Secret of Mana - A 2D Animated Tribute
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- Опубліковано 8 лют 2025
- Here is a 2D animated clip that I directed, on my free time, between August 2018 and December 2019.
It is based on the fantastic 1993 Squaresoft game, "Secret of Mana"(originaly titled "Seiken Densetsu 2"), and is completely un-official.
My goal was to create a depiction of the confrontation with the Mana Beast. Since I first played that game in the mid-90's, I've been a huge fan of everything about it, from the first step you take until that epic conclusion.
So one day I decided that I wanted to create an old-school 2D cinematic, like the ones we could get on games such as the "Tales of" serie, or the PSX release of "Chrono Trigger".
I hope you'll enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed making it! :D
Credits:
Direction: BENOIT TRANCHET
benoit_tranchet.artstation.com/
Music: MARIANO FRUMENTO
/ marianofrumento
Sound Design and final mix: OLIVER SMITH
www.oliversmit...
The soundtrack beautifully crafted by Mariano and Oliver is based on the original work of HIROKI KIKUTA, KENJI ITO, and YASUNORI MITSUDA.
All rights over the "Seiken Densetsu" franchise belong to Square-Enix.
You can find some work in progress videos and pictures on both my Twitter and Instagram accounts:
Twitter : / benoit_tranchet
Instagram : / benoittranchet
Oh my god! This is so awesome. Why do I find this so late? SoM was the first game I bought from my pocket money when I was a 8 year old child. I loved the big boxes of the jrpgs back than and SoM was the game wich made me wanna become a game designer. And now I am almost 39, still playing SoM and working on my first commerical Indiegame.
My parents bought me and my brothers an SNES for Christmas back in 1993 for $120. Had inlaws that lived in Japan, so maybe we got it cheap IDK. Didn't play SOM until 1995, but by then the cartridge cost $99.99 at K-Mart (brand new) almost as much as the console did. Sh*t was locked behind glass that's how popular Nintendo was back then.
The boy who became a pariah for claiming a rusty sword now standing on a technological terror from a begone age and about to face a draconic monstrosity able to level entire empires.
Thanks for such amazing work. I wish you would do more vignettes like this one, depicting other moments of this amazing game.
Thanks! I would love to, but it is sadly way too much work to be done again on my free time.
@@secretofmana-ananimatedtri3820 how long did you do this job and how many people worked on it:)
Sad Randi is such an overlooked heroine. Pound for pound could give BOTW Link a run for his money.
If I remember correctly, the Mana Knight and Mana Beast who struck down the fortress originally, were partners. And that Mana Knight was Serin, Randi's father. Killed by Thanatos presumably after failing to defend attacks using a weakened Mana Sword. With Serin dead, there was no one to control the original Mana Beast. Thus it went berserk and had to be destroyed by Randi and his party. Which in turn caused Flammie and Popoi to fade out of the prime material plane.
That actually gave me chills, you even use the designs from the promo material for the swords
@@godzblade haha, good catch! Yeah I really wanted to use as much official material as possible, so I use the official designs from the Dragon Buster and Mana Sword.
I think you are the first one mentioning it! :D
That was beautiful. As a fan of the series who played it back in 1994 when I was 7 years-old and who was immediately captivated, I can say this stirs my soul and imagination like few things have in decades. The use of tweaked original sound effects was probably the best touch. Thank you for all your hard work!
Also, let me say it's an absolute joy and a pleasure to see any sort of fanart for this underappreciated series, let alone something so polished and cinematic. This is infinitely better than the production values SquareEnix gave Trials of Mana.
Have tears in my eyes. So much nostalgia. So much love for your work. Thx for sharing.
Thanks a lot! I really can't take all the credit for these tears, I'm 100% sure that the fantastic music has a lot to do with it!
I almost felt a tear...nope there it is! This along with CT and FFVI were my childhood. Even at 36 today and have beaten my first play through of ToM, these games, this world I never left. You sir made an old time fan smile and the kid in me jumped out.
😯 this was so dope. I need a full anime
SO DOOOOOOOOPPPPEEEEEE!!!!!! I love that Primm cast Lucid Barrier on Randi right before the first strike. Great exchange between those characters!
That's breathtaking! You've totally captured the spirit of this game with this animation!
Man, that brings back memories!
