Secret of Mana

Secret of Mana is the second installment of the Mana series. It was both developed and published by Square. The game was originally released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1993. Ever since its release, the Mana series was formed, specifically to disconnect from the Final Fantasy franchise, which only includes the first Mana title, Final Fantasy Adventure.

Similar to The Legend of Zelda series, Secret of Mana features real-time battles, although like Final Fantasy Adventure, it has an Attack Gauge that, when filled, allows the player's character to inflict the highest damage to their target. Instead of a generic pause interface, the game introduces the Ring Command menu system, which the player can access by pausing the game to make certain decisions, such as use an item or equip a different weapon. For a large duration of the game, the party consists of three characters, who simultaneously fight at once. A second and even a third player, if they connect a third controller via the peripheral, can join in to control the second and third characters respectively.

In 2008, Secret of Mana was ported to the Wii's Virtual Console, and in 2013 it was ported to the Wii U's Virtual Console, although only in Japan. In 2009, Secret of Mana was released for FOMA 903i mobile phones and then for EZweb in 2010. In late 2010, the game was ported to iOS devices and then to Android devices in 2014. The original Super Nintendo version is one of the three titles included in the Collection of Mana compilation and one of the 21 games included on the. In 2018, a 3D remake of the game was released for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Microsoft Windows.

Story
''Darkness sweeps the troubled land, as Mana’s power fades… people await a hero who will wield the sword… Excalibur, Herald, Gigas, the blade has had many names, for it has been celebrated in myths and legends throughout time. But all these speak to just one weapon: the Sword of Mana.''
 * Title screen

''Using the power of Mana, a civilization had grown strong… In time, Mana was used to create the ultimate weapon: the Mana Fortress… This angered the gods. The sent their beasts to destroy the Fortress… A violent war rock the world, and Mana seemed to disappear… Before all was lost, a hero with the Mana Sword smashed the Fortress… Though the civilization had been destroyed, the world was peaceful again. But time flows like a river… and history repeats…''
 * Prologue

The story starts with three boys walking on a fallen tree trunk. On of them, called Randi is lagging behind and is pleading the other two to slow down, as he isn’t comfortable walking at such height. The hefty one named Elliott tries to shush him, as the village Elder might find us here and be angry at them. The last boy, Timothy adds that they are not supposed to be here since there’s a ghost around. amused by his friend’s comment, Elliott turns to his shorter friend and tells him that people only say that to scare them away from those woods. He then adds that he heard his grandma talking about a shiny object near the falls. Excited, Timothy gleefully suggests that this must be a treasure and that they should go find it. While the other two rascals happily venture away to find said treasure, Randi loses his balance and warns his friends that he’s about to fall. The two friends can’t catch up to him in time, unfortunately, and the young lad finally plummet down the steep valley. Visibly shaken by the incident, the remaining boys rushes back to the village.

Meanwhile, Randi is seen landing in shallow waters at the base of the waterfall. Miraculously unscathed by the accident, he looks back briefly at his falling site and bemoans the fact that he cannot go back up and starts searching for an alternate path. While scouting the area, the boy comes across a strange voice calling him by his name accompanied with a bright light. Bemused by this strange phenomenon, the lad cannot seem to accurately locate its source. Continuing forward, Randi discovers a patch of tall grass blocking the way back to the village and deduces that he needs to find something to cut through. His search is fortunately short-lived as the boy discovers an old sword stuck in a boulder. Moments after this finding, the voice he heard previously echoes again, this time beckoning him to remove the sword from its rocky bed. Unsure of what to do, Randi answers back by questioning the voice’s identity and wondering why is there a sword here. Silence was his only answer, sadly. Undeterred, Randi successfully pulled the blade out only to be greeted by a blinding light. As the brightness receded, the boy found himself face to face with a Ghost where the sword was moments ago. Tetanized by fear, the boy could only hear the faint whispers of the specter telling him that it was him who asked for the sword. Randi couldn’t make any sense of what the ghost had said to him but wasn’t able to ask him for more explanation before it vanishing in another blast of light. Holding the sword up in the air, Randi regains his senses and decides to head back to the village. Cutting the grass blocking his way to the settlement, the young hero is surprised to find a yellow leporine creature in front of him, as these parts of the woods are generally void of monsters. Forcing his way through the woods, he soon discovers that the cutesy appearance of the enemies hides a vicious nature that needs to be taken care of.

