Game:

Secret of Mana (1993)

Duration: 8:28

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No trick here, the game just works this way by default

The supposed "full screen pause" on spell cast in Secret of Mana is a topic of conversation that comes up in Bowie's chat during discussion of the full Mana series when he streams speedruns of the Game Boy title Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden, aka Final Fantasy Adventure, aka Mystic Quest, aka Mana 1 (man that game has a bunch of names it goes by)
It seems nearly every time, he has to reassure someone that Secret of Mana does not pause for spells to play out and that only the caster and the target(s) freeze. All other entities on screen can still take action.
In this video I attempt to take actions during the animation for (almost) every spell (I can't cast Reviver as I don't have a valid target, and I don't have the Mana magic weapon enchant because that only unlocks for the final boss)
The grand total number of spells that freeze the whole screen and lock out actions for all entities during their animation is 0 (zero)
You can move, attack, or even cast another spell and have multiple magic animations on screen at the same time.

I chalk up the large number of people who believe the "screen pause" falsehood in Secret of Mana to how it works in Seiken Densetsu 3, which DOES pause the entire screen for spell/skill animations to play
After all, if the more advanced and sophisticated sequel does it, surely the earlier game in the series on the same hardware must do it as well, right?
Not the case.

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