Secret of Mana Reborn update restores two lost areas cut from the 1993 SNES classic after 33 years

Some Secret of Mana fans have had to wait more than three decades for this moment, as a new update for the ROM hack Secret of Mana: Reborn allows players to explore new areas from the game that were cut from the original 1993 SNES classic.

For the very first time, players can now explore the original path between the Water Palace and Neko’s shop and experience an early version of the Moogle Village exactly as it appeared in pre-release magazine screenshots. Players can finally go where no Secret of Mana fan has gone in over 30 years.

This dedicated update, version 2.5, was rolled out by the SAP team on 18 February 2026. The SAP team has been working on restoring and improving Secret of Mana since 2020. They began by polishing a rushed English translation patch by Ted Woolsey, which left chunks of Japanese script due to cartridge storage limitations.

Later, Secret of Mana: Reborn presented a polished retranslation of the original Japanese text. It also added a few missing events and details, uncovered over the years through cut content from old magazines, developer notes, and beta materials.

However, the latest update ups the ante by bringing back actual areas in the game that were cut from the release build. The original path from the Water Palace was shown in early commercial ads and previews, but then strangely vanished during the game’s final development.

Similarly, the Moogle Village was shown in Famitsu before the game's release, but was scrapped and replaced with the 1993 SNES version players know today. To incorporate these old areas into the game, the SAP team painstakingly rebuilt everything from scratch using screenshots from old magazines.

The development team went so far as to revert the world map to its pre-release layout so the new locations could fit seamlessly. The interiors of the Moogle huts were designed using visual cues from other parts of the game.

Level designer Tomm spearheaded most of the heavy lifting for the maps, along with the SAP team. The result feels like a beta build lost to time. Players who own a legal copy of Secret of Mana can directly patch to version 2.5. The update also comes with a documentary that explains every change made to the game.

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