Over on his Twitter page, ManaRedux is running a March Madness bracket for Secret of Mana characters.

It started a few days ago, but you’ve still got time to vote on the big names, as the votes are currently working through heavy hitters such as “Dyluck’s Mom” and “Resistance Man” among others. My only regret is that I could not cast my vote for “Guy who body blocks you from returning to Potos but you can still get past him with a bit of character switching,” maybe next year will be his year.

If you’ve got strong feelings, and an account, go cast your vote! I’m curious to see who comes out on top.

Mana Tournament! Who's the greatest Secret of Mana character of all? Already some upsets in the Pandora region! pic.twitter.com/4EirVmOEqx

— ManaRedux (@ManaRedux) March 17, 2026

It’s been a while, but I’m getting through these! Time for another video from the YouTube Channel of ManaRedux. Time to learn the history of the world map. My first experience with the world map of Secret of Mana came when I first borrowed the game from my aunt. She had already beaten the game, and I enjoyed loading up her save to see all the cool stuff I could do on her file while I struggled endlessly to beat the Fire Gigas on my own. That took a while, because I was young and did not understand leveling up. Unable to make it through the barrage of Goblins and Chess Knights with enough items and magic to beat the boss, I attempted to use barrels to sneak past them all to no avail. Anyway, one time when exploring my aunt’s save, I ended up calling Flammie. I had no idea what was going on, or that I could even land, but it was sure cool to zoom around looking at all the scenery. Let’s get to the video.

The Evolution of the World Map

The much more detailed world map iterations are so cool! I wish the game could have kept the more detailed mapping that the early game areas have. Though, that may have made the copy pasted maps of the later game overworlds (Upper Lands and Ice Country in particular). I thought this video would only focus on the world map with Flammie, but the screenshots of early ground level areas were a great inclusion and very cool to see. Seeing some of the more recent remake world map was cool too, considering I have not looked into that one much.

Let’s watch another video from the YouTube Channel of ManaRedux. This time, we’re learning about the Upper Land. As a kid, I got hard stuck at the Fire Gigas fight for a very long time. I borrowed the game from an aunt, and I didn’t quite understand leveling. After finally beating the Fire Gigas and moving on through the game, I feel like things really opened up at the Upper Land. This place felt remote with its lack of real cities (until Matango which feels so different) and deep caves. Later on, after getting Flammie, I took notice of the lack of detail the area had on the map. It was such a large area, but the actual maps were not nearly as large. That always stuck out to me.

Behind the Scenes of The Upper Land

Starting out, we go over the map discrepancy. Exactly what I was looking for! The Moogle village always stuck out to me as weird without buildings, so it’s neat to see they were initially planned. Finally, all the detail of the Wind Palace is very interesting. Overall some really cool stuff!

I’ve been gone for a bit, and in that time ManaRedux from over at Secret of Mana: Redux has been busy making videos for his YouTube Channel. I’m going to watch through them when I get time, and you can watch along with me if you’d like. Or just go binge watch all seven right now. Me? I’m gonna take my time.

Two Northtown Anomalies

These two anomalies kept me pretty busy guessing as a kid. I always wondered if the weird secret passageway in Northtown mentioned on our Secrets page had something to do with the carousel looking thing. As for the door in the resistance base, I think kid me chalked that one up to the base actually being a much larger operation with multiple levels only accessible to the most trusted operatives. Obviously, with Popoi in tow, Kristie wasn’t taking any chances.

On second thought, that one was pretty short so I’m going to watch another. Some of the others are quite a bit longer, but the first couple are short.

The Mysterious Deleted Path

This video has some great information and footage about early versions of the early game map. The little islands with the whip poles on them remind me of the area surrounding Wendel in Final Fantasy Adventure. The Garuda from FFA showing up, along with a small dock that looks perfect for a Chocobot to take off from just emphasize the similarities to me. It’s awesome to see these glimpses into early development. It’s just a shame the entire game could not have had this much time poured into it (looking at you, Ice Country).

If you liked the content in the videos, make sure to check out all Secret of Mana: Redux has to offer.

Head over to Secret of Mana: Redux’s Locations Page if you haven’t, because there are a ton of great beta images to sift through.
I’ve attached only a handful of them here, but go on and check out the main site and see all the neat things you may have never seen! ManaRedux has collected an awesome library of magazines with pre-release information over the years, and just keeps adding more to the site!

Over at Secret of Mana: Redux, you can read a retrospective about the game that released a couple months ago for the 30th anniversary of the game.

This is a big article, full of information about the creation and history of the game from various interviews that you can really only find at Secret of Mana: Redux!
Check it out, you’ll likely learn a few things!

Happy 32nd anniversary to the Seiken Densetsu series!

A set of Mana Series tracks will release as DLC for Theatrhythm Final Bar Line. Fun fact, this game was made by indies zero who just happen to be the same company behind Legend of Mana Card Duel.

