Games
Square Enix is remaking one of the best Japanese RPGs ever created. We speak exclusively to the man behind the magic.
As lucky owners of the recently-released SNES Classic Edition will readily attest, the console was home to some stunning Japanese RPG adventures, with Square's Secret of Mana ranking near the very top of the list. Despite numerous sequels since the 90s, the franchise has arguably struggled to match the same level of critical fame achieved by this 1993 release – in the west, at least – and this year's news that Square Enix would be remaking the game in early 2018 for PlayStation 4, PC and PS Vita came as little surprise. Secret of Mana was an entry point into the JRPG genre for so many players, and this forthcoming update could well perform the same trick for a whole new generation of gamers.
For producer Masaru Oyamada, Secret of Mana holds a special place in his heart – just like it does for millions all over the globe. "My favourite memory of Secret of Mana is the fun I had playing with friends and siblings, and the touching story that it had," he tells us. "While multiplayer co-op is common now, the game’s multiplayer action was rare at that time. I believe the way that I played with others to clear the story is also the reason why the game left a clear memory for fans."
These fond memories make the game the ideal candidate for remake treatment, too – although Oyamada admits that he is somewhat conflicted in his desire to push the series forward whilst simultaneously celebrating its past.
"Ever since I became the producer for the Mana franchise, I have been mentioning that I wanted to create a new title," he explains. "A lot of time has passed since our initial release and we don’t have a lot of past titles that can be played on the current generation main platform. While new titles are important as well, I thought that it would be necessary to have people remember the beloved titles from the past – or find out about them if they did not know about them already – by making them available to play once again. With its 25th anniversary in 2016, we released Adventures of Mana, a remake of Final Fantasy Adventure. We decided to remake Secret of Mana this time."
When it launched in the 90s, Secret of Mana dazzled SNES owners with its gorgeous 2D visuals, but Oyamada and his team are keenly aware that modern players are accustomed to a different standard of graphical fidelity; balancing the need to impress visually with the desire to stay true to hand-drawn look of the original has been one of Oyamada's main headaches.
"The biggest problem we had when transforming pixel-based artwork into 3D was the very act of turning 2D into 3D. Parts that are simplified in pixel art can be freely imagined by the players and are saved into their memories that way. The greatest concern that we had this time was to add more detail into the simplified art. We challenged ourselves to the limit to make a creation as close as possible to the original game and art. Even transforming a few pixels into 3D artwork requires an addition of information, many times more than it originally had. Transformations into 3D art without any additions would makes the art too simple and the level of density would be low as well. Maintaining this balance was difficult during this process."
Ultimately though, Oyamada admits that while nostalgia for the original is what drives the project forward, there will always be a disconnect between reality and what our brains think they remember from the 90s – which is perhaps why some fans have reacted negatively to the screenshots and footage shown of the remake so far.
"We worked hard to complement the moves of the characters and brush up the graphics in a way that even I, as a player of the original title, would not be disappointed with the 3D graphics. However, I do think that the battle against beautified memories is a difficult one to win," he laments.
"The entire development staff is extremely cautious to not lose the charm of the original title and are putting in the maximum effort that time permits for the fans who have already accepted and are excited for this remake, and for those who are skeptical about it. I hope that you look forward to the amount of polish we added to the graphical quality."
While Secret of Mana may be getting a new lick of paint, the core mechanics will remain strictly faithful to the past. "In terms of gameplay elements, we have been faithful to the original," Oyamada says. "On top of that, we added elements that would improve the game for a more pleasant experience, and for the players to be able to be immersed into the world even more."
Those of you who, like Oyamada, recall huddling around your SNES with your friends playing co-op will be pleased to learn that this aspect of the game remains intact, despite the passage of time. "The PS4 and PC are the platforms which allow for multiplayer capability as long as the player has multiple controllers, so it was not difficult to recreate local co-op with [those] versions of the game," he says.
"We did consider the inclusion of online multiplayer capability as well, but because the most fun that we had with the original was playing the game side-by-side with siblings and friends, we decided to only have offline multiplayer capabilities implemented. For the PS Vita, all three players will need to have the software, but they will be able to play together via the ad hoc connection."
We can imagine that despite Oyamada's assurances, there will still be many skeptics who feel that Secret of Mana is a title that shouldn't be retouched or remade. These hardliners should perhaps take note of the fact that while only one of the original team is directly involved this time around, many others have been consulted or are participating in the development process.
"Hiroki Kikuta, the original composer, has been helping us with the entirety of the [music]," reveals Oyamada. "None of the other developers on the original title, aside from Mr. Kikuta, are on the development team itself. However, we did report to Hiromichi Tanaka and Koichi Ishii that we will be remaking the title and have been consulting with them along the way. Other developers that were on the original have been helping us as well, so there are many people who have been supporting us, one way or another."
Speaking of Kikuta-san, it should be noted that the composer's sumptuous score for the 1993 outing – which remains utterly timeless and is arguably one of the best video game soundtracks ever written – will form the basis of the remake's music.
"This remake is built on the idea of remaining faithful to the original game, so the arrangements also conform to the original music," explains Oyamada. The rest of the audio package is shaping up to be just as striking, thanks to the use of full voice acting. "We implemented English voices, but the game is also playable with Japanese voiceovers," the producer continues. "Our international sales team was adamant about including both."
While few can debate the commercial sense behind remaking one of the most adored JRPGs of all time, the fact that the game is coming to the PS Vita – and not the red-hot Nintendo Switch – has caused some eyebrows to raise, especially as the series has such a strong connection to Nintendo hardware.
“Development for the title began before the Switch was announced, but we hope to continue listening to the various requests from our fans."
"We received ardent demands far beyond our expectations when we worked on Adventures of Mana, so development in support of PS Vita had been under consideration since the initial planning stages," Oyamada explains. "Our biggest concern was multiplayer and whether we would be able to pull it off, but we were starting with the knowledge gained from our past development experience, and now, everything is more or less falling within our expectations."
And Switch? "Development for the title began before the Switch was announced, so it was definitely beyond our expectations to see the level of anticipation for the release on the platform grow this much. In terms of our current circumstance, we are unable to immediately state that this will become available on the Switch, but we hope to continue listening to the various requests from our fans."
You get the impression that Oyamada is well-versed when it comes to dealing with the incredible volume of fan requests, but rather than being dismissive of such demands, he says that he takes them very seriously indeed – which is good news for hardcore followers of Square RPGs, including Secret of Mana's SNES-based sequel, which never made it out of Japan.
"We have received many comments from people looking forward to the game, and we are working hard to try our best to respond to those expectations appropriately," responds Oyamada diplomatically when asked about the possibility of Seiken Densetsu 3 – AKA: Secret of Mana 2 – getting the same treatment. "That said, we do not have any information that can be shared at this moment in time. I, too, would definitely like to do something about this task, so I would be grateful for everyone’s continued support for the Mana series."
Anything is possible given the right amount of passion, but could we really see rebooted versions of other 16-bit classics, like the legendary Chrono Trigger and the western-made Secret of Evermore? "While I am not the appropriate person to discuss the possibility of future remakes, I feel that a passionate producer who can find solutions for roadblocks that arise during the development process will be necessary to bring beloved titles from the past available to play once again for both new and existing players to experience," responds Oyamada tactfully.
"Particularly with Secret of Evermore – the original game wasn’t even developed in Japan, so we would have to work with the global Square Enix offices to work hard to make a potential remake a reality." Hopefully the reception the Secret of Mana remake receives when it launches in February next year will convince Square Enix that mining its illustrious back catalogue for other remaster projects is a task well worth undertaking.
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