Well, that didn’t take long. Shortly after we reported on a tease from Square Enix that showed some people playing Seiken Densetsu 3 (better known in North America as Secret of Mana II) on a Nintendo Switch, Square Enix has confirmed that the Mana series will be getting a collection release on the Switch, but so far only in Japan.
According to Famitsu, the Seiken Densetsu collection will include Final Fantasy Adventure, Secret of Mana, and Secret of Mana II, and will release on June 1st at a 4,800 yen price tag (about $43). Square Enix is enhancing each game slightly by implementing a quick-save ability as well as a “music mode” that will give you the ability to listen to the series’ soundtrack from the Switch’s home screen.
The Action RPG series launched on the Game Boy in 1991 with Final Fantasy Adventure, getting strong reviews and praise for its “Zelda-like” gameplay, followed by a sequel that dropped the Final Fantasy branding for “Secret of Mana” instead on the SNESÂ and Super Famicom in 1993. It was popular, but apparently not popular enough for North America to get the sequel that was released two years later.
For those who haven’t tried out the series, the Seiken Densetsu/”Mana” series features real-time combat mixed with RPG elements, as well as multiplayer capabilities as players have the option of playing any one of a number of party members at any time. Each game in the series is a sequel in name only, as they’re not directly connected to prior titles, much like the Final Fantasy series that it spun off from.
If, for whatever reason, the collection is not released outside of Japan, Switch owners aren’t out of luck. With Nintendo’s decision to make the console region-free, you can download the game to your Switch once it releases, as long as you’ve created a Japanese Nintendo Account. You may need to learn the language, however, as it most likely won’t offer an “English” mode.
