It’s quite rare that a new site dedicated to one of the Mana games crops up nowadays, so this is worth a shout-out, especially given the depth of detail that is available on the site for those interested in a deep-dive into Friends of Mana.

If you’ve paid attention to our site, you’d notice I just copied that line almost wholesale from Kassidy’s post about Secret of Mana: Redux.

But this time we’re talking mostly about the Japan-only Friends of Mana!

Members of The Mana Series Discord Mataxia and jquestionmark compiled a bunch of images and links related to Friends of Mana, and babasbackside did the monumental task of translating all the details.

Visit Archive of Mana to check out all the great information that has never been available to the West before now!

The Friends of Mana section is the most in-depth, but in addition to that you can find bits and pieces from other games here and there, including some Legend of Mana concept art I had been meaning to post here.

You can now play Legend of Mana on your Android or iOS device.
Not sure how well it will control, but the option is nice.

Me? I’ll just keep enjoying it on my PS Vita.

The beautiful world of Fa'Diel is yearning for you to restore it. The power is at your fingertips and in the palm of your hands, wherever you go.

Purchase #LegendOfMana now on mobile devices.

iOS: https://t.co/JFuVfBGtPP
Android: https://t.co/nFrGa6r7fF pic.twitter.com/g2Obt6IX9U

— Mana Series (@ManaGame) December 8, 2021

I finally got around to finishing my translation of the Rule Book to the LoM TCG.

With full rules, scans, and translations this game is finally fully posted online. There is actually a Japanese site out there with its own rules write-up (text only), but besides two other card listing pages (neither have images, one even gets details wrong) those are the only sites out there about this game besides here.

I tried to document everything I can about this game, so it finally has something comprehensive online about it.

I plan to put together some more pages on the site in the future, including strategy discussion and translation of other materials related to the card game (passages from a book, a few comics).

We’ve got some nice new images up in the Dawn of Mana Gallery!

You can check out new Character Art, Monster Art, and Scenery Art.

There are a lot of fun images in here, like Needlebirds sleeping by poking their beaks into the ground, weapons for a few of the main characters, and some beautiful images of landscapes.

I found all these images in a zip file on an old hard drive, I think they’re dated to around 2012 or so. I have no idea where they came from, but it seems they may have been ripped directly from the game.

If you’re in the mood for some new (old) Secret of Mana art, head over to Secret of Mana: Redux for a collection of images! There are also some new lore postings as well that I’ll mention below.

Characters: Serin – As seen on the right, there is a great piece of art from Dengeki Super Famicom showcasing Randi’s encounter with the mysterious ghost at the bottom of the falls.

Characters: Truffle – A cute bit of art of the characters meeting the folks from Matango. The characters seem a bit suspicious.

Characters: Luka – Scroll down a bit to see how Randi feels about Luka. 

Locations: Ice Country – Check out the bottom of this page to see some absolutely adorable outfits for Popoie and Purim, Randi isn’t looking too impressed, however.

Locations: Kakkara – About halfway down the page you can check out some art about an encounter with the Spider Legs, and continue on to read about a small piece of cut material from the game. 

Lore: Dengeki – Some new art from the 4/9/93 Square Power Book is showcased here, along with translations of the text accompanying it. Additionally, translations from the 5/14/93 issue can be found, including some Final Fantasy Adventure stuff, some backstory for Dyluck, and info on Popoie’s home!

Lore: Marukatsu – The 1/1/93 issue has some translations of very early information from the game, as well as many more comparisons to Final Fantasy Adventure. Head most of the way down the page for an absolute treasure trove of art from 9/10/93! Some really fun stuff here, don’t miss it! ManaRedux was able to get these art scans thanks to the help of bluebomber. Thanks!

Special thanks to Sevon (the webmaster of the nifty Legend of Mana pages and intensely immense SaGa pages) for all the help on many of the translations found on these pages! 

The Merchandise section, which has been dead for close to a decade, has finally been restored!

You can currently read about:
Final Fantasy Adventure, Secret of Mana (1993), Seiken Densetsu 3 (1995), Children of Mana, Dawn of Mana, Heroes of Mana, and general World of Mana merchandise!
Wow! Aren’t you lucky?

