Seiken Densetsu 2, known as Secret of Mana in the West, was originally made for the defunct Super Famicom CD-Rom attachment that was being co-developed by Nintendo and Sony. Once Nintendo scratched the project and set in motion their greatest rival in the next gen, Square scrambled to salvage the game and find a way to fit it on a cartridge at the cost of several story elements and gameplay features being scrapped. For many Western fans, this was the first Mana game since the actual first game went under the Final Fantasy moniker at the time. Featuring three player co-op, this was the second Action-RPG developed by Square for the 16-bit platform and easily their most well known.
If sales continue to be strong for the remakes, the producer and SE promise to remake the other entries as well, including Seiken Densetsu 3, which is often regarded as the best entry and was denied localization in the West.
MY BODY IS READY!!!!! :kaoclove: :rabite: :kaoclove:
edit: What happened to the rabite? :cry:
08-25-2017, 03:35 PM
The Captain
Wow! Had not been following or expecting news like this at all.
Between FFVII and now this, it's like my childhood is being reborn.
So long as the music remains the same, I'm all the way in.
Take care all.
08-25-2017, 04:55 PM
Bubba
Oh yeah, the music for this was phenomenal.
Sign me up!
08-25-2017, 05:09 PM
Spuuky
Coming to Steam, no less. I will definitely get it.
08-25-2017, 06:04 PM
Skyblade
According to the article, all the music is being remixed.
08-25-2017, 08:47 PM
Fynn
Sweet! :D
08-28-2017, 07:14 AM
Shaymin
*joins the bandwagon*
08-28-2017, 07:41 PM
Wolf Kanno
And it's now confirmed to be coming to the West as Square-Enix NA uploaded an English version of the initial trailer with a release date of February 15th 2018.
08-29-2017, 05:46 PM
Del Murder
SoM is one of my favorite games. I hope they keep the co-op of the original.
08-29-2017, 05:50 PM
Psychotic
Quote:
Originally Posted by Del Murder
SoM is one of my favorite games. I hope they keep the co-op of the original.
I looked into this and from what I could see, unless you're playing on the Vita it's going to be online and not local which sucks. If someone knows any better than me on that please do let me know!
08-29-2017, 06:25 PM
Del Murder
Well I hope the figure out the local co-op. Being able to jump in and out of it on the fly in the original was one of the best parts about this game. I also want to play this with my kids!
I'd actually settle on just releasing the original with the co-op on PSN. :D
08-29-2017, 08:23 PM
Sephiroth
Can't wait for that tomcat that has ridiculous item prices.
08-30-2017, 04:30 AM
Shaymin
Wait. Where did you see the producer promise to remake Seiken Densetsu 3 if it did well?
08-30-2017, 05:40 AM
Wolf Kanno
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaymin
Wait. Where did you see the producer promise to remake Seiken Densetsu 3 if it did well?
He talked about it last year, when they were discussing the remake of the Final Fantasy Adventure.
Okay. Thanks. Didnt know that "Adventures of Mana" existed. I only knew about Sword of Mana which I didnt like.
Now I want to play Adventures of Mana...
09-04-2017, 09:37 PM
Wolf Kanno
Okay, just watched some comparison videos between the original and the remake footage shown at PAX over the weekend, here's some cool tidbits I picked up:
Randi (MC) Talks quite a bit more in the remake, whereas he's almost a silent protagonist in the original. Almost...
There is now a mini-map in the remake, and in a cool twist, it's directly made to look like the old SNES map.
The game appears to have fully voiced story scenes.
The translation has been redone. I'm not sure if the Mobile port cleaned up the translation and this game is using that version, or if the game has gotten a new translation for this project, but it's easy to spot that some grammar has been touched up and some dialogue has changed to make a bit more sense.
There are now cutscenes for the big moments. For instance, Randi obtaining the Sword of Mana was done all in-game with a just a few text boxes and lights, reaching the sword in the remake actually has the gameplay cutaway to a pre-rendered scene from different angles and using more animation for Randi's movements than the in-game sprite graphics would allow.
Other character models are a bit less animated, the two boys at the start of the game have no facial animations beyond their default and seem to be direct 3D Models of their sprite artwork, which makes some scenes look awkward, but also allows you to notice some details of the original models you may not have noticed.
As with a lot of 2D games getting 3D make-overs, the game runs slightly slower than the original. The video shows people playing through the first section and the original version has the player zipping by, whereas the remake is slightly behind. Looks more jarring with the comparison but not likely to be noticeable on a solo playthrough.
The attack range of the sword seems to have extended, partially because the in-game model for it is more proportionate than the 2D one and is thus a bit longer, but even then it feels like the sword has a bit more of an extended hit-box than the original. Will be interesting to see if the other weapons have similar changes.
The character bar now displays a life bar, in addition to the HP one to give a better visual idea of the damage you're taking. Also, the weapon your character has equipped is displayed on the right side of the character info bar.
The first boss is much better animated and moves around more like an actual Praying Mantis with it's head bobbing and wind up for it's attack. The full 3D movement adds a lot of interesting subtle elements that weren't possible with the sprites.
There is no online co-op planned for the game at the moment, but the game does in fact retain the local co-op of the original, so it's still three player!
Hiroki Kikuta (SoM Composer) has returned for the project and is working on the re-arrangment of the soundtrack, which he is making sure still sounds like the original, but has added a few new flairs to give it a new spin.
