I have no clue how this is considered a "classic". It's awful. The only reason i don't call this square's worst game on the SNES is the Final fantasy Mystic quest exist.
This game was realeased after Final fantasy 4. I don't consider Final fantasy 4 to have aged well but at the time of it release it was the best RPG on the snes. Secret of mana is a damn joke even at the time of its release. The first game from the serie, Final fantasy Adventure (aka Adventure of Mana) is actually deeper and far more appealing despite being a fairly simple action RPG released early on the Game Boy.

The combat is just awful. You wait for a bar to charge to full and then you press attack. Maybe it'll hit, maybe not. You can also cast spells wich always hit and are really overpowered. That's it. That's all the depth of the fighting.

You have two companion with you and they're really dumb. Even for a SNES game. They don't know how to get around corner and they only stay away from the enemy they are actively attacking. Companions die all the time to slow, easy to dodge attack.

The difficulty is horrible. You start the game with every enemy getting a concussion and passing out from the tiniest nudge. While you end the game with a 10000 HP boss who only take 100 point of damage from a character with 99 strenght and max weapon skill.

The story is laughable. It's "Chosen hero must fight evil awoken by empire" that Square had used in their older NES title, but had already moved on from with Final Fantasy 4. Final Fantasy 6 and Chrono Chross have far more riveting, complex and memorable story. And that was only a few years apart.

When I first played this game I felt like it was unfinished. At the half way point, the story basically stops and just tell "go to this temple Now go to this temple. Now go to that one". I later learned that this game started life as a game for the cancelled SNES CD addon and Square had to cut large amount of the game to fit on a cratridge. It's incredibly obvious when an entire continent only has two towns to visit.

Again, I have no idea how anyone can play this and not realise this would only appeal to a little kid having never played an action RPG before. It's baffling to think people play this alongside other titles in the mana series and think this isn't the worse one by a far margin.

I'm saying all this as I recently played Adventure of Mana and Sword of mana for the first time. These games are not really showered with praise while Secret is the most often mentionned.

Almost forgot, the remake is weird. It make changes that alter the gameplay and visuals (magic no longer pause everything, camera moves around during cutscenes), but it also follow very accurateley some visal effect that only work in old 2d games (characters walk behind something to give the impression to go in it). It's a very random and odd what they chose to improve and what they chose to let 'as is'.

I have no clue how this is considered a "classic". It's awful. The only reason i don't call this square's worst game on the SNES is the Final fantasy Mystic quest exist. This game was realeased after Final fantasy 4. I don't consider Final fantasy 4 to have aged well but at the time of it release it was the best RPG on the snes. Secret of mana is a damn joke even at the time of its release. The first game from the serie, Final fantasy Adventure (aka Adventure of Mana) is actually deeper and far more appealing despite being a fairly simple action RPG released early on the Game Boy. The combat is just awful. You wait for a bar to charge to full and then you press attack. Maybe it'll hit, maybe not. You can also cast spells wich always hit and are really overpowered. That's it. That's all the depth of the fighting. You have two companion with you and they're really dumb. Even for a SNES game. They don't know how to get around corner and they only stay away from the enemy they are actively attacking. Companions die all the time to slow, easy to dodge attack. The difficulty is horrible. You start the game with every enemy getting a concussion and passing out from the tiniest nudge. While you end the game with a 10000 HP boss who only take 100 point of damage from a character with 99 strenght and max weapon skill. The story is laughable. It's "Chosen hero must fight evil awoken by empire" that Square had used in their older NES title, but had already moved on from with Final Fantasy 4. Final Fantasy 6 and Chrono Chross have far more riveting, complex and memorable story. And that was only a few years apart. When I first played this game I felt like it was unfinished. At the half way point, the story basically stops and just tell "go to this temple Now go to this temple. Now go to that one". I later learned that this game started life as a game for the cancelled SNES CD addon and Square had to cut large amount of the game to fit on a cratridge. It's incredibly obvious when an entire continent only has two towns to visit. Again, I have no idea how anyone can play this and not realise this would only appeal to a little kid having never played an action RPG before. It's baffling to think people play this alongside other titles in the mana series and think this isn't the worse one by a far margin. I'm saying all this as I recently played Adventure of Mana and Sword of mana for the first time. These games are not really showered with praise while Secret is the most often mentionned. Almost forgot, the remake is weird. It make changes that alter the gameplay and visuals (magic no longer pause everything, camera moves around during cutscenes), but it also follow very accurateley some visal effect that only work in old 2d games (characters walk behind something to give the impression to go in it). It's a very random and odd what they chose to improve and what they chose to let 'as is'.