Mana in 3D

I spent enough time with Secret of Mana on the SNES that the soundtrack never really left my head. The sprite work, the colors, the magic animations—it’s all weirdly concrete in a way that three-dimensional games often aren’t. That’s probably why I’m skeptical that a 3D remake can capture what made the original feel the way it did, no matter how much visual polish you throw at it.

Square Enix is doing a full 3D remake for the PS4, and unsurprisingly, it’s adopting the same vaguely clean, aggressively mid-tier 3D aesthetic they’ve been using for a while now—the Final Fantasy remakes, I Am Setsuna, Lost Sphear, all that. There’s a comparison video of the opening scenes side by side with the original, and I watched it expecting to feel disappointed. The new look is bright and competent and totally soulless in the way these things usually are.

But here’s the weird part: it doesn’t look as bad as I thought it would. The character designs carry over okay. The world reads visually even if it lacks the personality of those pixel graphics. It’s not a betrayal, exactly. It’s more like watching someone cover a song you love—it’s never going to be the same, but sometimes you realize the melody is strong enough to survive the translation.

I don’t know yet if it’ll actually hold up to a full playthrough or if I’m just being charmed by the novelty of seeing those familiar locations in three dimensions. That’s the gamble with remakes—the original was perfect for a reason, but sometimes the reasons aren’t as load-bearing as you think. It might surprise me. Or it might just make me want to dig out my old cartridge and remember why the original mattered in the first place.