Visions of Mana Review – The Promise at Journey’s End

A New Mainline Mana Journey Over 15 Years Later

We’re all perpetrators of judging media based on preconceived notions, others’ opinions, appearance, or any other factors of habitual criteria disassociated from actually experiencing the media in question. This vicarious generalization can often sway countless prospective fans from moving forward with something that initially interested them, for better or worse.

I’ve witnessed this phenomenon attributed to various game franchises, such as the Mana series. While not as vocally prevailing in JRPG-centric discussions as others, the impact of these titles can not be understated. Between the original Secret of Mana’s inestimable influences on the genre and the underappreciated nuance of Legend of Mana’s world creation, these games are cornerstones.

Sadly, because of the lack of modern conversation surrounding these games and sometimes even just the presentation of a seemingly generic fantasy world, plenty of individuals unconsciously avoid Mana, tossing it to the side of Square Enix’s “other” series like SaGa and Star Ocean.

So, the announcement of Visions of Mana was naturally significant, especially as it’s the first new release for the series in roughly 15 years. Perhaps similar to how SaGa fans felt with SaGa Emerald Beyond, I was, and honestly still am, taken aback by a new entry altogether. Having had the opportunity to experience this new adventure in full, I’ve found my expectations mostly met, save for unfortunate design decisions that could have used refinements.

A Bleakly Uplifting World

Firstly, the setting of Visions of Mana shines. Throughout this world, cyclical pilgrimages are held every few years with chosen individuals known as Soul Guards and Alms. To maintain the world’s balance and existence, the Mana Goddess’ envoy, simply named Faerie, selects those capable of embodying these roles. The Alms are all elemental representatives originating from different parts of the world, while the Soul Guard protects the Alms on their collective journey to reach the Mana Tree.

However, the conclusions of these journeys lead to the Alms offering their souls to the Goddess, meaning that their lives end. On the other hand, the Soul Guard lives on, instilling wisdom unto future generations before they, too, depart from their mortal coil. This truth, evident from the opening hours, paints Visions of Mana with a distinct ambiance coated in disturbing contentment. The people of the world, and even those chosen as Alms, consider this practice to be one of honor and praise. In fact, many desperately yearn to become an Alm, illustrating how sacred and beloved this pilgrimage is.

This tone alone drives the story of Visions of Mana forward, as there’s a clearly intentional disconnect between the in-game world and the player. The normalized commendable loss of life shows how several of these characters live inherently different lives from us, even from a sheer mental and philosophical standpoint.

This worldbuilding facet is most thought-provoking with the leads, Val and Hinna. The former was determined to be a Soul Guard before Hinna ended up being chosen as an Alm, and when she was selected, the immediate reactions were of pure delight. Even with Hinna and Val’s romantic chemistry being obvious to everyone, to the point where they don’t seem sheepish by the implications, the fact that Val will essentially need to see Hinna walk off to her death is not initially discussed as tragic or unwelcome.

The setting of Visions of Mana shines.

While the more numerous-than-expected villages and towns greatly aided in immersing me, this tonal disconnect had me hooked for a significant chunk of the playtime. I will probably be in the minority here, but I was immensely invested in Val and Hinna’s relationship despite the lack of scenes showing them growing up together. A strong bond is already established here, and I found it woven excellently.

The rest of the cast usually thrives for a myriad of reasons, with plenty of them boasting pair dynamics with one another. Admittedly, the final party member you obtain doesn’t mesh as well with the party as everyone else, but the side content effectively cements their place. My personal favorite member is Palamena, a queen who joins you in spite of her best judgment. Her dialogue is full of flavorful alliteration that, as a writer, I always got a kick from; the localization did a stellar job with her. But that trope is never really acknowledged nor defines her; it’s just a neat quirk.

Uniquely Ambitious Gameplay Feel

Gameplay-wise, Visions of Mana looks like your typical action RPG and perhaps too similar to the Trials of Mana remake. However, its feel is entirely different. The combat here has a weight best understood by feeling rather than describing, as it’s simultaneously firm yet floaty. You must embrace dedication to your combos due to how much weight they’re instilled with, yet you can also cancel out at select motions. Plus, you can remain in the air for a while, where the firm ground-based weight is retained. It often feels like there are two layers of ground.

