Oh no! Sandra left a secret message, and we have to decode it to figure out what is going on!

Luckily, Li’l Cactus here has the key!

Hey, that’s not a key! That’s the silver pendant from the World of Mana campaign that Children of Mana and Dawn of Mana released under. 
The Mana Sword looks absolutely tarnished, though! It practically turned back into the Rusty Sword at this point.
Take better care of your stuff, Li’l Cactus!

Oh, you have a nice clean one too. That’s cool I guess.
But what does this have to do with Sandra’s note?

Oh, I see! According to the Art of Mana book, the Mana Sword is inscribed with text in the Fa’Diel language. It apparently says “There is love in Mana. There is Mana in love.” very interesting!
Let us take a closer look at that lettering.

Looks like it actually says “Love is in Mana, Mana is in Love”!
We can clearly see the letters A, I, and N repeated a few times within half the phrase. From there, we can make a few assumptions and the letters seem to fall into place nicely.
Say, I wonder if the letters match anything in Sandra’s letter?

We’re getting somewhere! Using what Boyd said, we know she was talking about the Flame of Hope and she must have signed her name, Sandra. Things start to fall into place again!

We’ve got it! How cool is it that they are still using that alphabet over 15 years later?
Keep your eyes open for more text in the anime (Li’l Cactus appears to be using it in the first episode, and Reverend Nouvelle’s book has a lot)!

Here are all the letters we know so far, for your convenience!

And here is Sandra’s note rewritten, just for good measure. Special thanks to Sevon for lending a steady hand for the writing in this post, my chickenscratch would have left us all wondering what was going on.

EDIT:

Mataxia over on The Mana Series Discord reminded me that this was covered in one of the older books! I probably saw this a long time ago, but forgot about it as I don’t have the book on hand anymore. Thanks Mataxia for the image!

Long time Seikens forum member, Kimiko, had a lot of luck figuring out Li’l Cactus’s diary from episode 1 in the comments below!

TODAY I HEARD A
STORY ABOUT TWO
LITTLE SORCERERS
TRYING TO BECOME
THE RULERS OF

Kimiko also found that Nouvelle’s book title appears to just be part of the common “Lorem Ipsum” filler text. I kind of expected that, but it’s good to have confirmation! Thanks Kimiko!

Ah, Mana Music Mondays, Do You Remember Me? It’s been over a decade. Back in the heyday of this site, from 2007 to 2012, I really felt The Calling to highlight some of the great Mana music tracks out there. I was posting tracks almost every week.

Those days aren’t coming back, but I’ve got a real Treat for you today. It’s a Day of Celebration. There are some real Revelations here that are going to Put Your Lights On and cause some Waves Within your understanding of the Mana universe. Let the Music Set You Free. Why don’t you and I take a trip to Anywhere You Want to Go, as long as it’s to the land of Final Fantasy Adventure / Adventures of Mana. I promise this eventually has to do with music (it already does actually, maybe you’ll catch on).

Well, All Right, time to get a Move on. Before We Go, there are Spoilers ahead if you haven’t played through Final Fantasy Adventure or Adventures of Mana yet. But I am sure that You Are My Kind, and already know this stuff by heart.

Our music track for today relates to the Girl in Final Fantasy Adventure. Remember her? She’s no Black Magic Woman, she’s The Healer. Here is a little run-down of her story for you up next.

Skip this if you want to get to the point, or if you Just Don’t Care.

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At the beginning of the game, her knight, Hasim, has fallen, and she’s got No One to Depend On. That is, except for the Hero, a former slave who is now Free as the Morning Sun, with whom she pleads “Take Me With You“. Later on, Bogard tells the two to head over to Wendel. On the way, the Hero and the Girl accepted the Open Invitation to stay at Kett’s place. But the Hero awoke in the morning to find She’s Not There. So he goes Searchin’. 

Turns out, he needs a magic mirror as Persuasion to get into the depths of Kett’s. It’s off to the Marsh Caves, where he meets a mysterious man who helps him out. With the Hydra defeated, the Hero gets a new spell and it Feels Like Fire. Back in Kett’s, the Hero found the Girl and defeated the Vampire who was ready to make her his Soul Sacrifice.

