Poll

Who are your favorite Secret of Mana characters? (Pick up to 5.)

Randi (the Boy)
5 (6.4%)
Purim (the Girl)
4 (5.1%)
Popoi (the Sprite)
7 (9%)
Thanatos
3 (3.8%)
Flammie
10 (12.8%)
Geshtar
2 (2.6%)
Jema
5 (6.4%)
Dyluck
2 (2.6%)
Boss and the Boys (the Scorpion Army)
1 (1.3%)
Elinee (the Witch)
1 (1.3%)
Watts (the Blacksmith)
1 (1.3%)
Krissie (Leader of the Resistance)
1 (1.3%)
Luka (the Sage)
3 (3.8%)
Fahna
0 (0%)
Sheex
0 (0%)
Emperor Vandole
0 (0%)
Joch (the Other Sage)
0 (0%)
Serin (Boy's Dad)
0 (0%)
Mana Tree (Boy's Mom)
3 (3.8%)
Mana Elementals
7 (9%)
Neko (the CAT!!!)
13 (16.7%)
The King of Gold Isle
0 (0%)
Admiral Meria (of the Sandship)
0 (0%)
Timothy and Elliot (the Potos Bullies)
0 (0%)
The Canon Travel Brothers
0 (0%)
Phanna (Girl's Friend)
0 (0%)
The Rabites
3 (3.8%)
The Mushbooms
0 (0%)
King Truffle
1 (1.3%)
Karon (the Ferryperson)
1 (1.3%)
Santa Claus. Friggin' Santa Claus! And Rudolph.
5 (6.4%)

Total Members Voted: 19

Author Topic: Secret of Mana Character Popularity Poll  (Read 7134 times)

Lord J Esq

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Secret of Mana Character Popularity Poll
« on: March 26, 2011, 11:56:32 pm »
Hopefully this can get some nice discussion started about one of Square's other great RPGs in the triumvirate of history's greatest RPGs. My own selections to follow once I've looked at my own poll! (Hah!)

Angerona

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Re: Secret of Mana Character Popularity Poll
« Reply #1 on: March 27, 2011, 12:32:01 am »
I didn’t read the instructions and ended up voting for one character only. Typical of me  :picardno
I know this won’t count but still I do support Geshtar, the Rabites, the Mushbooms and Santa as well.
By the way, awesome choice  :D! Secret of Mana is the only game I love as much as Chrono Trigger.

Acacia Sgt

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Re: Secret of Mana Character Popularity Poll
« Reply #2 on: March 27, 2011, 02:26:19 am »
What!? You include mushrooms as a choice but you neglet the dancing shopkeepers? For shame! :o

Thought

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Re: Secret of Mana Character Popularity Poll
« Reply #3 on: March 27, 2011, 02:59:54 am »
I am glad to see others like SoM as well. Though I am sad that I didn't realize that Serin was the name of the Mana Ghost until I had already voted. He and Jema were my favorites. They had awesome sprites.

Lord J Esq

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Re: Secret of Mana Character Popularity Poll
« Reply #4 on: March 27, 2011, 03:03:54 am »
Mea culpa! Here we go:



[youtube]p0JPqu7_JzA[/youtube]

Manly Man

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Re: Secret of Mana Character Popularity Poll
« Reply #5 on: March 27, 2011, 03:13:33 am »
You guys are gonna kill me for this one, but I kinda prefer Secret of Evermore to 'Mana. I think it's because I like the Misfits, and the both of them are pretty much about B-rated movies.

Although, I'd probably go for the lead guy, Randi. Only real men wear pink. ;)

Lord J Esq

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Re: Secret of Mana Character Popularity Poll
« Reply #6 on: March 27, 2011, 03:17:15 am »
All right, so my favorites are easy to discern because I've often named characters after them in my own writing.

Boss and the Boys
They're hilarious, especially the Boss. My top pick in the poll. In Secret of Mana Theater (now defunct), it's the Boss who got me started on using the word "mook." Those of you who know me can probably understand my delight at this completely incompetent bumbling fool with grandiose ambitions of world domination and a (two-person!) army of loyal lackeys to lick boots and generally agree with her all the time.

Geshtar
My favorite of the baddies...sort of an incompetent hardass who never gives up. I love it when he takes over the Republic's sandship and one of the crew says "Ack! It's the Empire! Let's surrender!" I always hoped he outlived his final defeat below the Mana Fortress, but probably not.

