Secret of Mana, originally released in Japan as Seiken Densetsu 2,[a] is a 1993 action role-playing game developed and published by Square for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

Set in a high fantasy universe, the game follows three heroes as they attempt to prevent an empire from conquering the world with the power of an ancient flying fortress.

The game has a unique Ring Command menu system, which pauses the action and allows the player to make decisions in the middle of battle.

Like many other role-playing games of the 16-bit era, Secret of Mana displays a top-down perspective, in which the player characters navigate the terrain and fight off hostile creatures.

The game features three such characters: the hero, the girl, and the sprite, named Randi, Primm, and Popoi outside the initial North American and European releases.

Options such as changing equipment, casting spells, or checking status are performed by cycling through the game's Ring Commands, a circular menu which hovers over the currently controlled party member.

[9] These sequences make use of the SNES's Mode 7 capability to create a rotatable background, giving the illusion that the ground beneath Flammie is rendered in three dimensions.

Angered by the king's actions and by her father's attempt to arrange her marriage to a local nobleman, she leaves the castle to save Dyluck and to accompany the hero as well.

The charred remains of the Tree speak to the heroes, explaining that a giant dragon called the Mana Beast will soon be summoned to combat the Fortress.

The team hoped to build on the foundation of Final Fantasy Adventure, and they included several modified elements from that game and from other popular Square titles in Secret of Mana.

Similarly, unused features in Secret of Mana were appropriated by the Chrono Trigger team, which (like Final Fantasy IV) was in production at the time.

[29] The developers initially resisted continuing the project without the CD add-on, believing that too much of the game would have to be cut, but they were overruled by company management.

[24][28] 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.

Secret of Mana was Kikuta's first video game score, and he encountered difficulties in dealing with the hardware limitations of the Super NES.

[31] Kikuta worked on the music mostly by himself, spending nearly 24 hours a day in his office, alternating between composing and editing to create a soundtrack that would be, according to him, "immersive" and "three-dimensional".

These custom samples allowed him to know exactly how each piece would sound on the system's hardware, so he did not have to worry about differences between the original composition and the Super NES.

[33] An official soundtrack album, Seiken Densetsu 2 Original Sound Version, was released in Japan in August 1993, containing 44 musical tracks from the game.

[43] The English translation for Secret of Mana was completed in only 30 days, mere weeks after the Japanese release,[27] and the North American localization was initially advertised as Final Fantasy Adventure 2.

[29] According to translator Ted Woolsey, a large portion of the game's script was cut out in the English localization due to space limitations.

The remake's gameplay was described as "basically the same" as the original, although it was redone using 3D graphics and some features were added for convenience such as an area map, increased game save opportunities, improved companion AI, and voice acting.

[66] Dengeki Oh magazine ranked it the second best-selling video game of 1993 in Japan, where 1.003 million units were sold that year, just below Street Fighter II Turbo.

[79] Nintendo Power called it an "enthralling epic", praising the "wide variety of sites and terrain", music, "Beautiful graphics and great depth of play" but criticizing the "unnecessarily long" sword powering-up and "awkward" item selection method.

[85] Edge's review said that Secret of Mana was better than contemporary role-playing games Ys I & II, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Landstalker: The Treasures of King Nole.

[74] Nintendo Magazine System also compared it favorably with A Link to the Past; one reviewer stated that "even the magnificence of Zelda III seems stale in comparison to the incredible features found within this refreshing, exhilarating adventure" while the other stated that it "comes the closest yet" to surpassing Zelda, concluding that Secret of Mana was "one of the greatest graphical RPGs in the history of the world".

"[72] In 2008, Lucas Thomas of IGN reviewed the Virtual Console release of Secret of Mana and stated that it was considered one of the best video games ever made.

She also praised the quality of the touch controls relative to other role-playing game phone versions, though she disliked that the multiplayer mode had been removed.

A writer for the magazine noted that, 20 years after Secret of Mana's release, its reputation as a SNES action RPG had been surpassed only by that of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

[92] Meghan Sullvan of IGN described the game as "a charming but clumsy 20ish-hour adventure that both frustrates and delights", praising the artstyle but faulting a lack of improvements over the original.

[94] Jeremy Parish, writing for Polygon, felt the remake compared poorly to the original's recent ports on Nintendo platforms, finding issues with its 3D redesign and repetitive character conversations.

[95] Chris Schilling of PC Gamer was particularly critical, saying the original appeared much smoother by comparison, disliking the new 3D graphics and faulting lack of noticeable adjustments to the pacing and difficulty.