After finally making it to Wendel the mysterious man from before reveals his Evil Ways, he’s Julius! He kidnaps the Girl off Into the Night. So the Hero and Bogard take off after him; it’s Night Hunting Time. Shortly after, the Hero and Bogard made it to Julius’s airship, practically Breaking Down the Door to rescue her, but things go awry! Julius is on the attack! With Nowhere to Run, Bogard gets blasted off the airship, perhaps now he is Somewhere in Heaven for all we know. Julius proves too powerful, and the Hero just can’t Hold On either, so he plummets down below as well. The Girl is left alone with Julius… things have gone seriously Sideways.

A whole lot of story happens here, but the Girl isn’t involved so I’m going to Choose not to talk about it! I am Free to do as I please, after all.

Eventually, the Hero does meet back up with the Girl, but unfortunately she’s under Julius’s magic spell. And she casts her own magic spell too, reversing the flow of the waterfall. But the Hero gets blasted away AGAIN by Julius, but this Fortunate Son seems to have a knack for surviving. But he’s fed up with the adventure. He finds Bogard, bedridden, and doesn’t even say “Hope You’re Feeling Better“, he’s just ready to give up. Bogard manages to convince him to Try a Little Harder, and he’s back on track. The bonds of Brotherhood are strong between these two.

A whole lot more Adventure happens between here, as Everything’s Coming Our Way, including the end of the game.

Finally, the Hero makes it around the world and finds his way up the waterfall to save the day. At the end of the game the Girl goes through some Changes, you know Them Changes, and becomes Everybody’s Everything. She is her Mother’s Daughter after all. Time flows like a river, and history repeats Over and Over.

One of These Days I’ll learn to write more concisely.

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Let’s get to the point.

Think back to the waterfall reversing scene. Do you remember the Girl’s famous line? The magic words that reverse the flow?

Klnka Imra Miryon Tin Qua

Of course you do, right? Well, that is what she says in the English and French translations at least (not sure about German). So, yeah, that seems like a load of nonsense doesn’t it? It doesn’t seem to be a simple Caeser cipher or any other cipher I tried. Did the translator mess it up somehow? Let’s take a look at the original Japanese text from that scene:

オエコマバ イリト ペモパボサ ムワラタ

Say it Again, this time in a way that people who can’t read Japanese can understand it. I’ll write the Katakana in Romaji instead (it’s not perfect, but it’ll serve a purpose later).

oekomaba irito pemopabosa muwarata

Well, it’s definitely not the same thing… so what is it? Try saying it a few times and see if you can catch what is going on. Imagine a nice Latin beat with an organ, some electric guitar, and some rocking drums.

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll have noticed a lot of strange italicized phrases in this write up. Those are all song titles actually, and I only included the recap of the Girl’s story above so I could shoehorn even more of them in. Pretty Smooth right? Tell Me, Are You Tired of it? Ok, I’m done, no more of that. I managed to shove over 50 song titles in. But why was I doing it, and whose songs were they?

They were all songs by the band Santana or that involved the band leader Carlos Santana in some way. And the reason I chose those songs is right in the article title up top, just in the wrong language. I should have written it en español.

You see, in 1970 Santana recorded a cover of a 1962 cha-cha-chá (a genre of Cuban music) by Tito Puente. That cover was of the song Oye Como Va, and it’s one of my favorite songs. It’s real good, it’s in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

In fact, it’s real great. It’s on the Donkey Konga track list (but not the Japanese version). Oh yeah, you know I was rocking out in-game to this one back in 2004. In fact, this was the song I was the best at (either that or the one by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones), I never missed a single note even on Gorilla mode. I was pretty cool, or at least that’s the Impression That I Get.

So let’s look at the lyrics to the song and the magic spell above together. I’m not going to translate them, because it doesn’t matter here. I’m also going to adjust some of the letters in the Romaji, because letters like B and V or R and L are sometimes interchangeable in Japanese, using the same symbols. B and P are also very related, as they are both plosives and use the same symbols apart from the diacritical marks (i.e., バ and パ; ba and pa). Same thing goes for S and Z as sibilants (i.e., サ and ザ; sa and za). Keep those in mind when looking below.

