Time to get back into the Mana cycle, I guess: Square Enix is about to bring back the tortured series. Will this be one more failed attempt, or the one that finally hits?
Rise of Mana is a new action role-playing game that should hit iOS in Japan very soon, with an Android version to follow this year. As a huge fan of the Super Nintendo classic Secret of Mana, which was about as impactful in terms of opening the Western market to Square Enix's RPGs as Final Fantasy was in those days, you'd think I'd be terribly excited about this.
Unfortunately, almost everything that's happened to the Mana series since then has been one crushing disappointment after another. It usually goes like this:
So far, we're in the Hope phase. The trailer fires off all of one's nostalgia neurons. It even goes so far as to play actual music from Secret of Mana in a (successful, in my case) attempt to subliminally associate itself with good feelings. There's evil mushrooms and candies and the little cactus guy.
It's also a free-to-play game that makes its money off of in-game item purchases. These days on iOS, we've seen these monetization schemes go rather well or incredibly poorly. They can open up a great game to a wide audience just as easily as they can alienate fans of a previous chapter in the series. Square Enix, in its brief history on iOS, has done both.
Add to that Square Enix's general incompetence at creating something in this series that even touches Secret of Mana and you know why it's not likely Rise of Mana will pan out.
At least one good thing will definitely come out of this: The official soundtrack CD sounds fantastic, based on the samples in the trailer and on the website. But just once I'd like for more than a good soundtrack to come out of the Mana series.
Maybe this time, right? Right, you guys?