After reaching Potos village, he is informed by a young bystander that a strange newcomer headed to the local pub. Trying to talk to him doesn’t yield any meaningful answer, however. Randi then decides to speak to the village elder as he sees his friends from the falls having a chat together. The elder seems relieved to see that Randi is all in one piece but scolds the youngsters from venturing so far into the forest. The Elder drastically changes his composure as he sees the sword our young hero is holding in his hand. Horrified, he is puzzled to see that Randi was able to pull out the legendary Mana Sword. Elliott adds that by pulling it out of its resting place, legend said that their village would be finished. The Elder continues by telling the boys that this sword has been protecting Potos village from disaster. The hefty kid interrupts the wiser figure again by turning against Randi for realizing why the monsters are surrounding the village. Elliott then puts the blame on the young hero for bringing doom to all the townsfolk, calling him an outsider, all the while attacking him. Backing up with each successive hit, Randi pleads for his antagonistic friend to cease but to no avail. During their argument, the earth suddenly starts to rumble, opening a large hole right below the two boys, sending them below. The duo finds themselves near the nest of a giant insectoid monster seemlingly reading to dish out serious damage. Terrorized, Elliott hides in a corner ordering Randi to use its sword to defeat the creature. A voice belonging to a mysterious adventurer from the bar echoes from above, instructing Randi to watch the enemy’s movements before attacking. The hero acquiesces and, after a grueling fight, emerges victorious as the large monster suddenly vanishes in a blinding explosion, only leaving a single sword orb behind. After being pulled up by the mysterious man, Elliott immediately storms off crying loudly. The adventurer notes that Randi is effectively holding the Mana Sword and is also confused as how the teenager was able to pull it off so easily as this feat is supposed to be coming from a knight in times of great trouble instead. He presumes that something must have happened to the legendary sword. Randi tries to hand the weapon over to the man, but the latter replies that the sword has lost too much power and must be re-energized by the one that pulled the sword only. He then suggests to the young boy to visit sage Luka in the Water Palace as she has been protecting the neighboring lands for over 200 years. The conversation is cut short by Timothy announcing that the Elder wants to see him. Hearing that, the man introduces himself as Gemma and heads to the Water Palace himself. Coming inside the Elder’s house, Randi is surprised to see he is holding a meeting with a couple of villagers. The wise man notices the boy, tells him that he’s really done it this time since the reason why monsters appeared is that he removed the sword. An old woman interjects by saying that they cannot let Randi stay in the village anymore since monsters may roam in even more numbers. After each villager yells at the boy to scram, the Elder says that it pains him to say that he must oblige and order Randi to leave Potos village. He adds that the boy can take what’s in the treasure chest downstairs. After earning a small amount of gold pieces from the chest, Randi returns to the main room where he finds a lone elder. The wise man confides in him that he took the young orphan in and raise him as his own, but now there is nothing that he can do. He then adds that he never told him that his mother brought him to this village when he was a baby and then disappeared. The elder’s last words being that he hopes Randi finds him mother someday. After leaving the premises, the young hero heads down to the village southern exit, where he is officially banned from Potos forever by the gatekeeper.

Upon reaching the village’s outskirts, our hero happens to notice a crossroad where a sign pointing to the right reads “Cannon Travel Center”. Heading to the new location, he meets a Cannon Travel brother that speaks of building a global transportation network along with his brothers. The bespectacled man adds that should Randi head to the Water Palace by cannon, Gemma already paid his way in. The young lad accepts and is shot away near the temple in no time. Our hero notices a bunch of soldiers near its landing area and learns that the blonde major named Dyluck has been asked by the king of Pandora to defeat the witch Elinee that’s been causing antics in the kingdom. The small troop marches to a small teleporter due west leading to the Witch’s Castle located in the Haunted Forest. Ignoring them and going north instead, Randi arrives at the Water Palace where Gemma awaits near the main entrance. While exploring the temple, the young hero seems lost and decides to ask a young maiden Luka’s whereabouts. Gemma reprimands the lad for being so casual and properly introduces Luka to Randi, who is shocked to see a young girl being at least 200 years old. Gemma then informs the sage that monsters are invading villages. Luka replies that she is aware of that since the ebb and flow of water brings me news from around the world. It’s because Mana’s power is growing weak that the young hero was able to remove the sword and when he did, the balance of Mana in this area shifted and made monsters reappear. Luka adds that there are enemies that seek to steal away the power of the legendary blade. By defeating those creatures, Randi can restore the power inside the sword kept inside orbs, just like the one the young lad found upon defeating Mantis Ant. The sage continues by telling Randi to seek the hidden orbs that can power up the blade and find someone that can forge the sword by releasing its stored power. She then wishes Gemma goodbye as he heads out to Pandora to seek an audience with the king and warns him about the Empire’s schemes to revives the Mana Fortress. Randi is surprised to hear about the same name mentioned in fairy tales, but Luka reframes it by telling him that the Mana Fortress is real. She adds that the Empire is going to unlock the seals from the world’s eight Mana Seeds, remarking that strangers have already been lurking around the Water Palace. Before leaving, Gemma advises Randi to head for Gaia’s Navel where he will find Dwarves that are knowledgeable about weapons. After the old knight exits the temple, Randi finds himself alone with Luka, where he inquires about the Mana Sword’s purpose and the Fortress. He learns that he must become a hero worthy of the sword and that eons ago, ancients used the Mana Fortress in their final battle but failed to do so because of the inability to control Mana. Only the Mana Sword saved the world in the end. Luka then orders Randi to hold up the sword against the Mana Seed of water located behind her to synchronize its power within the blade. With a blinding flash of light, the Seed gives its power to the sword just as the sage mentioned. Sage Luka then prompts the young hero to visit the eight palaces throughout the world and gain their respective Mana Seeds’ power. She also entrusts a Spear to Randi, noting that other weapons gain also gain power upon forging with orbs. She finally gives her last advice to the lad be telling him to search for the Underground Palace in Gaia’s Navel. The Mana Sword wielder agrees and heads to his next destination.

