Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - 24/Sep 02:51

Visions of Mana – Review

With titles such as Legend of Mana and Trials of Mana, it’s clear that the Mana series is still loved by many. Square Enix seemingly wants to make sure a new audience also gets to experience what the franchise has to offer, and hence the aforementioned two old-school titles were updated for our modern standards. It was then surprising, to say the least, to also get a new entry in the series with Visions of Mana, which has recently been released. We were lucky enough to try out the game, and for the most part, we loved this new entry in the franchise. Sadly, we also found a few dated gameplay design choices as well. Story In Visions of Mana, we are taken to the world of Qi’Diel, where the Mana Tree resides. The Mana Tree connects all of the world’s species, and taking care of the tree ensures that the world remains peaceful. Every four years, a Faerie chooses an Alm for each respective region, and these Alms have to venture to the Mana Tree to sacrifice their soul. Those who are chosen as Alms consider this the greatest honor that can bestowed upon a living being. At least, most of them do. After a somewhat tumultuous introduction where an Alm is trying to escape from her duty, we are then introduced to Val, a Soul Guard who accompanies Alms to the Mana Tree, and Hinna, the appointed Alm of Fire. As they venture out in the world, they meet up with different Alms, all who gradually join the party on their way to the Mana Tree. We can easily say that the story is rather simplistic, but it’s pleasant for both younger and older gamers. The characters are often linked to certain anime-like stereotypes, but they prove to be very likable. The game struggles a bit with its story exposition and general flow, as short cinematics are constantly sprinkled between the actual gameplay. The game’s early few hours struggled with this the most, as we walked from one cutscene to another on multiple occasions. Sometimes we were only allowed to take a handful of steps before we were thrown into the next cutscene. Even so, the story had some fairytale-esque properties, and we quite appreciated this somewhat cinematic approach. Graphics Visions of Mana is a very pretty game. It is not without flaws, but the backdrops, the character designs, the monsters, and the colorful landscapes made us stop in our tracks occasionally to enjoy all the different vistas. The main cast is diverse, and each character has its delightful quirks. The outfits were clearly designed with care, and we were curious to see what eccentric character would join our band of warriors during the early hours of the experience. Sadly, the immersion sometimes broke due to very stilted animations from said characters and the lip-syncing was also rather poorly handled. The same can be said about certain locations, where the same assets are reused repeatedly, and almost all small items proved to be static. We would have loved to see a few more items with which we could interact and even some additional destructible assets would have done a lot here. Nonetheless, when playing through the game, going from one location to the next, you do forget these small imperfections. Sound The game’s sound design is superbly handled. Visions of Mana has a fitting cinematic soundtrack, which doesn’t fail to entertain throughout the 40-hour-ish adventure. The voiced dialogues, however, are the star of the show here. The characters ooze a lot of personality during dialogues, and we loved the different accents that came with the colorful cast. The sound effects also provide decent audio feedback, but they’re nothing we haven’t heard before in many other JRPGs. Gameplay Visions of Mana is the newest entry in the Mana series and offers a fairly traditional JRPG experience. In the game, you’ll explore Qi’Diel, while slowly building up your party, to eventually make your way to the Mana Tree where the Alms will sacrifice their soul to ensure the world does not fall into a state of disrepair. The overall offset is quite straightforward, and so are most of the game’s mechanics. If you have already played old-school JRPGs, chances are you’ll find your footing easily here. You’ll gradually explore the world that opens around you, as areas often only open when the story progresses. There are frequent save points, which also allow you to fast travel. When encountering enemies, you often have the option to either run away or engage in combat. Combat is once again, straightforward and accessible. You’ll be able to swap freely between your party members, and you can assign different skills to all of them. This is done by equipping ability seeds. These seeds can either grant active skills or passive boosts. Aside from this, you can also equip elemental vessels, and these change the class of your character(s). It’s fun to experiment with the different classes, and the elemental vessels also allow you to use the abilities of elemental spirits. For example, with wind powers, you can reach higher ground or you can cross bigger gaps. Now, for the actual battles: there is no turn-based combat in Visions of Mana. You’ll be able to fight freely by hacking and slashing your enemies. You can cast your skills, unleash special attacks, and so on. You’ll be limited to a small circle in which you’ll have to fight, however. Running to the side, and making sure you don’t get hit for a bit may allow you to escape. This was also a bit of a frustrating element, as the circle does not move with the enemies. We fought several stronger enemies, who would basically stick to the outside of the circle, causing us to escape multiple times, and forcing us to restart the battle. The lock-on system doesn’t always work that smoothly either. That being said, the moment you start equipping more and more skills, and your party becomes more diverse, you can string a few satisfying combos together. As a whole, the game does suffer from some dated gameplay design choices. For example, even though the game does have a treasure trove of side quests readily available, you can only track one side quest at a time. This is, of course, something that is often overlooked in other titles as well. The side quests themselves are in most cases some additional busywork, but they often prove to be unrewarding. If you don’t have to slay enemies as the main objective, you may not even get an EXP reward from them at all, even upon completion. The fast travel system feels a bit slow as well, as you can only fast travel between fairly small regions. Travel does become a bit easier the moment you can use your mounts though. During your exploration, every single chest and point of interest is already marked on the map, making it somewhat less rewarding to explore every nook and cranny yourself. You may find a few more powerful monsters when you stray from the beaten path, but that’s about it. In many ways, it felt like we were playing an older entry in the series, albeit with a snazzy lick of paint thrown over it. This is by no means a bad thing, but we couldn’t help but wonder why certain aspects weren’t modernized a bit more. Conclusion Even though Visions of Mana does have a few dated gameplay design choices embedded into its core, it’s still an enjoyable traditional JRPG experience. We grew attached to the lovable cast of characters, and exploring the world proved to be a charming endeavor. This next-gen entry in the series clearly aims at a broad audience, ranging from franchise veterans to newcomers. While our experience was mostly positive, we do suggest waiting for a sale, as the RRP feels a tad on the higher side.