Seiken Densetsu

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Seiken Densetsu (聖剣伝説, Seiken Densetsu^? lit. \"Holy Sword Legend\") is a console role-playing game series from Square Enix (formerly known as Square Co., Ltd.), created by Koichi Ishii. The series is known for its action-based battle system, as opposed to the traditional turn-based style adopted by most console role-playing games. The series began as a handheld gaiden (\"side story\") to Square's flagship franchise, Final Fantasy, though most Final Fantasy-inspired elements were dropped from the series starting with the second installment.

In Japan, Seiken Densetsu generally generates less profit than other traditional series such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and SaGa. Even so, the franchise has been reasonably successful, with Seiken Densetsu 2 managing to sell more than 1.5 million copies in Asia alone.

Overview

For most people outside Japan, their introduction to the series was 1993s popular Secret of Mana which, in its native Japan, is actually the second game released in the series (聖剣伝説2/Seiken Densetsu 2) and the third game to hold the Seiken Densetsu title. However, as no games bearing the Western title, Mana, were released for another seven years - ten outside North America - the series is not widely known.

Much like the Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy games, the Seiken Densetsu series generally has no explicit order of its games apart from their release dates; various attempts to order the games otherwise are often seen as contentious by the series' fans. For example, when 聖剣伝説3/Seiken Densetsu 3 was translated by fans in 2000, it was generally accepted canon (and still is by some) that it is a prequel to Secret of Mana, but since 2003s Sword of Mana's (Shin'yaku 聖剣伝説/Shin'yaku Seiken Densetsu) suggestions to its being a sequel to Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3 is considered by some to be Sword's sequel. What also makes it difficult to classify Seiken Densetsu's games is Square's ten-year lapse in numbering the Japanese titles. Legend of Mana (聖剣伝説 LEGEND OF MANA) and Sword of Mana (a remake of the original Seiken Densetsu/Final Fantasy Adventure/Mystic Quest) were released prior to the upcoming numbered 聖剣伝説4/Dawn of Mana and feature somewhat different gameplay styles and elements from their predecessors (particularly Legend): as a result, some players regard them as side-quests or gaiden to the \"main series\", while others do not make this differentiation. Despite the classification differences, the games share a number of common elements, not through story, but through the games' themes, battle mechanics, and common non-player characters and monsters. Some game elements appear to have their origin in some games which lend support to particular series orderings (for example, Cannon Travel's apparent origin in Seiken Densetsu 3 and the development of an almost world-wide network in Secret of Mana), but no elements provide conclusive proof.

Read more at Wikipedia.org