Oye como va, Mi ritmo,  Bueno pa’ gozar, Mulata

 

oe koma va i rito pemo pa bosa muwalata

Hey, isn’t that neat? It doesn’t line up 100%, but it’s undoubtedly the same “words” just misheard perhaps. We can take things a step further, if you consider that sometimes words that end in R in other languages simply end in an A sound in Japanese (bosa to bosar) and that B and G share the same diacritical marks, the dakuten (those two little lines), which mean they make a “muddier” sound compared to the same symbols without. 

But why Santana? Maybe someone on the team just really liked Santana. I don’t blame them, it’s a solid choice.

But you see, Oye Como Va has been covered by a lot of people. In fact, Chisato Moritaka, a Japanese pop singer, covered the song in late 1990. Interesting, considering Seiken Densetsu released in Summer 1991. But that’s just a coincidence, right? How do we know it was her version of the song, and not Santana’s that inspired the quote in the game?

Let’s read some commentary from the production staff that was included in the Japanese Advanced Knowledge guidebook for the game (I grabbed the Japanese text from here). Below is a comment from Yoshinori Kitase, director and producer at Square Enix, known mostly for Final Fantasy games and Chrono Trigger. His story with Square Enix actually starts with Final Fantasy Adventure, where he worked on game design and the game’s scenario. Here is what he said…

物語の原案は石井さんのものなのですが、細かいところで自分なりのアレンジやお遊びを入れたりもしてます。映画ではスターウォーズが、アイドルでは森高千里が大好きなので、もしかしたらそれに関するお遊びがあるかも…？　今回、非常に楽しく作品を作れました。ー北瀬佳範

… and here it is translated… (thanks to Sevon for brushing up my translation)

The original story is by Ishii-san, but I also added my own interpretations and little details. I’m a big fan of Star Wars and the performer Chisato Moritaka, so maybe they influenced me…? I had a lot of fun this time around. -Yoshinori Kitase

Well well well, 見て at who popped up (Translator’s note: 見て means look). That settles it, I think, and some Japanese fans do as well. It also lends a lot of credence to the idea that “Jema/Gemma Knight” was inspired by “Jedi Knight” and the fact that Obi-Wan and Bogard seem pretty similar.

So there we go, let’s take a look at the actual music for this Mana Music Monday post. Listen to it and think about the words of the magic spell:

oe koma va i rito pemo pa bosa muwalata

You can definitely hear it, can’t you? It sounds a whole lot like it’s written there. This had to be a case of misheard/misremembered lyrics.

This version of the song is pretty fun. I definitely prefer Santana’s version, but there is nothing wrong with this one (well maybe those random yells that accompany the organ solo around the two minute mark). This is just a solid song no matter who covers it as far as I can tell.

So that’s the origin of the Japanese magic words in Final Fantasy Adventure, and a neat little jaunt into the ways the worlds of Mana and music flow together. I hope you found it as interesting as I did. I am still not sure about the origin of “Klnka Imra Miryon Tin Qua” but maybe one day I’ll figure that one out too.

It does share a suspicious amount of letters with the name Kaoru Moriyama… and that name just so happens to belong to the English translator of the game. Really makes you think, doesn’t it?

The title theme of Legend of Mana, Song of Mana, was performed by the Swedish artist Annika Ljungberg. What most don’t know is that she is a member of a band called Rednex. They were big in the 90’s and their most famous song was Cotton Eye Joe. The band is still active even after 26 years.

Song of Mana got an arranged version in the Legend of Mana Arrangement Album – Promise-, but sadly the new singer wasn’t Swedish so there were a lot of mispronunciations of the Swedish words.

Aftonbladet, one of Sweden’s largest newspapers, had an interview with Annika Ljungberg in 2014. In the interview she explained how she was contacted by Yoko Shimomura and her experience of singing the title theme song for the game.

Below is translated text by me, Deques.

