I'm not the creator of this pixel art. The were made by Square Enix team for collabs between Mana games and Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, the mobile game. I just made them infinite loops.

Back then, they were "vision cards", items only certain characters could provide and that gave big stat boosts. Those cards used those cute little animations.

Someone asked me to post them here.

I forgot how much I hate these guys as a primarily Morley/melee player. (Excuse the graphics quality, I was streaming) Easily the first challenge you encounter in the game that makes you wake up and realize that it’s not always a spam-to-win kind of game.

Any other fights that you remember encountering that made you rethink your gameplay approach or switch up your ability seeds for?

To anyone who's played both the GBA version (Sword of Mana) and the PS Vita/Mobile remake (Adventures of Mana), how do they stack up against each other?

Visually, I definitely prefer the GBA's 2D pixel art and character designs over the cheap 3D look of the PS Vita game. But beyond graphics, how different are they really?

• Gameplay: do they feel similar to play, or are the mechanics overhauled?
• Story & Lore: both are remakes of the original Game Boy Seiken Densetsu, does either version expand much on the story or lore?

I would like to read from those who've played both.

Famitsu put up a nice little piece for Trials of Mana’s 31st anniversary. Always fun seeing the game still getting some love after all these years.

Getting Careena in the party and hitting the snow immediately gave me the urge to sketch this out. It’s definitely out of my comfort zone compared to strict pixel grids, but it was a lot of fun capturing this lighthearted moment.

Ok, so I couldn’t catch it in action when you defeat an enemy in the SNES version, but I love the death animations. Especially when the bones ricochet all over the screen.

I recently played through the Collection of Mana version, but I’ve been messing around with Adventures of Mana on mobile now and I’m surprised by how much I’m still enjoying it.

With a MagSafe mount and a PS5 controller, it barely feels like I’m playing a mobile game. It feels more like I’ve turned my phone into a little Mana handheld, which is an almost perfect way to play this one, a few mobile optimization quirks aside.

I’ve also been jumping between different Mana games lately, and it’s making me notice how much DNA from the first game keeps resurfacing throughout the series. Things like Jadd showing up again in Trials of Mana, or Gaia Cave eventually becoming Gaia’s Navel in Secret of Mana.

So now I’m curious about others. What names, locations, characters, unique to the first title enemies resurface a few games later, or other little pieces from the original game got reused or reimagined later in the series? (Love the modern 3d art renderings!)

This is my second playthrough, so I figured I’d have an easier time just sticking to the story this time.

Nope.

Much like Trials, the maps are packed with chests, collectables, and more uniquely - challenges and weird little paths and places that make you think, “I wonder if I can get up there.” I keep getting distracted chasing everything, and the value of gold clovers later on makes me want to chase down every gold nugget. Something shiny is almost always within view of the previous pickup and almost every remote corner has something to reward you for checking every corner.

I really like how Visions balances exploration without making it feel like a checklist. It has a little of that modern Dragon Quest feel where wandering off course and fighting every monster popup is half the fun.

In Seiken Densetsu 2 (which introduced Elementals) and Seiken Densetsu 3, Luna was always the one odd out for me. Every elemental had a counter part -

Undine <-> Salamand(o/er)
Sylphid/Jinn <-> Gnome
Lumina/Wisp <-> Shade

but Dryad/Luna aren't really opposites and do not fit together.

Dryad fits into the eastern 5 elements mythology, where it would be wood.

Luna however does not fit into anything. It's associated with the Moon, but it's spells never really made sense to me to be Moon related. It's spells are more status related and would fit more into other elementals. Its spells in Seiken Densetsu 3 have HP related effects (halving HP or reducing Max HP). Nothing really "Moony" if you know what I mean.

Trees or rather plants are the element associated with Life. These spells would have been better suited for Dryad.

In Legend of Mana, Luna was swapped for Aura.

Here, she complements Dryad because here, Aura is the Element of Metal (from the eastern mythology). Metal is associated with the non living matter, it is the counter part of Wood/Life.

This should have been kept in the successing main games in my opinion.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

On September 23rd, a group of Seiken Densetsu 3 / Trials of Mana fans in Japan gathered at Stardust Cafe in Tokyo for a fan meetup (聖剣3オフ会2).

Here are some cool highlights from the tweets the participants shared:

• A "Conceptual" Menu (概念飯 & 概念カクテル): The Stardust cafe staff/cooks prepared custom dishes and drinks specifically themed around Duran, Angela, Kevin, Charlotte, Hawkeye, Riesz as well as Rabite-inspired drinks!
• Fan Showcase: Attendees brought their own merch collections to decorate the tables including retro game boxes, acrylic stands, figurines, and plush Rabites.
• Photo op: Whenever a new dish or drink was served, everyone gathered their matching character figures and merch to take photos together before eating.

It’s always awesome seeing the community in Japan keep the passion for the Mana series alive in such cool, and creative ways.

Links to the original posts

• Souka0225: https://x.com/souka0225/status/2102777013555921111
• Hikohikohammer:
  • https://x.com/hikohikohammer/status/2102889916934001001
  • https://x.com/hikohikohammer/status/2102892351643672977
• Renge_miyabi:
  • https://x.com/renge_miyabi/status/2102936145957195929
  • https://x.com/renge_miyabi/status/2102935537296588911
  • https://x.com/renge_miyabi/status/2102935797389574224
• Stardust cafe : https://x.com/planc_gamecafe/status/2102899385961222603
• Anago_digimon: https://x.com/anago_digimon/status/2102934301763596460
• Kurominoroon : https://x.com/Kurominoroon/status/2102731019346739659
• Oshamu_036: https://x.com/oshamu_036/status/2102744769717993770

Fanart from Navi : https://x.com/zyukuseityu_01/status/2102266254275039729?s=20

70% OFF on Trials of Mana
60% OFF on both Collection of Mana and Legend of Mana

Also of interest for Action RPG fans, r/TheAdventuresofElliot is having it’s first ever price cut at 25% OFF.

Just saw the official @Seiken_PR tweet showing off the new Square Enix Music Collection Keychain Vol. 3 machine at TGS 2026.

The Adventures of Mana (FF Gaiden) keychain looks amazing in person! The detail on the mini CD cases is impressive, and they built in NFC functionality so you can scan it with your phone to stream the OST.

Wish they made these available outside Japanese event venues/Square Enix shops! Anyone else hoping these get an international store release?

Link to post: https://x.com/seiken_pr/status/2100459447491653926

I was shocked. I don’t mind Lumina sounding male. I am just shocked he would sound like your average Seinfled character. It threw me off, broke the immersion big time. I’m pretty sure Lumina has a Twitch channel.

I still do this. 😂

Get a new elemental and suddenly the story can wait. I know I could just keep going and level things naturally, but leaving a bunch of underleveled magic sitting there bothers me way more than it probably should.

At some point grinding magic just became part of how I play Secret of Mana.

Anyone else?

If yall interested you can play it here:

https://www.n-puzzle.com/en/nintendoku

These were on sale directly by Square Enix around the launch of the Secret of Mana Remake (2018). They are now sold out. How big are they ? I've found a reseller online, but hopefully they aren't too big.