World Maps

February 28, 2021

Secret of Mana’s world map is as peculiar as the game can be. It features a massive amount of empty space and placeholder locations, much of which hints at unrealized plans for further content. Some locations are meticulously detailed, others barely hint at what awaits you when you land (sometimes intentionally). Despite this, any map where you can ride Flammie in blazing Mode 7 glory is a winner. Let’s look at how the map evolved during development:

Various preview maps exist, each showing a different stage of development. My shorthand code for each map is here and at the bottom of this page:

I – First prerelease map

IIa – Scoop Guide Map

IIb – Later version of the above

III – SNES map

IV – 2018 map

  The earliest known map represents the state of things around late ’92/early ’93, though it still showed up some time later.

Another version:

You’d have to rearrange the landmasses to get something close to the final cut.  This next one comes from a “scoop guide”, a small book dedicated to teasing games:

According to tcrf.net, an accompanying caption reads:

Below, you'll find the world map of Seiken Densetsu 2. Did you notice that it differed slightly from the map we'd previously shown off in this publication? There are more continents than before, and it seems there are more mysterious locations.

The Lost Continent was covered up, but this map is the same one from the Japanese manual:

A later version of this map exists.  They were still working on this concept well into 1993:

A clearer version:

A higher resolution copy, sadly spread across two pages in a Dengeki supplement:

Promotional videos close to the game’s release show that this map was coded and playable.  The globe seems to have been coded here too:

The final world map, sadly cut down:

And the 2018 remake map:

I came up with a shorthand for each stage of development that I’ll use across the site:

I – First prerelease map

IIa – Scoop Guide Map

IIb – Later version of the above

III – SNES map

IV – 2018 map

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