One day she was suddenly contacted by the world famous composer Yoko Shimomura.
It has been 15 years since Rednex-star Annika Ljungberg recorded the now legendary theme song to the Japanese game “Legend of Mana”, which was never released in Sweden.
– “It was the most exciting moment I had in a studio in my 20-year career”, she said to Nöjesbladet’s Spela-pod

The year was 1998. Yoko Shimomura had completed the music to the fantasy RPG “Legend of Mana”, an epic soundtrack that she today still considers her most personal and favorite soundtrack. But something was missing: A [title] song.

Shimomura decided that the song was not going to be performed by a well-known artist, not even in the Japanese language. For some reason she found the Rednex-star, Annika, who recently appeared in the TV-series Baywatch. David Hasselhoff hand picked three of her songs from her album “Me & Myself”. Shimomura was breath taken and took a flight to Stockholm.

Annika Ljungbergs tells the story:

“I was contacted by her management team. She had heard my samples and thought that it was exactly that she was looking for. The text was translated by a girl in Sweden who didn’t know how the rhythm would be applied to the melody. It was not a walk in the park. A lot of gray hairs here and there, and it was a technical challenge to make it work. I had no experience in games so I was a novice.”

“I was told that it was the game that she was most artistically satisfied with. She did a great job with the whole soundtrack. We spoke in the same language, artistically, and she was very humble.”

Did they ever explain why the song was to performed in Swedish? – “No, it was a question mark for me. We had a tight schedule when they flew to Stockholm. I was in an open studio, not a booth. They wanted to use body language to communicate, because we didn’t fully understand each other all the time.”

Have you played the game? – “It was the first time that I played a Play Station game. It was an exciting game. It was an experience that I will never forget. This was one the most exciting moments that I had in a studio in my 20-year carrier.”

Original Source (In Swedish)

What is an Aerolite? Well it’s a stony meteorite, and in Legend of Mana it includes some far out materials that you can either pick up from Shadow Zeroes, or from running around in Ring Ring Land. Here is what the game has to say about them:

Just what are the unusual/useful properties they have? Well they all start with a bit of Salamander essence, and they lose one Salamander essence every time you temper them. It’s actually quite a useful effect, and you can use the energy from the drained essence to feed another essence you are trying to raise. You can even lessen the energy requirement for Salamander, and use the drained energy to feed directly back in to itself! But this isn’t a post about tempering, is it?

Whereas many primary materials in the game have names referencing locations in other Mana games (Topple Cotton and Menos Bronze as examples), the Aerolites do not follow the same naming scheme. So just where do their names come from?

Comets!

Or probably more accurately, the people who discovered them! If you are one to go down Wikipedia rabbit holes, I’ve included links to all of these comets and people below.

Jacobini Rock – The localizers for Legend of Mana didn’t seem to realize what these names were referencing, as this one should have been spelled Giacobini instead. This one references the Comet Giacobini-Zinner, and was not discovered until 1900 by Michel Giacobini and observed again three years later by Ernst Zinner. The International Cometary Explorer was sent after this one in 1985 and it was also spotted by the Pioneer Venus Orbiter the same month. In 2025 this one will be its closest to Earth.

Halley Rock – This was the one that made me realize were dealing with comets. Everyone knows Halley’s Comet! It is the only comet regularly visible to the naked eye. It actually was not discovered by Edmond Halley (being discovered in prehistoric times) but rather Halley computed its orbit in 1705. It comes around every ~76 years or so. Look forward to seeing it in 2061!

Ankh Rock – Another one that went over the localizer’s heads (get it, over their heads?). This one references Encke’s Comet, discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1786 but named after Johann Franz Encke who computed its orbit in 1819. It is a very dull comet, reflecting very little light, but like all others has a big bright tail behind it when near the Sun. It will be close to the sun in 2023, and comes around regularly as the last time was in 2020.

Vinek Rock – Here is where the localizers were the furthest from getting the name. The comet referenced here is actually the Comet Pons-Winnecke named for its discovery originally by Jean Louis Pons in 1819 and its second sighting many years later in 1858 by Friedrich August Theodor Winnecke. Initially astronomers thought this comet would strike the Earth in 1921, and it has caused a number of meteor showers by getting quite close. This one actually came by recently in May of this year!