I’ve honestly never handled an action system quite like this before, at least to the best of my memory, but the further you progress, the more these initially strange design decisions stick the landing. Every action you perform, whether for movement or damage, has dedicated lag windows that individualize and diversify your combative applications. Further, the party AI is generally reliable, but you must remember to customize their behaviors and manually adjust which skills should be used in your current situation.

Sadly, the demo and opening chapters don’t do a favorable job of communicating how multi-faceted this combat system is since you lack the necessary tools for what I believe to be too long.

One of my significant qualms with Visions of Mana is the gameplay pacing. To elaborate, it’s essential to introduce the primary combat gimmick: the Elemental Vessels. These key items are obtained throughout the story and embody this entry’s Job/Class system. Everyone can only equip one at a time, and the same Elemental Vessel can’t be fitted onto multiple party members simultaneously. Therefore, much thought is needed to establish what character builds and strategies to employ.

Jobs, Growth, and Customization

At first, it may seem elementary to conclude which Job to give to which party members based on their default stats, but each Job across each party member imparts unique weapon choices and skill types. There’s immense variety here that can’t be understated, and you can easily spend dozens upon dozens of minutes experimenting with which Jobs best fit your playstyle.

I truly fell in love with this customization, especially with the presence of a skill tree titled the Elemental Plot. This menu contains nodes for every Job, with each party member having an array of individual upgrades. Further, elemental affinities are indescribably crucial. Besides each Elemental Vessel being representative of an elemental affinity, techniques learned from the Elemental Plot can be used regardless of which Job you have equipped. For example, Val learns several magic skills that coat his and the party’s weapons in a particular element for a limited time, which can be used no matter what Job is being worn.

Combat is multi-faceted and deeply customizable, making every player’s combative journey their own.

This permanence leads into the addictive rabbit hole questioning procedure of which spells should be used on which Jobs. You have offensive elemental attacks, buffs, and other spells that always require consideration. It’s no exaggeration to call magic the constant game-changer throughout Visions of Mana; cognizance and implementation of its presence and implications have profound gameplay impacts.

This all sounds like a lot, but personally, I never found the Elemental Vessels or Job systems stressful. After all, while you can swap manual control between the three party members fighting on the field at any given time, the Jobs themselves can only be altered from the main menu. Some may find this design choice disappointing, but I found it to lessen the potentially contrived nature this would otherwise induce, and it helps solidify the RPG roots. Being able to switch Jobs for anyone at any time would teeter too close to pure action territory, which would somewhat mar the gameplay identity here.

However, the fault lies in the rate at which you acquire the Elemental Vessels. You spend a decent while in the opening hours lacking enough Elemental Vessels, leading to you mainly spamming attacks and dodging. This overly gradual approach can result in players losing interest in what the combat offers in the long term. Then, there comes a point later in the story where you earn Elemental Vessels more rapidly, leaving little time to familiarize yourself with the onslaught of Jobs each provides.

In essence, Visions of Mana can feel excessive and overwhelming in the sheer number of options at your disposal, accentuated by the story pacing. Consequently, you’ll want to occupy yourself with the waves of sidequests and other avenues of content as feasible justifications for experimentation. So, those only pursuing the narrative above all else and ignoring the optional material will undoubtedly lack the time to understand the ins and outs of their toolkit.

Plenty of difficulty levels are here to remedy this point, including ones best suited for beginner players. On the other hand, you have Hard mode, and when you beat the game’s story, you have Expert mode, which is genuinely quite challenging. This may sound unbelievable, and perhaps I lack the understanding of a yet-to-be-discovered exploit, but Visions of Mana’s Hard difficulty is the most challenging main story content I’ve experienced from Square in quite some time.

Those who stick out the rough gameplay pacing in the early hours will find one of Square’s best combat systems ever conceived.

Playing on Hard mode from the start reminded me of Kingdom Hearts’ Critical modes and Final Fantasy VII Remake’s Hard mode, where you must thoroughly understand what you’re doing with everything you have. As for Expert mode, its difficulty somewhat depends on what you had from your previous playthrough since your levels and gear all carry over, essentially making it New Game Plus.

