Visions of Mana Preview: Secret of Mana Made Modern
I was late to the Mana series. Despite being alive when the most popular game in the series, Secret of Mana, was released, I didn’t get into the series until it was remade for the PlayStation Vita. I am the Vita’s strongest soldier, but everyone knows that this was not the most optimal port. Weird 3D cutscenes with a complete lack of facial animation, inconsistent frame rates, and bugs galore. However, it was still a port of one of the greatest games of all time, and since then I could call myself a Mana fan.
The Secret of Mana remake walked so the Mana series as a whole could run. There hasn’t been a new mainline game in the series since 2006, but there has been a huge number of remasters and remakes allowing a new generation to know just how great the series is. The popularity of these re-releases pushed the team to make Visions of Mana, the first mainline game in more than 15 years.
Square Enix
We had the chance to play about an hour of Visions of Mana during PAX East, including 20 minutes exploring some of the open world, and 40 minutes of the early game that ended in a boss fight. The first thing that players will notice is that the world is much larger than the other Mana games with more to explore and secrets to find. To balance this Visions introduces Pikul – rideable dog-like creatures that will help you get around faster. You have to get off your Pikul when you enter battle and then call it back out again after, which breaks the flow of the adventure despite it being seamless elsewhere. However, this is only a preview and it will probably be more streamlined by the final release.
The second thing I noticed is the conscious effort to marry Visions of Mana closely to the most popular game in the series, Secret of Mana. The Ring Menu is back, but it has had an important upgrade. You can now choose whether to slow down the game by using the Ring Menu to ensure you use the right elemental on the right target, or you can keep the flow of the battle by using the quick select with the bumper.
Square Enix
Similar to Secret of Mana there are also three main playable characters; young lad with a big sword, small magical gremlin with messy red mane, and a new archetype, cat boy. All three play very differently, and you’ll have to master each one if you want to make the most of each battle. This extends to the elemental attacks they cast as well as melee attacks, and their special charge moves are all very different even if they are based on the same elemental type.
The elementals, which are at the core of the Mana series, are here and work very differently compared to the other games. You will gain more elementals as you progress through the game, and you can use these to not only unleash a special attack with its own cutscene when your charge meter is full, but can also change your character’s class. However, even when using the same elemental these classes will be different depending on the character you attach them to. This means you will want to try a number of different combinations to find out which one works best for you.
Square Enix
There are still plenty of ways in which elementals are similar to the previous games. Bosses still have resistances and weaknesses and these are far more relevant in the Mana series compared to other games with similar systems like Pokémon. Visions of Mana balances this better than previous entries in two main ways. Firstly, if you use the Ring Menu you’ll be able to see if the enemy is weak to or resists a certain elemental before you choose your attack. Secondly, the speed with which you can use your melee attacks has greatly increased, so while each attack does far less damage, you’ll be able to get enough of them off to negate this.
How popular Visions of Mana will be will depend entirely on how strong the story is, as this is a huge reason why the fan base is so passionate. The goofy yet loveable voice acting, cutscenes and dialogue is still here, so things seem promising on this point. From the hour I spent playing Visions of Mana I felt nostalgic. The demo reminded me of just how unique the series is in the vast JRPG landscape. There have already been a number of excellent games from the genre this year, and from what I saw, we might have to make time for at least one more.
