Collection of Mana and Trials of Mana (SD3)

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Do you own a Switch? Do you love the Mana series? Well SE loves you too apparently because they just released the Collection of Mana today, which features pure straight ports for the first three Mana games including: Final Fantasy Adventure, Secret of Mana, and Seiken Densetsu 3. It's available now on the eShop.

Seiken Densetsu 3 is also getting a full 3D remake in the form of Trials of Mana which will release sometime next year for both the Switch and PlayStation 4. The game will be revamped in a similar fashion as to last year's Secret of Mana remake, though the trailers look as though SE put a bit more effort into this one with cleaner animations.

If you've never played the series, and own a Switch, the collection is a nice introduction for newcomers as you play through what's often considered to be the three best entries. For longtime fans, the sight of Trials of Mana being made is a nice gesture as this entry has never been officially released outside of Japan.

So wait, they're remaking it, but also translating vanilla SNES SD3 for the first time?

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Originally Posted by Fynn

So wait, they're remaking it, but also translating vanilla SNES SD3 for the first time?

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Yes, it already has a translation now for the straight port, and then next year, it will be released as a full 3D remake for the Nintendo Switch and PS4.

I'll probably wait for the remake, because my memory of SD3 from the ROM is it has extremely poor balancing issues ruining the gameplay. I remember taking forever just to fight some regular enemies and over an hour on some bosses just because I couldn't do significant damage.

I also already got the remakes of thenotjer two games, thus kind of devaluing thisnfor me.

I've waited so long for an official SD3 English release, I guess I can wait a little longer for the full remake. Very strange to ignore this game for so many years then to just release two versions within a year? I guess it's just awesome they are doing it at all.

$40 seems pretty steep for that collection. The remake looks pretty snazzy though.

Well, seems as good a time as any to break into this series at last.

I'll likely get the remake since I don't own a Switch yet, but honestly this along with a few other games is making the system more appealing. I would rather have the collection personally since I honestly prefer the original graphical styles over the remakes but whayever. I'm just happy SD3 finally got a western release.

As a side note, Trials of Mana will have voice acting and will be dual audio much like the Secret of Mana remake.

Just to note, the remake is different from the SoM remake where they stayed (too) faithful to the gameplay. This one's a fully 3D action combat system, modernized.

Here's a video showing the remake in action from the Nintendo Treehouse Direct. Skip to the seven minute mark to see the remake.

Curious why Square didn't feel SoM deserved a full 3D remake. I do feel like SD3 needed it more to be enjoyable though.

I'm pretty sure Secret of Mana remake started as a Vita-exclusive project and then SE decided to port it to PS4 near the end of its development. The criticism for that mistake is probably a large part of why they went all out with Trials of Mana.

I kind of liked when they kept SoM basically the same in the update as opposed to turn it into another generic 'mash attack button' action RPG. Updating the system like they are doing for SD3 is fine too. The battle system did seem worse for SD3 than it did for SoM though so maybe it is good they are updating this one.

While I agree that Secret of Mana's core gameplay has held up rather well and doesn't really need to be changed, I was kind of hoping for more work on the level design and better quality VA and cutscenes. I remember the destruction of the Mana Tree being so much cooler in the original that I felt a bit let down by the remake. Honestly, if you're going to remake something, then simply just updating the graphics but keeping the core game the same is really boring. At that point they should have just ported the original to new consoles. Its largely why the VIII remaster doesn't intrigue me that much.

In other news, reading a few of the interviews with the developers has me pretty hopeful that both the Collection and Trials of Mana remake do well, because it sounds like the team working on them really want to bring the franchise back. I would love that as Mana was always one of the core franchises of Square for me, and after the World of Mana fiasco, it would be awesome to see this franchise return to glory. It honestly sounds like the devs are waiting to see how both do in order to get the go ahead to start work on a new title in the series.

One of my biggest disappointments with the remake was when they got magic. In the original the Sprite says something like "Nothing can stop me now." That was hilarious and also pretty accurate given how powerful magic can be in SoM. They changed the line to something way more boringin the remake. I was furious. I don't even care if it was a more accurate translation. That was like messing with "spoony bard" for me.

I hope if they're using the remakes to gauge interest in a nee Mana game, they'll also be looking to the old games for inspiration, because there have been a lot of lesser Mana games.

The Mana series fell away because in the SNES and PS1 eras it was the core action RPG series to complement Square's more traditional RPG series. This was eventually replaced as the core action RPG series by Kingdom Hearts and now every RPG is an action RPG by the old definition. So it will be hard to see this getting a footing again unless they keep it traditional.

Got a new trailer with English VA and a release date of April 24th, 2020.