Secret of mana, seiken dentsu 3, legend of mana for all I know. Which isn't a lot.

Honestly...they're enjoyable in any order.

Yep. No timeline. Enjoy as you will.

well i know sword of mana is 1 and secret is 2 ... we dont have 3 right?
and i see 4 is the only real sequel... and its 3's...

legend of mana... is where? children of mana?

and is 4 the same as world of mana...... what is world of mana?

is legend 3????

It's like final fantasy, they're numbered like sequels, but totally unrelated.

Or rather, like Final Fantasy, related in style, weaponry, djin, etc.

If you were to interpret some of the references very loosely, it might look like Secret of mana 2 (Seiken Denmetsu 3) takes place way before secret of Mana, and Final Fantasy Advanture/Sword of mana follows after that. The connections are so vague they are probably just references to the other games though, and the plot of each game is totally self-contained anyway, so it really doesn't matter what order you play them in.

In the order they came out:
Seiken (Game Boy) was released in the US as Final Fantasy Adventure
Seiken Densetsu 2 (SNES) was released in the US as Secret of Mana
Seiken Densetsu 3 (SNES) was not released in the US, even though it had the best soundtrack of any of the mana games...
Seiken Densetsu 4 (PSX) was released in the US as Legend of Mana
and finally, since Seiken Densetsu translates loosely to "Holy Sword of Mana" (Which would make the first Seiken Densetsu on Game Boy "Sword of Mana" in English) we got Seiken Densetsu 5 released in America as Sword of Mana.

As far as chronology goes,
Sword of Mana comes first, then
Final Fantasy Adventure, followed by
Secret of Mana, then
Legend of Mana, and Finally
Seiken Densetsu 3.

(NOTE: I am not 100% sure about the chronology, it's just my best guess)

One of the developers of Children of Mana has announced that its story will essentially be a retelling of the prior ones (eg. the Mana tree is in danger, save it, fight some big evil that wants to take advantage of its energies and hurt nature's balance, blah blah). However, he did state that Children of Mana would be a "Seiken Densetsu 0" rather than a "Seiken Densetsu 1" (which is what Sword of Mana was).

Rahul said:
One of the developers of Children of Mana has announced that its story will essentially be a retelling of the prior ones (eg. the Mana tree is in danger, save it, fight some big evil that wants to take advantage of its energies and hurt nature's balance, blah blah). However, he did state that Children of Mana would be a "Seiken Densetsu 0" rather than a "Seiken Densetsu 1" (which is what Sword of Mana was).

i wonder maybe children of mana would be that "war" thingy that happend before sword of mana..

you can see it by clicking on story in the sword of mana website

http://www.square-enix-usa.com/games/SOM/

Seiken Densetsu 2 and 3 play. The rest, banish!

I started a new file in Secret of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 2) this morning. I've played Seiken Densetsu 3 multiple times and I loved it every time... Somehow, I never really thought to check out the previous entry in the series (or any other game in the series, for that matter). It's great stuff so far, though.

Especially the music. Here I was thinking Kikuta's compositions on SD3 were pretty definitive and made of win, but the seemingly upbeat and slightly jazzier style in Secret of Mana's music appeals to me even more.

I know Children of Mana and Dawn of Mana have some connections since they take place 19 years apart (haven't played either of these but I read about DoM's story), and Heroes of Mana is a direct prequel to Seiken Densetsu 3 (haven't play HoM yet either but will get it when it comes out in NA in August). That's about all I know.

Last edited by jj984jj on July 17, 2007

As I understand it, Heroes of Mana didn't fare much better than the other two titles.

CoM and DoM have the same continental structure and central characters, so I suppose playing one with the other should function in continuity. Unfortunately, as novel as the World of Mana concept was, Ishii didn't seem to have much of an additional concept regarding how to apply it.

Mana suckkkkkkkksssss

The last decent mana game was Seiken Densetsu 3.
It came out what, 10 years ago now?

Last edited by Veszerin on September 12, 2007

Hey look, Veszerin came back.

Huzzah! The return of the Log Cabin Republican! O, joyous day!

A Republican and Proud of it.

Secret of Mana is by far the best one of the series, hands down.

Agreed.

Has anyone heard anything about if whether Seiken Densetsu 3 or Terranigma are coming to the DS or even the Wii Virtual Console? It would be great to finally play these games state-side.

You can play both on emulation, which is perfectly ok (and even encouraged) since the ball was dropped on the domestic release. I'm waiting for the Mother 3 emu translation!

I feel that Seiken Densetsu 3 improved upon all of the great points of Secret of Mana, making it far superior. Multiple characters, tons of choices for class-changes, improved graphics (arguably the best on the SFC), Angela's pixely ass-flash, etc.

Oh man, Terranigma. A sweet game, but I got so many headaches because of how fast the settings progressed. I also ended up consulting a FAQ nearly every step of the way, because I could never find out where I was supposed to go.

I'm still waiting for Mother 3, too. The fan translation looks sweet so far, though they're definitely taking their time with it.

Sword of mana dissapointed me. The ending was a naked girl and she turns into a tree. I was pissed after I beat it.

Kanji said:
I'm still waiting for Mother 3, too. The fan translation looks sweet so far, though they're definitely taking their time with it.

Can't fucking wait! Not only for the game, but to also to defy Nintendo and with an illegal act relay how stupid it is to not localize it.

Well the problem with localizing the Mother series is that it is too Japanese. Localization could very easily end up as a loss, because it scared away too many gamers because it is so foreign. Never mind that it is a great and fun game and that most people would enjoy it. Because most wouldn't even pick up the controller.

The entire premise of Okami is steeped in Japanese folklore, and that didn't stop Sony from localizing it and it certainly didn't stop gamers from buying it. There is a market for exporting Japanese culture, so I'm skeptical that Mother 3 being "too Japanese" is the reason why it's not getting a translation.

Right, but Okami is an action title. RPGs are far more heavily text-based and it would require a top-notch localization house with a good sense of humor (Atlus, my personal bias aside) to get the job done right.