This ties into the other major customization component I’ve neglected to mention: Ability Seeds. The protagonist, Val, has a curious skill that crystallizes the monsters he defeats, transforming them into objects known as Corestones. And there comes a point where you can redeem these Corestones for Ability Seeds, though they are also earned from treasure chests and sidequests.

These Ability Seeds impart countless boons, such as raising raw stats, negating status effects, or providing situational reactions. The number of Ability Seeds one can equip increases from key items during exploration, too, incentivizing going the extra mile. The Ability Seeds cleanly meld with the aforementioned Elemental Plots and Elemental Vessels, with party-member-specific synergies abound.

Sidequest Design and Thorough World Exploration

Moreover, the sidequests are worthwhile, as you tend to earn Ability Seeds and substantial amounts of currency. Yet, the way these side tasks are approached can become taxing the further you progress. Visions of Mana’s sidequests embrace quantity over quality, which isn’t necessarily an inherent negative since it puts gameplay at the forefront. They chiefly consist of item searching and monster slaying, with most objectives communicated by quest markers.

However, you can only track one quest at a time, and the fast travel takes needlessly long, even with the final mount. You have to go through the task of calling the mount and waiting while a scene loads, skip that scene, and load back in before you can travel. This all probably sounds like an over-exaggeration, but it really adds up in the later hours. Alternatively, you have fast-travel points called Meridians that are spread worldwide. Still, these are strictly tied to being traversable from ones in the same continent, making them largely inconvenient in the late game.

The unnecessary monotony of travel for these quests is a shame since a decent chunk of them boast captivating character writing with the main cast directly or topics surrounding them. A few standout NPCs make themselves known during these scenarios, too. Honestly, simply being able to travel anywhere in the world whenever you want from the map and being able to track multiple quests simultaneously would resolve this matter entirely.

The activities on the fields are also worth emphasizing since they go beyond being receptacles for side quests. Besides housing numerous treasure chests and the like, there are combat arena challenges that can only be activated once you acquire the appropriate Elemental Vessel. Still, these are ideally cleared at later stages in the game when you’re better equipped since they’re timed, with some being incredibly strict. Plus, they usually impart some of the best Ability Seeds in the game.

Visions of Mana’s sidequests embrace quantity over quality.

Yet another notable factor is Lil’ Cactus, a franchise mascot of sorts, who, in this particular game, is hidden throughout each zone, and you gain significant rewards for spotting him enough, such as permanent increases to experience gain. Ultimately, the interior dungeons and the fields excel in their scales, providing just enough optional material without seeming needlessly excessive.

Performance and Audio

Thankfully, Visions of Mana boasts strong, consistent performance on PlayStation 5 with a relatively consistent framerate that only dipped a handful of times in crowded enemy encounters during my experience. Coupled with the absolutely gorgeous visuals, this new mainline entry shines across each new map you encounter. The soundtrack is of similar quality, matching the already raised bar this classic IP has long since established.

The town and field themes, in particular, were among the most memorable, with soothing instrumentation elegantly contrasting with the dire straits in the latter half of the narrative. The English dub is also a massive improvement over the Trials of Mana remake, containing a well-fitting cast and effective enunciations that never came off as awkward.

One last facet worth mentioning is how once you beat the final boss, a new post-game chapter opens up on the same file you just cleared. This fully voice-acted scenario features several enhanced boss rematches and even a new dungeon with a superboss at its center that requires you to push your arsenal to its limits. This whole circumstance genuinely caught me off guard, but that quickly morphed into delight due to how fairly challenging this encounter ended up being.

A Mana Adventure Unlike Any Other

Regardless of your history with the Mana franchise, Visions of Mana is not an all-pleasing cup of tea. Its combat feel is a departure from previous precedents, granting it the simultaneous strength and weakness of establishing its own distinctiveness separate from the franchise at large. Still, those who stick out the rough gameplay pacing in the early hours will find one of Square’s best combat systems ever conceived, bolstered by exceptional customization, variety, and RPG-centric components.

The lore-heavy narrative also becomes increasingly compelling thanks to a multi-faceted and charming cast. When throwing in a new game plus and even a brand-new difficulty into the mix, Visions of Mana is a refreshing modern classic that can hook you for a gripping 60-70 hours without relenting.