World(s!) of Mana Details

[Warlock]

http://ds.ign.com/articles/654/654401p1.html


At long last, the veil has started to slip off. Two World of Mana games have been announced via the latest issue of Jump Magazine over in Japan. Of the two games, Seiken Densetsu DS: Children of Mana (Seiken Densetsu is the Japanese name for the Mana series) seems to be the farthest along. This 2D action-RPG is being developed for the DS for a 2006 Japanese release.
The second game is a proper sequel in the series: Seiken Densetsu 4. This game is fully 3D and affords lots of detail to its main characters -- so much, in fact, that you can see clear facial expressions. The game is listed without a release date and without a system, but it appears to be current generation. We'll have to wait for confirmation from Square Enix, but a PlayStation 2 release looks most likely.

While the update from Jump gives us just the slightest of peaks at the two new Mana games, we expect the full veil to come off shortly. Stay tuned for more as we learn it.

Hells yeah! First off, the DS version will be full of 2d Secret of Mana goodness. Awesome. Secondly, they don't consider that POS Legend of Mana as the forth in the series! yay!

I can't wait for these.

[Kairyu]

they don't consider... Legend of Mana as the forth in the series!
Good, as it's well above the trash that was SD 2.
At least the graphical style of the screenshots seems closest to LoM. That's a good sign, at least.

[vegeta1215]

After the disappointing Legend of Mana and Sword of Mana, I'm not convinced that Brownie Brown/Square can make another good Mana game. Port me Seiken Densetsu 3 and I'll shut up.

[Warlock]

After the disappointing Legend of Mana and Sword of Mana, I'm not convinced that Brownie Brown/Square can make another good Mana game. Port me Seiken Densetsu 3 and I'll shut up.

Sword of Mana was good, just a little ackward and somewhat buggy. I think part of that was they were trying to build off the old Seiken Densetsu which was more like Zelda than Secret of Mana.

Legend of Mana was NOT done by the Mana team (aka Brownie Brown) at all. It was shortly after all of them left Square. That's why it sucked incredible ass. Despite the crappiness of that game, the graphical style was not half bad. I mean, ignoring all the freaking bird people and rabbits and crap. Sword of Mana was a happy compromise that I think fit the series well.

I have hope for these games. And they better damn well port Seiken 3 over here sometime soon. Heck, do a "Mana Collection" with Seikens 2 and 3 on it. They could include Legend of Mana if they wanted, but I would not be disappointed if that POS wasn't on there :)

[Cloral]

Good to hear since I really liked SoM. As for why SD3 wasn't ported, I have a feeling they thought it was too hard for the US audiance. I did manage to finish it, but towards the end I had to spend a lot of time leveling in order to be strong enough to take out the godbeasts. Then again, they could always make a toned-down version of it like they did with FF for the GBA. Graphically, it was one of the best looking SNES games made.

[Warlock]

Good to hear since I really liked SoM. As for why SD3 wasn't ported, I have a feeling they thought it was too hard for the US audiance. I did manage to finish it, but towards the end I had to spend a lot of time leveling in order to be strong enough to take out the godbeasts. Then again, they could always make a toned-down version of it like they did with FF for the GBA. Graphically, it was one of the best looking SNES games made.

No, Square USA was too busy making the craptacular ripoff, Secret of Evermore, at the time so they were "indisposed" to translate. Actually I think there were some issues as well, like it was a pain in the ass to do. I remember the guy that actually translated the rom mentioned something about that.

[vegeta1215]

I thought most of the difficulty Neill had with SD3 was actually patching the ROM correctly, not necessarily translating the dialog (which someone else did along with him) :shrug:

Sword of Mana was okay, and some of the Legend of Mana elements such as the weapon forging system are much better executed, but it still has too many problems in my opinion. I'd rather play Final Fantasy Adventure than Sword of Mana (it's remake). Even so, all the Mana games have a kind of charm that is irresistble.

[Tygore]

Yay, another game to take my money down the road. Wonderful.

[MottZilla]

Vegeta is right. Patching/hacking the rom correctly was the pain he had in his ass. I'm pretty certain someone else translated the script. Generally one person hacks, the other translates the script. Although in some cases maybe there are multipule hackers or translators. As for a official translation, they surely have the resources. Unless they were smart enough to lose the source code or something.