Tuttle Rock – They spelled this one correctly! Now, this aerolite’s name could actually reference a few comets, but I’m going to reference the Comet Tempel-Tuttle. It was actually independently discovered by Wilhelm Tempel and astronomer / Civil War veteran Horace Parnell Tuttle in 1865 and 1866 respectively. This comet comes by every 33 years, and causes the Leonid meteor shower whenever it shows up. Unfortunately, we won’t get to see those sights until May 20, 2031.

Nemesis Rock – Ok, so here is the odd one out. The exception that proves the rule, as it were. This one actually references a hypothetical star that orbits our Sun and supposedly caused a bunch of extinctions (through comet like meteor showers, there is the connection!). This one is kind of weird, and worth a look.

Biella Rock – This one almost gets the name right, it should reference Biela’s Comet. This comet was identified in 1826 by Wilhelm von Biela, and it promptly split in half and has not been seen since 1852. Though it has been destroyed, it still lived on as the Andromedids meteor shower, but it seems that may have gone away as well.

Swifte Rock – Like the Tuttle Rock above, this aerolite could reference a few different comets but I’ll choose to focus on the Comet Swift-Tuttle (like the Tuttle Rock above…). This one was discovered independently by Lewis Swifte and Tuttle on July 16 and 19 of 1862 respectively. This comet causes the Pereids meteor shower, which happens yearly between around July 17 and August 24. They aren’t very visible, due to occurring between dawn and noon, but sometimes they can show up before midnight.

And there you have it! The origin of Legend of Mana’s Aerolites, and a bit of information on each of the comets/astronomers they were named for. This news post made me feel like I was writing a school report.

Also, does this mean Shadow Zeroes come from outer space? Things to think about.

Since making this news post, I have scanned in and translated all the cards.

Head over to the Legend of Mana Card Duel section for more information!

I made a post about this years and years ago now (about 14 actually, where does the time go? link here), so you may have heard of this before.

I am willing to bet, however, a lot of fans of the game still have no idea this ever existed.

Legend of Mana Card Duel released in 1999 along with Legend of Mana, and the “Making of Mana” book actually has some comics with characters from Legend of Mana playing with the cards. I’ll have to scan and translate that someday.

The entire set consists of 150 different cards, broken into 5 separate types: Lands (27), Monsters (40), Support cards (40), Characters (40), and Items (19). Players would build two decks, the main of which would consist of between 40 and 60 cards, with no more than 4 of each copy. The other type of deck is discussed below. Cards exist in holofoil, rare, uncommon, and common rarities. The holofoils here are unique, in that it’s essentially a separate rarity; there are only 10 possible cards that can be holofoil and they will never not be holofoil. Some of the rare cards are actually much more rare than holofoils. Another painful thing about holofoils, is that they have a lot of factory defects. I counted that around 50% of holofoils have some sort of problem with their cutting.

Lands exist as both an Artifact and the land they represent. A large portion of the game revolves around playing lands in a grid to mimic the land make system. In total, there are 4 lands for fire, water, earth, and wind, there are 2 lands each for wood, metal, light, and dark, and 3 other neutral lands. The breakdown of rarity is 1 holofoil, 5 rare, 9 uncommon, and 12 commons. Although, whether the lands can actually be considered “rare” is debatable (see below).

Next up are the Monsters, 6 for each of fire, water, earth, and wind, and 4 each for wood, metal, light, and dark. The rarity breakdown by element is seemingly random, with some elements having more rares than others, and elements like water having no rares at all. Each one has a power and toughness level, in addition to some abilities that tend to trigger when they are flipped face up. You see, the monsters are played face down onto the lands and wander around on them, waiting for a group of characters to challenge them to battle. With some smart bluffing, you can catch a character group off guard. The rarity breakdown is 1 holofoil (a Chocobo), 12 rares (all bosses), 13 uncommons (bosses and regular enemies), and 14 commons. The art depicted on the card is typically a bunch of sprites from the game, but all the demi-human monsters have their hand-drawn art displayed.

Support cards are basically “spell” cards from other games. NPCs like Nunuzac may help you summon monsters, while Kathinja Sensei might straight up destroy another character. Here, a variety of NPCs offer their help to you. The NPCs follow the same elemental breakdown of the Monsters, but differ slightly in rarity. The rarity breakdown has 2 holofoils (Treant and a Lilipea), 11 rares, 14 uncommons, and 13 commons.