During his trip to the kingdom of Pandora, Randi is ambushed by two Goblins. After regaining consciousness, the poor boy finds himself in a giant boiling cauldron in the middle of a Goblin Camp. Crying for help, one of the nearest goblins tell him to stay still and that he will become their main dish. Fortunately for Randi, the dancing ritual has already begun, prompting all the Goblins to merrily join the celebration. After leaving, a lone girl appears behind Randi asking what he is doing here. Pleading for help, the boy is finally saved by the young maiden as the two scurry away from the premises. After thanking her for rescuing him, Randi tries to know the reason why she was around here in the first place. The girl responds by saying that she was searching for someone and mistook the lad for that person. Unfortunately, she then adds that she is in a hurry and quickly leaves Randi alone before telling her name.

After finally reaching Pandora, our hero is greeted by a soldier who tells him he was to let him pass through if he arrived and that Gemma was already inside the castle speaking with the king. The guard then advises Randi to no converse with the townsfolk. This strange remark is quickly explained to the boy, as most of town’s inhabitant doesn’t seem to respond to him upon being interacted. Investigating the castle yields more results as Randi learns from someone that the witch up north might have something to do with people acting strange recently. Another person talks about some folks are gathering in the southern ruins. As Randi reaches the castle’s uppermost floor, he is greeted by the same girl who saved him in the woods storming off from her dad forcing her to an arranged marriage. She then recognizes the young boy and notices he’s a swordsman. This gives her the idea to coerce the boy into joining forces to defeat the evil witch Elinee and rescue her boyfriend Dyluck. Randi tries to explain to her that he needs to go the Underground Palace first but she’s having none of it. The maiden introduces herself as Primm and the party decides to go into the throne room. There they meet Gemma who explains that Elinee is draining pandoran folk’s energy, prompting them to cluster around the ruins in the southern part of town. He then advises Randi to go to Gaia’s Navel while he explores the area before leaving. Speaking to the king reveals that he is distressed by the fact that not only people are acting like zombies, but troops lead by Dyluck who were sent to the Wich’s Castle were captured. This angers Primm who realizes that his father and the king agreed to send his fiancé to this dangerous mission, leaving her available for her arranged marriage. The party then heads out to their next destination.

The party eventually reaches Gaia’s Navel, a large, flooded depression in which they find the entrance to a cave. Upon entering, Primm comments that this isn’t the way to the Witch’s castle and will ask Randi where he is headed. Should he answer the Underground Palace, she adds that she doesn’t want to go in there and if he is going by himself. If Randi answers ‘Yes’, then she leaves the party to head to the haunted forest. If the boy answers he is going to the forest, then they both venture outside the cavern all the way to the forest northeast. Minutes before entering the misty woods, they cross path with an elderly old man telling them he saw a young kid being swept by the floodwater nearby. Using a nearby teleporter, the duo is transported to the haunted forest, where they eventually hit a roadblock. Unable to cut through a heavy barricade, Primm suggests that they head back to Gaia’s Navel to visit a dwarf blacksmith.

