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Secret of Mana
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Secret of Mana, known in Japan as , is an action role-playing game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix) for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was later re-released on the Wii Virtual Console.
Secret of Mana is the second installment in the Mana video game series (the first, Final Fantasy Adventure/Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden was for the Game Boy). This is the only Mana game released on the Super Nintendo outside Japan.
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Encyclopedia
Secret of Mana, known in Japan as , is an action role-playing game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix) for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was later re-released on the Wii Virtual Console.
Secret of Mana is the second installment in the Mana video game series (the first, Final Fantasy Adventure/Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden was for the Game Boy). This is the only Mana game released on the Super Nintendo outside Japan. Most players outside Japan were introduced to the series through this particular game.
Rather than use the traditional turn-based battle system of games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, Secret of Mana uses real-time battles akin to the Legend of Zelda series' games, but with the statistical-based elements of the RPG genre and a unique "ring menu" system. With its brightly colored graphics, expansive plot, and soundtrack by Hiroki Kikuta, Secret Of Mana is considered an influential game of its time.
Gameplay
is shown in the gauges at the bottom.]]
As is common with role-playing games of the 16-bit era, Secret of Mana is comprised entirely of a top-down perspective, in which three protagonists navigate through the terrain and fight off hostile creatures. Control may be passed between each of the three at any time; if Randi is selected as the player character, his two companions will be controlled via artificial intelligence, and vice-versa. The trio can find refuge in a town, where they can regain hit points (HP) or purchase restorative items and equipment. The game may be played simultaneously by two or three players. In order to support three players, a Super Multitap accessory must be plugged into the second controller port of the Super Nintendo console. The Virtual Console version of the game supports 3-player gameplay with the use of additional GameCube controllers or Classic Controllers.
Each of the three characters has individual strengths and weaknesses: The boy, while unable to use magic, excels at fighting and masters weapons at a quicker rate; the girl functions as healer, able to cast restorative and support spells; lastly, the Sprite's magic is almost entirely offensive, but he is ill-suited for melee combat. Upon collecting enough experience points in battle, each character can increase in level with improved stats such as strength and evasion. Options such as changing equipment, casting spells, or checking status is performed by cycling through the game's Action Ring, a circular menu that hovers over the currently-controlled party member. The game is momentarily paused when the Action Ring appears.
Combat takes place in real-time. Located below each character's hit points is a percentage gauge that determines the amount of damage done to an enemy. Swinging a weapon causes the gauge to fall to 0% and then quickly recharge, allowing that character to attack at full strength. The party wields eight different styles of weapons throughout the game: sword, spear, bow, axe, boomerang, glove, whip, and javelin. With the exception of the sword, all weapons can be upgraded eight times, and repeated use increases their Skill Levels to a maximum of 8, unlocking a new charged attack with each level. Weapons are upgraded through the use of Weapon Orbs, generally obtained after defeating a boss or found as a treasure in dungeons. Once an Orb is collected, the weapon must be taken to Watts the dwarven blacksmith (a recurring character in the series) to be reforged.
Magic in Secret of Mana operates in much the same way as weapon skill progression, with the exception that magic points are consumed each time a spell in cast. In order to learn magic, the party must rescue spirits known as Elementals. The eight Elementals represent different elements (Fire, Water, Earth, etc.), and each provides the player with specific spells. Magic skill can only be as high as the party's current Mana Power, which increases automatically over the course of the game.
Unlike most console role-playing games of the time, Secret of Mana does not switch to an overworld map each time the characters leave a dungeon or town. At the start of the game, players must traverse an enemy-infested countryside in order to reach their next destination. Travel may be expedited through use of Cannon Travel Centers, where non-player characters offer to launch the party—via a giant cannon—to a far-away destination. Cannon Travel usually requires a fee, but is mandatory to visit other continents early on. Later, the party is given access to Flammie, a miniature dragon that is controlled by the player and can fly anywhere. These sequences make use of the Super Nintendo's Mode 7 capability to create a rotatable background, giving the illusion that the ground beneath Flammie is rendered in three dimensions. Also, while on Flammie, the player can access either the "rotated map", which presents the world as a globe, or the "world map," a two-dimensional view of the overworld.
Plot
Setting
The story takes place in a fictional world, during an unspecified period following a war between a civilization and "gods" concerning the use of mana to fuel the "Mana Fortress", a flying warship. Using the power of the Mana Sword, a hero destroyed the fortress and returned peace to the world.
Story
The story begins when three boys from the village Potos disobey their Elder's instructions and trespass into a nearby waterfall, where a treasure is said to be kept. One of the boys (the main protagonist) stumbles and falls into the lake, where he finds a rusty sword embedded in a stone. Guided by a disembodied voice, he pulls the sword free, inadvertently unleashing monsters in Potos and the surrounding countryside. The villagers interpret the sword's removal as a bad omen, and banish the boy from Potos forever. An elderly Knight named Jema recognizes the blade as the legendary Mana Sword, and encourages the boy to re-energize it by visiting the eight Mana Temples. During his journey, the boy is joined by a Sprite child and the daughter of a nobleman from Pandora. The orphaned Sprite initially tries to con the boy out of his money, but later accompanies him in hope of recovering his lost memory. The girl joins the party in search of her lost love, Dyluck, an officer in Pandora's army who has gone missing.