Character cards are very interesting in this game. They actually have a completely separate back to them compared to all of the other cards, because you would need to create a “Character deck” (of 8 cards) while playing. From this deck, you would create a team of 3 characters who can equip various items (up next) and set out to fight against Monsters on the Lands you have set up. The characters available here are quite interesting, your team could consist of something typical, like the Heroine, Niccolo, and Bud, but you could also have a team of a Rabite, Matilda, and Cap’n Tusk. Different characters have “synchro” effects with others (Skippie and Hamson make a good team for instance), and different rules about what items they can use. Here is where the rarity breakdown gets crazy. In total there are 6 holofoils (Hero, Heroine, Blackpearl, Elazul, Elle, and Sandra), 5 rares, 8 uncommons, and 5 commons.

• 

• 

The final type of cards are the Items. These consist of both Weapons and Magical Instruments. There are 11 weapons (just like in the game) and 8 instruments (1 for each element, 2 of each type). These can be equipped onto a character, and using the Mana that your Lands have created, you can activate different attacks or spells to buff up your characters. The rarity breakdown goes 7 rares, 7 uncommons, and 5 commons (all weapons).

The cards were available in two different forms: A “Starter Deck” of 60 cards and in your typical “Booster Packs” with 10 cards each. I’ve never actually opened a booster pack, although I own a number of them (and even a sealed booster box with 15 of them stored within). The starter decks aren’t really what they might seem. I opened that pile of them because they actually come with a random assortment of cards… mostly. As far as I can tell (after opening around 15 of them) every starter deck comes with the Male Hero card (making it a very common holofoil), and you seem to have a chance at getting any other card as well. There are quite a few rares I never saw when opening these decks, however, but that could just be due to sample size. The weird thing is, the starter decks come with a lot of rare land cards, to the point that the rare lands are actually more common than a lot of the uncommon ones. The only actual rare land, however, would be the single holofoil land, the Mana Sword/Mana Tree.

For those of you who want to collect the cards, good luck. They’re not that easy to come by, and purchasing singles is definitely not going to happen. There are maybe only two Japanese websites that even mention this card game, one of them is just a list of cards (with a few details wrong) and the other explicitly states the site is not for selling/trading. Typically, only starter decks show up on auction sites, and you could get away with one for about $25 on a good day. Boosters are much more rare, but I’ve paid around $15 for those. You may also find a few random assortments of cards for sale, but they tend to only include a few commons and uncommons, something that would easily be found inside a starter deck.

I actually have a complete set of all 150 cards, and I’m only one card away from having a second complete set (if you have a Rosiotti please let me know/give it to me). I’ve collected these cards since around 2004, and I did not complete my collection until around 2016. Overall, my entire collection is around 1500 individual cards (~680 commons, ~480 uncommons, ~270 rares, ~60 holofoils), a few unopened starter decks, a decent number of unopened boosters, and even a sealed booster box. Based on that sample, I think I have a good idea of what the rare cards are.

Rare card seekers should look out for: #28 Hitodama, #34 DuCate, #41 Iron Centaur, #52 Vanadise, #56 Jajara, #68 Putty, #74 Rosiotti, #87 Tote, #96 Olbohn, #118 Elle, #125 Rubens, #126 Tusk, and #138 Spear (of those only Elle is holofoil). Those also happen to be cards I would love to get more duplicates of. I also have one card that I’ve got no idea where it came from. It’s a cheat-sheet for the turn-order of the game, and it has a plain white card back to it, very unprofessional seeming. Whether this came from inside boosters (never opened one) or was available at a release event or some kind of tournament, I’ll maybe never know.

Anyway, that’s my in-depth writeup about this card game that few people actually know about. I wonder how many people have actually played a game with these cards. Were there ever any tournaments back in the day? All my searching online over the years leaves me thinking that we’ll never really know.

If you want more information on the game, as well as the most in-depth and complete card list on the internet, you can check out the new page I created just for this game!

Click here to view the Legend of Mana Card Duel page.

I hope to have add scans and translations for the cards and rules in the future. But seeing as this is the first page added to the website in nearly a decade, don’t be surprised if it takes a good while.

