's just a fort, Fort Vandole (named after the Emperor), and Geshtar doesn't burn it down because he's crazy, he burns it down because he legitimately considers the minor fort expendable. After Flammie rescues you, King Truffle points you to Tasnica instead of to Sage Joch, and in Tasnica, you're given the task of liberating three villages from the Empire. One of them is controlled by Sheex whom you fight in his Dark Stalker form after a brief quest, the second is controlled by Fanha (it's her childhood village and we get some sympathetic background on here), and the third is controlled by Thanatos. It's during this third quest that you actually free Dyluck from Thanatos and he joins the Republic Army here. Once the villages are liberated though, this is when you notice the King acting strangely. Indeed, the power of Lumina has taken a hold of him, and he and the Republic become hostile for a time, causing the party to seek out help from the Resistance. You're pointed to the Lofty Mountains, which are also greatly expanded, as an old Silviran city used to be on the mountain (those mysterious radios from the OTL game, this expands on those). You run into the Scorpion Army, who has kidnapped Sage Joch and wants Shade's power in trade for him, but instead of giving them what they want, the party fights them and they run. Joch points you to Shade as the only power that can contain Lumina, but that the party must be strong enough to contend with the darkness within their souls, leading to the maze from the first game where you fight your dopplegangers. After getting Shade's power, the party then visits a lighthouse (this was also a location expanded on from the OTL game, it's now a dungeon) to sever the King from Lumina's power. After doing that, the party returns to Tasnica, where Lumina tests you by sending out a boss monster (that's weak against Shade's magic) before also joining your group. With the King restored to normal, the final assault on the Empire can begin. There's a big battlefield that the party must traverse to reach the Empire's City of Gold (no longer a random island as IOTL but instead it's the Empire's capital city), as the party crosses it, fighting the empire's troops along the way, you can actually see the Empire's and Republic's troops fighting one another, it's a pretty epic scene. Finally, the party reaches the capitol and climbs up the Emperor's palace, a huge tower of gold to face the Emperor (another boss monster). Defeating the Emperor seems to take out the Empire for good, but in fact it's just a diversion, the Emperor was a fake and the huge battle a farce to divert attention away from the Moon Palace, where Thanatos is once again trying to collect more Mana energy (you learn the Empire's true goal here, to break the seals and raise the ancient Mana Fortress). Dyluck has already gone out ahead in an advance team to try and head off the Emperor. The party returns to the desert only to see Admiral Meria's ship under attack, there's a brief quest where the party helps him, then it's off to the Moon Palace. After a fight at the palace gates with the party vs. Sheex, Fanha, and Geshtar (all in their normal human forms but still a very tough fight with Sheex using speed, Geshtar straight up brute force, and Fanha powerful magic), the party manages to reach the Moon Palace staging room where Thanatos is waiting, the party stops him from breaking the seal but he manages to re-capture Dyluck. Next it's off to the Forgotten Continent where the Tree Palace awaits, here the party battles a transformed Sheex (as a giant plant monster, as IOTL), but in this game defeating him here doesn't kill him, it just opens up the rest of the palace (which is an actual dungeon), the party can't stop Thanatos and the Emperor from breaking all the seals and as IOTL, the continent and the Grand Palace are raised, thus ending part two of the game.
Part III- The Hero's Decision
After the events in the Tree Palace, Geshtar and Fanha confront the heroes outside, demanding to know what happened to Sheex. It seems that some masked people have abducted him and the two lieutenants blame the heroes, who decide to flee. During the course of their fleeing, they fall down a trap door to the Underground City. Unlike the game IOTL, the Underground City is not just one quest or dungeon but a series of them, during which you learn the full truth behind the Scorpion Army and its leader, Jerrica, and also the truth behind Sheex, whom Jerrica is trying to convince to return to helping them. You also learn the truth about the Mana Tribe...it's not entirely as benevolent as it seems, it in fact was somewhat of a quasi-religious organization, keeping technology down all in the name of preserving the power of Mana, and they heavily persecuted the Silviran civilization, leading it to ruin. Eventually, the Empire's troops invade the Underground City, though Jema and the forces of the Republic bravely clash against them. The party is presented with a choice...help Sheex and Jerrica defend themselves from Thanatos, or help save Jema's army from being routed.
