Secret of Mana · Super Nintendo · Square · 1993 · 52 pages
The Secret of Mana manual carried the lush, painterly cover art of Hiro Isono — an intricately detailed naturalistic illustration of a vast tree and forest — pairing one of the era's most beautiful game artworks with a guide to the SNES's pioneering cooperative action-RPG.
Secret of Mana, released for the Super Nintendo in 1993, is remembered as much for its visual identity as for its innovative gameplay, and at the centre of that identity is the artwork of Hiro Isono. The same striking illustration graced the game's cartridge, box, and manual cover: a lush, meticulously detailed rendering of an immense tree amid a verdant forest, evoking a sense of awe before the natural world and the idea of humanity as a small part of nature rather than its master. Its excruciatingly precise linework — every fern leaf distinguished by its own play of light and colour, moss climbing the central tree feeling at once soft and exact — made it one of the most beautiful images of the 16-bit era. Isono's style stood in deliberate contrast to the game's colourful pixel art, yet gestured in the same direction, conjuring the same reverence for nature that suffuses Secret of Mana's world. The illustration was flat and heightened in colour, unmistakably an artwork proud of its own artifice rather than an attempt at realism, and it lent the whole package an atmosphere of painterly wonder. For players, opening the box to this image set the tone for the adventure inside, and the manual carried that aesthetic forward across its pages. The booklet also had substantial mechanical ground to cover, because Secret of Mana was an unusually ambitious game. It was a real-time action-RPG rather than a turn-based one, built around a distinctive "Ring Command" menu system that paused the action to let players select weapons, magic, and items from radial menus. Most notably, it supported cooperative multiplayer: with the SNES Multitap, up to three players could control the three party members simultaneously, a rare and celebrated feature for a role-playing game of the period. The manual explained these systems — the ring menus, the charge-based weapon attacks, the spell-casting, and the co-op play — to players encountering a genre-blending experience unlike most RPGs of its day. Together, the sumptuous Isono artwork and the clear explanation of Secret of Mana's innovative systems made the manual a cherished companion to a beloved game. The cover illustration in particular has endured as an icon of SNES-era game art, frequently celebrated and reproduced, and its presence on the manual is a reminder of how completely a single image could define a game's character. For collectors and fans, the Secret of Mana booklet remains a small treasure, emblematic of the care lavished on physical game materials in the 16-bit years.
Showcasing Hiro Isono's lush cover illustration, one of the most admired pieces of SNES-era game art, alongside a guide to Secret of Mana's pioneering co-op action-RPG systems.
The manual's cover carried Hiro Isono's celebrated illustration — a densely detailed painting of a colossal tree and surrounding forest that also appeared on the cartridge and box. Isono's obsessive linework gave every leaf and frond its own contrast of light and colour, and the moss on the central tree read as both soft and precisely defined, producing an image of remarkable beauty that evoked awe at the natural world. Deliberately flat and heightened in colour, the artwork embraced its own artifice, contrasting with the game's pixel art while sharing its reverence for nature. It has endured as one of the most admired pieces of 16-bit game art, and its presence set the tone for the entire package.
Beyond its beauty, the manual had to introduce players to a genre-blending game. Secret of Mana was a real-time action-RPG built around the innovative "Ring Command" system, radial menus that paused the action to let players choose weapons, magic, and items, and it featured charge-based attacks and a deep magic system. Most distinctively, it supported three-player cooperative play through the SNES Multitap, letting friends each control a party member simultaneously — a rare feature for an RPG of the era. The booklet laid out these systems for players encountering something quite unlike the turn-based RPGs of the time, making it both a beautiful object and a practical guide to one of the SNES's most beloved and forward-thinking games.