Secret of Mana

Square developed the game from concepts originally planned for a CD-based Nintendo project. Koichi Ishii directed and designed it, Hiromichi Tanaka produced and co-designed it, and Hiroki Kikuta created its distinctive score.

It helped popularise real-time cooperative role-playing on consoles and introduced the Ring Command interface as a way to manage spells and items without leaving the action.

It was praised for its presentation, music, accessible combat and local multiplayer, while later criticism often notes uneven ally artificial intelligence and a compressed English script.

It remains one of the defining Super Nintendo action RPGs, and its combat, cooperative play and visual style helped establish the Mana series internationally.

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Original Japanese Super Famicom release: 6 August 1993 as 聖剣伝説2. Director, producer and development details reviewed during Editorial Pass 004.