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This should absolutely be the new standard for Secret of Mana for two reasons.

The new/expanded dungeons are excellent and fully in keeping with the style and mood of the game. Going back to playing the vanilla game without the full Wind, Lunar, and Gold palaces would be tough.

The rebalancing is excellent, providing a consistently challenging and rewarding experience which never went over the top with difficulty. The rebalancing solved, for the most part, one of my biggest gripes with the game–that the only sensible way to play boss battles is to chain magic (which itself required an awful lot of spell grinding). Now, however, I found myself most often reaching for a dexterous mix of physical and magical attacks against bosses, and this was so much more fun!

Lastly, the five enhancement hacks included in version 1.01 are excellent choices. I agree that 2x spell grinding is the sweet spot. Allies being able to "catch up" after leaving the screen is the other essential add on.

The only thing lacking in this hack is compatibility with script overhaul hacks. If there was a way to combine this with Relocalization or SOM: Reborn, that would be the perfect SoM experience.

A huge thank you to Tomm as well as the enhancement hackers.

First of all, I want to express how great the project is : Secret of Mana is a classic, but those development issues led to a lot of cut content. Restoring those lost ideas is really nice ! I appreciate the new dungeons, they are very well designed and enjoyable to beat. The new questline at the Golden Isle is a great addition too : I appreciate the fact that modders added a moment that is like the beginning of the game, going through an entire area instead of just "flying with Flammie from a point to another, and so on". Also, all the quality of life adjustments are very welcome ! I have just some suggestions that can enhance this already wonderful mod :

• I always found the music in desert palace was glitched : you should have the dungeon song but, instead, you have the "cleared dungeon" version of it. It would be nice to get the desert palace playing the actual dungeon music
• there are few sidequests along the way, but I've found them quite underwhelming as they just reward you with GP. For instance, I was thrilled when I heard about a treasure in the deep desert... But it was just a chest in the middle of the sand. I love the idea but I think it can be improved by giving some rare pieces of equipment
• I was expecting something with the "heads" on the worldmap. It's not a real complaint, I just put that here ;)
• for a reason I can't explain, Mana Beast is a real pain to beat. In the vanilla game, I glitch my way to get the Mana Sword with 9th orb, I up Luna's magic to get lunar boost to 8, and I crit at 999 to wipe out the final boss, even at level 50 or so. In the mod, I barely make 50 or 80 in each strike. Maybe I did something wrong by getting that 9th orb ;)

Overall, this mod is a must-have ; and it's because I liked it so much I took time to write this review. Thank you so much for all the work !

Secret of Mana Plus is one of those hacks where upon completion, you say to yourself, "That's what the vanilla version SHOULD have been". While you won't find as many changes like in Turbo or Climate Crisis, the modifications and QoL updates are extremely well done and it's unlikely you'll want to play the vanilla version again.

While the game starts the same, you'll quickly find that being able to carry 7 of every item is extremely useful, particularly in the first 15% of the game (looking at you, Spikey Tiger). While there's no mention of the game getting an increased difficultly, it felt like some of monsters/bosses would use their special abilities more often so having increased healing was extremely beneficial.

Perhaps the biggest QoL change you'll notice is when you get access to magic and the 2x learn rate that comes with it. Being able to grind magic substantially faster makes the game more enjoyable because you're not having to take a long break to level up new Spirits. Combine that with the 7x Faerie Walnut (and later, MP Absorb) and you can essentially let magic organically grow which is optimal for those not interested in a magic grind session. Because Saber magic is far more useful, you'll find yourself wanting to level up Primm's magic beyond Undine, Lumina, and Dryad and it doesn't feel like such a chore.

One of the other huge QoL changes in Plus is that your CPU-controlled characters no longer can get stuck which is a huge deal, particularly in some of the game's end dungeons where a trapped character will often get pinned down by a monster and subsequently die. While you don't notice this as much early on, it becomes a life saver during the Lost Continent and Mana Fortress.

While the QoL upgrades are a great addition, it's the new content that really makes this hack shine. The new dungeons are extremely well done and feel like they could have been part of the original game: each one was very well thought out, well balanced, and enjoyable to play through. Without giving spoilers, the additions within the new dungeons were a pleasant surprise and really did a great job of making the game feel more complete.

If you're looking to replay Secret of Mana but not necessarily interested in a version that changes the core fundamentals, look no further. Secret of Mana Plus is extremely well polished with QoL upgrades that you'll never want to give up and new content that you'll likely revisit time and time again.

Oh, and thank you for allowing the final two bosses to drop weapon orbs. That was something about Vanilla that always was frustrating.