Created by Koichi Ishii, the Mana series [Known as Seiken Densetsu ("The Legend of the Sacred Sword") in Japan] started as a spin-off of the Final Fantasy series, but eventually went its own direction. The series (as of the original writing of this blog entry) has consisted of 12 games. Since 1991, the games have predominantly appeared on Nintendo and Sony consoles, but in recent years they have also been ported to mobile devices.
Well, Square-Enix has announced at E3 that a collection of three of the games from the Mana series is coming to the Nintendo Switch. Let's take a look at the trailer for Collection of Mana!
The three games are as follows:
Final Fantasy Adventure - The first game in the Mana series, it was released in 1991 for the Game Boy in Japan and North America, 1993 in Europe. Sunsoft would release it in North America in 1998. It would get a remake for the Game Boy Advance in 2003 as Sword of Mana. Join a hero named Sumo as he attempts to prevent the destruction of the world of Mana from the Dark Lord. Ishii drew inspiration from things like Alice in Wonderland and Lord of the Rings.
This game also had gameplay that differed from the main Final Fantasy series. Whereas those games had a turn-based battle system, this game would have a real-time system, kind of like Legend of Zelda. This game has been heavily praised since its release, and is considered one of the best games in the Game Boy library.
Secret of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 2 in Japan) - The second game in the Mana series, it was released in 1993 for the Super Nintendo in Japan and North America, and 1994 in Europe. It was given a full 3D remake for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Microsoft Windows in 2018. In this game, you play as a young boy who must help re-energize the magic Sword of Mana after accidentally unleashing monsters throughout the world of Mana.
This game incorporated multiplayer (each member of the three-person party could also be controlled by a human player), and it had a "Ring Command" system. This game would be highly praised for its visuals, music, story, and multiplayer. I think it's the most famous of the Mana series games, and it certainly helped RPG video games gain popularity in the West. I myself played this game before, on my Wii. It's a great game.
Trials of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 3 in Japan) - The third game in the Mana series, it was released in 1995 for the Super Famicom (The Japanese Super Nintendo). This collection is the first time the game was released in the West officially. You choose a party of three from six possible playable characters, each with their own unique plotlines. This game included a time progression system that allowed the time in the game to change from night to day, and changed the day of the week, and the characters had many choices of character classes.
In 2000, an unofficial fan translation was released. The game was greatly praised in Japan for its graphics and gameplay, but the story was given more mixed reception. The characters and plotlines were seen to be a bit one-dimensional, and only were interesting when they crossed over.
Yeah, there are only three games in this collection. However, at least they're not multiple versions of the same game like in the Contra Collection. From what I understand, these are three of the best games in the entire series, so I feel it is worth the money. If you like old video games, RPGs especially, it wouldn't hurt picking this up. I've really got to get an SD card for my Switch...
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