So recently, I've replayed Secret of Mana and since its a Square game, I had a crazy idea.
How about we have like a Secret of Mana Trial?
I thought maybe we could have a black Rabite as the actual boss. He beats up the boy, the girl and the sprite in the opening cutscene and absorbs their magic (or something).
During the fight, he would fight like a Rabite would, tackle, bite. BUT, at certain points, he would summon a Mana and spawn elemental versions of the boy, girl and sprite with random weapons. Boy would just hit hard, have a aggro table. Sprite would hit very weakly but have strong magic and no aggro table. The girl would be in between with a aggro table.Let's say you take too long in killing the girl, she would revive the group (under the right element) or heal them, etc. Sprite would randomly cast spells from his current elements but if left alone for too long, the Rabite would use his own very powerful version of say Freeze or Flame Burst.
And have each weapon type have a almost negligible mechanic to do. They could drop Mana weapon considering the vast array of weapon SoM has.

Thoughts? Do you have your own idea?