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Difference between revisions of "Secret of Mana"
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The player(s) progress through the game by finding the Mana Spirits and empowering the fabled Mana Sword with the spirit's energies. Each location the cast visits contains a story that ties into the overarching narrative of Mana exploitation | The player(s) progress through the game by finding the Mana Spirits and empowering the fabled Mana Sword with the spirit's energies. Each location the cast visits contains a story that ties into the overarching narrative of Mana exploitation | ||
==Development history== | ==Development history== | ||
Secret of Mana did not begin it's development cycle as a ''Mana'' title, but was in fact first proposed as the fourth Final Fantasy game for the recently released Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Director Koichi Ishii envisioned that the then-new 16-bit hardware would allow for a much more dynamic play style, where transitions between battles and exploration were handled seamlessly instead of requiring separate screens as seen in turn-based RPGs. | |||
Though this proposal was effectively describing an 16-bit rendition of ''Final Fantasy Adventure'' on superior hardware, it did not occur to Ishii to connect the project with his handheld title during the early phases of development. Instead, he saw the project as a sequel to [[Final Fantasy III]] in the beginning and maintained that mindset until the leaders of Square denied the proposal. As ''Final Fantasy III'' was the second million-seller in Squaresoft's history, management did not want to risk losing the audience that the third fantasy acquired by shifting the focus of the fourth game into an action RPG--the criticism of the system changes between the first and second Final Fantasy games were only three years old at the time and still fresh in the minds of players and gaming press alike. | |||
Development was not shelved, however, and Squaresoft repurposed the proposed systems for the upcoming SNES-CD platform announced in June of 1991. The game was given the project title of "Maru Island", and was set to take full advantage of the CD-ROM medium as possible. A massive island with intricate environments, time travel as both a plot point and gameplay feature, and multiple endings chosen by the player's actions were all conceptualized and ready for implementation when the specs of the SNES-CD were announced. To further the appeal of the game to the Japanese market, famous manga artist [[Akira Toriyama]] was hired to design the characters and main illustrations for the game. This was a deliberate action on Squaresoft's part, seeing the incredible success that the [[Dragon Quest (series)|Dragon Quest]] series had achieved with his help. | Development was not shelved, however, and Squaresoft repurposed the proposed systems for the upcoming SNES-CD platform announced in June of 1991. The game was given the project title of "Maru Island", and was set to take full advantage of the CD-ROM medium as possible. A massive island with intricate environments, time travel as both a plot point and gameplay feature, and multiple endings chosen by the player's actions were all conceptualized and ready for implementation when the specs of the SNES-CD were announced. To further the appeal of the game to the Japanese market, famous manga artist [[Akira Toriyama]] was hired to design the characters and main illustrations for the game. This was a deliberate action on Squaresoft's part, seeing the incredible success that the [[Dragon Quest (series)|Dragon Quest]] series had achieved with his help. | ||
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Unfortunately, relations between Nintendo and Sony soured over the SNES-CD add on, and the peripheral was quietly cancelled by 1992. Not wanting to waste the time and resources put into the Maru Island project, development shifted to the regular SNES hardware and several cuts were made to accommodate the tremendous difference in storage capacity. Time travel, the multiple endings, and approximately 40% of the story were cut from the game to meet this hardware restriction. The cut content and illustration deal was shelved for the time being, and would be utilized for a [[Chrono trigger|landmark title]] later on. Though the development team was initially distraught over much of their work being invalidated and rendered useless, Ishii rallied the team together and gathered the remaining assets and story content to turn the game into a fully-fledged sequel to ''Final Fantasy Adventure''. | Unfortunately, relations between Nintendo and Sony soured over the SNES-CD add on, and the peripheral was quietly cancelled by 1992. Not wanting to waste the time and resources put into the Maru Island project, development shifted to the regular SNES hardware and several cuts were made to accommodate the tremendous difference in storage capacity. Time travel, the multiple endings, and approximately 40% of the story were cut from the game to meet this hardware restriction. The cut content and illustration deal was shelved for the time being, and would be utilized for a [[Chrono trigger|landmark title]] later on. Though the development team was initially distraught over much of their work being invalidated and rendered useless, Ishii rallied the team together and gathered the remaining assets and story content to turn the game into a fully-fledged sequel to ''Final Fantasy Adventure''. | ||
For the game's setting, scenario writer Hiromichi Tanaka reviewed the feedback Squaresoft had received for ''Final Fantasy Adventure'' and worked with Ishii to refine the concept of "Mana" for the title. Tanaka had felt that too much emphasis was placed on the Mana tree itself in the previous game, leading some players to assume that the timber was the source of all mana and not just one physical avatar of the substance. With this in mind, the Mana sword was implemented to further convey the omniscient quality of mana that can appear in several forms, and also to add an element that separates the Mana tree from the "Mother Earth" symbolism that had become popular since the 1970's. | |||
With the hardware limitations of the SNES prohibiting the use of all the story content drafted for the CD version, the setting and scenario for the game was rewritten with these hindrances in mind and became much lighter in tone. Ishii wanted the feel of the game to resemble a storybook for children, and took inspiration from a variety of sources; Flammie the dragon is based upon the character Falcor from ''The Neverending Story'' film adaptation, and the tone of the game was designed to match anime based upon Northern European folktales and books Ishii enjoyed as a child. The serene, pure beauty of nature presented in ''Moomin'', ''Banner Tale'', and ''The Wonderful Adventures of Nils'' left a large impact on the man in his youth, and he sought to emphasis this naturalistic tone in his game. | |||
The core principal the development team adhered to was to create a sense of realism through the game's system. Because battles and exploration would take place on the same screens, careful considerations were given to the way the characters interact withe enemies--merely touching or bumping into an enemy deals no damage, short-ranged attacks will have no effect if the character is standing out of the monster's reach, and the player cannot perform full-powered attacks at their leisure in the same way that a boxer cannot throw haymakers without fatigue setting in. This last aspect was of particular importance, as the waiting time between characters performing attacks was a deliberate inclusion on behalf of less skilled players who are unaccustomed to action RPGs and only had previous experience with turn-based games. By enforcing a cool down period for both characters and monsters, the tempo of battle could be kept at a reasonable pace and allow for rookie players to build up their own abilities. | The core principal the development team adhered to was to create a sense of realism through the game's system. Because battles and exploration would take place on the same screens, careful considerations were given to the way the characters interact withe enemies--merely touching or bumping into an enemy deals no damage, short-ranged attacks will have no effect if the character is standing out of the monster's reach, and the player cannot perform full-powered attacks at their leisure in the same way that a boxer cannot throw haymakers without fatigue setting in. This last aspect was of particular importance, as the waiting time between characters performing attacks was a deliberate inclusion on behalf of less skilled players who are unaccustomed to action RPGs and only had previous experience with turn-based games. By enforcing a cool down period for both characters and monsters, the tempo of battle could be kept at a reasonable pace and allow for rookie players to build up their own abilities. | ||
==Trivia== | |||
The vermillion cranes shown on the game's box art and title screen do not appear in the game at all, being a personal touch added by illustrator Hiro Isano. With the revival of the series through 2016's ''[[Adventures of Mana]]'', the cranes have since appeared on the cover of each title and become part of the series' iconography. | |||
==Gallery== | ==Gallery== | ||