Head over to Siliconera to read a short interview with Producer Akira Haruta.

Over on the Mana Series Discord the_lep put together a really nice summary video for the first Echoes of Mana stream.

Even if you’ve read my summary below or watched the stream yourself, this video is worth a watch because the_lep analyzes some of the gameplay and gacha aspects of the game.

Check it out!

Here is my brief summary of everything that went on during the English stream for Echoes of Mana.
You can check it out yourself here: (link when it is on youtube)

Stream started off late… instead of 6:00pm PDT it started at 6:08, after Square Enix apologized in chat at 6:06 for the delay. 

0:00: Gameplay is shown, no commentary yet. We see the character select screen and the story when starting a new game. Hawkeye’s story begins, Quilta (the heroine) rescues him from jail. Hawkeye has to teach her how to move around and fight (tutorial), however. After fighting some Ninjas (Nevarl Agents), Hawkeye and Quilta end up visiting Zable Fahr somehow, who is not very impressed. A battle ensues, some familiar sound effects are heard. Quilta summons Wisp, and we learn about special moves. Zable Fahr is out of here and Hawkeye too.

0:10: Two Square Enix streamers, Malcolm and Glacie appear on screen and introduce themselves. It appears they are about to start a mission. They start off with a list of what will be covered in stream, and a brief explanation of the history of the Mana series. Streamer doesn’t know which system FFA released on… or the Japanese name of the series…

0:14: Introduction to Echoes of Mana and its characters. Game modes are discussed: main story, event quests (side stories with Mana characters), training quests (getting materials), and tower quests (challenging content).

0:18: Social media campaign: Raffle I (indicates there may be more), running until 4/1 (link).

0:20: Pre-registration and potential rewards are discussed (link). Streamers try to figure out how to pronounce HACCAN. 

0:24: Gameplay demo begins, it’s a story mission titled “Knights of Slight Stature” part of the “Beginniberry” quests it seems. Quilta and a little sheep character Baashear are in a town they are not familiar with. A bunch of new looking monsters run up. Duffle comes and takes the monsters out with her axe. They are apparently named “Knitwit” as answered later on in the stream.

0:28: “Grumpy Boy” Honeycomb shows up to discuss why the monsters showed up. Streamer reads “Rabite” as “rabbit”… chat corrects them.

0:30: Monster fighting quest starts, and the new characters are introduced a bit more in a cutscene.

0:32: Gameplay starts. 

0:33: Gameplay ends, we get to see rewards and things.

0:34: Harvest screen is shown. This is where new characters are drawn from. They pull a gold “Serafina” the new name of the Legend of Mana Heroine. Next, they pull a gold 3 star Kevin. Apparently that was just a reroll, and they do it again and get a gold 3 star Angela. 

0:36: Login bonuses are doled out.

0:37: 4 star real money purchase bundle is seen. The game appears to have a home town you can run around on when setting up parties, quests, etc. Stream pulls a BRB as the producers get ready to come on and answer questions.

0:39: Stream is back. They accidentally skipped trivia, so it’s coming up after the producers. 

0:40: Masaru Oyamada (Mana series producer) and Akira Haruta (Echoes of Mana producer) are introduced and say hello.

0:41: Question time, answers are paraphrased below.

Question 1: When developing the gameplay/battle system, was there a Mana title that you wanted to specifically draw from, or were you wantintg to create something brand new completely?

Some areas of gameplay are referenced from the 2D battles of LoM, SoM, and SD3.

This is a smartphone game, so it does bring something new to the table.

Question 2: Is the vision of the game to eventually include as many characters from previous Mana games as possible, or is this title more focused on creating new adventures with new characters?

Focused on original characters adventure together with past characters.

A part of what makes this game fun is seeing the new characters interact with characters from past titles.

Question 3: Will the game support controllers at launch? I find it difficult to play action-based games on mobile touch screen, so controller support would really help!

At this point in time, there are no plans for this, but the game was designed to be easy to control.

Question 4: In Trials of Mana, each character had classes you could choose. Are they going to be released as separate characters? If not, how will you incorporate that mechanic into the game? Will there be class changes on the ToM characters?

They are going to appear as separate characters.

At the time of the game’s release there won’t be class switching characters, but look forward to them being added.

Question 4: Which of the Mana games is the most special to you? One that has particular memories?

Oyamada: Final Fantasy Adventure because it was the first game I cleared on my own and it holds a special place in my heart.

For that reason too, the main character of that game, Sumo, holds a special place in my heart, but I could go on about it forever so I’ll let Haruta talk.

Haruta: For me I really liked Secret of Mana the most, and especially the character Popoi.

Popoi is this fiesty and sassy character, but that is what makes them so cute, and at the very end of Secret of Mana there is a scene where Popoi goes their separate way from Randi and Primm and it has always stayed with me because it is such a sad scene.

Personally, I am just hoping that Randi, Primm, and Popoi will be able to reunite.

Question 5: This was my question! What kinds of new monsters are being added and how many classic monsters are returning?

For new characters, you can see that Oyamada has a plushie of a new monster called “Nitwit”.

