Seiken Densetsu 3

Seiken Densetsu 3 is a sequel to the very popular Secret of Mana, sometimes unofficially called Secret of Mana 2...and as of now, the sole entry in the Mana series to never get an official English release. With three paths that vary significantly at places, and an endless number of possible team (and class!) combinations, it boasts a massive amount of replay value.

3-Player Mode
Modifying two bytes in the ROM ( and in an unheadered ROM) enables support for playing with three human players, as opposed to just two. The ease of re-enabling suggests that Square was planning to have 3-player support in the game to be consistent with Secret of Mana, but it was disabled for unknown reasons (possibly related to bugs) before release.

Unknown Controller Checks
The game executes unknown controller-related programming when certain bits are set:
 * If is set in, executes , checks Controllers 1 and 3.
 * If is set in, executes , checks Controllers 2 and 4.
 * If is non-zero, executes . This may be responsible for setting the  bits listed above, but no non-zero writes to  have been found.

Debug Rooms
The debug rooms allow the player to access pretty much any major location in the game and battle with any of the undefeated bosses with total freedom. Not only that, you can also view the endings for any party combination and play a whole slew of tunes from the soundtrack available via a music test.

(NOTE: Accessing the debug room could wipe or corrupt your save data, so do this at your own risk.)

First enter the Pro Action Replay code. Now either load your save data or start a new game. If you start a new game or are not very far in, you may want to cheat a Flammie Drum into your inventory with Pro Action Replay code in order to speed things up. Make sure you move it into your Ring Menu, since it will appear in the backup inventory.

Now, call Flammie and head toward the southeastern part of the map, off the coast of Navarre. You'll see a small white square in the middle of the ocean, shimmering in the morning light. Have Flammie land here, and you will find yourself in Debug Room 1!

Debug Room 1
First, you'll be asked whether you want your X/Y coordinates to display and whether you want to save. Each little green square will transport you to a location as listed below (letters indicate the column, numbers the row, just like an Excel Speadsheet), or you can talk to one of the characters at the bottom of the screen. The bottom row of brown tiles and the sign in the top right-hand corner of the screen will take you to Debug Room 2.

The Byzel Dancer at the bottom center of the room does nothing. The Mr. Moti on the left acts as a Sound Test with a whole heap of tunes and sound-effects. Use A to select a track or B to move to the next page of choices.

The Mr. Moti on the right will display the ending of the game in accordance to the characters that you have in your party, including the credits. If you only have one or two characters in your party, the ending scenes for the rest of the characters you chose will still display, but their sprites will be invisible.

The Mana Goddess Statue at the top of the screen will let you save your game. Just below her is another green patch of grass leading to a test room called "Miyagawa Test", where you will find a whole lot of nothing and a single Rabite. If you walk up to it and press A, then walk away a certain distance, victory will be declared for some reason. That's it.

Each time you exit and re-enter Debug Room 1, you will get one of three variations. The first is this one; the second and third have no characters or statue, but instead display the main character portraits from the main menu at the top of the screen using the default palette. If you press A while standing in front of them, you can cycle through the different classes, always using the default palette.

Locations for Debug Room 1

 * A1: Castle City Jadd
 * B1: Holy City Wendal
 * C1: Labyrinth of Ice Walls
 * D1: Switch to nighttime
 * E1: Wing Kingdom of Rolante
 * F1: Valley of Flames
 * A2: Cave of Waterfalls
 * B2: Ancient Ruins of Light
 * C2: Snow City of Elrand
 * D2: Magic Kingdom of Altena
 * E2: Merchant City Byzel
 * F2: Gemstone Valley Dorian
 * A3: Flowergarden Land Diorre
 * B3: Beast Kingdom
 * C3: Mirage Palace
 * D3: Moonlight City Mintos
 * E3: Forest of Wonder
 * F3: Lakeshore Village Astoria


 * A4: Volcano Island Bucca
 * B4: Sand Fortress Navarre
 * C4: Summit of Glass Desert (outside Dragon's Hole)
 * D4: Dark Castle
 * E4: Jungle of Illusion
 * F4: Free City Maia
 * A5: Mirage Palace (end of)
 * B5: Cleft of the Earth (near Dwarf Village)
 * C5: Mana Holyland
 * D5: Ghost Ship
 * E5: Moonreading Tower
 * F5: Cave of Darkness

Mr. Moti Music Test
Here are the tracks you can choose from in Mr. Moti's Music Test. Playing SErole is not recommended, as it keeps building and could make your ears bleed. I've also listed the track name from the official soundtrack for ease of reference. The internal names and numeric values are as they are listed in-game, including typos.