Saving the Republic Army (Ending 1- “Harmony”): Saving the Republic Army immediately locks you into the first ending path. Sheex sacrifices his life to save Jerrica while the Republic army is saved from destruction after the party wins a boss fight. This leads to the ending most like the original game. You go on to the Grand Palace, where Fanha meets her end transformed into Hexus and Geshtar meets his transformed into the final Mech Rider (though in this version of the game, their deaths are tragic and noble, Fanha dies confronting Thanatos and Geshtar dies trying to avenge her). You move on to the Mana Holyland (the Pure Land IOTL), fighting five of Thanatos' monsters along the way, Thanatos wipes out the Mana Tree, you then go to the Mana Fortress and battle two more of his monsters before the final confrontation. Here, however, things once again divert from OTL's game. Instead of fighting Thanatos as the Dark Lich, you fight Jerrica as a huge scorpion monster (in her grief over Sheex's death, she hunts down Thanatos but is transformed by him and you have to fight and kill her), and then Thanatos in Dyluck's body. Despite being in a normal human body, this is probably the toughest final boss, with an incredible array of powerful magic and physical attacks. Once you defeat Thanatos, the hero, Popoi, and Purim manage to heal Dyluck, saving his life. The game ends with humanity free to choose its own destiny, with Dyluck and Purim as king and queen of a free and victorious Republic, and Randi as their loyal knight. It's considered the “canon” ending and probably the best ending as well. Though Mana is depleted, it's not entirely gone, and humanity is free to progress its technology, embrace the light of Mana, or both. Popoi's fate is left somewhat ambiguous but it's implied he'll eventually return as well.
However, if you go to save Sheex and Jerrica instead, you're locked out of Ending 1 and instead fight another boss before progressing to the Grand Palace. Here things progress as somewhat normal, but in the room where the Snapdragon would normally be, you're confronted by Jema instead. His entire army was killed by the Empire's troops and he barely made it out alive. He demands to know why Randi seems to have rejected his destiny. It's then that Jerrica shows up and says that Randi should fight Jema, that Jema is just like those self-righteous Mana Tribe people who decimated her civilization.
Defeating Jema (Ending 2: “Silvira”): Defeating and killing Jema locks you into this ending. After Jema's defeat, you confront Thanatos on the roof of the Grand Palace, and he decides to initiate the ritual to send himself into Dyluck's body. Dyluck fights him off but Thanatos is able to transform him into a monster before fleeing. Defeating Dyluck breaks Purim's heart but she steels herself and it's off to the Mana Holyland where the hero is to confront the Mana Tribe. After battling through six bosses sent by the holy power of Mana (the same bosses as IOTL's game), the hero finds the Mana Tree and learns the truth about Mana from his mother, that the women of the tribe are forced to become the tree, that they didn't volunteer to do so as Randi was once told. She says that the power of Mana is worth protecting and preserving but that the Mana Tribe has become corrupt and that is what led to the rise of the Mana Fortress and the world's downfall. Before she can say anything more, however, she is struck down by Thanatos' magic. The heroes, along with Sheex, Geshtar, Fanha, and Jerrica, journey to the Mana Fortress to liberate it from Thanatos. In this ending path, the final bosses are the same as in IOTL's game, you fight Dark Lich Thanatos, followed by the Mana Beast (this time a vengeful being sent by the Mana Tribe to destroy the fortress and human civilization). Defeating the Mana Beast leads to the second ending...the return of Silviran civilization will mean a great flourishing of human technology, and you have successfully redeemed Sheex, Geshtar, Fanha (who forgives the people of her old village), and Jerrica, but Mana is dying out and without it the world faces an uncertain future. In addition, Dyluck and Popoi are dead and gone for good.
