The Secret of Mana Remake is Being Considered for the Nintendo Switch

Forget ye not, fans of retro RPGs: the classic SNES action-RPG Secret of Mana is getting a remake next month.

The game is coming to PlayStation 4, PS Vita, and PC. Yeah, there's a big Nintendo Switch-shaped hole in that platform list, isn't there? Yesterday, Kat spoke to producer Masaru Oyamada about the noticeable gap, as well as other bits of facts and trivia about Secret of Mana in general.

"To kind of give background in terms of when the project started, it was about two years ago, and the Switch hadn't been announced," says Oyamada, who's worked on the Mana series since 2007's Heroes of Mana. "Once we had announced this particular remake title, we were very surprised to see the amount of demand and feedback we received for a potential Switch version.

"So, the voices are heard, we're aware that people are desiring a Switch version, and we will make an effort to see what is feasible in the future, though nothing is confirmed or planned."

Secret of Mana did get some love on the Switch in the form of the Seiken Densetsu Collection, which gathers up the original Seiken Densetsu game for the Game Boy ("Final Fantasy Adventure" in North America), Seiken Densetsu 2 (Secret of Mana), and Seiken Densetsu 3 (unreleased outside Japan) on one Switch cart. We've yet to see an English localization for this gathering of souls, but be assured Oyamada sees the demand.

"Obviously, our focus is on Secret of Mana since we're in the last part of its development, so obviously it's hard to definitely say that yes, we will release it," he says. "But we've obviously heard a lot of demands and requests for that game to be released in the west, and that's something we will do our best to hopefully achieve, but nothing at this moment in time."

Oyamada also wonders if westerners will understand Seiken Densetsu 3 is linked to the Mana series since the title has never received any kind of official release outside Japan. When Kat asked Oyamada if we didn't see Seiken Densetsu 3 because an English script wouldn't have fit in the cartridge space, he revealed the game's massive size even kept it from performing perfectly in Japan.

"Even in the Japanese version, we didn't have enough bit count, so there was a bug where certain items would disappear."

If anyone asks if the SNES was truly pushed to the edge of its limits, you go ahead and tell them "Yes."

Secret of Mana comes to PlayStation 4, PS Vita, and PC on February 15.