A New Vision for the Mana Series
You’d be forgiven for forgetting that the Mana series, Square’s alternative flagship JRPG alongside Final Fantasy exists due to not having had a mainline game in over 20 years, what we have had in the meantime are remakes and remasters of the older games. With Visions of Mana a brand new Mana game finally in our hands, has the new entry in the series paved the way for what is to come?
Much like the Final Fantasy series the Mana series contains recurring themes and characters but are all their own separate stories. The Mana tree is a sacred tree that exists in each world and is a tree that gives life and all those that exist in the world around it give benevolence towards the Mana Tree, that is because the Mana tree is sacred and any threat towards it ends up in a journey of heroes to come to its aid and protect it.
Visions of Mana tells the story of sacrifice, every few years a festival takes place where the chosen one known as an Alm is sacrificed to the Mana tree along with their bodyguard, if you’re thinking of Final Fantasy X then you would be correct however there’s some distinct difference between the two. Visions of Mana is a story driven game and whilst it is done very well, the premise of the characters and their fates are kind of thrown under the bus, not only do the characters accept their fates and beg for them at each festival, there isn’t really any sadness along the way or second thoughts. The Villagers are all too aware of the fate that befalls the Alms yet just send you on your way and tell you to be careful and to make sure the Alm doesn’t perish sooner before their pilgrimage is complete. There’s no sorrowful goodbyes or showing of grief. Strange Really.
While the maps look small they are actually huge thanks to the emphasis of giant mountains that can be seen off in the distance and vast landscapes that unfold as you proceed the story. As you navigate the maps you can find collectables and chests throughout the land which can be seen from a distance as light beams down to pinpoint certain collectables and chests are pinpointed on the map itself. Enemies can be seen out in the wild and getting close will initiate a battle there and then on the field. You can create a combo attacks on your enemies or otherwise use the ring wheel a feature that has been apart of the Mana series from the start and use shortcuts to use a healing items or one of many spells/skills in the game. Alternatively you can assign button the L1 and R1, while the ring feature may not be everyone’s cup of tea (it certainly isn’t mine) this alternative way to play is certainly there and a most welcome one.
Visions of Mana has many ways to approach combat, the games easier modes you wont have too much trouble at all, but playing on Hard does not mean you should go in all out attacking everything you see as you will get into trouble early on. It is by no means super difficult either, you will just need to know your enemies and take care to dodge when you need to as enemies do hit a lot harder, I would not say the harder difficulty is much harder than the previous one, it just requires you to have a bit more patience as enemies do go down slower.
The game features a lot more Items rather than just using Candy to heal, you can initiate combat experience buffs whether this is through items or various boons out in the open, you can also use some boons to increase the money earned in battle for a short period, on top of some hidden battle score indicators you can rack up experience depending on how well you did in battle, such as defeating enemies super quick or by not being hit at all. This feature may or not be relevant depending on which difficulty you play on but it is there all the same. I enjoy the fact Visions of Mana allows you to change the appearance of your weapon, something that many JRPG’s lack,
Visions of Mana does offer a Job system which allows you to use different abilities amongst each character, it is a system that you can really get to grips with and I was amazed at how in depth it actually is, however the rate at which you get new abilities increases later on. This lessens the impact of the battle system as you spend more time altering your setup rather than in the action and then losing pace with the narrative. There is a plethora of side quests available in Visions of Mana also which are really well executed and worth doing if not for the ability seeds that you get for doing them. Dungeons are pretty linear with various puzzles which are on the lighter side.
Overall Visions of Mana is a beautiful game and has a visual stunning world, a fantastic music score, great art and stylised characters to have a good time with. The combat is definitely the redeeming factor of the game, whilst the game does open up with some fantastic story and worldbuilding early on the game later on really does lack any emotion and character building sadly, which is a shame as the game went in a direction I did not expect it to.
A PlayStation 5 Review code was provided by Square Enix for the purpose of the Review
