Mana (video game series)

video game series

Mana series known in Japan as Seiken Densetsu (lit. The Legend of the Sacred Sword) is an action role-playing video game released by SquareSoft (now Square Enix).

Mana
Seiken Densetsu
Genres
Developers
Publishers
  • SquareSoft
  • Square Enix
CreatorsKoichi Ishii
Artists
  • Shinichi Kameoka
  • Nao Ikeda
  • Hirō Isono
Composers
Platforms
Platform of originGame Boy
Year of inception1991
First releaseFinal Fantasy Adventure
June 28, 1991
Latest releaseEchoes of Mana
April 27, 2022

The series began with collaborations with Final Fantasy series called Final Fantasy Adventure (Seiken Densetsu in Japan and in Europe called Mystic Quest) on June 28, 1991. Later after the first game was released, the Mana series had a standalone unit with the second installment Secret of Mana that was released in 1993 for Game Boy. In 1995, their third installment, Trials of Mana was released on Super Nintendo Entertainment System/Super Famicom, and at last Legend of Mana released on PlayStation. A remake of the original game, Sword of Mana (2003), was released for Game Boy Advance. All of the main original series were role-playing games, though they included a wide variety of gameplay mechanics, and the stories of the games were connected only thematically.

In 2006 and 2007, four more games was released as a part of World of Mana subseries, an attempt by Square Enix to release games in a series of variety genres and consoles. These series where the player can play Childern of Mana (2006), a dungeon crawler video game released on Nintendo DS. And Dawn of Mana, an 3D action-adventre game in 2007 for PlayStation 2, and also Heroes of Mana (2007) a real-time strategy for the DS. Three more games have been released, after the World of Mana subseries ended. Cirlcle of Mana (2013), a card-battle game only sale in Japan for the GREE mobile platform, one year later Rise of Mana a free-to-play action role-playing game only in Japan for iOS, Android, and PlayStation Vita. The last game Adventures of Mana a remake of Final Fantasy Adventure released in 2016, for the PlayStation Vita.

The Mana series has also released other games, such as Collection of Mana, Friends of Mana, Trials of Mana (2020), and Echoes of Mana (2022) the new entry in the Mana series to celebrate 30th anniversary.