Secret of Mana Character Popularity Poll

[Lord J Esq]

"Now" is so yesterday. Wax nostalgic!

[Jormungand]

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).

Holy crap, someone else on the planet who can actually attest that the New Yorker ever existed. Yeah, it was the best pizza they've ever had. Actually, it's the only good pizza they've ever had. It must be close to a decade now since it disappeared?

[Mr Bekkler]

I'm actually playing this now. Was gonna finish Sword of Mana first (the seiken densetsu 1 remake) but it's not all that great. Having a blast with Secret, and I intend to vote only once I've finished.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

@Bekkler: SoM was the best... SoM2 was better in some ways, but it didn't have that great charm... Sword of Mana was okay and worth a play, but only as one character - no reason to play through with both characters... I also recommend Legend of Mana, although it's unrecognizable as a Mana game except for the use of Rabite's. God, I love Rabite's.

@Jormungand: I'm not kidding when I say this, but we should write Pizza Hut and ask them to bring it back!

[Syna]

It's interesting to me how SoM affected the aesthetics of so many people who played it at a formative age-- that's something I've heard from virtually everyone to whom SoM is important. Hiroo Isono invaded my MIND.

I vote for the Elementals as well! I love that each has so much personality and magic!

And the music still gives me crazy chills.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

I voted for Flammie, Dyluck, the Mana Tree, the Mana Elementals, and Neko.

Flammie because she may be the coolest transportation in a video game ever. And I remember (SPOILER ALERT) when she first rescues from the roof of the castle and you finally receive her as transportation I was in shock. Little did I know that the young white dragon I rescued from the snake in Matango forest would show up to save my sorry butt.

I also voted for Dyluck - tragic story. I always thought I would save him...

The Mana Elementals were the best in this Mana story. They all had their own unique voice, and I love the magic system.

Neko is also on my list... I loved randomly running into this cat-person in the middle of the wilderness.

Santa Clause will never make my list. I remember being about 8 years old playing it and thinking that Santa Clause was out of close for this game...

Has anyone played the iPhone version yet?

[HeadlessFritz]

Don't get me wrong : I like SoM, however there aren't so many characters that I could call memorable, except for :

Neko, the merchant who always make a huge profit on your back
the Sprite, that magic stacking killing machine who made the difficulty a joke after the Tiger fight.

Rest was generic vilains and friendly NPCs.

[Magusmage]

Neko and Flammie Will probally have the higher vote counts XD
Would be better if I could vote in more than 5 characters
I voted:
Flammie
Neko
Mana Elements
The Rabites
Karon (The Farryman)

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

Necromancy!

I'm currently playing through the HD version on the iOS. The graphics have been nicely improved! In fact, it's breathing new life into the franchise! Let's hope for more SNES-era games such as this... The World of Mana series was such a disappointment. Children of Mana was boring, Dawn of Mana was awful, and I haven't played Heroes of Mana just yet. Eventually.

If you haven't played the new SoM upgrade, I recommend it. Just give the touchscreen controls a chance... They take a while to get used to, and I admit that they aren't as good as traditional buttons, but it works.

I dedicate this song to the memory new life of Secret of Mana...

[youtube]5Qxyunl5Zus[/youtube]

I'd really like to have more discussion around here about this wonderful series.

[skylark]

Keep in mind I haven't played Mana in years, so I may be completely off at some points.

Well, how would you feel about an updated remake? And not just in graphics. It's storywriting was one of the best for the 16-bit era (though I thought SD3 was better), but it still has 16-bit era story limitations.

Take the villains, for instance. What were their motivations besides conquering the world? Did you know they got their powers (even Vandole) from Underworld deals with devils? I sure don't remember that little tidbit when I played way back when... yet it was apparently present in the Japanese release. And what exactly was Thanatos, BTW?

Add to the fact that Thanatos was able to bring so much tragedy because Purim's father didn't want her to get with a commoner. The fact that this is never really truly addressed or that they guy was not called out for it is mind-boggling.

Maybe flesh out the world as a whole as well. As for gameplay, I'd want to keep it more or less the same, but with one noticable change. More party members and a character switching mechanic. Jema and Luka must be playable, dammit!

(Seriously, was I the only guy who voted for Watts? )

[Samopoznanie]

Mana was fantastic... It was the reason I bought a multi-tap for my SNES back in the day!  For an RPG as opposed to a sports game, go figure. 

I had to vote for Neko.  Classic bit character.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

Take the villains, for instance. What were their motivations besides conquering the world? Did you know they got their powers (even Vandole) from Underworld deals with devils? I sure don't remember that little tidbit when I played way back when... yet it was apparently present in the Japanese release. And what exactly was Thanatos, BTW?

I had no idea that the Vandole Empire received some of it's grandiose power from the power of the Vandoles. This makes perfect sense, though, and puts things in place when putting the Sword of Mana into consideration. I agree, though; both hero and villain characterizations were quite one dimensional. The current version of Secret of Mana on the iOS is actually a new translation, and although I've just arrived in Northtown, there are still some small new details added to flesh out the game. I really wish I could have seen the game in all it's glory when it was still a disk-based game (I've read that about 40% of the game was ultimately cut due to memory usage).

I'm really surprised that there aren't Mana fan games out there. Pretty much the only one I've been able to find has been "Memories of Mana", which is a Spanish-only game based of Angela from SoM2. It was never even finished though...

[xcalibur]

my picks:
popoi
neko
mana elementals
elinee
thanatos

the sprite is an awesome character, and I had alot of fun casting spells. As others said, Neko is a quintessential part of the game, right up there with the Rabites. The mana elementals represented their elements very well and contributed to the story.

I'm kind of surprised that only I voted for Elinee and Thanatos. I always liked the witches castle, especially the possessed chairs. Meeting Elinee is the first time you hear the upbeat version of into the thick of it, which was highly memorable. The tiger fight was a big challenge. Overall she appealed to me as a side villain.

Thanatos was great as the main villain. he turned everthing to his own ends, and he pissed you off and made you want to destroy him. The battle with him near the end was cool. also, that seance music... 

[Syna]

Recently I had my computer playlist on random and "Dark Star," of all things, played. To keep in the spirit, I put on "Premonition" afterwards. God, those songs still make me shiver!

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

Oh snap! I'm not in the Vandole Empire Castle above Northtown. Doing some level grinding. That's right. Level 51 party right now... I can't move on until my party is Level 55. So I be killing these Embermen and Armored Knights. 600+ EXP per kill. Woot woot.

It sounds like an MMORPG right now.