Sparing Jema (Ending 3: “Mana Knight”): If you spare Jema's life, Jerrica angrily lashes out at the heroes, piloting a large mech in an attempt to kill them. After a boss fight, a dying Jerrica forgives the party and apologizes to them, but it's too late, her wounds from the battle prove fatal. The party goes on to confront Thanatos on the roof of the tower. This time, Dyluck sacrifices his life, and Thanatos confronts the party in human form (but still wielding formidable magic). After Thanatos' defeat, the party goes to the Mana Holyland, but after they leave the palace, the underworld forces decide to take advantage of an enraged and grief-stricken Geshtar, along with Sheex and Fanha, corrupting their souls for good and compelling them to make war on Mana itself. As the party ventures through the Mana Holyland it comes face to face with dangerous mechanical creatures attacking them, culminating in the Mana Fortress, controlled by the trio, opening fire on and destroying the Mana Tree. The Mana Tree still tells of corruption within the Mana Tribe, but her tone is more forgiving and it's revealed that there were many good people in the Mana Tribe as well, including the hero's brave father, and that without the Mana Tribe's measures, the Silvari would have taken over and destroyed the entire world. The party then goes to the Mana Fortress. After fighting a boss powered by stolen Mana energy (that takes the form of each of the eight elements in turn after one is defeated), the final boss is an enormous mecha controlled by Sheex, Fanha, and Geshtar. After the mecha is defeated, the ending takes place. Mana flourishes in a world ruled by the hero, influenced by the Mana Tribe, who even may be able to restore his mother to life in human form. However, though the natural world flourishes, human innovation and freedom are somewhat suppressed and even Jema questions the hero's choice.
The three endings are presented with their own pros and cons. Though there is one ending considered by fans to be the “good” ending, all three can be considered happy endings with their own caveats, letting the player truly choose their own path according to their own actions.
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“Thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart for letting me make this game the way I wanted to make it. Secret of Mana wouldn't have been possible without you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”- Koichi Ishii, while bowing repeatedly to Ken Kutaragi during a private meeting in Kutaragi's office shortly after the Japanese release of Secret of Mana. Kutaragi would later recall this as one of the three moments that most justified his work on creating the Super Nintendo CD in a 2004 interview.
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Actraiser 2:
Steve: 9 (quote: “The SNES-CD really shows off its ability to create great music in this game. It's incredibly tough, but the atmosphere tops pretty much any other game on the system.”)
Ed: 9
Martin: 9
Sushi-X: 9
Nightfall:
Steve: 8
Ed: 6
Martin: 6
Sushi-X: 7 (quote: “This is an FMV game actually worth playing. It's gritty, though cheesy at times, and you'll find yourself actually wanting to play things through to the end and find all of the hidden scenes.”)
Secret Of Mana:
Steve: 9
Ed: 9 (quote: “Three years of hard work from Squaresoft is worth the wait. This is the best RPG on the system, hands down, and one of my favorite games of the year. It features one of the best soundtracks ever and it's a long and rewarding journey. You won't want this game to end.”)
Martin: 10
Sushi-X: 9
Ninja Warriors:
Steve: 5 (quote: “This silly beat-em-up by Taito features some nice character detail, but as far as actions goes it's pretty repetitive and the music can be annoying at times.”)
Ed: 4
Martin: 5
Sushi-X: 3
The Simpsons:
Steve: 7
Ed: 8
Martin: 9
Sushi-X: 9 (quote: “I love seeing faithful arcade translations and this game is as faithful as they come. It's right up there with TMNT IV as one of my favorite beat-em-ups on a home console. Forget Bart's Nightmare, this is THE definitive Simpsons game and you can take the whole family for a spin with three of your friends.”)
Cliffhanger:
Steve: 3 (quote: “It's a shame that this game couldn't be as good as the movie was, and the movie itself was pretty bad. I guess The Terminator spoiled me on movie-to-game adaptations because this is just awful.”)
Ed: 6
Martin: 6
Sushi-X: 5
Neighborhood Wars:
Steve: 5
Ed: 7 (quote: “A pretty fun game that puts you in the role of a kid trying to hit other kids with water balloons and various other implements of mischief. I know the humor's pretty juvenile and the sound bites are dumb, but the gameplay was still pretty solid.”)
