Secret of Mana is coming to Virtual Console? But I thought Square Enix only put games and series on VC if they didn’t see any future in th– oh. Oh.
So yes, this development is fraught with peril. Like Randi here, we covet the shiny thing — for him a mysterious sword; for us a totally sweet classic action RPG for eight bucks, a fraction of what it sells for on eBay. Yet we know that if we take it, bad things will happen. For Randi, that means unleashing a plague of monsters and being forced to hang out with an annoying sprite until he killed the Luck Dragon; for us, the fact that it will mark the presumptive death of the Mana series.
Then again, did you guys play Dawn of Mana? Someone grab a shovel. We gotta bury this corpse before it stinks any worse.
Awwww. :(. And at the very least, I was hoping for a port to a portable system. But then, I guess that is hoping for too much…
yeah, you beat me to it there. the series hasn’t had a single worthwhile game since the SNES era.
Dammit, I was hoping for a DS rerelease too, Square Tax and all –not just for the possibility of giving the three player individual menus, but also to see if Square “finished” the game per se (as it was supposedly released incomplete, to fit the cart limitations once Nintendo dropped the CD unit.)
Good to see my favorite video game of all time is now available to much, much more people at a great price.
Wait a minute, does this mean we will be able to play 3 player without a multitap?
I’m not getting my hopes up for this. Plus, I have no friends to play it with.
Oh look, another game on my to do list.
So, people bitch when Square ports over a game to the DS and charges full retail price. Then people bitch when Square puts a game on the VC and charges $8. You can’t please anyone apparently.
My impossible dream is that they port Seiken Densetsu 3 to VC, but yeah, I know that will never happen.
In other VC news, Cho Aniki comes out in the US next month! That’s something, huh?
This is quite good! (I’ll have to fight over the classic controller with my brother on the multiplay, though.) I’m willing to take a VC release on this one and call it even. Portable wireless would have been rad though. But at least this way my household doesn’t have to buy multiple copies.
I’ve been wondering when this was going to happen. I just hope that they don’t forget to make it support 3 players.
@Jenn: sure it will! Just not for us ‘mericans.
No need for alarm, SE has only discovered that the children and grandmas who are confused about online payments were not the people looking for the bulk of their back catalog after all. They’ve released PS1 titles on the Japanese PSN store for the fourth update in a row, and it’s not all Brave Fencer Musashi and Einhander. They have Chocobo games and Arkanoid as well, and both of those franchises had games this year. I hypothesize a new era for SE, beyond the Square Tax, where they remake games and build anticipation for the release by giving you the opportunity to buy the original. AND their fans love them for it.
I say good riddance. Secret of Mana and Seiken Densetsu 3 are, by far, my favorite games, and I’ve been made more and more furious with Square pissing on the series. That said, I will definitely pay them again for this amazing game.
Hey! This means I can sell my Super Nintendo!
I’m happy. I never played the original, and being able to play this for 8 bucks would be perfect. I wonder how many people like me exist? Are we a target market? or does SE assume only the nostalgia buyers buy these types of games?
My two reactions:
Yay!: I can play Seiken again! Yay!:Square Enix is going to stop making terrible Mana games!
Evermore plz?
Actually, Sword of Mana was pretty cool. It kept most of Secret of Mana’s style intact.
After Seiken 3 and Lengend of Mana, that Sword of Mana remake was a godsend bringing back SoM’s combat style.
Think they’ll give us Seiken 3 and Evermore next?
If it’s too expensive for SE to do a full translation of a SNES game that they can only sell for $10 at most, could they grab the fan translated ROM off the net and sell it on VC? After all, it’s their game.
See, this is why the Virtual Console will NEVER fulfill anybody’s needs.
SoM was just announced and now everyone is starting to ask for Evermore and Seiken 3.
It happens all the time.
Megaman gets released and everyone is already asking about Megaman 2, 3 and 4.
And Square Enix will never use a fan translation because it would just open a huge can of worms.
Weird: I actually saw this coming, as Square Enix has shown no interest in selling the game at us again for $40. Secret of Evermore is also a really good candidate, although I don’t think that’s in Japanese.
M.Nicholai, we’ve actually known for about a year that, officially, SE don’t release games on the VC because they can do a port and sell it at full price. They admitted it late last year to Parish.
“See, this is why the Virtual Console will NEVER fulfill anybody’s needs.
SoM was just announced and now everyone is starting to ask for Evermore and Seiken 3.
It happens all the time.
Megaman gets released and everyone is already asking about Megaman 2, 3 and 4.”
Because Megman 2,3, and 4 are much better games than Megaman 1….?? Also, nobody said they wouldn’t buy Secret of Mana, they just want those games, too.
Rey, you must be crazy. Sword of Mana is pretty bad and is way worse than FFA.
Yeah, Sword of Mana is terrible. Sad but true. I love FFA, and a remake seemed like a no-brainer, but somehow, they ruined it. Talk about your missed opportunities.
Considering that the game is coming to the Japanese VC in September, it is probably taking its place in the American que behind Earthbound and Super Mario RPG. I cannot imagine we will be seeing the game on the U.S. VC any time soon.
Regardless, I would love to give this game a shot. I have never played it, but, as the comments suggest, the game is universally lauded.
“for us, the fact that it will mark the presumptive death of the Mana series”
Any chance it’ll be a huge success and maybe, just maybe, SE will realize that people like *good* Mana games?
“Randi”? His name is BOY, you Japanophile.
Good news for those that don’t have the game, but I’ve got it and a multitap.
I’m left wondering exactly where Mystic Quest falls in all of this. It’s a decent game and it has the Final Fantasy name attached, but it’s reputation is so notorious that I’m not sure there’s any way they could get any sort of full retail release out of it.
(What I’m basically saying is, I would totally pay eight bucks for it on VC.)
It’s to bad they diverged so much from what made the games fun. Is it really so awful to try to duplicate something that people loved in the past? It’s not lack of originality to take a proven concept and try to improve upon it. But no, gotta make it some sort of single player with multi-play tacked on, which is only vaguely connected.
I really would like to see a game that took what I liked about SoM and merge it with what I enjoyed about SD3. Doesn’t even have to be a related series.
Anyways… I look forward to introducing my cousins to SoM. I’ll leave out the depressing realities of it for them.
This is why I avoid discussing things with SE fans. They somehow see everything as a failure.
Sword of Mana is actually one of my favorite games on the GBA and I’ll probably this as well as Chrono Trigger DS. I didn’t think we’d ever get obscure SE games on VC, much less a DS port with all the best parts of both previous versions, none of the flaws, and full DS integration.
You kidding? This is awesome! When I got the Wii hooked up, and was browsing the VC store Secret of Mana was one of the first games I checked for. It’s going to be awesome to be able to play this in front of a TV with a controller in my hands again, instead of, say, at a computer.