Our very own manaman from the forum felt inspired the other day and created a nice new banner for us to use on the forum. Check it out and show the love! Thanks manaman!
We’re also looking forward to see what other wonders he comes up with, so watch this space.
And if you have any contributions you’d like to make to the site, please feel free to drop Deques, Sheexy or myself a line.
If you somehow missed the prank, Click here!
Are your senses fried from the terrible HTML, the clashing and flashing colors, the annoying old midi? Chances are right now, that midi is still following you along with that frame! Muahahaha!
But seriously folks, this isn’t an April Fool’s joke as much as it is an insight into where this site would be without Deques. Deques is the cool dude who makes sure the website looks beautiful and keeps it a step, nay, a whole staircase above the place where gaming websites originated.
Geocities.
To see what we did the last two years head over to the April Fool’s Section found in the Fan Section.
Also acccording to my Sword of Mana calendar, today is some character named “Gem”‘s birthday… but uh, there is no character named Gem. I’ve just searched through all my Sword of Mana stuff trying to figure it out, to no avail.
Did I just get pranked by a five year old calendar?
Anyway, April Fool’s day is probably my very favorite holiday, so if you’ve got any great stories come and share them with me on the Message Board!
In Jewish culture Purim is a holiday which this year will be celebrated tonight and tomorrow. In Secret of Mana Purim is the female protagonist. I’m not sure why she is named after a Jewish holiday, but since that holiday is here I figure we can celebrate Purim in our own Mana way.
Usually the first time you meet Purim in the game it’s because she is saving your life from Goblins. She’s a strong willed character, and fights for what she believes in. She has run away from home because her father is trying to get her to marry someone she doesn’t love, and she chases after her true love Dyluck for the entire game. She goes through many hardships through the course of the game, but remains strong and a valuable ally with tons of supportive magic.
Purim is an interesting character because instead of being a damsel in distress needing rescue she is the one fighting to do the rescuing.
So, here’s to Purim! A great character from a great game!
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!
It’s a rehash from two years ago, but maybe these last minute Seiken Densetsu Valentine card ideas will be useful for someone:
Be my Valentine! I won’t bite!
You’re my Hero!
I’ll be your Knight in shining armor!
Whenever I’m with you, I’m never Marmablue!
You make my heart melt!
Bee mine, Valentine!
Be my Valentine, why the shell not?
I’ve got everything you need!
You’ve stolen my heart!
I’ve gotta hand it to you, you’re pretty awesome!
We’d be purrfect together!
Wanna go out? I’m a fungi!
You’re a blast!
I could never leaf you my love!
I have a burning desire for you!
Water you waiting for? Let’s go out!
You’re the light of my life!
When the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie, that’s amore!
You’re quacktastic!
Some of those are really bad, but I think that’s what makes them so good.
Let it never be said that here at Seikens we are getting too predictable. We may always cover pretty much the same series, we may have week after week where the only update is another track from one of the soundtracks or a remix, but then suddenly we throw a spanner in the works and BAM!
Which is probably high ranking in the non-appropriate ways to lead up to good news such that we bring you today, but hey, this is me writing here, what did you expect?
So without further ado, and ceasing all mindless babbling that you’re accustomed to from myself, I hope you will all join me in congratulating our very own Deques (aka Wai Wong) on his recent marriage! The rest of the team wish him and his newly wed wife all the happiness in the world in their new life together.
And seeing as this happens to be Monday, it’s time for some fitting music, from the hands of our resident musical maestro Destiny. A remix from Deques’ favourite game in the series, Seiken Densetsu 3, based on the track Delicate Affection, this is called This Heart (and is available on our Remixes page, so you can download it there and listen to it again and again).
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I’ve always wanted to start writing a few articles about some of the stranger things in the Seiken Densetsu series, and seeing that I’ve got a lot of time on my hands before my next class, I think I’ll start it up today. Updates in this category will most likely be as sporadic as they are bizarre, but hopefully you’ll find them interesting.
The first time I saw a Griffin Hand was in Secret of Mana. And it killed me.
The second time I saw a Griffin Hand it also killed me.
Then I got killed by a Needlion.
What I’m trying to say here is don’t underestimate the Pureland like I did when I was little, the place is hardcore.
Once I finally managed to last more than a few seconds in the place I started wondering why there were just Griffin Hands running around, and I questioned whether or not I’d find some Griffin Heads or Griffin Wings or something else that made no sense running around, but I ended up beating the place and I never saw head nor tail… nor hand of them again.
This really confused me because up until this point the enemies had made at least some sense. Blobs are blobs, Tomato Men are little creepy dudes, Ninjas are Ninjas and Shapeshifters are usually a Beast Zombie or something. There of course is the Fierce Face family that consist only of a head, but a head grimacing and spitting at you makes more sense than a hand that tackles you to death.
Quite a while later I figured out Final Fantasy Adventure wasn’t actually a Final Fantasy game, and that it was the first in the Seiken Densetsu series, so I picked it up and gave it a play through. Once again I found the Griffin Hands, and wondered what they were thinking when they made them up.
Years later I managed to pick up copies of the Japanese guides for Final Fantasy Adventure and Secret of Mana, and I’ve gotten the back stories on these weird monsters figured out, they go something like this:
–Griffin Hands were created by Wizards using the foot of an Eagle. They will stomp and claw you.
Ok, that’s not really all that interesting of a story… they must have realized that because Secret of Mana tells a different story:
–Long ago a Griffin had its front leg cut off by a man who was drunk off of sake. Since then its front leg has held a grudge against mankind. If it stomps you, you are sure to die.
Wow. That’s a pretty hilarious story if you ask me. What gets even more interesting is the story behind the Griffin Helm mentions that Griffins are now extinct.
So one drunk guy managed to lop off the hands of every Griffin the the world I guess. Pretty amazing. And just who might that man be? The guides don’t say, but seeing that the first place you meet Jema is in a bar… kind of makes you wonder… (not really, I’m just bored)
Tune in next time for Weird Mana when we discuss the evil organization of The Black Knighthood.
One of the members in the forum got contact with Hiroki Kikuta, the composer of Secret of Mana music. Kikuta-san said that he is hoping a remake of any of the older games in the series. If this mail conversation is true or not it can be questionable. I hope its not the latter one
Hi Nick
I am very glad to have a fan mail from you. St. Louis. It is a Jazz town,
isn’t it !
I can not tell you any good news about remaking Seiken Densetsu series, but
I hope it too.
Play a music and have a good time!Hiroki Kikuta
Thanks Nick
The Return of Mana project, an attempt to create a 3D game based in the World of Mana using the engine from Half Life 2, spent quite some time on hold for one reason or another. Toward the end of March this year they announced that they have started looking for new members to further develop the project. So if you’re interested, head on over to their webpage and see if there is anything that you can contribute to advancing the game.
So it wasn’t mentioned in the earlier post, but what happened with the server is that it burned the heck down.
Ok so it was just the networking equipment that was damaged; the server ended up taking no damage.
Depending on how you look at it, today’s track is either extremely appropriate or extremely inappropriate. I’ll leave you to be the judge of that.
Burning Spirits by Kenji Ito and Tsuyoshi Sekito, from the Dawn of Mana Soundtrack.
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If you tried to access our site over the weekend, you may have noticed that we were… indisposed. Our wonderful hosting team were swift in response, and we’re back online. Details to follow, and we apologise for any inconvenience caused.
