Square Enix has really been pushing out the remasters/remakes for the Mana series these days. The next in line to receive a new release has been announced on the recent February 2021 Nintendo Direct: Legend Of Mana.
Considered a spin-off from the mainline Seiken Densetsu series, Legend Of Mana makes some big changes to the action RPG series. There’s the Land Creation system where you place artefacts in the map to create what town, forest and other locales will appear. So you’ll see different people and stories depending on your Land Placement.
The combat is still real-time, but you’re not commanding a party of unique characters. You are primarily an unnamed male or female avatar travelling the world of Fa’Diel.
The Legend Of Mana remaster features redrawn sprite graphics (background and characters are all 2D) and adjusted to widescreen resolution, and tweaks to the UI layout.
There’s also a new arrangement for the soundtrack, but like Trials Of Mana before it, you can opt to play the original tunes as it was in the 1999 release. There’s also a gallery mode and music mode to check out the artwork and soundtrack from the options menu.
Also, Legend Of Mana remaster will also include Ring Ring Land. This mini-game was only available for the PocketStation, a PS1 peripheral only sold in Japan. So for the first time in Asia- and the rest of the world- we can try out the mini-game, which allows you to find rare items easier.
The HD remaster also comes with more quality of life changes. There’s auto-saves and you can manual save almost anytime. You can even opt to turn off encounters for easier dungeon exploring.
Legend Of Mana will be out on June 24 for the PS4 and Nintendo Switch, and on June 25 for PC (Steam) in Asia. It is playable on PS5 via PS4 backward compatibility.