Thanks a lot! :)
This is just incredible. I came across it last night and have already lost track of the number of times I've watched and shared it. The attention to detail is fantastic - the characters, the weapons, the way the red lights on the Mana Fortress pulse with the bells in the music at the beginning... even gameplay details, like Primm buffing Randy before he takes that first strike! And the character design evokes an 80s metal vibe, which fits masterfully with the rock remix of the music, and sets you up for that outstanding and terrifying Mana Beast. I could (and probably will) watch this all day...
@@JonathanBellows Damn, thanks a lot! I'm really glad you picked up on some of the smaller details Oliver, Mariano and I worked on (like the synchro between red lights and bells)! It was really important to me to try to get as much game content as I could, so that anyone who would have played that game over and over would instantly recognize them :)
Thanks for sharing!
This should be a full movie!
That was wonderful, thanks for making this!
The music always got me... so good
A masterpiece, to say the least :)
Mais comme c'est beau ! Et je ne découvre cette pépite que maintenant !
Merci pour ce travail de qualité.
En y repensant, c'est exactement ainsi que nous, les joueurs de l'époque, l'avons ressenti et vécu : comme un anime sur grand écran. Merci de nous rappeler que, quel que soit le support qui le stimule, l'imaginaire prend toujours des proportions dantesques dans nos têtes et nos coeurs.
Que l'équipe de Squaresoft de l'époque soit bénie pour avoir crée Secret of mana.
Merci beaucoup pour ce beau commentaire! Je suis vraiment ravi de parvenir à toucher des gens qui partagent le même amour pour ce jeu que moi :)
@@secretofmana-ananimatedtri3820 Nous sommes une niche, certes, mais peuplée de chiens fidèles ! :)
incredible! wish it could be a full feature-length soooo bad!
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH DON'T TEASE ME LIKE THAT!!
This is probably one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen made for this particular game.
Secret of Mana is my favorite RPG, period. Has been for a long time now and it deserves WAAAAAY more love than it currently has.
I wish this were a full anime series.
I LOVE THIS! SoM was my fav SNES game as a kid. Such good music and lush green environment and I got to play a Fantasy game with my friends help.
Thanks ! I love reading such comments, we all have so many cherished memories with that game!
Sweet gods above that was beautiful. Thank you for making this. I played and completed the game back in 1996 when I was 11 and I have loves the series ever since. Thank you ❤️
You are very welcome! :)
Absolutely gorgeous! Beautifully done!
To have an entire series, with this character design, on Seiken Densetsu 2 would be spectacular! :D
Thank you so much for this! It's beautiful! Secret of Mana was my first rpg, a huge influence on my work, and it was always a dream to see these characters animated. Excellent work, it's perfect.
Oh god that's exactly how I pictured the final battle in my head as a child. Loved it!! Thanks :,)
Whoever made this needs to get an Emmy award I wish that square Enix would stop being so damn stuck up with their IPs and just let people license them to make good stuff like this
Thanks a lot! Back when I released it I looked into trying to contact Square Enix... It's a nightmare, and it's clearly specified on their website that they do not "lend" their IP to anyone, for any reasons (unless it comes from them).
@@secretofmana-ananimatedtri3820 you know what's funny they won't let you license The secret of Mana IP to make a beautiful movie on anime but they show let America license the final fantasy name to make that raggedy piece of s*** movie that came out way back in 2001 the one that bombed at the box office to the point where they had to shut down to studios in a man lost his job in the process
I just stumbled onto this... instantaneous nostalgic memory started to flow in of playing this back in the Day when I was a Kid.... the visual presentation was extremely captivating, and I was thoroughly enthralled throughout. Please keep up the great work and I look forward to another one of My favorite JRPG's being done by you in the immediate future.
Thank you very much! I truly hope I could work on more stuff like this, but unfortunately I'm not really able to spend that much time on a side project anymore. But maybe someday!
@@secretofmana-ananimatedtri3820 You should open PayPal, patron, crowdfunding something because echoes of mana will bring fresh blood
This deserves MILLIONS of views. I’m so sorry that the algorithm has failed you because this is amazing.
That is very nice of you to say, thank you :)
Posting comments always help with that, so you are doing everything you can ^^
@@secretofmana-ananimatedtri3820 I also sent it friends to watch! Here’s to boosting engagement! 💖
Absolutely amazing work on this. You should be fully funded with an entire studio. It's a work of art in motion.
Thank you very much!
