The videocassette is finally uploaded to youtube!
You can read more about it on the Secret of Mana: Redux page, and you can also read about all the effort to document this video on a post I made at the same site.
The video repeats after it plays once, so stick around for my annotations and translations added to the second half.
Head over to Secret of Mana:Redux to read an article I wrote about the search and rescue process for a rare promotional video cassette I just happened to buy in 2014.
It’s a return to form of the kind of things I used to write on this site way back in the day, in fact it links to an older write-up I did about a very different videocassette.
Here is how I feel about the whole thing:
There is a great new article over at Secret of Mana: Redux that explores how and why the Secret of Mana title screen is the way it is.
Click here to head over and read it! It delves into some tweets by Hiroki Kikuta, Koji Sugimoto, and Akari Ueda, all people who worked on the game back in the day! It’s quite interesting, and I won’t spoil anything about it in this post, so you’ll have to head over there to see what’s up!
The article was originally in Japanese, which you can find at i-mezzo.net if you’re interested, and it was translated by Sevon (the webmaster of the nifty Legend of Mana pages and intensely immense SaGa pages I keep bringing up).
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!
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!
Our affiliate site Secret of Mana: Redux has some nice new translations up!
Over in the Lore section of the site, there are a bunch of Print resources. There are some nice scans of interesting art (look over on the right for instance) and translations of the information in the pages. A ton of these scans have to do with the time before Secret of Mana released. It’s full of speculation and revealing brand new (at the time anyway) information about the game, it’s a great resource to see how the game came to be!
Here is what is new!
Dengeki – from this magazine you can check out a new translation in the April 1993 issue where they discuss how both Final Fantasy Adventure and Secret of Mana have the Rusty Sword in it.
Famitsu – check out the May 1993 (that’s a few months before it released!) playthrough here. It’s one of the first times the game was played by people not on the dev team!
Hippon Super! – here you can read about how the FFA and SoM charge systems work in the March 1993 section!
Marukatsu – more FFA comparisons abound here! They’re all over in the February 93 section.
Shonen Jump / V Jump – finally, just a few new images of Randi from July 93, but check out all the other neat art while you’re there!
Make sure to click around on the site, there is tons of information covering details about Characters you may not know, how different Locations changed throughout development, reviews of music tracks, and more!
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 Secret of Mana.
Secret of Mana: Redux is a site re-launched in 2021, and covers analysis, translation issues, and other reminisces surrounding Secret of Mana. Throughout the site, you’ll find Localization Notes that explain nuances of the Japanese source, as well as screenshots from Japanese guides and promotional magazines that have seldom been seen until now. A complete retranslation of the Japanese script was carried out just for this project, and it appears throughout the site.
Check it out at Secret of Mana: Redux!
I have not updated the site with my collection of Mana related things in a long time. I’ve got a lot of interesting items I could share here. This one, however, is rare enough and relevant enough at the current time to make a post for.
As you can see, it’s a Casio G-Shock watch with “Secret of Mana” printed on the band.
Yup, that’s the extent of it.
But there were only 200 of these made.
The DW-8000s are fairly uncommon watches in and of themselves, and the avid vintage G-Shock collector community still demands a decent price for them, but they’re not impossible to get your hands on. But the fact there are only 200 with “Secret of Mana” printed on them made me think I would never get my hands on the thing. But here it is.
Just like any other DW-8000 it has “Fox Fire” EL backlighting, a red buffalo skull in the background, and the text “TIME TO GET TOUGH” scrolls by when you press the light button.
When Seiken Densetsu 3 was released in Japan, there were a number of items given away as raffle prizes. 200 of these G-Shock DW-8000-1 watches were given out, making this item quite rare. It’s very interesting, though, that the watch is related to Seiken Densetsu 3, but says “Secret of Mana” on it. It makes me wonder if the plans back then were to keep going forward with the “Secret of Mana” moniker if the game came out in English. In fact, if you look next to the watch on the raffle flyer, you can see a Mana stone with “Secret of Mana” printed on it just like the watch. Seems like that might have been the case. It also makes me wonder when the name “Trials of Mana” was decided upon, because it certainly wasn’t back in 1995. Just some interesting thoughts.
The other items I have from the raffle include the playing cards and the prologue book (5,000 each). Both of those items came out in non-raffle forms though. I’ve seen many of the phone cards (1,200) for sale on auction sites, but don’t own any. I’ve decided against collecting them because phone card collectors are insane and demand incredible prices for the things. Maybe someday I’ll go after them, but I’m not that interested honestly.
Anyway, that’s just a small update on my collection.
Looks like we’ll be able to play an official translation of SD3 after all these years!
It’s coming in the form of a new 3D remake!
Trials of Mana sounds kind of fitting, with all the characters going through their own trials throughout the story. What do you think of the name?
Collection of Mana, releasing today, includes Final Fantasy Adventure, Secret of Mana, and Seiken Densetsu 3.
