Secret of Evermore is, in many ways, easier than Secret of Mana.. your spells can be leveled up to the point where they do insane amounts of damage. You only have 2 characters to watch over, instead of the 3 in SoM.. Damn Sprite died again.
True the puzzles were more difficult. That was a big plus. I never found any challenge in figuring out anything in SoM. SoM however just.. pwned more I suppose.

What is it they say about silence being golden?