Mana game series

Unfortunately, most of the mobile game incarnations of the Mana games have been shut down. It will be difficult to find those, but can be worth it if you want to see the direction that the series decided to take later on in life. This is where things get a little fuzzy. Like the Final Fantasy series, most Mana games take place in slightly different universes and worlds while sharing a few themes.

That being said, there are some games that do have connections to one another. It is best to assume that the Mana games are not connected by storyline at all, and instead simply play the ones that most interest you.

The Mana series has a tumultuous history, and most of the games received bad critical reception in general. Still, Secret ranks in the first place position. Looking at outside metrics provides more context. As far as reviews are concerned, it also ranks second overall.

However, it is a divisive game, and should be explored with an open mind. Fortunately, the Legend of Mana Remake has earned mostly positive praise, earning it a third-place position overall.

Speaking generally, Secret of Mana and Trials of Mana both deserve to be counted as the best. They each have their charm and a fantastic art style that transcends the ages.

June 24, How many Mana games are there total? The most recent actually new title in the mainline Mana series, Dawn of Mana , released for the PlayStation 2 back in Although we did have [Mana series creator Koichi Ishii] take a look at it a little bit ago. We're at that level [of development], so please look forward to it. Development still has some way to go… We are developing for console, so I hope you can look forward to it.

At this point, little is known about whatever the new title is going to be in the Mana series beyond the fact that it is being developed for consoles. Ishii takes care to avoid set conventions, and his influences are correspondingly very wide and non-specific. Tolkien 's Lord of the Rings. Unlike the majority of the Square repetorire, Mana presents itself with a core aesthetic theme of innocence through cute and clean designs, giving itself the impression of that of a modern fairy tale or light fantasy epic.

Much of this can be traced back to the first installment of the series, Sword of Mana , in its Final Fantasy Adventure incarnation for the Game Boy. Though its presentation is light and adoring, this does not detract from presenting more mature and darker story elements and themes along the course of its stories, and some installments go for a more intricate edge when complexity and maturity are needed, complimenting the lighthearted design focus. While some titles of the World of Mana series do share direct connections with other installments, the games of the series have few concrete links.

There is no overall explicit in-game chronological order. Furthermore, according to Ishii, the games do not take place in exactly the same world, and characters or elements who appear in different titles are to be considered alternate versions of each other. Instead, the connections between each title are more abstract than story-based, linked only on the karmic level. A common element of the series is its seamless, real-time battle system.

While action-based, the Mana battle system is intended to be playable even by newcomers as well as veterans. The system is coupled with the distinctive hierarchical "Ring Command" menu system, featured prominently in Secret of Mana and Trials of Mana , and to a lesser extent in later installments. Each ring is a set of icons with a textual infobox explanation which, upon selection, allow the player to use an item, cast a spell, look up in-game statistics, or change the game's settings.

Navigation within a menu is achieved by rotating the ring through the cursor left or right, while switching to a different menu is achieved by pressing the up or down buttons. Watts is a dwarven blacksmith who upgrades the player's weaponry. Usually, an anthropomorphic cat merchant is found outside of town areas and allows a player to save the game and buy supplies at higher-than-normal prices. In the Japanese games, these merchants share the name Nikita.

The Mana Tree and the Mana Sword are recurring plot devices which have been featured in every game of the series. The mystical Mana Tree is a source of magic which sustains the balance and nature of the series' world. The Mana Sword is typically used to restore this balance when it becomes lost in the games.

The Mana Spirits , also known as Elemental Spirits , are beings who govern the magic elements of the series' world, and are at the core of the games' magic system as they are used to cast magic spells. Eight types of spirits have appeared in the series since Secret of Mana , and each embodies a different element.

Their names are homonyms of mythological beings or phenomena. In Secret of Mana and Seiken Densetsu 3 , usage of their power is enabled upon the main characters' meeting with them. In Legend of Mana and Sword of Mana , multiple spirits of the same elemental type appear. In terms of storyline, in Seiken Densetsu 3 and Heroes of Mana , the spirits are charged to protect the Mana Stones in which the Mana Goddess sealed eight elemental benevodons. In the English dub of Dawn of Mana , each spirit speaks with a particular European accent, such as French or Scottish.

The Rabite has become a sort of mascot for the Mana series. The Rabite resembles a bodiless, one-toothed rabbit with large ears that curve upward and form a point at the tip and a round, puffy pink tail. Rabites move by hopping along the ground. They are most commonly yellow, but there are also variants in different colors, such as pink, lilac, black , green, and white. Rabites are most commonly simply minor enemies, but some variants are "superboss" characters and even friendly units and pets.

Rabites have appeared prevalently in several pieces of Mana merchandise, including plush dolls, cushions, lighters, mousepads, straps, telephone cards, and T-shirts. Flammie , sometimes spelled "Flammy", is the name of a species of flying dragons, as well as the proper name of some of its members, featured in several games of the series.