 * 00: STOP - Stops the Music
 * 01: Air2 - Whiz Kid
 * 02: Beasts - Left-handed Wolf
 * 03: Navarre - Raven
 * 04: Delicate - Witchmakers
 * 05: Wendel - Evening Star
 * 06: Rolante - Female Turbulence
 * 07: Evil - Three of Darkside
 * 08: Town - Ordinary People
 * 09: Palace - Ancient Dolphin
 * 0a: Danger - Political Pressure
 * 0b: Flagile - Few Paths Forbidden
 * 0c: Day - Little Sweet Cafe
 * 0d: Highland - Swivel
 * 0e: Ank - Harvest November
 * 0f: Jad - Walls and Steels
 * 10: Wood - Powell
 * 11: Jungles - Damn Damn Drum
 * 12: Flower - Don't Hunt the Fairy
 * 13: Snowfall - Another Winter
 * 14: Mountain - Different Road
 * 15: Dragons - Weird Counterpoint
 * 16: Mille - Electric Talk
 * 17: Fantagen - Hope Isolation Pray
 * 18: Minaton - Intolerance
 * 19: Chime2 - Fable
 * 1a: Remember - Innocent Sea
 * 1b: LoveLove - Delicate Affection
 * 1c: Pilots - Meridian Child
 * 1d: Rose2 - Nuclear Fusion
 * 1e: Riddle - Sacrifice, Part 1
 * 1f: Gazer - Strange Medicine
 * 20: ZanBie - Obsession
 * 21: Landumbr - Rolling Cradle
 * 22: Griffon - High Tension Wire
 * 23: Eyes - Faith Total Machine
 * 24: Zable - Secret of Mana
 * 25: Dran - Black Soup
 * 26: Nurd - Frenzy
 * 27: Angel - Innocent Water
 * 28: Fright - Can You Fly, Sister?
 * 29: Boosca - Splash Hop
 * 2a: Menu - Closed Garden
 * 2b: Opening - Where Angels Fear...
 * 2c: Ending - Farewell Song
 * 2d: Win - Positive
 * 2e: Get - And Other
 * 2f: Dead - Long Goodbye
 * 30: March - Axe Bring Storm
 * 31: Pedan - Last Audience
 * 32: Wind - Wind Sound Effect
 * 33: Flamelet - Oh I'm a Flamelet
 * 34: SEdulan - Heartbeat/Breathing
 * 35: SEdool - Heartbeat/Boat Horn
 * 36: SErole - Cannon Drumroll
 * 37: SEbom - Cannon Boom
 * 38: SEflammy - Flammie!
 * 39: Home - Person's Die
 * 3a: MANA - Angel's Fear
 * 3b: Go - Religion Thunder
 * 3c: Never2 - Sacrifice, Part 2
 * 3d: Sleep - Sleep Fanfare
 * 3e: Pilots2 - Meridian Child
 * 3f: Turnback - Reincarnation
 * 40: Bells - Decision Bell
 * 41: Level - Gain Level Fanfare
 * 42: Catch - Not Awaken
 * 43: Fortune2 - Sacrifice, Part 3
 * 44: Pihyara - Pihyara Flute Fanfare
 * 46: Ending2 - Breezin

Debug Room 2
Debug Room 2 allows you to access any bosses that you haven't already defeated, as well as one or two that are always available even if you've defeated them (Jewel Eater and Full Metal Hagger, for example). Again, the tile targets are listed below with letter for column, number for row. The trigger point for the tiles on this screen is slightly above the tile itself for some reason. Taking the upwards exit will take you back to Debug Room 1. Most bosses, once defeated, will lead you back to this room on exiting. Not all of them do, though, so you might need to take the Flammie Express back to the white square.

A couple of squares lead to non-boss locations, and one leads to Debug Room 3. Keep in mind that once you enter Debug Room 3, the only way out is via Flammie.

One thing that's interesting is the fight against Gorva. Normally, you lose one member of your party prior to the fight, but if you initiate the fight through this room you'll be fighting him with your entire crew, and when defeated, a fourth character (which may default to Duran in his first class) will appear briefly and shout that they're alright before vanishing. Also, if you chose to fight Genova, and have already defeated him, you can go outside and explore Rolante Castle, with Riesz fainted just outside the room where you fight him. She will talk to you, even if you have Riesz in your party.