Martin: 4
Sushi-X: 2
-From Electronic Gaming Monthly's reviews of November 1993's SNES-CD games in their December 1993 and January 1994 issues
Sonic CD:
Steve: 9
Ed: 9
Martin: 9 (quote: “The best Sonic game yet is on the Sega CD! With a great CD soundtrack and lots of fun levels, expanded greatly by the game's excellent use of time travel, Sega really shows what this franchise is capable of and it rivals Super Mario World 2 as my favorite action platformer of the year.")
Sushi-X: 8
Ultima Underworld II:
Steve: 7
Ed: 8
Martin: 8
Sushi-X: 7 (quote: “This is a really good dungeon crawler, offering tons of ways to create your character as you explore one of the spookiest dungeons to ever appear in an RPG. Giving us two games in one is a nice deal too, but I did take some issue with how repetitive the dungeon crawling got to be after a while.”)
-from Electronic Gaming Monthly's reviews of Sega-CD games in their December 1993 issue
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*The familiar blue sky with white clouds appears on the screen, followed by a chorus singing that iconic title... “The Simpsons....”*
*Various scenes are shown of Homer, Lisa, Marge, and Bart fighting off enemies with various silly weapons.*
Narrator: America's favorite family arrives on the Super Nintendo CD, and they're fightin' mad!
*Homer is shown fighting off a variety of enemies, only to get hit a couple times and shout “D'oh!”*
Narrator: Now you can play the hit arcade smash at home with three of your friends any time you want! Use Homer, Bart, Marge, or Lisa to do battle against a variety of Springfield's nastiest foes!
*More scenes of the game are shown, featuring Bart and Lisa, we hear Bart shout “Ay carumba!”*
Narrator: It's “The Simpsons”, for your Super Nintendo CD! Take it to the next level of power!
-Advertisement for The Simpsons for Super Nintendo CD, which began airing in November 1993. Along with Secret of Mana, it was one of the first commercials to combine Nintendo's “Take it to the next level” slogan for the SNES-CD with the SNES' classic “Now you're playing with power”, to form a new slogan, Nintendo's subtle marketing attempt to get people who hadn't yet bought an SNES at all to buy the combo pack.
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Out of the games Enix America published during the SNES and SNES-CD era, which were the most successful?
Well, our collaborations with Quintet were fantastic, I mean, you had Illusion of Gaia sold a lot of copies on both, and of course there was the original ActRaiser. That was probably the most popular game. I mean, then we had Terranigma, and that was an SNES-CD exclusive. It was definitely the most complete and probably the best game that Enix ever released on a Nintendo system. It came out toward the end of the SNES-CD's life, of course, but I think it did pretty well and the review scores reflect that. I believe it even outsold Dragon Quest VI, which was pretty amazing.
And which didn't perform as well as you'd hoped?
Well, there was ActRaiser 2, which we decided to do SNES and SNES-CD versions of. The SNES-CD version flopped, despite it being the more complete version. Obviously coming out right before Secret of Mana really hurt us, but that was Enix of Japan's decision, not mine.
I remember that Dragon Quest V was localized around that time and it almost didn't get localized.
Well you can thank Squaresoft for that one. With them focusing a lot on the SNES-CD, and kind of neglecting the regular SNES at that time, Enix saw an opportunity to kind of slide a game in there and we got the go-ahead to localize Dragon Quest V for Spring 1994 despite the expense. It made a profit, if I recall correctly. We did a lot of duel-releases at that time, ActRaiser 2, E.V.O., and Illusion of Gaia were all released for both the cartridge based and the CD-ROM, but Enix kept Dragon Quest V as a cartridge and it did really well in both territories.
-excerpted from a Gaming.moe interview with Robert Jerauld, former Enix USA producer, November 24, 2014 (OOC: inspired by this OTL interview from November 15! http://gaming.moe/?p=331 )
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November 16, 1993
Sonic CD is released for the Sega CD in North America. The game was heavily promoted by Sega in the months leading to its release, and Tom Kalinske wanted it to be the game that put Sega CDs in every household in America. A huge amount of Sega's creative efforts went into the creation of the game and it even went a month beyond its expected release of October, but as long as it was ready for the holiday season, Kalinske would be satisfied.
