When comparing Dungeon Quest vs Secret of Mana, the Slant community recommends Secret of Mana for most people. In the question“What are the best ARPGs (action role playing games) on Android?” Secret of Mana is ranked 6th while Dungeon Quest is ranked 11th. The most important reason people chose Secret of Mana is:
Twenty some odd years later and Secret of Mana is still considered one of the best action role playing game experiences there is.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Plenty of loot
Dungeon Quest offers different tiers of loot in game that ranges from common to rare to epic, making for an enjoyable looting system that the player will endlessly keep playing to find a rarer item.
Pro Simplified genre gameplay
The gameplay of Dungeon Quest is distilled down to the basics, there are no huge skill set lists or large branching weapon lists as Dungeon Quest keeps everything very straightforward and intuitive.
Pro Has stood the test of time
Twenty some odd years later and Secret of Mana is still considered one of the best action role playing game experiences there is.
Pro Unique ring command system allows for easy menu selection
The ring command system used for selecting equipment and other options is still as innovative today as it was back in 1993.
A first at it's time, the ring command system allowed for users to select their weapons and equipment easily without having to leave the main game screen, making for selecting quite easy.
Pro Shift in gameplay for Squaresoft/SquareEnix made RPGs
Secret of Mana features a top down real time battle system akin to other action role playing games such as Legend of Zelda that at the time was a large shift from the turn based fare that Square created. Even today Square Enix does not foray too often into the action role playing genre, making for a unique experience when it comes to Square created titles.
Pro Considered one of the best stories in RPG's young and old
While the outline of the story is the normal RPG fare, where a young boy is tasked with saving the world, the characters and their journey still holds up as one of the best ever written.
Pro Colorful 16bit era graphics
Secret of Mana was created at the height of the 16bit SNES era and utilized some of the most colorful and stylized fantasy role playing game graphics. While it would have been nice to see Square polish them up a bit for HD devices, they still hold up, especially in a market that has many games designed with bit graphics as a current trend.
Cons
Con Advertisements during gameplay sequences
There are large advertisements that pop up throughout the games menus and even right before boss fights.
Con In app purchases
Any free to play game needs a way to make money and Dungeon Quest is no different. There are many items that one can purchase that are not too egregious such as cosmetic items like pets, but considering many of the in app purchases are temporary stat boosts and potions and only there as way to make the game easier, one has to wonder if the game was designed to be unfairly balanced in order to earn more money.
While Dungeon Quests in app purchases do not go as high as some games (ranging from $0.99-$19.99) the highest priced is still for in game currency that can be purchased over and over again, in turn making the cost of this game essentially limitless.
Con Graphically, almost a direct port
Square Enix has done nothing to polish the graphics in this port which for the price point is a little disheartening. The black borders on both sides of the screen are also disappointing. To see Square do so little to accommodate HD devices and their swath of screen sizes, it makes one wonder how they get away charging the prices they do.