After seeing the Trials of Mana demo, I had the chance to ask Shinichi Tatsuke, Producer on Trials of Mana and Masaru Oyamada, Producer on the Mana series, some questions about the latest entry in the series.

Q. Does selecting a different main character change the overall story, or just the interactions between characters?

Tatsuke-san. First of all, the prologues for each of the six characters are completely different and the game also has multiple endings, depending on what combination of characters that you choose. But the story will also change, depending on that character combination.

Q. The companions that you select, are you able to change then throughout the game, or are they locked at the start?

Tatsuke-san. They are locked. So, when the game was originally released in Japan (ed - known as Seiken Densetsu 3) many players, replayed the game many times, to see all the endings that were offered.

Q. The game has quite a striking look, which makes me feel like I am looking at the series for the first time, how did that come to be?

Tatsuke-san. For the characters, there were a number of individuals that were involved internally with the Final Fantasy series, took on advisory roles for this project. The main Art Director though is Haccan-San.

Q. Will returning fans find new characters added to the game, or is it just the original six?

Tatsuke-san. No, there aren’t going to be any additional characters, because we really wanted to stay true to the spirit of the original release. Also the characters have different kind of pair-ups, if you will, and so by addition additional characters that balance will be disrupted and finally this is the first time this title is available outside of Japan and we wanted to deliver the experience as players in Japan first experienced it.

Q. As this is a remake, would you say length is going to be the same as the original, or will it be longer?

Tatsuke-san. As we are still in development, we cannot say, so please await further information.

Q. How long has the development been going on for now?

Tatsuke-san. So far, a year and a half.

Q. How did this remake come to be, was it sought after internally, or due to fan request?

Oyamada-san. Personally, I really wanted to make this title, however in 2017 when Collection of Mana was released in Japan, a lot of western fans were like ‘We want to play it too’, so that was really the trigger for this happening.

Tatsuke-san. When that was happening, Oyamada-san was working on the Secret of Mana remake during that time, and was really thinking, I need to get started on this, to give this to the players as soon as possible. That is when Tatsuke-san stepped in and asked him help with the project.

Oyamada-san. Initially, we had shown the western team the remake version and they then expressed a desire to have the original version released as well, which is what saw Collection of Mana being released.