Locations for Debug Room 2

 * A1: Xan Bie (lower HP ver.)
 * B1: Full Metal Haggar
 * C1: Jewel Eater
 * D1: Corridor of Wind
 * E1: Gorva
 * F1: Moonlight City Mintos
 * A2: Land Umber
 * B2: Zable-Fahr
 * C2: No boss, Cleft of Earth
 * D2: LightGazer
 * E2: Gildervine
 * F2: Genova


 * A3: Dolan
 * B3: Fiegmund
 * C3: Xan-Bie
 * D3: Dark Lich
 * E3: Mispolm
 * F3: Archdemon
 * A4: Dragon Emperor
 * B4: Atop Flammie vs. Dangaard (upward)
 * C4: Atop Flammie vs. Daangard (sideways)
 * D4: Third Debug Screen
 * E4: Valley of Flames (Mana Stone, Salamando scene)
 * F4: Back to First Debug Screen

Debug Room 3
Very similar to the second room, but darker, this contains the rest of the bosses, as well as a couple of enemies in a sparring room or armory of some sorts. This room has no exit. Exiting the room upward will lead you to the Mana Stone of Darkness and the fight with Zable Fahr, as will every tile after the ones listed (so only the first row and the second up to the fourth contain anything unique).

In the Sparring Room, you can exit by going downward, though it's not particularly obvious. Another interesting point worth mentioning is that the music does not always change when you trigger the bosses.

Locations for Debug Room 3

 * A1: Koren (fight against dragons)
 * B1: Heath
 * C1: Jagan, Bloody Wolf, Carmilla Queen
 * D1: Bigieu
 * E1: Darkshine Knight (Sparring)
 * F1: End of Jungle of Illusion
 * A2: Werewolf (Sparring)
 * B2: Bill and Ben (Sparring)
 * C2: Black Rabite (Sparring)
 * D2: 1xMachine Golem (Sparring)
 * E2: Mana Stone of Darkness
 * F2: Mana Stone of Darkness

Squid Boss


This unused squid boss appears in the map replacement chunks for location 136. The location uses a waterfall caves tileset, and the layout resembles the typical layout of a boss arena.

Unused Items


A few unused/unfinished key items lie hidden in the code. None have any effect, and their icons are just duplicates of thrown items/skills.

Half Key A


Evidently, as its name suggests, this would've been... half of a key.

Half Key B


...and this would be the other half.

Mystery Key


Perhaps the two Half Keys would've combined into this? No clue where it could have been used, however.

Dragon's Eye


This and the next item come directly before and after the Illusion Mirror in the item list order. The Illusion Mirror is needed to find the Mirage Palace in Kevin/Carlie's path, so it's very likely this item was intended for a similar purpose along Duran/Angela's path. Presumably intended to open Dragon's Hole?

Demon Statue


Not much to say here that hasn't been said above. Probably intended for the Cave of Darkness or Dark Castle along Hawk/Lise's path.

Critical Hits
There are reports that the battle system allows for critical hits, but due to a bug are so rare that a player is unlikely to ever see a single one during an entire playthrough. A Google search for "Seiken Densetsu 3" "critical hit" brings up a number of discussions on the subject. There's also a video which captures Kevin doing L1 tech damage during the first hit in battle, before the meter has a chance to charge up.

Energy Ball
Perhaps the best clue for critical hits is Kevin's Energy Ball. The Luck stat is stored in three places in the stat blocks:, ,. Energy Ball boosts the second to i.e., 50 Luck (the value may vary depending on unknown factors)...but there's no sign anywhere in the programming where that address ever gets read. It's possible the game reads from another memory location by mistake, making the effect go unused.

Unused 1.5x ATK PWR Boost
When a player or enemy performs a standard attack, there's a random chance to execute the programming at SNES address, which will give a 1.5x boost to ATK PWR for that one attack. However, the conditions that allow this are never met. The game picks a random number ranging from (101 possibilities), and will give the boost if the value stored at a certain memory address is greater than the random number. The problem is, the memory address in question was just initialized to a few operations earlier.

It's unclear if this boost was intentionally disabled, or a bug. If it's the latter, the correct odds for the boost remain unknown.