The @ManaGame Pack Vol.1 launches for Theatrhythm Final Bar Line on June 28th with songs from Final Fantasy Adventure and Trials of Mana:

– Nuclear Fusion
– Battle 2
– In Search of the Sword of Mana
– Swivel
– Powell
– Meridian Child
– Sacrifice Part Three pic.twitter.com/QxyEBg5EoJ

— FINAL FANTASY (@FinalFantasy) June 26, 2023

In other news, there will also be a special exhibit of the late Hiroo Isono‘s artwork in Japan. Five of the original arts for the Mana Series will be shown off, awesome! That should be two artworks from Secret of Mana (characters before the tree and the night time image), two artworks from Trials of Mana (characters on the road to the tree and the world map), and one from Dawn of Mana (character before the tree). If you are wondering why the Children of Mana artwork is not included, that is because it was actually done by Nao Ikeda, who masterfully imitated the stipple style art.

#聖剣伝説2 や #聖剣伝説4 のパッケージビジュアルなどをご担当された磯野宏夫氏の企画展『磯野宏夫展　－生命(いのち)輝く森－』が7月1日(土)～8月20日(日)の期間、稲沢市荻須記念美術館にて開催されます。
シリーズの原画5点も展示されますので、この機会に是非お立ち寄りください！#聖剣伝説 pic.twitter.com/R7ouTIoMbG

— 聖剣伝説 -公式- (@Seiken_PR) June 28, 2023

There are a bunch of strange items available over at eeo store for The Teardrop Crystal. A lot of it is little knick-knacky nonsense, but there are some things I am looking forward to. The glasses case in particular is fun, and who wouldn’t want some random bag with Inspector Boyd on it?

When it comes to the gj Character G Jumi Pendants I posted about previously there was a small restock in Florina Pendants. I managed to get one this time, but it looks like they’re going fast again. Last time they sold out almost immediately. The other two pendants have been available this entire time, though. I took some photos of the two I had arrive. These things are really tiny! I should have paid attention to the description, but I would have gotten them regardless I guess.

Finally, the Super Groupies Secret of Mana collab that I posted about back in October seems to have had a substantial restock. These ended up great, I think. Check the photos I took out below.

First up, the Backpack. I thought it would be full leather, but that’s only the buckles and trim. The material is nice and light, though, and seems tough. The printing inside is beautiful, and my only real complaint is that the thing is a bit of a pain to open. Not due to the buckles, those are all just for show (magnets do all the work), but the Flammie strings that cinch it shut are a bit of a pain.

Next, the Wallet. This was much larger than I thought. It’s very hard to see the Mana Tree printing inside, and the embossing on the Ring Menu is a bit weak. This is the weakest of the three items, but it’s still nice.

Lastly, the best item, the Watch. It’s really beautiful, I’ve been wearing mine since I got it and it feels great. The elementals look really nice, I thought they would look cheap, but they’re actually printed with some texture. They cycle from Shade at midnight, through Luna, Undine, Dryad, Lumina at noon, Salamando, Gnome, and Jinn every 3 hours. The little gems are a bit hard to tell the differences in (especially the “dark” one), but in the right light they look incredible.

I am hoping these restocks mean I’ll be able to get my hands on the Super Groupies Teardrop Crystal collab stuff I missed out on last time.

Fun Fact: Kassidy sent me that Perler bead Sheexy around 15 years ago.

First up, just to follow up on the Jan 2023 Merch Sightings, I got my hands on some of the Flammie and Rabite plushes mentioned there. I’ve got to say, they’re really good and I recommend them to any fans of the series. You can find countless of them on Japanese auction sites, and the prices aren’t bad at all.

The Flammmie plush is a lot higher quality than I expected, Taito did great on these. The Rabite plush is ridiculously soft, and looks a million times better than the one that Taito put out back in 2018.

Next up, the Shiloh and Serafina POP UP PARADE statues are up for pre-order now, between Feb. 28th and March 30th, 2023.

These are looking pretty great, I love how they went with the classic poses for the two.

Here is something really cool. The youtuber Jammin’ Sam Miller has apparently taken to restoring the soundtrack to Secret of Mana. Essentially what he does is recreate the entire soundtrack using the original samples from all sorts of sources from when the game was made. We’re talking keyboards, drum machines, sample libraries, etc. This guy finds them and does the best he can to remaster the entire soundtrack. If you have not seen his Donkey Kong Country pieces, you’ve gotta check him out. Anyway, here is his “Fear of the Heavens” restored:

Did you ever think you’d hear those whales so clear? Apparently they come from “OMI Universe of Sounds Vol 1” and are entitled “SFX_Animals”. Really wild stuff. You can check out the information on where samples came from here.

The project has an anonymous sponsor, and will result in a vinyl release in the end. I might have to get this.