Trials of Mana

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聖剣伝説3 Trials of Mana

Basic Info Console(s) SNES Publisher(s) Squaresoft Developer Squaresoft

People Info Producer(s) Tetsuhisa Tsuruzono Director(s) Hiromichi Tanaka Programmer(s) Satoru Yoshieda Writer(s) Koichi Ishii

Release Info Japan September 30, 1995 N. America N/A Europe N/A

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Trials of Mana (聖剣伝説3, Seiken Densetsu 3^?, "Legend of the Holy Sword 3") is the third title in the Mana series, released in 1995 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was not officially released outside of Japan until 2019 as part of Collection of Mana, with a full English localization and an official English title.

Blurb

Official Square Enix website

In the ages when the world was still sealed in darkness, the Goddess of Mana took up the Sword of Mana and defeated the Eight Benevodons, fell avatars of cataclysm that had brought all the lands to the brink of ruin. She then sealed the fallen beasts within the Mana Stones.

In time the darkness cleared and the world came into being.

The Goddess of Mana transformed herself into a mighty tree and fell into slumber. Much time passed...

However, the fires of war have come to rage once again, as some seek to free the Benevodons from their stone prisons, hoping to obtain the power to eclipse even the gods and take the world for their own. Thus is a curtain drawn on the fragile age of peace.

The power of Mana drains rapidly from the land and the Mana Tree begins to wither…

Cast

• Angela: the only daughter of the Queen of Altena, the snow-covered kingdom of magicians. Angela did not receive much attention as a child due to her mother's responsibilities as queen, and as such she began to seek that missing attention however she could. This includes wearing sultry clothing, playing pranks on the castle's staff. Angela does sincerely care for her mother, however, and that love is the main motivation for uncovering the truth of her mother's sudden change in character. Angela is regarded as an amateur spell caster in dialogue, but this is merely a story aspect and has no effect on her gameplay style.

• Charlotte: the granddaughter of Wendel's Priest of Light. Charlotte is a half-elf and thus looks much younger than she is, which has lead to her being coddled by the people who raised her in the temple. Charlotte has a bright and optimistic personality, but she is also very bossy. Though curious, she's superstitious and overemotional to the point of crying openly several times throughout the game.

• Duran: the proud young soldier from Valsena, Kingdom of the Plains. Though he comes across as hot-headed and ready for a fight, the whole kingdom acknowledges his skill with a blade. Duran has nothing but love for his kingdom and respect for the Hero King, a good friend of his departed father, Loki the Golden Knight.

• Hawkeye: this young cut-purse hails from the desert fortress of Nevarl, home to a guild of noble thieves. He was raised as the orphaned ward of Flamekhan, the leader, together with Flamekhan's own children, Eagle and Jessica. Hawkeye comes across as a laid-back and charming young man, making it hard to tell when he's being serious. But at his core, Hawkeye is a fiercely loyal friend. Nothing gets past his honed senses and quick wit.

• Kevin: Kevin is heir to the throne of Ferolia. His father is the king of the beastmen, but his missing mother was a human woman. Kevin's father raised him to be a fighting machine, which has left his social skills lacking. He is unused to conversing with humans, which can make him hard to understand at times. The ice around the young boy's heart only began to melt after making friends with Karl the wolf pup. When night falls, Kevin will transform into his beastman form and gain extra strength.

• Riesz: the young princess of the mountain kingdom of Laurent and captain of the renowned Amazon guard. Riesz is very down-to-earth and has a cast iron willpower to match her sense of duty. She is stubborn to a fault but does not hesitate to lend a hand to those in need. She lost her mother as a child and since then has tried to help raise her little brother Elliot. Riesz' family bonds are the only things stronger than her loyalty to her kingdom. Her name is pronounced "Reese".

Gameplay

Trials of Mana is a refinement of the system first seen in its predecessor, with several tweaks to the formula being implemented due to player feedback. For example, the stamina meter that prevented players from attacking frequently has been removed in favor of a brief cool down period between attacks that is displayed via the character's sprite. This removes the percentage-based damage reduction that would plague Secret of Mana players for attacking before the stamina gauge was full, and insures that a character will attack at full power every time.

