You have to feel a little sorry for fans of the Super Nintendo’s Secret of Mana, a videogame that constantly makes the All Time Top 100 lists for its seminal offline multiplayer adventuring experience. Almost every sequel and spin-off since its release in 1993 has been an abject disappointment, critically panned (or at least met with muted praise, which, in many videogame publications amounts to much the same thing) and shunned by players.

Not only that but fans have had to put up with also almost every review of these sorry sequels opening in much the same way: reminiscing about the good old day.

Um, sorry.

Like the equally directionless and, mercifully, currently defunct ‘Saga’ series, Square-Enix has used the ‘Mana’ name, universe and framework to try out creative but mostly unsuccessful new ideas for the genre. It’s a commendable enterprise that has certainly helped distinguish the series from the identikit JRPG throng, but has so far failed produce anything approaching another good videogame.

This has been a constant source of consternation for fans of the SNES title(s), none of whom can understand why the company wouldn’t just build upon its firm but neglected foundations. Players hoping that this latest title in the Seiken Densetsu (as it’s known in Japan) lineage might reattach itself to those esteemed roots are in for more grief: Heroes of Mana is now a PC-style Real Time Strategy game, albeit clothed in the characters and cutesy 2D sprite work that brings at least some superficial coherency to the Mana universe.

You can read the rest over at Eurogamer here.