[Cloral]

I think SD3 used a number of non-standard features, like that weird screen ratio that let them fit text in tighter. But then again they should've been standard on the SNES, so that shouldn't've been a problem. I'm sure it was more a ROM-translation issue (i.e. made it hard to resize text memory or such) than an issue that Square would've had to deal with.
And you're right, I had forgotten about SoE. I liked the fact that it was like SoM, but it didn't have the magic of SoM. I hate to say it, but it felt American. For instance, the graphics style was dark and detailed rather than being cartoony and whimsical. Although to be honest, graphics are the one area I think SoE did well. But the levels felt boring and pointless - like that maze forest in Gothica. And all in all, the storyline wasn't very interesting. I don't think it was a bad game, but SoM was the best in the series by a good bit, with SD3 taking second. SoE would probably have to take 4th after FFA, and those are really the only 4 I've played in the series.

[Warlock]

I think SD3 used a number of non-standard features, like that weird screen ratio that let them fit text in tighter. But then again they should've been standard on the SNES, so that shouldn't've been a problem. I'm sure it was more a ROM-translation issue (i.e. made it hard to resize text memory or such) than an issue that Square would've had to deal with.
And you're right, I had forgotten about SoE. I liked the fact that it was like SoM, but it didn't have the magic of SoM. I hate to say it, but it felt American. For instance, the graphics style was dark and detailed rather than being cartoony and whimsical. Although to be honest, graphics are the one area I think SoE did well. But the levels felt boring and pointless - like that maze forest in Gothica. And all in all, the storyline wasn't very interesting. I don't think it was a bad game, but SoM was the best in the series by a good bit, with SD3 taking second. SoE would probably have to take 4th after FFA, and those are really the only 4 I've played in the series.

Maybe you guys are right about the translation thing. What I was mainly refering to though was a problem with the size of the tables and stuff (which might be more rom related but I think it would be something Square would have to deal with). Not the actual script which I'm sure was easy.

And Secret of Evermore is NOT a mana game. Don't lump that POS in with the Mana series. It's an independant game that uses the name "Secret" to capitalize on the fact that it *looks* like Secret of Mana to get stupid retards to buy it (because it would have never sold otherwise).

[MottZilla]

Warlock, when you have the source code, it's not a problem at all as you can rebuild the entire game in an instant. But when you don't, adding to things is difficult as you would have to manually try to move things around, such as sound data, graphics data, game data, etc. The scary thing is, the source code to the original Mortal Kombat is rumored to be lost. It's probably true of some games too, and quite possibly SD3.

[Warlock]

Warlock, when you have the source code, it's not a problem at all as you can rebuild the entire game in an instant. But when you don't, adding to things is difficult as you would have to manually try to move things around, such as sound data, graphics data, game data, etc. The scary thing is, the source code to the original Mortal Kombat is rumored to be lost. It's probably true of some games too, and quite possibly SD3.

If they have the source code to games like Chrono Trigger and FF5/6 for the PSX ports I can't imagine they wouldn't have SD3 still. I think one of the things that have kept it from being ported probably has to do with the fact that no one at Square has bothered to translate the damn thing yet. So it would, you know.. require some actual work :P

[MottZilla]

You'd be surprised how bad some companies were at keeping track of things like source code and betas. And FYI, did you know there is a Chrono Trigger rom file on the PSX CT disc? It doesn't appear to be emulated like a PC game, but it's quite possible they used a special hack job emulation engine. Afterall, most SNES games were coded in ASM for the SNES CPU '65816'.

Ofcourse it would be nice to get a SD3 port. But just hope it's not a static recompilation from the SNES ROM like some SNES to GBA ports were.

[Warlock]

http://ds.ign.com/articles/657/657953p1.html


October 12, 2005 - Children of Mana is the first title in Square Enix's Seiken Densetsu (Secret of Mana) revival, set to hit Japanese shops later this Winter. While Square Enix has been holding back details on the game, the latest issue of Jump magazine provides a few first bits on the game's characters and weapon system.

