Secret of Mana

Secret of Mana game cover.

Secret of Mana is the second installment of the Mana series. It was both developed and published by Square. The game was originally released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1993. Ever since its release, the Mana series was formed, specifically to disconnect from the Final Fantasy franchise, which only includes the first Mana title, Final Fantasy Adventure.

Apart from Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the game can be played in Wii Virtual Console, Nintendo Switch, etc.

Both Speed Demos Archive and speedrun.com have a leaderboard of Secret of Mana.

Guide

Any% (1 Player 2 Controller Tutorial)

(The tutorial was made by Zheal.)

Boss

(The guide was made by StingerPA. Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WDQfxtq7nhV7zjUE8LqSDr8CJxcjo1vh4x5ioiHKyKc/edit)
Bosses will usually target those closest to them. There’s a few exceptions like Dread Slime, but for the most part you should pay attention to which character is closest to the boss. During boss fights, your weapons’ hitboxes are twice as large as usual. You don’t have to get as close to the enemy as you do outside of boss fights.

Spell Lockdown is a technique used to “lockdown” bosses with a long casting animation. Generally, the spell used is the Sprite’s Slowdown. This lasts just long enough to chain your charge attacks together, and not give the boss in question much time to do anything other than sit in its stunned animation from taking damage. The only charge attack you won’t want to use this with is the 2.9 standard slash because that attack will recharge too quickly to use with a spell lockdown. The process is as follows:

1. Release overcharge
2. Open the Sprite’s menu to cast slowdown
3. When Slowdown’s animation ends, your next attack will be ready to release