Last September, Square Enix announced that they would be releasing a new remake of the original Mana game on iOS, Android, and PlayStation Vita. That game, known as Seiken Densetsu in Japan, has had many names in English. If you’re North American, you might know it as The Final Fantasy Adventure on the original Game Boy, or perhaps as Sword Of Mana, as its Game Boy Advance remake was called. If you’re from Europe, you probably know the Game Boy game as Mystic Quest. Well, the game has yet another title now, as the English version of this remake is going by the title Adventures Of Mana, a nice nod to both of its previous American names. Oh, and the important bit: it’s coming out worldwide for both iOS and Android this Thursday.
If you aren’t familiar with the game in any form, Seiken Densetsu is the game that kicked off the Mana series of action RPGs. That series is most well-remembered for the SNES game Secret Of Mana ($7.99), which has been available on iOS for quite some time now. The first remake of Seiken Densetsu was one of Square’s first offerings for Nintendo’s 32-bit Game Boy Advance. That remake was widely regarded as a missed opportunity, layering on a lot of overbearing sub-systems and additional story sequences that few players enjoyed. It looks like Adventures Of Mana is coming at the remake idea from scratch, however, so it’s unlikely those problems will plague this new game.
While there’s no price listed for the English version, the Japanese site has the price pegged at 1,400 yen, which would place the game anywhere between $9.99 and $14.99 based on past Square Enix releases. Provided they’re able to recapture the joy of the original game, Adventures Of Mana should be well worth that price. We’ll let you know for sure with a full review as soon as we put the game through its paces.
