I've been thinking of Secret of the Mana 3 a lot, lately. Mainly because in terms of design, content and gameplay it was damn near perfect. You could choose from 6 characters, all with their own different class perks that you could build in multiple ways. This made the way you handled any party you set up differently. Every character you can play as are moving around the world even if you don't choose them, so if you want to know about them you are encouraged to play again. And the game is outright long without that. Not to mention every character is likable and make you want to root for them. And the cherry on the sundae is that the game is 3 players and simple enough that your friend could hop in, and get a grasp of what's going on quickly. It's the essentials of what make a game great: keeping the player engaged, making them want to replay it, and giving them every penny back that they spent. If I ever trying to make a rpg, I think this game is one mold I'd follow. I'm totally not typing this because I'm waiting for this build at work to finish.