Square Enix's Mana Spin-Off Game Vanishes After One Year

Square Enix has recently closed the servers for Echoes of Mana, a mobile spin-off game of the Mana series, after just over a year in the market. As a result, this game has become the first in the entire Mana series to be unavailable in any form.

Secret of Mana, which was originally a spin-off/side story of Final Fantasy, was released by Square Enix in 1993. Since then, the Mana series has become a franchise of its own, with multiple genre-bending entries over the past 20 years. Interestingly, this series has spawned more spin-offs than main entries, four of which were initially launched on Android and/or iOS. The most recent of these spin-offs was Echoes of Mana, which was released on April 27th, 2022 as an action RPG that returned to the franchise's roots. It was free-to-play, with microtransactions. However, it is the only mobile entry that has not been released on other platforms, possibly due to this reason.

On May 15th, 2023, Echoes of Mana's official Twitter account announced the game's shutdown. The team expressed regret for ending the adventure prematurely and thanked the players for their participation. As a gesture of appreciation, a painting of Mousseline, one of the game's unlockable playable characters, was also shared. The tweet included a link to the original shutdown announcement made on February 13th on the Square Enix Bridge site, which also announced one last spirit crystal sale. Despite receiving similar ratings to the Secret of Mana mobile port, the game had to be taken down due to server maintenance issues, which the team described as a difficult decision.

Though a few skeptics were relieved that the game wouldn't receive a proper next entry, most players were saddened by the news. In the replies, they praised the game's art style and boss fights, particularly the ones toward the end. However, many were grateful that the game had a proper story conclusion before being shut down and were hopeful to see the beloved characters again. Given Square Enix's penchant for fanservice, especially for the Mana series, it's safe to assume that those wishes will be fulfilled soon enough.

One disappointed commenter lamented that this game will not be ported to other platforms, leaving it inaccessible to dedicated fans and those who missed the original release. However, given the Mana series' history of remakes and rereleases, there may be hope for enjoying this mobile installment in the future. Unfortunately, as of May 15th, 2023, Echoes of Mana has been officially shut down.