Three primary characters are revealed in the magazine: Frick, Tumble and Pop. Frick is a fifteen-year-old boy who lives in Illusia, the land in which the Mana series takes place. He's said to be cheerful, active and brave. Tumble is a sixteen-year-old girl who's come to live in Illusia and has a strong sense of truth and responsibility. Pop is a nine-year-old boy who does things his own way and fears nothing. Besides these three, Children of Mana is expected to feature many more characters.
We mentioned in a previous update that Square Enix will be giving players full control over their characters through just the main face buttons. The game lets you equip a different weapon to two buttons. You'll make use of close range weapons like swords, long distance weapons like bows and even magic-based attacks such as "flare." Each weapon has its own super move that can be performed once you've filled up a "Fever Gauge" by defeating enemies through standard attacks.

Wierd names I know, but this game is sounding a LOT like Secret of Mana (aka Seiken Densetsu 2) which is a good thing. The characters actually sound all very similar, though obviously Pop doesn't seem to be a sprite like the SD2 character was (actually it reminds me a bit of Charlie in SD3). Illusia is actually a name I havn't heard in awhile. It was the name of the Mana Tree's home the *original* Seiken Densetsu (Final Fantasy Adventures), Mt. Illusia. In Secret of Mana this area was called the "Pure Land", though I suspect if you really compared japanese versions the translation would not differ much. I think it's meant to be the same place. So yeah, that's interesting.

The weapon system is interesting too. The actual weapons sound like they work like Secret of Mana (which is good, that game had an awesome system with a bunch of different weapons that could be switched out on any character for different situations), but assigning two weapons is new. Should be interesting to see how this works. The "Fever Gauge" sounds familiar. Maybe Sword of Mana used a similar system. I know FFA just had the bar fill on its own, and SoM featured a charging system. This may be a better alternative as honestly, holding down the charge button that long (and when you consider you could get something like 9 special moves, holding it down for 9 bar fills is really annoying). Actually, IIRC this may be the same system SD3 uses. I believe that game had four bars that filled somehow.. I think when you killed enemies. Once they were full you got a special move.

So yeah, this should be cool. I wonder how the magic system will work. I'm hoping something like SoM/SD3. I feel that's the best system.

[Cloral]

Yeah SD3 had a system where you special action bars filled one unit each time you hit an enemy. Once you filled up a level (I think the grand total was 3), you could execute a special move by hitting a button. The move you did was dependant on how many levels you had saved up. And once you beat all the enemies in a room, the meter reverted - so you couldn't beat up on weak monsters to fill it up so that you could start the boss battle with a full gauge.

[vegeta1215]

The weapon charging in SoM was cool, but it just took too long - that's why I like the gauge system in SD3.

My favorite special move in SD3 is Hawk's Split Image Slice. It's his level 3 special for when he's a Night Blade. :) (throughout the game ninja enemies perform this attack on your characters, nearly killing your party each time, so it was nice to turn the tables once I got it too)

I'm curious how they will change the system for Children of Mana.

[mrz84]

wow. i come back from the dead (not really, but in a sense...) and find out not one, but two new Mana games! sweet! I can't wait for them! :drool:

SD3 should be ported. my fav party is Angela (devastating attack magic), Lise (decent physical attacks and support magic) and Carlie (superb healing magic)

[Mak-X]

1up.com has a preview and screens for Children of Mana
http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3145031&did=1

Seems to take place after Seiken Densetsu 1. And I'll guess they'll use the additional screen for a map or inventory change. Can't wait!

[Warlock]

Holy anime cutscenes Batman!

http://www.1up.com/media?id=2416769&type=lg

Undine summon ftw!

BTW, anyone else notice the game uses Seiken 3 graphics? :D

It also seems the characters might be very similar to the three from Seiken 2 (Secret of Mana). Flick seems to be the warrior, Tumble seems to cast support magic, and Pop appears to have offensive magic (at least based on the cutscene shown above). Which is exactly what the three SD2 characters did. Tumble is sort of a guess since she hasn't been shown much but it looks like support magic to me.

[vegeta1215]

I saw some of the newer screenshots on IGN the other day. Looks very nice. Still no word on multiplayer though. The article Mak linked said you will charge your weapons like in Secret of Mana though :)

Mak! Last time you posted was in May :odd: Where have you been?