Written in 2025

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The fascination of Secret of Mana

For kids around my age, around 13 or 14 years old, interested in japanese role playing games or action RPGs, the release of Secret of Mana was something magical in the early to mid 90s. I vividly remember watching the ads in late 1994 in Germany, when suddenly, an almost fairy tale style story was shown of a boy that found a sword. It then transitioned to gameplay footage for the game.

Being heavily influenced by the "Club Nintendo" magazine, Nintendo's official outlet back then (comparable to "Nintendo Power"), I was really looking forward to it. Especially, after I got a taste in RPGs and action RPGs like Zelda 3, Shining Force, Mystic Quest Legend and the like.

And what a blast it was. The game was colorful, the music awesome, the story (for 13-year-olds) absolutely stunning and the world was so huge. There was so much to explore. Getting into leveling characters, leveling skills, buying and finding new gear really set the basis for what I liked. And it was the game I could not only play with friends, but also with my late sister. I have so many incredible memories of getting on her nerves by spamming spells or discussing tactics with friends in school breaks because we had some issues fighting certain bosses.

The game arrived in Germany late 1994, and in the USA about a year earlier. The translation was horrible, but it was part of our late childhood. And of course, we awaited a successor to the game.

Two successors

And the news arrived. A new Mana game was going to be released, and it looked even more colorful, more vibrant and detailed. It looked so awesome that it even could be mentioned in the news even with all the next generation consoles coming up. But, it was also made clear that we would not get this Mana game in the west. Square Enix USA created a development team and the developers took the Secret of Mana engine to create their own game.

The game released, Secret of Evermore, had a completely different vibe. It looked more serious, the colors were darker, the whole atmosphere about a young boy that was transported through time with his dog was so completely different to the fairytale style world of the predecessor.

Still, the game was very good and popular, and it somehow hit the tone for us now 15 to 16 year olds more than the vibrant atmosphere of the "other" Mana game that was in development for Japan. There was now a successor to Secret of Mana in the West with Secret of Evermore, and one to Seiken Densetsu 2 in the East - Seiken Densetsu 3.

Translation issues

In late 1998, Super Nintendo emulation was getting better and better. With AMD K2 and Intel Pentium III CPUs, emulators like Snes9x or ZSNES were finally able to smoothly present Super Nintendo games, and many games that were previously only available in Japan got more and more attention from the gamers.

One of the first big games translated was "Final Fantasy V", the SNES part of the series that players in the US weren't able to play.

And then, around early 1999, there were news in the forums of old: A guy called "Neil Corlett" and a team of skilled translators worked on a translation for Seiken Densetsu 3! They had lots of work to do, as Seiken Densetsu 3 used some hi-res graphics mode and fonts that were uncommon. So they had to reverse engineer parts of the ROM, but in the end, they succeeded. In the early summer of that year, the patch was released.

The summer of Seiken Densetsu 3

You see, in 1999, the console generation that followed the Super Nintendo or Super Famicom was already on the verge of being sunsetted itself. In Japan, the Sega Dreamcast console had already been launched, and it was due for release in the US in September. So the world of high resolution gameplay, fast paced action was already on the horizon. Still, many of us RPG fans were able to experience Seiken Densetsu 3 for the first time.

And even when we were already young adults by then, suddenly, all of the modern gaming was forgotten and we enjoyed Seiken Densetsu 3. We were kids again, running around in our favorite partys, enjoying the colorful story, that was impressively mature at some points. The translation was great as well, incredibly professional.

Some quotes

I asked around in Reddit how people felt about the release of the translation back then.

Making it official

People started buying the Japanese cartridges and patched the ROMs on the cartridges with the translation. But still, Square Enix didn't recognize the demand of the games. Mana games were released here and there. The following games received mixed reactions, none was as successful as Secret of Mana or Seiken Densetsu 3 in the fan translated world.

But then, in 2019, Square Enix announced the game to be released as part of the Mana collection. Together with their own translation of the Super Nintendo games. The translation is generally regarded to be not as good as the official one. Names of cruicial items and classes also changed, which made some of the guides on the web obsolete. There were also official translations in other languages - in the German case, the original Seiken Densetsu 3 was released by a group called "G-Trans" shortly after Neil Corlett brought the game to western shores.

Eventually, the game even got a complete 3D remake that was released on Playstation, XBox and Nintendo consoles. It was a faithful remake and a modernized version of the game, now being a modern action RPG. I was very fond of it.

The game is beloved by many and some still refer to it as "Seiken Densetsu 3" - the effort made by Square Enix by porting the game over and doing their own translation is widely regarded as a good move. The Trials of Mana remake, which even spawned a new Mana game - "Visions of Mana" is also seen in high regard.

However, 2019 was a long time after 1995. And the feeling to just jump back into your childhood that you just left for one more warm and cozy Super Nintendo game - that was something that could only happen in that short timespan back in 1999. And we loved it.