Neko
Come on...this is like the quintessential RPG character. No one in The Secret of Mana is more "Secret of Mana" than Neko. Neko charges ripoff prices (which I admire) but also has the best gear. And is a cat. A cat!! Whose name means "cat." A CAT!!!

Krissie
Leading the Resistance at only age eighteen, an inspiration for sure! SoM was unusually good at giving female characters meaningful NPC roles.

Popoi
Speaking of which, I always thought the Sprite was female, but I suppose it doesn't really matter. The Sprite is also an imp and a shyster, and ate the ship's ENTIRE supply of food! ^_^

For a game with relatively generic characters and a relatively generic plot and milieu, Secret of Mana sure did have a lot of charm and inspirational value. I consider it dearer to my heart even than Chrono Trigger, because it was my first RPG (if you don't count Zelda's A Link to the Past) and heavily influenced my creative writing over the years. And the soundtrack is just beautiful. It always touched me that the Empire's theme was so pleasant and nice. You can see a lot of my roots in this game!

Sajainta

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Re: Secret of Mana Character Popularity Poll
« Reply #7 on: March 27, 2011, 03:21:27 am »
FLAMMIE!  Oh goodness, I love Flammie so much.

Lord J Esq

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Re: Secret of Mana Character Popularity Poll
« Reply #8 on: March 27, 2011, 03:46:19 am »
Yeah, Flammie rocks. She would've been choice number six for me (and the Mushbooms after that!) Here in her fantastic Mana Beast form!


I always thought it was deeply moving that the Mana Beast would be driven by instinct to collide with the Mana Fortress and destroy the world.

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Re: Secret of Mana Character Popularity Poll
« Reply #9 on: March 27, 2011, 08:07:27 am »
I didn't really like any of the main characters in SD2. I blame stupid AI for half of it...SD3 was much better (heck, I think I liked Sword of Mana more than SD2).

Boo the Gentleman Caller

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Re: Secret of Mana Character Popularity Poll
« Reply #10 on: March 27, 2011, 10:06:36 am »
Where's King Truffle and the delectable denizens of Matango?!?!

Jormungand

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Re: Secret of Mana Character Popularity Poll
« Reply #11 on: March 27, 2011, 11:22:47 am »
It's impressive you managed to catalogue the whole game's cast, major and minor. My top vote goes to the elementals--they're just so cool! I also have soft spots for Flammie, Mana Tree, and Neko. And Jema, resident badass? Every JRPG's gotta have 'em.

I loved this game, and have probably played it around 4-5 times. Everything about it was done right. It's shocking that Square hasn't ever replicated its brilliance (or the brilliance of SD3) and instead gone on to destroy the Mana franchise.

Secret of Mana will always remain one of the greatest (video game) works of art for two particular reasons. One, it has the greatest soundtrack of any SNES game; and easily one of the greatest game soundtracks ever.

Two, the art design is unfailingly beautiful at every turn. Square showed tremendous wisdom in its commissioning of concept works from famed artist Hiroo Isono. You won't find more naturalistic and beautiful concert art in any other video game, save for those illustrated by Yoshitaka Amano. Isono's illustration of the mana tree (the title screen of SoM) and the jacket art for the SD3 soundtrack are some of the few pieces of art that have actually inspired me (a complete non-artist) to try and reproduce them. Needless to say, I failed ;)

skylark

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Re: Secret of Mana Character Popularity Poll
« Reply #12 on: March 27, 2011, 03:06:24 pm »
No SD3 options? :picardno

Dude... just... :picardno

Having said that....

I need a bit of time to think about this. It's been quite a while since I played this. :P

Lord J Esq

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Re: Secret of Mana Character Popularity Poll
« Reply #13 on: March 27, 2011, 03:57:54 pm »
Where's King Truffle and the delectable denizens of Matango?!?!

Hey, King Truffle is on there! As for his citizenry...well, yeah. They were delicious.

It's impressive you managed to catalogue the whole game's cast, major and minor.

Not even! There are characters like Morie, Mara, and the King of Pandora who didn't make the cut. It's a game with quite a few NPCs. But if it seems otherwise, then I've done my job.

Boo the Gentleman Caller

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Re: Secret of Mana Character Popularity Poll
« Reply #14 on: March 27, 2011, 04:59:56 pm »
One of my favorite childhood memories is of playing Secret of Mana and eating the New Yorker pizza from Pizza Hut (a type of pizza they no longer make, and in my opinion the best pizza they've ever had). I could go into nostalgic stories, but I'll refrain... for now.