Other than that one, there will be other new monsters and enemies that will appear in game.

And of course, familiar faces will make appearances including Rabites, Mushbooms, Mantis Ant, Full Metal Hugger, lots of favorites from past titles.

Question 6: Will there be any possibilities of crossover events with past Squaresoft/Enix IP?

We will see. We did collaborations for past titles we are still running. If there is demand for that in Echoes of Mana, we will consider adding them.

Question 7: Can you change the names of the protagonist characters?

Yes you can.

Question 8: What is your favorite story path in Trials of Mana?

Oyamada: I am a fan of classic stories, so I like the Duran and Angela stories as they are easy to get into and I really enjoy it.

Question 9: Which languages are supported?

English, Japanese, German, French, Korean, and Traditional Chinese.

0:54: Final messages from producers:

Oyamada: I have been looking forward to being able to release this smartphone game from the Mana series, we do have pre-registration going and a release is right around the corner. I hope everyone is looking forward to it as much as I am and are getting excited to play it.

Haruta: I would like to add, this title is really fun to play whether you are a Mana veteran or jumping in for the first time I think you’ll have fun. I am confident you will all enjoy it, pre-registration is available and please look forward to the game’s release.

0:58: Login rewards are not finalized, this is a development build all under development. Pre-registration awards are final.

1:00: Be right back for trivia.

1:02: Trivia time. It’s dumb.

Question 1: What was the first title for the Mana Series? Final Fantasy Adventure

Question 2: Where do you first see Hawkeye? In a prison cell

Question 3: Who is the first person to greet Quilto/Quilta in the first town you enter? Duffle

1:08: For winning trivia time, everyone got wallpapers. Find them in the Echoes of Mana Gallery once they’re available.

1:10: Next stream will show off co-op multiplayer. Stream is wrapped up.

1:14: Stream ends.

Let’s hope things go smoothly here, and that the game is fun.
There are rewards handed out for the number of pre-registrations, and the numbers seem quite low compared to some other games I have seen. I feel that how the community does on this event will determine a lot about the game’s lifespan.

The very first English #EchoesOfMana livestream will air tomorrow! Look forward to the latest news and our producer answering #ManaSeries questions from the community.
Hope you are excited as we are!! Friday, March 18, at 6PM PDT – don’t miss it!
📺https://t.co/RH4lT1wLW3 pic.twitter.com/IeKztx3I4a

— ECHOES of MANA (@EchoesOfManaEN) March 17, 2022

Pre-registration for #EchoesOfMana is now open! And we're giving rewards to all players for every milestone reached!
To get your in-game head start, check out the website below for details!

▼Pre-register Herehttps://t.co/ATMIUk3hoI#ManaSeries @ManaGame

— ECHOES of MANA (@EchoesOfManaEN) March 17, 2022

We are holding an #EchoesOfMana LAUNCH COUNTDOWN RAFFLE! From 3/17 until 4/1 (PT), enter for a chance to win one of 3 Mana series music boxes! Follow us & RT + reply with #EoM #Sweepstakes to enter! Official Rules: https://t.co/HXcbKex5Cm

Pre-register: https://t.co/ATMIUk3hoI pic.twitter.com/z4XhKgozQz

— ECHOES of MANA (@EchoesOfManaEN) March 17, 2022

There is a Livestream for Echoes of Mana coming up on March 18th!

You can tweet a question for the producers if you’d like, and they might answer it. I hope they pick mine!

Ask the producers your burning questions! 💡
Mana Series Producer Masaru Oyamada and EoM Producer Akira Haruta will answer your questions in an Echoes of Mana Livestream on March 18th!
Post your question below by 23:59 (PST) on March 10th and it just might get picked! pic.twitter.com/osoQUMUoCR

— ECHOES of MANA (@EchoesOfManaEN) March 3, 2022

You can watch the full recording here:

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.

So the 30th year anniversary presentation was today, and I totally missed it. You can watch the recording here.

I’ve got a brief little summary here though, but I’ll try to get something more informative later.

Trials of Mana will come to smart phones (iOS & Android).
A new game, Echoes of Mana is coming as a free to play game on smart phones as well. It seems to feature characters from the various Mana games. You can check out a video in English by clicking here. It doesn’t show the combat in this video, but it looked kinda hands off.

The original fonts from Legend of Mana on Playstation will return into the remaster. I don’t know if this means just fonts, or also original translation. Also, the Ultimania book will come as an e-book, but I imagine that’s only in Japanese, considering how dense that thing is!
There are some Legend of Mana LINE stickers now.

Apparently a Legend of Mana anime is coming! “The Teardrop Crystal” seems to be the title, so I guess it will go over the Jumi storyline. Supposedly, the whole reason the remaster happened was because Warner Bros. Japan went to Square-Enix to talk about pitching a Legend of Mana anime. That’s very interesting! Some of the animation seems to have been included in the Legend of Mana Remaster opening video.

Finally, a new Seiken Densetsu game is in the works for consoles. That was also stated at the 25th year anniversary, however, so not too sure about the timeline on these things.

The video also showed off some nice new merch, that’ I’ve definitely purchased. That’s all I’ve got!