@@secretofmana-ananimatedtri3820 You're very welcome.
This is cool Secret of Mana was my favorite game as a kid
Still one of the most underrated Videos in here and UA-cam and the Community are just stupid that they do not see this masterpiece of Art of a Brilliant Tribute to a Game with the touch of it's released time in 1993.
Thank you very much! Comments are usefull for the algorythm, so it helps ^^
Although my "channel" is not active at all, and the video is much shorter than what UA-cam likes, so it's pretty much doomed at this point ^^
@@secretofmana-ananimatedtri3820 I have a small hope that you do a project like this some day again.
You had the 8th sword! That is so awesome!
Goosebumps, tears and a pletora of fond memories.
Thanks, again.
You are very welcome!
To be completely honest, I think the most emotional aspect of this small film is for sure the soundtrack that Mariano created. He did such a stellar job taking these masterpieces, blending them together, and creating a perfect combination :)
@@secretofmana-ananimatedtri3820 That, too, but you undersell your value. Each spell kicks me to higher heights. The fire spiral when the mana dragon appears is so iconic and you translated it beautifully into animation. And the mana sword transformation, ooh boy, that's when everything culminates.
It's just really, really well done, from concept to final animation to sound to mixing and matching. Great piece, be proud.
This brings so many memories! 😭💙 Perfect work! I love it to bits! 😍👏✨
More. I NEED MORE! THIS IS INCREDIBLE!
This is my favorite game of all time and this just drives home that love even more. This is superb! VERY. WELL. DONE. Thanks for putting this together!! ❤❤❤❤
Glad you liked it! I'm always very pleased to touch a fan's heart :)
This is gorgeous and exactly how that last battle FEELS. Thank you for this, I feel your love for the game and it's beautiful.
you brought back memories of all my games, what i had imagined in my head while i was playing was exactly what you show us! please make a whole movie!
I should point out: I still have the Super Nintendo cartridge from that time with my first save ^^
This was well done. I'm surprised that this didn't get more attention.
Jesus christ how does this not have more views, this is incredible. Seriously great work
Thanks a lot! I'm not an active "youtuber", so it's not really good for their algorithmes. I'd love for it to spread more, I've tried many things, but the "hype" unfortunately died after 2 or 3 weeks.
Fell free to share it around you :)
I'm going to give this my personal 7 out of 7. I was expecting another generic anime style, but you blew my expectations away.
@@TAGanimation wow, thanks!
I know it's clearly not to everyone taste, especially the character design. I'm glad you like the fact that it is at least not generic :)
I wish Square Enix had dedicated an iota of the love you have dedicated to this animated short to the Secret of Mana remake. I felt how my eyes were wet and the hair stood on end. Hopefully one day Secret of Mana will return but not with a low budget or a design as generic as the remake they have made.
In addition to reaching the hearts of so many people who dream of this game, your animated short helps Square know that we continue to remember that Secret of Mana from Super Nintendo, and not those who have come after.
Sorry I couldn't write this in your idiom, I have used google translator. I hope you understand. Thank you very much for your work, it is wonderful.
i love your comment. I sign it. 😁
This was... amazing. I had a weird mix of adrenaline and nostalgia. Thank you!
This game and FFIV and chrono trigger are the most magical experiences of my entire childhood
Being French I was not able to play FFIV and Chrono Trigger back then, but I absolutely understand!
For me, it was more Secret of Mana/Secret of Evermore/Illusion of Time :D
@ yeah Europe got screwed in the snes era. At least you got Terranigma which we missed out on
C'est magnifique ! J'ai joué des dizaines de fois à ce jeu, et cette animation lui rend totalement hommage, voire plus !
Bravo pour cette excellente production !
Merci beaucoup! C'est toujours agréable de voir que d'autres personnes partagent le même amour pour ce jeu que moi :D
This short looks awesome and conveys the love you guys have for this game. Excellent work :D
I need more of this! Oh God that was INSANE!!!
that was sick, I wish there was a secret of mana anime
wow what an amazing job!
When I was a child, I was so impressed by this game that I 'wrote' my own adaptation, which included the original story and mixed it with a sequel, and all this I imagined as part of an anime. I had calculated how the chapters would be and how they would coincide with the events of the video game. When I entered adolescence I abandoned the idea and the papers on which I made the sketches were lost. Now that I see your work I felt that I returned to those years, and I feel a great nostalgia.
