Once again from over at the Mana Series Discord the_lep has an Echoes of Mana video for you all.

This is a video explaining the basics of summoning, which may confuse some because a lot of the same characters exist in different forms. It’s over the very basics of gacha games, so it’s a good introduction for people who have never played them.

It’s obviously the first in the series, so keep checking back for more! Check the video out below, and you can get to the_lep’s channel here.

You can now check out the official site for the upcoming Seiken Densetsu anime, “Seiken Densetsu Legend of Mana – The Teardrop Crystal” here! Check out the video below for some information about it, as long as you can read Japanese anyway. It is currently planned for a 2022 release on TV and Streaming, not many details yet though.

You can head over to the Anime News Network for a bit more info on stuff like casting.

Release date coming in hot! April 27th is when it will come out. Check out the animation trailer!

Additionally, the game just hit one million pre-registrations, and the rewards for that are getting intense.

Apparently the latest reward, 100 awakening orbs, will allow for a Character to be maxed out at 6 star (4 is the highest you can roll).

Over at Secret of Mana: Redux you can read all about the Monsters and Bosses in Secret of Mana.

Not only will you find the most detailed data sheets out there, with the information within coming directly from the game’s code, but you’ll find translations of the Monster and Bseoss descriptions from the best official guide Square put out in 1993. I even helped with a majority of those translations!

You can learn some interesting facts reading through those excerpts. For example, did you know Silktails are mutated Rabites?
Did you know most of the mechanical monsters and bosses were built by the Empire to replicate the real life versions of those monsters you face earlier in the game?
Did you know the Kimono Birds command the Mad Mallards, and they’re both in a group called the dark knights?
Did you know Griffin Hands exist because a drunk guy thought it would be a good idea to chop off a Griffin’s leg?

You’ll also want to check out each of the Boss entries, because they have really fun little comics! I believe most were translated by Sevon (the SaGa sage).

Well now you do! And you can know more facts if you head on over and check it out!
You can read about more updates to the site here.

I have finally done it!
I have one of every piece of merchandise related to Legend of Mana Card Duel.

Just look at that beautiful collection right there. At least one of all 150 cards and the mysterious turn order card; I still do not know its origin. I have sealed booster packs, sealed starter decks, a plastic wrapped booster box, and I finally got my hands on a box of starter decks. As far as I can tell, the starter boxes were never plastic wrapped but all 12 starters inside are. If there are any other Legend of Mana Card Duel items out there in the world I’ve never seen nor heard of them, so I am calling this 100% complete.

It has been a long time coming. I first bought some of the cards back in 2004, completed my collection of individual cards in 2015 (you can read about that journey here), and finally in 2022 my collection is at a point that I am very satisfied with it.
18 years after I learned about the card game, it’s finally done. Children have become adults in that time (not me apparently).
23 years after the card game’s release, it’s finally done.

Well… I still do want a few more copies of cards like Rosiotti… send me an e-mail if you’re selling.

You can head to the Gallery or to the Starter Deck and Booster Pack pages to check out images of them.

Some good news about the pre-registering for Echoes of Mana.
Still no release date, though!

This 4★ Memory Gem illustrated by HACCAN is your exclusive reward for 300,000 pre-registrations!

Four heroes face off against a Mantis Ant that's suddenly appeared in an echo. They act as one in battle, leaving the monster with no escape. (#EchoesOfMana)#ManaSeries @ManaGame pic.twitter.com/Sbiqt1qIhv

— ECHOES of MANA (@EchoesOfManaEN) April 11, 2022

From what I read, it seems there will be additional milestones added.

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

Just a neat little thing to show off here. It’s an advertisement found at the end of the September 1999 issue of “Game Gather” a Japanese magazine focused on Magic the Gathering and other card games. The issue is for September, but it would have come out on shelves a month or two before.

The red text on the right side of the ad is noteworthy, as it essentially translates to “Square’s First Entry into Trading Cards,” which I had not really thought about. So yeah, it turns out the first trading card game Square ever released was for the Seiken Densetsu series. Very cool. Now, I’m only talking about the Square side of things here, as Enix launched a Dragon Quest Monsters TCG in April 1999, predating this by a handful of months.

Here is the ad:

Isn’t that fun? I honestly never thought I would get to see something like this, considering how few people know about this game.

This ad is specific to this magazine, as far as I can tell, as it appears on the inside of the back cover using the magazine’s fonts and visuals. Whether the game was advertised anywhere else we may never know, unless I start buying random Japanese magazines from around that time. This issue also has a two-page spread about the TCG that I will post about sometime in the future when I get more time to look at it.

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!