Visions of Mana
Developer: Ouka Studios
Publisher: Square Enix
Platforms: PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $59.99 USD – Available Here $99.95 AUD – Available Here
Overview
The Mana series is one that fans of RPGs have always held close to their hearts despite the fact that, compared to many other RPGs from Square Enix, hasn’t been given as much love throughout the years. In fact, while the beloved Secret of Mana and even Trials of Mana were given 3D remakes over the last few years, there has not been a brand new mainline entry in the franchise for over seventeen years. Thus when it was announced that Square Enix would release a new mainline entry called Visions of Mana with Ouka Studios as the developer, fans were delighted to see the series make a return. The question is, has this developer managed to capture the same magic that other entries have had?
Story
The world of Visions of Mana is a magical one where many species of people exist and thrive with the blessings of the elemental spirits. To sustain this way of living every four years a Faerie is sent around to the various villages throughout the land, each one tied to a specific element and selects a chosen one called the Alm. It is the duty of the Alm to travel to the Mana Tree and sacrifice themselves in order to restore the flow of Mana and continue the cycle of magic and it is the Soul Guard’s job to protect the Alms as they travel to the tree. This practice has continued for generations and Alms often rejoice in being selected as a sacrifice as failure to provide an Alm hangs as a heavy threat among the world since villages that have failed their duty have fallen to disaster and leaving no survivors.
Players take on the role of Val, the freshly selected Soul Guard, who is prepared to set out on his journey with his longtime friend Hinna who has been chosen as the Alm of Fire. Setting out on this journey the pair must travel to the other elemental villages and gather the Alm into their party as they march towards an inevitable sacrifice. Visions of Mana sets itself up as a very poignant tale of those who are cheerfully willing to sacrifice themselves if it means the world continues to spin as normal for their village but it unfortunately feels a little… bland at times as a result of this, especially with how normal most characters treat such a horrible fate.
Thankfully the title isn’t without its own twists and turns, revealing far more details about what is actually happening with the world, why the Alms are needed at all, and plenty of confrontations with those that are trying to make a change, even if it costs them their lives. This helps keep things interesting at fairly relative intervals, at least once the player gets past the slow beginning, and some of these twists end up being quite shocking even for a Mana game. It also helps that the cast of characters that players meet, the ones that actually join them in their adventure at least, are actually quite delightful. Every single one of them is given their own story arc throughout the game, making these characters far more than meets the eye, especially in later parts of the story.
For example, the half-dragon Careena is a brash loudmouthed girl that might seem off putting at first but quickly warms up to be a personal favorite among the cast, Palamena who is a rebellious princess that is also given plenty of time to shine and these are just two examples. In fact, all of the Alms including Val are given time to grow and watching them bond with one another makes for some of the best part of their journey. This colorful cast of characters helps make Visions of Mana’s storyline far better than it initially comes off as, especially thanks to how certain story events play out that we won’t spoil here.
Gameplay
Visions of Mana is an action RPG that will find players traveling through a large variety of surprisingly wide open paths that, while all lead to the same destination, offer plenty of ways to explore. This exploration can involve finding special treasure chests, taking on groups of monsters or even special stronger variants of monsters, and even secrets that players will need to return to later once they obtain better movement abilities. Thankfully the title has a fast travel system so backtracking is usually a very quick affair. In something of an interesting take, rather than having players perform an attack to start a battle or gain advantage, combat can be triggered just by being near an enemy, though it is possible to gain a surprise attack to kick things off.
Every fight happens right there in the environment and, if players are feeling overwhelmed, can flee to the edges for a few moments to run from a fight. That’s rarely ever going to be the case though as Visions of Mana is a surprisingly easy game when it comes to standard encounters and even most boss fights only offer a small level of challenge, so longtime fans of the genre may want to bump the difficulty above normal. That being said, since the game is an action RPG all characters in the party will control relatively the same way. Each one has a standard combo attack, heavy “special” attacks, and of course jumping attacks and dodging. What makes combat far more interesting than simply hacking and slashing at enemies is the fact that every character has a wide array of abilities and spells that are incredibly customizable to the point of excess.
Not only can characters bring three characters into a fight at a time that they can swap to with the tap of a button but these characters all can have unique attack styles and patterns despite the simple mechanics combat is based around. This is enhanced even further through the Elementals system that can be equipped to a character and vastly change their combat style. As players progress through the game they will ally with various Elementals and, when equipped to a character, will either change or enhance the class they are already fighting as. For example Val can wield a regular sword, a massive claymore, or even a spear and shield depending on the elemental he has equipped while Careena may start with simply a spear she can be one of the first drastic changes as, equipped with the wind elemental, she’ll fight using fan blades in a dancer class. As characters battle using these different classes they can unlock abilities for each class on their “Elemental Path” using points earned through fighting and, eventually, some of these abilities can even be used by all possible classes the character can use if invested enough.
This level of customization when it comes to party members is already an impressive offering, especially for an action RPG but Visions of Mana goes a step further. Not only can each elemental vessel be used to unleash a powerfully devastating attack that requires a fully charged gauge to unleash but every character can equip certain “seeds” that will improve their stats or offer bonus skills as well. These ability seeds contain various passive and active skills and can help augment a character’s health, strength, or resistances or provide a number of powerful magical skills or abilities that they otherwise wouldn’t have access to. Initially the amount of seeds a character can equip is limited to two but this limit expands quite a bit through the game and players will rarely find themselves wanting for seeds unless they skip out on exploration as seeds are often found within treasure chests or even obtained through completing side-quests.
It is a bit unfortunate however that, while there are many wide open areas to explore in Visions of Mana, including the eventual ability to use steeds to traverse certain areas even quicker, the side-quests that players can accept from characters in the towns they come across are some of the most run of the mill types of busywork around. If nothing else, players can see what the reward is for completing a side-quest and if it is even worth their effort beforehand.
Audio & Visuals
Visions of Mana is a rather gorgeous looking game with so many wonderful looking environments to explore and it also happens to thrive off of nostalgia at times. Many signature enemies that appeared in the classic games return here with updated models which is a nice touch. As for the character models themselves, the main cast has a great stylistic approach to their designs and it is nice to note that their clothing also changes with their class, giving players some extra variety besides simply changing the weapon and abilities they wield. It is a bit unfortunate to note that the cutscenes that feature characters actually talking to one another, despite how charming and interesting the interactions might be, the animations for dialogue are incredibly stiff and seem out of place in a game as nice looking as this one.
As mentioned a bit before, the English voice cast for Visions of Mana does a wonderful job with their characters and it is quite surprising to see some of the different accents the game plays with. This level of voice acting does wonders to make the character interactions even better, and, as said before, help carry the story. The soundtrack features a collection of solid background music with some real great tracks mixed in throughout, especially in more dire moments and boss battles.
Overall
Visions of Mana manages to survive the Mana series’ long time on ice and helps establish itself as a new solid entry in the franchise. With some very enjoyable and highly customizable combat mechanics and a great cast of characters that helps carry the somewhat lackluster storyline through to its end, this action RPG is one that manages to deliver a gorgeous looking experience despite its flaws.
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