My thoughts on the series: Secret of Mana was a fluke. As much as I'd love to a new installment in the series that returns to that greatness, I've no evidence that they ever held that level for more than a single game. Even SD3, the most similar in the series, simply pales in comparison with a slapped together incoherent plot randomly cobbled together based on which characters you choose and a gameplay system that, despite its similarity to SoM, just doesn't work. Legend of Mana was alright as its own sort of thing, but definitely didn't give the sense of a successor to Secret of Mana. Secret of Mana was a fluke and we will never see its like again.