After exiting the forest, returning to the cave’s entrance, and solving a couple of riddles, they finally arrive at an underground settlement. Here they meet dwarven locals who mention that the entrance to the Underground Palace has been sealed and thus cannot be accessed. Further down the road, they meet a jolly dwarf who lure them into watching a small magic show. The duo accepts and are prompted again to spare some cash after the shrewd dwarf display a Popoi who apparently has a 50,000 GP dept to pay off. Randi and Purimm reluctantly accept to pay a small fee which makes the sprite instantly grow. After the dubious show, the party decides to explore the town again, eventually entering Watts’ lair. Upon seeing the rusty sword Randi is carrying, the blacksmith dwarf offers him to reforge it for 100 GP to which the lad accepts. Moments after the reforging, Watts’ hammer starts to glow to which the dwarf exclaims as he realizes the sword to be the legendary blade. Somehow, the Mana sword gave his hammer some of it power and he can now help the party forging better weapons. Watts become so overjoyed that he tries making an axe as thanks. As this takes time, Randi and Primm decide to come back to the amusement house to investigate, taking an alternate door reveals how the sprite and the Dwarf elder are in on a scam. As both of them are quickly caught in the act, they reveal that the sprite is really a stray child hailing from Sprite forest, but a flood brought him in these caves. As a result, the con-dwarf thought he could earn money to help him return home. Ashamed of himself, the Dwarf elder return the scammed money. As the duo head back to check up on Watts, the earth starts shaking and they are forced to brawl with a large plant-like monster in an enclosed area. After its defeat, the elder rushes back to thank the party for defeating the menace and explains that the sprite has lost its memory from the shock of drifting all the way to the village. He then adds that the giant plant enemy has created a path to the Underground Palace. By coming in contact with the mana seeds, the Elder suggests that the sprite might regain some of its memory back which pleases the magical being. He asks Randi and Primm if they would like to accompany the sprite to the palace and both agree. Having no recollection of its identity, the sprite is referred by Randi as ‘Popoi’ and officially joins the team. The Dwarf Elder is rejoiced by this decision but warns the party that there is a lava field created by Elinee sealing the palace. The newly formed trio must now go ask the witch to dissolve the seal. The Dwarf finally gives them a Bow and arrows found alongside the sprite discovery. Having a new objective in mind, the party can finally return to Watts to see if he’s done with his work. The blacksmith seems puzzled by the fact that the axe doesn’t yield the same glow as the sword did previously, but then ask Randi to take the freshly forged weapon in his hands. This action causes the axe to emit the same glow, to which Watts concludes that weapons must be held by the hero in order to work. The blacksmith sells the party the axe and explains that weapons must be forged to release the energy contained in the orbs spawn by monsters. The Dwarf then shows the trio a shortcut to the surface.

Development
Secret of Mana began development for the SNES CD-ROM, and was planned to be a launch title for the peripheral. When the SNES CD-ROM was canceled, Square shifted Secret of Mana's development to the Super Nintendo. Similarly, Final Fantasy Adventure started development in 1987 as a Famicom Disk System title, Seiken Densetsu: The Emergence of Excalibur, before ultimately becoming a Game Boy game. When Secret of Mana shifted development to the Super Nintendo itself, the team had to remove a lot of content to fit it on a 16 megabit Super Nintendo cartridge, which is significantly smaller than a CD-ROM. One of the most significant removals was the ability to take multiple different routes, opening the possibility for several different endings. Some of ''Secret of Manas unused features found their way into ', such as the numerous different endings.

Like several other Square-developed games for the Super Nintendo, Secret of Mana utilizes, particularly when the party travels on Flammie high above the world map, as during this, the largely scaled and rotatable background gives the illusion that the ground below is three-dimensional.

The English translation for Secret of Mana was worked on by Ted Woolsey, and was completed within 30 days, a month after the Japanese version was released. Within this short time frame, Ted Woolsey had little time to complete the game's translation, and portions of the game's script had to be removed due to space limitations. In North America, prior to its release, Secret of Mana was titled Final Fantasy Adventure II, indicating that it would be marketed as a Final Fantasy spinoff in a similar vein to how the first three  games were released in North America as The Final Fantasy Legend, Final Fantasy Legend II, and Final Fantasy Legend III respectively. The idea was that the Final Fantasy Adventure series would focus more on action gameplay than the traditional RPG style of the main Final Fantasy series and the Final Fantasy Legend series. When Secret of Mana was chosen as the game's title, Mana became a entirely separate series from Final Fantasy not just in Japan but also in other regions.

Secret of Mana went on to be developed and ported across many more platforms as the SNES was eventually discontinued. The original game (with an updated translation and touch-focused player experience) first appeared in Japan circa 2009, and in the West from 2010. Available on both iOS/iPadOS and Android, this version has been updated frequently as mobile technology continues to evolve. However, the port became unusable on iOS for a period of six months in 2019 due to a rendering bug that presented in version 13 of the operating system. The bug was eventually patched out in the spring of 2020.

As early as 2017, current series director Masaru Oyamada floated the possibility of a remake in time for the game's 25th anniversary. More details surfaced in the form of gameplay footage later in the year, and the project was submitted to Q Studios for development and conversion. The 2.5D remake was ultimately released on February 18, 2018 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Windows PCs, with a physical PS4 Blu-ray release available to select retailers. Players who pre-ordered digitally also received two selectable costume sets for the party to wear in-game. Reviews of the remake were initially mixed; but unfortunately, several show-stopping bugs were hit upon by a number of reviewers and players, who then blasted Square Enix for delivering a rushed and/or unfinished game. Although many of the worst bugs are now patched out as of late 2018, the remake remains one of the least-recommended in the series as a whole.