But despite glowing reviews, many of which called Sonic CD the best Sonic game ever and a sure-fire Game of the Year contender, Sonic CD wasn't doing the one thing Sega needed it to do...sell Sega CDs. Sure, it was selling plenty of copies among Sega CD owners, and would eventually become the best selling Sega CD game of all time. But most Genesis owners were content with waiting for Sonic 3, which was just three short months away. A new Sonic game just wasn't enough to get them to put down 150 bucks. Ultima Underworld II had been similarly disappointing on a sales front, and though it was good on its own, nearly every game critic who compared it to Secret of Mana said it paled in comparison.
Aladdin was coming next month, but even Tom Kalinske had his doubts about the game being able to get people to buy a Sega CD. Sonic CD had been the game that was going to do that, and Sega CD sales were barely showing a minor blip, certainly not the massive spike he'd anticipated. The Super Nintendo CD was crushing the Sega CD in America and humiliating it in Japan. The one tiny consolation Kalinske had was that the Sega Genesis was still beating the original Super Nintendo in sales...though when sales of the Playstation Combo Set were added to the figures, it became a dead heat.
It was going to be a long holiday season. And it was about to get even longer.
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SNES-CD Power Charts – November 1993
1. Super Mario World 2 – 23,669
2. Star Fox – 19,184
3. Final Fantasy III – 17,753
4. Super Mario Kart – 14,041
5. Final Fight II – 12,571
6. Street Fighter II: Arcade Edition – 12,281
7. Super Bomberman CD – 7,571
8. Deadman Sam – 7,215
9. Final Fantasy: New Generation – 6,806
10. The Terminator – 6,664
11. Syndicate – 6,155
12. Lethal Enforcers – 5,445
13. Dune – 4,931
14. ClayFighter – 4,705
15. The Lost Vikings – 4,319
16. Alien 3 – 4,115
17. Clue – 4,090
18. Battletoads II – 3,957
19. Secret Of Mana – 3,224
20. Flashback: The Quest For Identity – 3,155
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TO ALL NINTENDO RETAILERS
MSRP ADJUSTMENT – EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY
SUPER NINTENDO - $99.99
SUPER NINTENDO W/MARIO ALL-STARS+WORLD BUNDLE - $129.99 (FROM $149.99)
SUPER NINTENDO CD W/SUPER MARIO WORLD 2 BUNDLE- $149.99 (FROM $199.99)
SUPER NINTENDO CD PLAYSTATION COMBO SET W/MARIO ALL-STARS+WORLD/SUPER MARIO WORLD 2 BUNDLE - $249.99 (FROM $349.99)
-from a fax sent out to all Nintendo retail partners on November 22, 1993
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“FUCK!” -Tom Kalinske, throwing a crumpled-up sheet of fax paper across his office, November 22, 1993
As I recall, Christmas of '93 was when my parents gave me the SNES that was the first console ever to grace the Loomis household (the price we paid for having gotten a TRS-80 fifteen years earlier); my TTL counterpart probably got a *Playstation instead.
Didn't a previous post have the Genesis at $99.99 and the Sega CD at $149.99 (before a $20 mail in rebate w/ purchase of the Genesis)? This new pricing for the SNES hardware going to be a pain for Sega. And that's not considering the value of pack-ins for either company (does Sega have any console w/ game bundles)?
Will we see an update listing of Nintendo Power covers? I made a guess for the rest of the year (from April 1993)
April 1993 - Super Turrican
May 1993 - Super Mario World 2
June 1993 - Battletoads and Double Dragon (as in OTL)
July 1993 - Star Fox
August 1993 - Final Fantasy III
September 1993 - Super Mario All-Stars (as in OTL)
October 1993 - Super Empire Strikes Back (as in OTL)
November 1993 - Super Detective Club (incidentally, this issue was the first to mention Project Reality OTL)
December 1993 - Secret of Mana
I also see that The Simpsons arcade finally appears. Was this Konami's release taking the place of OTL Sunset Riders for the SNES in October 1993?
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