Topic: The Mana (Seiken Densetsu) Fan Thread

I Figured since we have a Final Fantasy/Kingdom Hearts fan thread to discuss those games I'd create one for a other great series by Square, the Mana series or Seiken Densetsu as it's called in Japan.

The Mana series is an action RPG more like a cross between Zelda and Final Fantasy I won't go into much detail but if you want more info well you can go here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mana_(series)

Anyway after finally picking up a reproduction cart of Secret of Mana 2 (English translation of Seiken Densetsu III, which was never released in North America) I decided to play through the second game (Secret of Mana) again. I would have played the first one but I don't own either Final Fantasy Adventure or Sword of Mana (Are any of those available on a VC?), So I am starting with Secret.

Funny thing is I never beat Secret of Mana on my own, I have seen the ending a few times but I never finished it. I always got up to the Dark Lich and kept dieing but I will admit that was before I knew you could level up your magic spells.

Anyway are you a fan of the Mana series? What memories do you have of this series. And no while we are on the subject Secret of Evermore doesn't count since it's not a part of the series so please take the discussion of that game elsewhere.

Wow I thought for sure there would be fans of this series here, guess I was wrong.

Well anyway made it up to the Witch's castle, it's funny on how you remember things as a kid. I remember it taking alot longer to get to the witch's castle and alot harder then it took my son and I. Still though, game holds up pretty well.

Played Sword of Mana years ago on the GBA (I think I had picked it up used at GameStop for $10, actually). It was a fun little action RPG.

I remember there was this one boss (I think made out of fire), that was heavily resistant to physical attacks, and I had a hard time of it since I didn't bother to use magic most of the time. Still somehow managed to beat it, though.

I tried playing it again a few years ago, but the save battery must have died, because it wouldn't load a game.

Hey, you're not alone fellow Mana fan!
I... don't really have anything to post about the series though.
Edit: Oh wait I do! Has anyone played Legend of Mana? I like the looks of the hand drawn art style, but I've held off buying it because the gameplay looks a little stoic.

@-Godot: I played it years ago on PS one, but sadly I don't remember too much about it. I do remember it having an odd simcity like mode where you placed buildings and made a town kinda like something like Actraiser. It felt kinda odd for an RPG especially for a Mana game.

@RR529: I never played Sword of Mana but I did play Final Fantasy Adventure, which Sword of Mana is a remake/remastery of. I need to check that one out maybe one of these days I will pick it up unless it comes to the VC.

@Tasuki Cool, if it's under ten bucks on PSN I guess I'll have to give it a shot.

@-Godot: If you have a PS2 or PS one a CIB copy will run you about 40 bucks on ebay, not to bad. I am not sure if it's on PSN.

@-Godot: I apologize for the second post but yes just checked on PSN and they do indeed have Legend of Mana and it's 5.99.

For the moment I only played three games in the Seiken Densetsu series:
I love Secret of Mana, I LOVE Seiken Densetsu 3, but I really dislike Children of Mana

@StarBoy91: Wasn't Children of Mana more of a Spinoff then an actual part of the series? I remember buying it on the DS cause I loved Secret of Mana and being disappointed by it. I ended up selling it to a friend of mine.

@Tasuki - my memories of Children of Mana are this: great visuals, good music, but tedious and repetitive gameplay (not at all helped by consistently being bounced off enemies and/or walls like a pinball which became very annoying after awhile that I eventually gave up on it). I'm sad to admit that it was my first Mana (as well as one of the first Nintendo DS games I bought) before I rectified that when I downloaded Secret of Mana on the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console months later (a far better A-RPG) back in 2008

@StarBoy91: IIRC Children of Mana wasn't even really an RPG in a sense of Secret of Mana it was more of a dungeon crawler.

It's great that you didn't let that game cloud your judgement on trying another game from the series. Would have been a shame if you missed out on a great series.

I am so excited that the collection is final announced for the west, the collection was one of the games I wanted most for the Switch. I am also excited to see Seiken Densetsu III (Secret of Mana 2) is fianlly getting a release as well in the form of the remake.

One big question I want to know is does the third game have multiplayer like the translated roms and repro cartridges do. I know originally the third game didn't have multiplayer but when the rom was translated to English multiplayer was added as well to make it more along the lines of Secret of Mana. I do have a repro cartridge as well that includes multiplayer. So does the third game in the collection or the remake have multiplayer?

I'm so excited for Trials of Mana! Although then again I only played Legend of Mana for this series... Hopefully Trials of Mana will be great.

https://gematsu.com/2019/06/trials-of-mana-is-the-most-action...

This new information by Gematsu pretty much cemented the "I want to get this"

@darkfenrir Thanks for the link it answered my question sadly I won't be getting this as there is no multiplayer in this version.

@Tasuki Sad, but understandable. I'm just never a a multiplayer person so it being there or not doesn't matter for me XD

Hope you have fun with the Collection then!

@darkfenrir It's just that Secert of Mana is one of the games my son likes to play with me. I don't know if the collection has multiplayer on the third game

@Tasuki Ahhh, make sense. I don't know either since I don't really have intention to buy the collection, sorry :<

I ordered a Japanese physical copy as soon as I got home. Totally stoked