Secret of Mana is one of my favorite games of all time, so naturally when a remake was announced for PS4, Vita, and PC, was super excited. Until I saw the graphics, right? What's the deal with these "modern" graphics anyway? Oh well, I can always go play the real thing on the SNES classic that I'm sure will be easy to get at a good retail price, right? Oof. Anyway, I digress - At PAX West 2017, I went hands-on with the remake on PS4.

I got to start at the actual beginning of the game, so I had a rather brisk journey through the forest slaying rabites, snagging candy and some gold, and then coming back home to fight the somewhat iconic first boss of the game, the Mantis Ant. It's not a very challenging encounter and I put the critter down with a few well-timed blows with my super cool sword.

And with that, the demo was over, a quick 15 minute jaunt. The takeaways - I'm not a fan of the graphic style in the remake, at all, but some of that may have to do with nostalgia on my end. The music is awesome, and hits the same amazing tracks that made the original title magical. The combat is the same classic adventure stuff I know and love from the original game. I'm most interested in how the multiplayer will be handled, if Square decides to make some changes to the rather antiquated pause and scroll through wheels for magic, but we shall see.

Despite my lack of love for the new graphical stylings, the game is still a true classic and in my opinion one of the best RPGs of all time, and I'll certainly be looking forward to playing through the whole game when it lands next year.