Monthly Archives: February 2026
Visions Of Mana Review
Being the successor to one of the best remakes of a videogame ever made is not an easy task. With Trials Of Mana’s remake helping to shed more light on the franchise, Square-Enix decided that it was time for another game in the series, sending netease and their now defunct Ouka Studios who were totally not punished for developing this game to make a new one. Obviously with this game being a game released in the 2020s, comparing it to a remake of a game from 1995 is straight up unfair, not because it’s a remake of an old dated game, quite the contrary but because it’s a game released in an era where game development has been in decline for nearly 2 decades now. So needless to say, Visions Of Mana is a step down from Trials Of Mana but how does it hold up as a standalone game?
The Giant Enemy Crab Returns
Those who have played the remake of Trails Of Mana will find Visions to be familiar but different and not necessarily in a good way. I would say that this is more Trials Of Mana as that would be half true but I would be lying to you if I said it was. Visions tries to do its own thing while taking ideas from its predecessor, which is expected for a new installment in a franchise. The problem is that none of the changes brought about by Visions Of Mana improve on its predecessor and in some ways, they actually make the game worse. While I wouldn’t go as far as to say that any of the issues brought about by the changes implemented in this game have a colossal impact on the experience as a whole, it does make for a slightly less refined experience than its predecessor, Trails Of Mana.
Once again, Visions Of Mana brings about yet another whimsical narrative, albeit with a touch more melodrama than its predecessor. It does its best to keep your attention by offering enough variety in its sub plots but it isn’t anything Shakespearean. Expect a very bread and butter story with a few interesting twists along the way, nothing groundbreaking but slightly more ambitious than its predecessor. Visions Of Mana’s Melodramatic moments are difficult to take seriously given the whimsical tone of the overall setting but they at least mix things up a little to keep the story a little bit more interesting. Honestly at this point does anybody play the Seiken Densetsu games for their storytelling? I would be interested to know, because to me, they just seem to be very simplistic and exist solely to give context to the game’s adventure.
The real magic of this game lies in its visuals. While this isn’t the best looking game I’ve seen, it is just as good as Trials in this department. Visions Of Mana maintains a consistent art style with its predecessor to make it recognizable, bringing back everything good about its predecessor’s visuals, while considerably increasing the scope of the game’s world to make it feel larger, because that’s what all modern games seem to love doing these days. Without having to deal with the constraints of a Super Famicom game world this time round, the game developers could create whatever they wanted and they took full advantage of filling the world with lots of space. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is up to you but to me, I’m indifferent to it, as long as I can get from A to B, that is all that matters. There are a few reasons to go off the beaten path but not many. There are tonnes of sidequests that you can do but I never bothered with most of them. They mainly just added them to pad out the game for those that want more of it but do we really need all of these side quests? Probably not but given the fact that this is a game released in the 2020’s, can we be surprised at this point that the game is bloated as hell? Of course not.
The music is one of the few things that actually improved from Trials Of Mana as they actually tried harder this time to make some standout tracks. While the music of Trials Of Mana was still good as it was, Visions’ soundtrack is definitely an improvement, albeit a marginal one. I still don’t consider either game to have a phenomenal soundtrack but they are still enjoyable enough for what they are and get the job done. I can’t see myself listening to it outside of the game any time soon though. The english voice acting is also better though I wouldn’t call it amazing but it’s an improvement nonetheless, just like the music.
Gameplay wise, Visions Of Mana is best described as being a dumbed down version of Trials Of Mana. While the game plays fine enough for a mindless action RPG and does add a few new features like the ability to charge up attacks with both attack buttons as well as perform delay combos, you are stuck with only a single CS skill for the whole game, which gives you less variety in regards to your choice of attack options. Classes are given to you over the course of the story and you do not have multiple paths to choose from, instead you just get presented with a linear skill tree to master them all, which can be done pretty easily. Leveling up doesn’t really feel rewarding by comparison to Trials for this reason as the skill system is extremely lackluster, which is a huge letdown given the fact that it was Trials Of Mana’s best feature. You still have different classes to switch between and can change classes on the fly to suit your needs, which is handy I suppose. The classes aren’t exactly balanced though, Morley’s samurai class with his Katana moveset is arguably the most broken of the movesets with his ability to judgement cut everything from a safe distance and cancel into another with a dodge repeatedly. I found myself spamming this move the whole game as I found that it was the safest and most efficient way for me to damage the enemies.
On top of skills and combat maneuvers, you also get seeds which can be equipped to let you unlock certain abilities that you may not have unlocked in the skill tree, as well as providing other perks. This is the most customization you’re going to get from this game I’m afraid. Everything else is your run of the mill, spam judgement cut dodge cancel, go to town, buy better gear and continue to spam judgement cut cancel. I know I make it sound terrible when I say this but take a look at your favorite Action JRPG and tell me that you can’t do the same in that with certain moves. It’s gotten to the point where just about all of these games are spamfests and I never had a problem with it then, so I can’t say that I have a problem with it now. This genre for as much as I gravitate to it, still has a lot of issues that have yet to be fully addressed and Visions Of Mana doesn’t even bother to address any of them. Visions Of Mana feels hell bent on being a run of the mill JRPG for the sake of being familiar and comforting. I can kind of see why someone would want this but I can also see why someone might not. It’s far from the most ambitious game out there and all of the new ideas like the ability to use the elemental break to unleash another special ability separate from your CS special ability. One thing I will certainly say about this game is that its Normal difficulty is extremely forgiving and easy, I suppose you can say the same for most modern games nowadays but I wouldn’t consider that to be a bad thing personally. I think the overall gameplay experience feels like something that lets you turn your brain off and mash buttons. It’s hardly groundbreaking but neither is Dynasty Warriors and even that franchise has its audience. Put simply, Visions Of Mana plays it safe, for better or for worse. It is a dumbed down game for casuals and that is not inherently a bad thing. I think it makes for a good entry point for people new to the genre or even gaming but I think veterans will play this and not think much of it, it’s just another one.
Classes can be changed at any moment, which can be handy if you want to switch things up.
Given the fact that outside of Star Ocean The Divine Force I have yet to play a game released in the 2020’s that has impressed me yet, I think that it only right that I am not overly harsh on Visions Of Mana as it really is just another modern game but it was at the very least a better experience than Atelier Yumia, which is at least something I suppose. I guess I just don’t play enough modern games to properly judge them but can you blame me when I have experienced so much mediocrity in the past decade? I think Visions Of Mana is a decent JRPG, one that isn’t going to blow you away or make you sad to see it end. It’s just another one and that’s OK because sometimes that is all you want. Visions Of Mana is just another comfort food JRPG for those who veer toward the action side of things.
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