When I started writing these merchandise posts, I didn’t take into account just how many various items there were remaining. I’ll show off or mention the bulk of them in this post, but there will be a final post just before the release of the Legend of Mana remaster that goes over my absolute favorite merch.

Alright, starting with the above image, I’ll go through things left to right. I also included another picture of a Rabite plush, with the original tag that hangs of its tail for completion sake.

Pearl and Elazul Figurines and Jumi Music Box. The two figurines there, Pearl and Elazul, came along with the purple music box in the Square Millennium Collection version of Legend of Mana released in 2000. Opening the box reveals some text, which states “Dear Pearl & Elazul, Florina”, and then plays a snippet of the game’s title theme. I would not really classify the Millennium collection, nor these figures or music box as especially rare, but you’ll still probably have to spend maybe between $60-$100 if you’re interested in picking one up. Be aware, the little colored “jewels” on top of the music box tend to fall out and disappear.

You can listen to a recording of the music box below.

Flat Magnet Set. The next item, directly under Pearl and Elazul, is a small flat magnet set. This item has “NOT FOR SALE” plastered on it, and has punch out magnets for the Hero and Heroine, Niccolo, and the game’s logo. I’m not exactly sure what the process of obtaining these magnets would be, but the magnets say “PRESENTED BY DOKIDOKI BOUKENJIMA” on them, which is a store, so I assume it would have been a preorder bonus. As for a price, I have no real idea. I have two of these, but they’re not particularly amazing so I wouldn’t bother paying much. I paid maybe $5 for each.

Rabite Mousepad. Not much to say about this one besides it is quite rare. I’ve only ever seen this one for sale, and I got it for a steal, only $15, but I definitely would have been willing to pay much more due to how uncommon it seems to be. I bet there are a number of them out there absolutely ruined from years of use. There also exists a leather Rabite mousepad, which I sadly don’t have (and I think I’ve lost all photos I had of them as well). At one point in 2010, around 6 of them appeared online for auction, but I never ended up bidding on any at that time. If you’ve got one, and you’d like to get rid of it, please let me know.

Rabite Phone Lanyard. Once again recycling the pewter Rabite Necklace design, this braided leather lanyard is really cool. I own two of them, the pristine one seen in the image above, as well as a busted up one that I actually used back around 2006. The leather is all frayed, the coating of the metal pieces is worn away revealing shiny brass underneath, and I really regret using it after a while because I could not for the life of me find another one for years and years. Finally, maybe two years ago, I picked another one up for $10. You can actually find two of these listed rather easily on auction sites now, one for around $50 and one for an insane $300 for some reason.

Stationary Set. Yeah, this is an odd one, isn’t it? The only one of its kind I’ve seen, and I don’t remember what I paid for it. I’m not unsealing it, so I’m not entirely sure how many sheets/envelopes are inside along with the stickers. It’s a very slim package, so there can’t be more than just a few of each. It has a ¥1000 price tag on the back.

Legend of Mana Manga by Shiro Amano. The five volume manga set was also re-released in a two-volume set many years later. I haven’t picked up a copy of those two yet. I’ve got a postcard as well, featuring the Hero, “Toto”, munching on some Boarmelons. The manga is really quite a fun read, so seek it out if you’ve never been through it before. I quite like the way they handled the artifacts in the story.

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Non-Pictured Items. In the following area, I’ll just include some details about items that I unfortunately don’t have on hand at the moment to take photos of. This list is probably non-exhaustive, as I’m sure I’ve forgotten something (besides the cool stuff coming up in the next post…).

Postcard Book. It’s a book full of postcards. I’ve seen the books as well as separate cards for sale online. Not very rare at all, and probably not the most noteworthy item.

Magnet Puzzle Book. This one is really cool, I need to pick up a second copy of it so I can actually get some use out of it. This comes with a bunch of magnets of various characters from the game, as well as two “puzzles” which are neat art from the games broken into small pieces. All the pieces are square, so it’s not really that much of a puzzle. The cool thing about this is that it comes with a so-called “Eternal Calendar”. It comes with magnets for the days of the week (with elementals on them) and then numbered day magnets with produce from the game on them. You can rearrange these dates around on your fridge or a bulletin board or whatever you want to stick magnets on, and have a cool little calendar. These are not hard to come by, and I think usually you can find one for between $30-$50.