The flexible weapons system was also retired in order to give the individual characters more personality via their preferred weapons. Instead, the character customization is implemented through a class system that allows the player to fine tune the abilities of each protagonist. Each character can choose from two intermediate classes once they reach level eighteen, and from one of four advanced classes at level thirty-six. These options are classified as light or dark themed, meaning that the former focuses on defense and protecting allies while the latter is offensive oriented.

Credits

Production/Direction

• Executive Producer: Tetsuo Mizuno
• Producer: Tetsuhisa Tsuruzono
• Director: Hiromichi Tanaka
• Director of Game Design and Character Design: Koichi Ishii

Game Design

• Battle Planning and Design: Goro Ohashi, Yuko Sakamoto
• Map Planning: Tsukasa Fujita, Kazuomi Suzuki, Hiroyuki Kuwata

Graphic Design

• Area Backgrounds: Kōji Tsuda, Takaharu Matsuo, Tetsuya Takahashi, Takeo Ōin, Hiroyuki Ikeda
• Characters: Shinichi Kameoka, Atsuhito Sakoda
• Effects: Shintaro Takai
• Monsters: Noriko Sasaki, Konomi Ishizuka
• Boss Monsters: Hiroyuki Narushima, Kazuhiro Ohkawa, Yūichi Shiota

Programming

• Programers: Satoru Yoshieda, Taku Murata, Masaaki Saito, Yoshiyuki Miyagawa, Satoshi Ogata, Hidenori Suzuki, Shun Moriya, Kazuo Suzuki
• Music Composition: Hiroki Kikuta
• Sound Programmers: Teruaki Sugawara, Yoshitaka Hirota, Kazumi Mitome, Chiharu Minekawa, Hironobu Izumi

Other

• Publicity: Noriko Watanabe
• Character Illustration: Nobuteru Yūki
• World Map Illustrator: Hiroo Isono
• System Administers: M. Nakajima, M. Oraikasa, Mitsuo Ogura, Yutaka Ohdaira, H. Ohkawa, Yoshinori Uenishi
• Test coordinators: Shin-ichiro Kajitani, Ryuko Kouda, Kimie Inagi, H. Masuda, Norimasa Hanada, R. Takeda, A. Hino, K. Kawasaki
• Play Testers: T. Kondo, H. Yamamoto, A. Takahashi, H. Ogura, E. Ishii, S. Azuma, R. Nomoto, T. Moriyasu, M. Takaya
• Special Thanks: Hironobu Sakaguchi, K. Suzuki, K. Kawazu, T. Fujioka, H. Kobayashi, Toshiyuki Horii, T. Makasa, Y. Yasuoka, J. Saito, Kiyomi Tanikawa, Hisashi Suzuki, Koichiro Matsumoto, K. Oogo, M. Itoh, H. Noguchi, S. Hidaki, M. Horie, M. Mori, M. Kobayashi, R. Miyamoto, H. Shingu, Y. Tanaka, H. Yokota, T. Ohno, K. Kaneko, T. Morita, M. Kaneshige, H. Nakamura, Masamichi Someno, Shin-Ichi Aoyama, H. Nagahara, S. Arai, N. Kanai, Kyoko Yamashita, H. Kizuka, Hidemi Hamada, Kei Hirata, M. Yumoto, N. Ishikawa, M. Shimodaira, H. Sakurai, Y. Miura, W. Sato, Rei Tsukakoshi, M. Nomura, Keitarou Adachi, Yasuo Kuwahara, K. Furuya, Y. Shibano, H. Kasuga

External links

official Square Enix website (Japanese)

Main titles Final Fantasy Adventure Secret of Mana Trials of Mana Dawn of Mana Collection of Mana Side stories Secret of Evermore Legend of Mana Children of Mana Heroes of Mana Rise of Mana Remakes Sword of Mana Adventures of Mana Secret of Mana HD Trials of Mana HD