I will be attentive to your next videos.
Amazing! This needs to be a film!!!
This is amazing!! And you did this all by yourself! Secret of Mama was my first RPG game on the SNES and some of my dearest gaming moments are connected to this game! Gosh I am so happy to see this. Also there are no words for how much dedication went into this. The quality is stunning and all the hard work paid off. Thanks so much Ben! :D
ENORME !! Très beau travail, impressionant, barvo ! Houra !!!
Wow wow wow. Please make a series and more!! Subscribed 🔥🔥🔥
I love how the font for the credits is authentic classic RPG!
Just wow. Floored. The animation in this is incredible!
I can't believe how well it turned out! You and everyone that worked on this should be extremely proud. I've already watched it 3 times and I can't get enough!
Thank you! If you want, you can help by sharing it on social media, if you use them :)
Dang, Mana Beast lookin like they just got back from the Gun show! =P. But seriously, great work! I got goosebumps.
Haha, that's true! He's pissed, and had plenty of time to go to the gym :p
Thanks for your kind words!
you're amazing and a real inspiration to me.
I felt very emotional when watching this, because i dream to do something like this on my own too.
Thank you so much for creating this beautiful piece!!
Thanks so much! With your animation skills, you could do something much more impressive than that! Just go for it! :D
This was so good! Thank you!
Just amazing ! What a beautiful way to begin Trials of Mana remastered
This is soooo good! Insane work, your are very talented!!!
simply amazing, i hope you get more views on this, your talent needs to be appreciated!
secret of mana is and will forever be my favorite snes game!
This is amazing! Secret of Mana is my favorite SNES game, I have so many fond memories playing it. Good job, my dude, I would love to be able to download the music used in this video, because it gave me chills. Especially when Randi transforms the sword into the Mana Sword!
That was very well done. Bravo!
who ever made this , you guys are awesome. do more !
Thanks! I would love to do more stuff like this, but unfortunately it's very time consuming when you have to do it on your free time :)
But it was truly a pleasure for me to do :)
Remarquable travail ! La passion s'exprime à travers chaque image et chaque note de musique. Merci infiniment pour ce moment de pure émotion ! ❤🔥
Merci à toi pour ton commentaire :D
Si j'ai réussi à transmettre ces émotions (moi et les 2 personnes très talentueuses qui ont fait des merveilles sur le son), j'ai rempli mon contrat :D
Holy shit, i droped a tear, great work
Thank you very much!
Quelle joie de pouvoir enfin voir cette animation finie!!! Merci pour cet excellent travail.
I’m a HUGE fan of this game. I grew up loving this game since I first played it as a child in 1994. ❤️❤️ Just beautiful! Everything about this! Wonderful! 💕✨
Thank you very much! I'm always glad to read this kind of reaction from huge fans of the game!
@@secretofmana-ananimatedtri3820 You’re welcome. I hope to see more in the future ❤️
Man, you deserve a medal!
Wow c'est hallucinant de qualité ! Magnifique travail ❤️
SUBLIME
Tout simplement malade!!! Superbe travail!! Merci du partage!
aw man I thought this was from a full featured anime!
Haha, I wish! But unless SquareEnix wants to make a SoM feature film AND trust me to work on that... it won't happen. So we can safely say it won't happen XD
so so good! i love mana and this just gets me right in the feels. the attention to detail is superb!
Wish I found this earlier, I LOVE Secret of Mana, and the music. I liked how each of the mana spirit's came out as they casted their spells. To think that's it's not even from SquareEnix, they need to do something like this.
Thanks! I wish Squarenix would have decided to adapt Secret of Mana or Trial of Mana in anime instead of Legend of Mana. Weird choice!
Hey, this was cool. Well done!
Thanks!
Énorme, du super boulot. Chapeau l'artiste !
Merci :)
Yo if this was a AMV it’s getting my money. Appreciate this, I first played this game when I was 7 so seeing this made my day. Please make more if you have the time to. 💯💯💯
Thanks a lot, glad you liked it!
Please make an anime! PLEASE 🥹🥲
HOW DOES THIS ONLY HAVE JUST 20K VIEWS IN OVER A YEAR?! IT SHOULD HAVE WAAAAY MORE.
Haha, thanks! Yeah it kinda felt flat after 2 weeks... I don't have an active UA-cam channel, so that clearly doesn't help :)
Goosebumps! Love it.
