I already have all the albums that make up this except for Children of Mana which to my knowledge was only released on iTunes.  Wish they'd release that one separately.

http://vgmdb.net/album/26348

The only one I own from this collection is SD2 (signed by Kikuta this year). So I'll keep that and buy the box.

I'll pick this up too since I don't have every release from this either.  Plus I'm always a sucker for the collector aspect since this is a series I like.

so this confirms that the series is retired forever...

Doesn't sound so logic. Dragon Quest, FFXI, Dracula, SaGa, Mega Man, and too many to mention, have still continued, although few of Japanese IP remain as they used to be.

I think the death of Seiken was expected 4 years ago, when every three new games turned out to be craps? (CoM, HoM, DoM)

Dang, this ginormous box set trend really IS becoming a trend. Definitely interested in this one though. I wonder if I'll be able to scrape together enough scratch to buy it. Hmm...

What I really wish is that they'd make another game like Seiken 2. I loved that game so much! Even if it was just a clone with a new story and one or two new features I'd be all over it.

I'd love to see another Mana game like Seiken 3 (SD2 has excessive leveling-up of weapons and magic that hurts the game), but only if they take the SD series back to its pre-LoM roots.  I don't want to see any systems or characters introduced by that game that have since corrupted the series (look at the GBA SD1 remake for evidence of that).

none of the Legend of Mana elements "corrupted" the series.
Ishii was just insane to think he could fit Legend of Mana into Sword of Mana.

im gonna fire up the wii the first string of 110+ degree days and play me some SD2... its been at LEAST 10 years...

By "corrupted" I mean removing the elegant simplicity of the first three games.  In LoM, they added all those workshops, monster breeding, weapon mixing, and fruit growing things that distracted from the core experience of an Action/RPG.

I've never played SD3, but based on your description it sounds like it might be what I'm hoping for.

Yeah, SD3 is pretty fantastic.  My only complaint is that the boss battles are insanely long, but otherwise it's a great game.  I don't regret a minute of the 50+ hours I put into the SFC cart with a translation FAQ by my side.

My memory is hazy on the finer points of the game, but I recall the controls feeling quite a bit more confined during battle gameplay.  Unlike Seiken 2, the battles in 3 would lock you into a slower defense mode speed, and movement and attacks simply didn't feel as precise or accurate as its predecessor.  It felt 'laggy' for lack of a better word.

I don't remember having that problem, but it's been years since I played it.  Neither SD2 or SD3 have great battle controls.  Hell, even the much faster SD1's are a bit awkward.  I love 'em, but Zelda smokes them on the control front.