Throughout their travels, the trio is pursued by the Empire, which seeks to unseal the eight Mana Seeds and revive the Mana Fortress. Unbeknownst to the Emperor or his subordinates, they are being manipulated by Thanatos, an ancient lich who has offered to help them take over the world. Due to his own body's deterioration, Thanatos is in need of a suitable body to possess. After putting the entire kingdom of Pandora under a trance, he abducts two candidates: Dyluck, now enslaved, and a young Pandoran girl named Phanna. Over time, however, Thanatos narrows his selection to Dyluck.
The Empire succeeds in unsealing all eight Mana Seeds. However, Thanatos betrays the Emperor and his henchmen, killing them and seizing control of the Mana Fortress for himself. The boy and his party journey to the Mana Holy Land ("Pure Land" in the English translation) to locate the Mana Tree, the focal point of the world's life energy. Anticipating their arrival, Thanatos positions the Mana Fortress over the Tree and destroys it. The charred remains of the Tree speak to the party, explaining that a giant creature called the Mana Beast will soon be summoned to combat the Fortress. However, the Beast has little control over its rage and will likely destroy the world as well. The Mana Tree also reveals that it was once the human wife of Serin, the original Mana Knight, and the boy's mother. The voice heard at Potos' waterfall was that of Serin's ghost.
The trio flies to the Mana Fortress and confronts Thanatos, who is preparing to transfer his mind into Dyluck. With the last of his strength, Dyluck warns that Thanatos has sold his soul to the underworld and must not be allowed to have the Fortress. Dyluck kills himself, forcing Thanatos to revert to a skeletal form which is quickly defeated in battle. The Mana Beast finally reveals itself and attacks the Fortress. The boy expresses reluctance to kill the Beast, fearing that with the dispersal of Mana from the world, the Sprite child will vanish. With the Sprite's encouragement, the boy uses the fully-energized Mana Sword to slay the Beast, causing it to explode and transform into snow. At the conclusion of the game, the boy is shown returning the Mana Sword to its place beneath the waterfall.
Characters
Heroes
The primary protagonist of Secret of Mana is the boy, who is supported by the spell-casting girl and sprite child. While the three released versions of the game do not have a default name for each of the characters, the Japanese instruction manual refers to the boy, girl and sprite respectively as Randi, Purim and Popoie (or variants thereof). The origin of the heroes' names is somewhat cloudy: they were possibly bestowed by the Japanese Gamest Magazine previewing the game, then followed upon by other magazines and subsequently by Square.
Randi, a.k.a. The Boy or The Hero or Randy
The boy is adopted by the Elder of Potos after his mother disappears. After pulling the Mana Sword free, the monsters invaded Potos and the villagers persuade the Elder to banish him. Seeking to restore the sword, Randi then embarks on a quest to re-energize the sword.
Purim a.k.a. The Girl
Purim, the girl, meets Randi briefly when he's ambushed by Goblins. After helping him escape, she disappears, only to appear again outside Elinee's Castle. The girl is in love with a warrior named Dyluck, who was ordered by the King to attack Elinee's Castle, which is considered a virtual suicide mission. Angry with the king for this, as well as with her father for setting her up for an arranged marriage, she rebels and leaves the castle to join Randi in his quest, hoping to save Dyluck as well. She is capable of casting defensive and healing spells.
Popoie a.k.a. The Sprite
The Heroes meet Popoie the Sprite at the Dwarf Village. The Sprite makes a living by scamming people at the dwarves' Freak Show. He doesn't remember anything about his past, so he joins the team to try to recover his memories. The Sprite comes from a village in the Upper Land. He was washed away by a flood to Gaia's Navel, where the Dwarf Elder found him. The flood caused The Sprite to suffer from amnesia; the Sprite can't remember anything of his past. While Popoie may seem childish at times, he has courage equal to that of the other two heroes. As an orphan, he understands how the boy feels not growing up with his parents. Popoie's gender has never officially been stated; however, in the Japanese version's script, he uses the first-person pronoun "oira" that is mostly used by male speakers. He is capable of casting offensive (damage-dealing) spells.
Development
Secret of Mana was directed and designed by Koichi Ishii. The game was programmed primarily by Nasir Gebelli and produced by veteran Squaresoft designer Hiromichi Tanaka. After the release of Final Fantasy III, Tanaka wanted to help design a seamless game without a separate battle system. Because this would not work with Final Fantasy IV, he turned to Secret of Mana. Secret of Mana was originally going to be a launch title for the SNES CD add-on. After the project was dropped, the game had to be altered to fit onto a standard game cartridge.