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Finally, I’m not going to go into much detail on the more mundane items, but of course there is the soundtrack to the game (as well as a smaller soundtrack released as a preorder bonus) and the arranged album called Promise, along with who knows how many other albums that have some Legend of Mana music added on. There are various guidebooks, the most notable being the Ultimania guide, but what I’d recommend picking up would be the Making of Mana book if you’re interested in all of this merchandise stuff. It’s a really cool book and I wish I was more fluent in Japanese to read more about what it’s got inside. There are even some t-shirts, I believe they exist in Rabite, Lil’ Cactus, and Niccolo varieties. I have a really beat up version of the Rabite shirt somewhere, and I believe I paid all of 25 cents for it.

Anyway, let me know if you think I forgot anything, but also check in on the next post where I’ll go over the absolute best of the Legend of Mana merch.

Ok, you must be thinking to yourself, “Sheexy is just here making stuff up now”.

Golden Rabites? A Zippo lighter? A wooden Zippo lighter? Some weird combo of a phone card and a zipper? Ok fine, I can believe those, but a screwdriver?

That’s just too much.

Well yeah, but it is real. And it comes with a Square branded battery.

You see, the new Legend of Mana remaster comes with “Ring Ring Land” built into it. Something that we never got to see overseas. But in Japan, Ring Ring Land has always been part of Legend of Mana. You just needed the right memory card peripheral to play it.

In Japan, if you used a PocketStation along with Legend of Mana, you’d get to play Ring Ring Land. You send your pet on an adventure around a board that is populated by lands you’ve placed in Legend of Mana, and they fight things with numbers and can win you cool items.

I bought this PocketStation (missing its lower cover) off an auction site, and it had Ring Ring Land installed on it already. That little Chobin Hood is doomed to forever be stuck in Flash RAM. Only booted up when I feel like looking at that interesting little game that was fairly unknown outside of Japan I’d suppose.

That’s one really neat thing about the remaster, that they didn’t just abandon Ring Ring Land forever. But it’s quite a bit cooler to have a micro Mana game you can carry around with you though.

Anyway, we were discussing screwdrivers and batteries right?

So, this little set was actually not for sale, and it was apparently a preorder bonus to help people keep their PocketStations alive. These things are very very common; I’ve seen an entire crate of these things sell on an auction site before, and no I didn’t bother bidding on it.

The merchandising for this game never ceases to confuse and amaze me. Here you have a really nice looking little package, covered in Rabites, with one of the necklace Rabites (but not pewter anymore) hanging down on what is supposed to be a zipper pull.

The little cutout in the middle there is actually a phone card. Something highly useful and collectible in Japan, but otherwise quite foreign to many people.

Why was this combo made? I don’t know, but it’s actually pretty uncommon to find anymore. I’ve seen the phone card listed on its own a few times, but usually you’ll find the whole combo together. Price? Maybe $30 seems to be what I’ve seen it go for. Strangely, phone cards by themselves are quite popular among different collectors in Japan. Trials of Mana has a ton of phone cards from 1995 that regularly go for around $300 or more, and I’ve given up on ever collecting those as the competition is quite steep.

Now here is a real rarity. I have only ever seen this up for auction once, and I made sure to win it.

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It’s painted terracotta, and I’m terrified I’m going to drop it or otherwise break it someday. I need to get it mounted in some kind of museum quality case or something. I’m absolutely not joking here. I think I paid around $120 for this one, but I’d honestly pay a lot more for one if they’d ever show up on auction again.

There is not much to say about this one, it’s already obvious this is one of the coolest things to ever be made.

Edit: As of late June 2021, one of these has appeared on Japanese auction sites. It’s currently listed at around $200 or so, and it has a busted up arm with missing fingers, and is in overall poor condition. What a shame!

Picture this.

That’s all I’ve got. Besides two of these cute frames, that is. Pricing on these? Maybe $60 seems fair to me. I’ve seen them go for less, but also for a lot more.