The Secret of Mana series is getting its first art book, per a Monday announcement. The game’s publisher Square Enix is collaborating with Dark Horse to collect more than 25 years of artwork, dating all the way back to game’s initial release in 1991. Although Mana began as a spin-off to Square Enix’ flagship title, Final Fantasy, it’s made a space for itself as a beloved part of games’ history.
The series has seen four mainline titles; the 1991 Final Fantasy Adventure, 1993’s Secret of Mana, 1995’s Trials of Mana and 2006’s Dawn of Mana. It’s also seen several spin-offs, remakes and ports over the years, including a recent jump to Nintendo Switch. Although it maintains a high fantasy setting, filled with swords and sorcery, it set itself apart with a distinct real-time battle system with innovations fans continue to see in modern games.
If you’re one of those faithful fans, check out what’s store for you in Art of Mana: “The first official art book of Square Enix’s hit Mana video game series, The Art of Mana collects more than twenty-five years’ worth of memories with over 200 pages featuring more than 400 illustrations from the original creative team along with detailed explorations of every character, original sketches, world designs, and much more. Presented in English for the first time, this beautiful collection is not to be missed.”
This collection will be far from the first video game art book Dark Horse has handled. Nintendo has worked with them to publish collections for Splatoon, Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, as well as other popular titles like NieR: Automata and God of War.
Pre-orders for this series are live now, both online and at your local comic shop. Art of Mana should hit shelves officially in early 2020 with a $39.99 price tag. Till then, check out a first look at the cover below.
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