The English translation for Secret of Mana was completed in only 30 days, mere weeks after the Japanese release. This was presumably so that the game could be released in North America for the 1993 holiday season. According to translator Ted Woolsey, a large portion of the game's script was cut out in the English localization due to space limitations and a lack of sequential text. The English translation of Secret of Mana uses a fixed-width font to display text on the main gameplay screen. However, the choice of this font limits the amount of space available to display text, and as a result conversations are trimmed to their bare essentials, leaving a good portion of the game lost in translation.
In 1999 as part of their planned nine game lineup, Square announced they would be porting Seiken Densetsu 2 to Bandai's new handheld system WonderSwan Color. The port was delayed and eventually cancelled when Square moved resources to Game Boy Advance development.
Audio
is the soundtrack to Secret of Mana. Originally released in 1993 in Japan under the name Seiken Densetsu 2 Original Sound Version by NTT Publishing and Squaresoft, its US debut followed in the next year due to the game's massive success. The US release is identical to the Japanese version, aside from the packaging and localized English song titles (not necessarily accurate translations). It was re-released in both 1995 and 2004.
The game's soundtrack was composed by Hiroki Kikuta. It is known for its variety of tunes which tend to focus on the use of percussion and woodwind instruments, ranging from a lighthearted dwarves' polka to a somber, wistful snow melody to a tribal-like dance. Kikuta states that he had a particularly difficult time composing the score, which required him to combine his own style of popular music with the "game music" that is accompanied by the hardware and software limitation of the Super Famicom.
Secret of Manas title theme, "Angels' Fear" is well known by video game music aficionados for its haunting, echoing piano melody, and was featured in the third Orchestral Game Concert, the fifth Symphonic Game Music Concert, as well as serving as the base for many remixes. In 2008, ScrewAttack.com's users ranked the song number 7 on the website's Top 10 Video Game Themes Ever.
Parts of the game's soundtrack, as well as some music from Seiken Densetsu 3, were incorporated into the Secret of Mana + compilation arrangement CD, an image album containing one 50-minute track.
| Secret of Mana Original Soundtrack Tracklist |
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Disc 1 (54:42)
- "Fear of the Heavens" - 1:42
- "A Curious Tale" - 1:30
- "Phantom and ...A Rose..." - 1:28
- "Together Always" - 1:10
- "Fond Memories" - 1:52
- "Into the Thick of It" - 1:56
- "The Color of the Summer Sky" - 1:25
- "Dancing Animals" - 1:19
- "Distant Thunder" - 1:49
- "The Little Sprite" - 0:52
- "It Happened Late One Evening" - 1:47
- "In the Dead of Night" - 1:04
- "Mystic Invasion" - 0:59
- "Secret of the Arid Sands" - 1:11
- "What the Forest Taught Me" - 1:04
- "A Wish..." - 1:04
- "Spirit of the Night" - 1:47
- "Did You See the Ocean?" - 2:10
- "Danger " - 2:12
- "Calm Before the Storm" - 2:04
- "The Wind Never Ceases" - 1:14
- "Flight Into the Unknown" - 1:30
- "Eternal Recurrence" - 2:12
- "The Legend" - 1:44
- "A Bell is Tolling" - 1:33
- "A Curious Happening" - 1:07
- "Monarch on the Shore" - 1:38
- "The Dark Star" - 1:33
- "Prophesy" - 1:13
- "Steel and Snare" - 1:43
- "Whisper and Mantra" - 1:10
- "Ceremony " - 1:28
- "Morning is Here" - 1:06
- "Leave Time For Love" - 1:26
- "Still of the Night" - 2:50
- "The Curse" - 1:21
- "The Oracle" - 1:48
- "A Conclusion" 1:08
- "I Won't Forget" - 1:11
- "One of Them is Hope" - 1:08
- "Meridian Dance" - 2:20
- "Now Flightless Wings" - 2:02
- "The Second Truth From the Left" - 2:48
- "I Closed My Eyes" - 0:32
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Reception and sequels
As of February 2004, Secret of Mana shipped 1.83 million copies worldwide, with 1.5 million of those copies being shipped in Japan and 330,000 abroad.
Secret of Mana has been on numerous "best games" lists. It was listed at number 42 on Nintendo Power magazine's Top 200 Nintendo Games Of All Time, as well as the 86th best game made on a Nintendo System. It was also rated number 48 on the "IGN's Top 100 Games" in 2005, number 49 in 2006, and number 79 in 2007. Also in 2006, Secret of Mana was voted the 97th best game of all time by the readers of the well-known Japanese magazine Famitsu. ScrewAttack.com ranked the game number 6 in its Top 20 SNES Games list in 2008. Secret of Mana was awarded Best Role-Playing Game of 1993 by Electronic Gaming Monthly.
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