Well, maybe just a little bit anyway. You see, the Merchandise section is kinda ugly and quite outdated. I have plans to add more content in the future and spruce the place up, but for now it’s better than nothing! A few details may be wrong or out-of-date here and there, but still, it’s good to have it back! I found the old merch section files on the FTP, and it seemed a shame to let it sit there unknown and alone! After all, I created 232 individual images of Mana merch to put the section together. I must have had a lot of time on my hands back in the day.
Ah, good times.

Check out the trailer below to see a bit more of Echoes of Mana. You’ll notice some familiar faces abound, like Eggatrices, Mantis Ant, and Fullmetal Haggar. They show off some villain characters along with all the heroes at the end, which might be kind of interesting if they’re “playable”.

What are your thoughts about the game? It’s going to be mobile, and most likely gacha… it’s got me worried for sure.

Also, kind of sad to see so many games represented, but Sword of Mana gets no love. We need Willy! Even though I still believe he should have died.

EDIT: Special thanks to Sevon for helping me get the Item names in line with forged weapons in the game. Check out Sevon’s nifty Legend of Mana pages (which helped me a lot in this process), as well as the intensely immense SaGa pages!

The Legend of Mana Card Duel section now has all of the Item Cards, which means that all 150 cards in the set have been uploaded and translated!

Yeehaw!

Items are equipped by Characters in battle to help them square up against Monsters. There is one card for each weapon type, and two of each four instruments resulting in one for each of the eight Elements. As mentioned with the Character cards, there are some limitations as to who can equip what. The abilities offered by Items are all based on Special Techniques and Magic Spells, so that’s pretty neat. I used a mix of PSX and Remaster translations for these, based on what I felt was best.

The 2H Sword and Fire Flute were both “Dragon” weapons, which doesn’t give much hint in Japanese as to their actual material (Scales or Skin) so I just assigned one to each.

All that is really left for the Card Duel section is the Rulebook translation, but I’ve actually got a number of other updates in mind for it. The Rulebook and other content will take a bit of time, but look out for them in the future!

There are some cool new updates over at our affiliate, Secret of Mana: Redux! I’ll give you some highlights here, but you’ve gotta head over there for the full story!

Lore: Dengeki – February of 1993 has four new pieces of content with some cute illustrations! You definitely already know the game tips they’re giving you, but remember these were released months before the game!

Lore: Hippon Super! – February of 1993 again here, with more details about how Secret of Mana compared to the original Seiken Densetsu game, Final Fantasy Adventure. This is the kind of content I find really interesting!

Locations: Kakkara – Check out the small Dengeki article about the early history of the Moon Palace at the bottom!

Locations: Tasnica – Another little article from Dengeki at the bottom here, talking about the castle!

Locations: Lost Areas – Now we’re talking! This page is what Secret of Mana: Redux is all about. Check out all the crazy screenshots of places that don’t exist in the game anymore! A cannibal island that doesn’t exist, enemies in weird places, some whip areas that remind me of Final Fantasy Adventure map, and even more await you on this page. You won’t want to miss this page!

There is a whirlwind tour of the new stuff on Secret of Mana: Redux, and if you haven’t checked out the other pages on the site, make sure you do! There is a veritable treasure trove of content on the site that you can’t find anywhere else!

Inching towards the final big updates to the Legend of Mana Card Duel section, you can now check out the Character Cards!

In the game you have a special deck just for Character cards, so they all have a different backing than the cards in your main deck. You must put 8 Characters into the deck, and you are not allowed any duplicates.

At the start of the game you draw 3 Characters to make a party, and at the beginning of your turn if you have less than 3 Characters in play you replace them from the Character deck. When all 8 are disposed of, you lose the game!

Characters do battle with Monsters, and you use them to keep your Lands clear so you can complete Land Make and win the game.

There are some really interesting choices for “playable” Characters in the card game, so make sure you check them all out! These are the last of the cards with NPCs or Monsters on them. If your favorite NPC or Monster didn’t make the cut here, you’ll just have to wait until Square-Enix decides to make another set… 22 years after the fact.

Only 19 cards left, and they’re all equipment that these Character cards can use. Look forward to it soon!