Fantastic animation, Benoit-san! ^_^
this is pure passion and talent , love it !!
Incroyable travail ! Magnifique ! Merci pour cette animation qui ravive tous les souvenirs =D
This is absolutely amazing!!!
thank you so much for this beautiful ode to a game very close to my heart, i watched my mother play this and i played and beat it my self when she finaly trusted me to not accedentaly overwrite her file. The Girl A.k.A PRimm was always my fav, you guy captured her perfectly
i was in tears. IN TEARS
Nicely done!
Beautiful work, thank you!
@@proplayer682 thank YOU ;)
This is amazing! the amount of effort put into this is inspiring! :D
Tellement mortel! Respect et Admiration totale Ben 🙏🏻
This is amazing! You are talented and thank you so much for sharing.
Thank you!
Sends chills down my spine
Wow, thank you so much for making this awesome clip! I love the art direction, the animation, the music and the overall feeling of nostalgia. It looks a bit like I imagined it as a kid how it would be in 'real life'. I hope you'll be doing more SoM tribute clips but I'm sure this took you a lot of time!
Je suis subjugué ! Cette animation est sublime !! Sérieusement, je dis merci !
Can't believe it took me 2 years to find this.
You should do fan made series, it'll help you're future endeavors 10 FOLD, as storytelling and animation whiz.
Thanks for this.
Thanks! I would love to work on more stuff like this, unfortunately it takes an enormous amount of time, time that I don't really have anymore (unless it could be a remunerated project, but that's not gonna happen). But I'll continue doing fanarts for sure :)
@@secretofmana-ananimatedtri3820 thats totally understandable, i myself, 3 kids alone, keep me busy.
If you ever do, CHRONO TRIGGER, is one route, find scenes that werent animated into the releases. Obviously, itll be hard to top the DRAGON BALL Z creator work, but maybe reimagining of the trio first meeting Lavos, if im correct SCHALA and Lavos become one, as Time Devour.
Or
SUKIODEN 2, JOWY FANBASE IS REAL, or something with Viktor and FILK another strong fanbase.
Best of luck.
@@prirush8800 Chrono Trigger is already getting so much love from everyone (and it deserves it, don't get me wrong) that I'd rather try to put some other game on the map. If I could do another small animated thing, I'll probably go with Illusion of Time/Gaia, or Demon's Crest.
@@secretofmana-ananimatedtri3820 only said, chrono trigger cause of the views, but Illusion of Gaia with the music, SIGNS OF THE PAST and/or IN THE EARTH WOMB. Very underrated game indeed, same with Lufia 1 n 2, or Lunar Story Silver.
Magnifique ! J'ai lâché une petite larme :)
Le côté épique de la scène est vraiment bien retranscrit.
Et puis c'est juste la scène la plus épique de l'histoire du jeu vidéo ;-)
Ca me touche d'avoir un retour de votre part, je suis un fan de longue date de votre site :D
Je l'ai beaucoup consulté il y a bien longtemps, et j'y retourne encore de temps en temps :)
@@secretofmana-ananimatedtri3820 un grand merci ça fait chaud au cœur de te lire :) passe quand tu veux, tu es le bienvenu ! Hésite pas à venir y poster ta vidéo !
Yo! this is awesome mate, So Clean AF
Wow....Cool....
J'ai beau pas être très jeu vidéo, je trouve ça absolument génial. Énorme respect pour ce travail de dingue. Bravo Benoit, ce serait tellement cool d'avoir un court (voir un long ;)) comme ça !
It was.... awesome. I am speechless. As a person who personally LOVES this game and knows it very well... my god, I don't even know what to say. It was touched my emotions. Please keep up the great work.
Edit: *it touched
Thank you very much ! I'm so glad the result speaks to the hardcore fans ! :D
@@secretofmana-ananimatedtri3820 Thank you, for this great work of art!
Oh mein Gott, sensationell.
Very good job. Wish an anime like this😍😍😍
Well, this filled a hole in my life that I didnt know existed until watching this. Damn that was beautiful, and a fitting tribute to the best RPG I have ever played. I do hope to see more like this
C'est très propre ! Merci à Bob Lennon de me l'avoir fait découvrir et merci aux auteurs d'avoir pondu cette masterpiece ! Ça donne envie d'avoir la suite du combat ! :)