Secret of Mana

aka: Seiken Densetsu 2

Released

August 6th, 1993 on SNES

Releases by Date (by platform)

Publishers

Developers

Square Co., Ltd.

Moby Score

8.3

#550 of 157K

Critics

88% (48)

Players

(159)

Ranking

#20 on SNES
#22 on Wii
#133 on iPhone

Collected By

297 players

Genre: Role-playing (RPG)
Perspective: Diagonal-down
Art: Anime / Manga
Gameplay: Action RPG
Setting: Fantasy
Misc: Regional differences

Buy (updated 5/31 2:58 PM)

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Description official descriptions

Long ago, people lived in harmony with the natural world and used the power of Mana to help their nations grow. But when evil forces took control of the Mana Fortress, seeking to use it to conquer the world, a terrible war began which destroyed much of civilization but brought peace to the world once more. Over the long years, the events of the past became but legends to the new generations of humans. But history repeats itself...

One day while exploring a forbidden valley near his village, a young boy finds a rusty sword stuck in a stone. He does not realize that this is the Mana sword of legend, used in the great war of the past. By drawing the sword, the boy unwittingly summons hordes of monsters, and is expelled from his village for breaking the ancient taboo. A mysterious knight Jema who is passing through the area recognizes the sword and gives him instructions for the future. First, he must repair the sword, and then, with its help, take control of the Mana seeds which can be found hidden around the world to prevent them from falling into evil hands.

Secret of Mana is an action RPG, featuring real-time hack-and-slash style combat, in which up to two computer-controlled companions can accompany you. The protagonist has a stamina gauge: the more stamina he has, the more powerful his strike is. The player also has access to a growing arsenal of spells with various effects. It is possible to upgrade weapons, armor, and magic to higher levels.

Spellings

聖剣伝説２ - Japanese spelling

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Credits (SNES version)

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Executive Producers	Rich Silveira Toshiyuki Horii Junichi Yanagihara Douglas E. Smith Tetsuo Mizuno
Producer, Concept / System Design, Scenario Message Data	Hiromichi Tanaka
Director, Chief Game Design, Animation / Monster Design	Koichi Ishii
Battle System Design, Monster Logistics	Goro Ohashi
Map System Design / Data	Yasushi Matsumura
Map Data	Toshiyuki Inoue
Lead Programming	Nasir Gebelli
Monster Control Programming	Satoru Yoshieda
Boss Monster Programming	Taku Murata
Message Programming	Masaaki Saito
"Ring" Menu Programming	Ryo Muto
Calculation Programming	Yoshiyuki Miyagawa
Sound Programming	Minoru Akao
Demo Programming	Fumiaki Fukaya
Chief Map Graphic Design	Yasuhiko Kamata
Map Graphic Design	Tetsuya Takahashi Manabu Daishima Misako Tsutsui
World Map Graphic Design	Akira Ueda
Map Design	Hidetoshi Kezuka
Player Character Design	Shinichi Kameoka
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Discussion

Subject	User	Date
So what else has changed?	CrankyStorming (2916)	2011-11-06 16:44:22

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The SNES version of Secret of Mana appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Development

One of the first games announced for the then-announced CD-ROM addon for the SNES. Nintendo eventually gave up trying to get the peripheral off the ground after the deal with Phillips to make the drive fell flat. Square eventually released a tooled-down version, which pushed the SNES hardware constantly (hence the slowdown and lack of multiple enemies onscreen), and overall left Square bitter for having to go through the process of downgrading its game. This probably was one of the reasons Square decided to bail on Nintendo (and its then-upcoming N64 console) and take its multimillion seller, Final Fantasy VII, with it (which was first announced for the N64).

Ironically, Square signed the deal to bring the game to the PlayStation with Sony, which was the original partner for the SNES CD drive, but was publicly stabbed in the back by Nintendo with the Phillips deal. The CD drive technology that Sony had been working on for the SNES, was then used to create the PlayStation itself.

Enemies

Due to technical limitations, only three enemies can ever be on the screen at one time. Sneaky players can use this to their advantage and keep 'easy' enemies alive to block the spawning of more powerful ones. The merchant cat Neko, is also affected by this and may not always appear during busy combat.

Killroy

In the original Japanese version, Killroy has a chainsaw when fighting him the second time. In all Western versions, he is just a re-coloured version of the first encounter.

Multiplayer

Secret of Mana is quite possibly the first RPG game to support 3 Players. It is certainly the only one on SNES that does (along with it's sequel, which was never officially translated). A multitap is required for the third player.

Slime

The Slime bosses are the trickiest enemies in the game, not because they're difficult, but because they're so buggy. When fighting one of these bosses it's possible to slow the framerate to a crawl, freeze the game or in extreme cases, wipe the contents from your saved battery backup.

Awards

Electronic Gaming Monthly
- December 1993 (Issue 53) - Game of the Month* FLUX Magazine
- Issue #4 - #40 in the "Top 100 Video Games of All-Time" list
Game Informer
- August 2001 (Issue #100) - #77 in the "Top 100 Games of All Time" poll
GamePro
- Vol. 6, Issue 2 - Role-Playing Game of the Year 1993
Retro Gamer
- September 2004 (Issue #8) – #74 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)