The future is indeed uncertain and making changes to a familiar way of life is frightening. Is it alright to have misgivings about how things are? What if things could be different? What if things could be better? Are our own personal aspirations so worthless as to toss them aside for others? Is that fine to do if it’s for those you care about? Or even for the betterment of the world? All we can do is hold onto hope; hope for a better tomorrow. May our vision for what comes next hold strong.
The world is held together by the flow of mana, a mystical force that fuels the elements that bless the lands with life. All is born of mana and all returns to mana. Souls of sacrifice ensure that this cycle continues – allowing for the world to flourish and the people of tomorrow to live in peace. Everyone dies, but the duty of a scant special few, known as Alms, is to give their very beings to make sure this cycle isn’t broken. This natural cycle of life and death is the basis of the Mana series and plays into its bittersweet tones. Visions of Mana is no different, as the crux of its plot carries on this tradition. Join Final Weapon, in our Visions of Mana Review, where we will break down how Visions of Mana proudly continues the series’ legacy. Can the reaper be staved off, however?
Continuing the Ebb and Flow Amongst the Winds of Change
The more things change the more they stay the same, right? Visions of Mana still has that classic Mana feel but is also more than willing to twist it into something fresh. The spiritual and environmentalist themes are here, elements are still at the forefront, and the unique visual design trappings are all still here. However, all of these aspects feel more Mana than ever. Visions of Mana respectfully looks back at its predecessors while being bold enough to challenge them. Many smart changes and additions make the game both stand out and hold its own when drawing comparisons. What makes this game hit even harder for fans of the series is how it incorporates and iterates several key components of the Mana formula. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it – polish it!
Visions of Mana painstakingly preserves the tone and theming you’d expect. However, in spite of the more simplistic, fairy-tale-esque, storytelling the Mana series is known for, Visions of Mana managed to surprise me. The whimsical yet melancholic tone of the series is still here, but it tackles it from a different angle. There are introspective moments that change the dynamics of the characters and world. Characters grapple with their situations and question why things have to be the way they are while maintaining a certain elegance and pride in what they are doing. Something as small as a character interaction or even story elements are presented in such a fashion that they stack on top of each other to add to the greater themes of the series. In the first stretch of the game, the world and characters are established. Details like Hinna’s musings throughout the journey seem innocuous at first, but these details proliferate into something greater as the game goes on and the world and characters deepen. The build-up of events makes the more important twists in the plot and gameplay stick their landing with grace. You may not be getting some deep fantasy epic, but you get a smartly made JRPG that sticks to its roots with some surprises. Even if you call certain plot points like I did, Visions of Mana will take detours and show its tropes from different angles. I respect being able to view these classic elements in a new light.
The original Seiken Densetsu game was almost Zelda-esque in its design with an emphasis on striking a balance between combat and exploration. You had a plethora of weapons that had utilities in both scenarios. Secret of Mana kept this up but later entries would dial that aspect back. In an interesting twist, Visions of Mana revises this concept with the elements. It’s a natural evolution that retains the whimsiness while being more thematically appropriate I feel. Several games in the series have the Elemental Spirits at the forefront but mechanically don’t do much more than act as plot devices or play into the magic systems. Visions of Mana uses the elements in exciting new ways that feel so natural that you could swear that they were always executed this way. Forsaking the weapon-based or standard exploration of prior games, Visions utilizes the elements for new battle and exploration possibilities. As you progress through the story, you gain access to elemental vessels. These mystical relics allow you to use new combat abilities and explore like never before. Use anything from gusts of wind to soar, gravity-defying grappling, floating water bubbles, or plant rides to interact with this world like never before. This may be a simple addition but it’s pleasantly fun while making the elements more important than ever. Even their combat utility lets you change the tide of battle in fun and interesting ways. You can pop a powerful elementally fueled skill or alter how you approach different situations. This moves the series forward with added depth along with keeping the tried and true formula the series has honed since its inception.
The Moon is Beautiful, Isn’t It?
Mana as a series has always relied on Square Enix’s capability of bringing fantastical game worlds to life with unique designs and strong artistry. The original Seiken Densetsu may have established the series, but the Gameboy’s monochrome screen hindered what was possible with its presentation. The game that truly set the style precedence for the series was the seminal classic, Secret of Mana. Its vast color palate and Super Nintendo juiced graphics marked a stark upgrade over its predecessor and made the series’ vision and style clearer. What was already great was vastly improved upon, with each successive entry making various improvements and changes to express Mana’s highly saturated and stylized designs in bold new ways. Visions of Mana continues this by utilizing the power of Unreal Engine 4 and by using the mold that the 1-million-selling Trials of Mana remake established to make one of the most gorgeous stylized games of the generation.
Firstly, let’s talk about character art. Mana has always had evocative, saturated, awe-inspiring art. Environments are dense, monsters are charming, and the characters have always been lively. Visions of Mana does not disappoint whatsoever in this regard. Every single main character has an amazing design and their models are rife with detail. Each main character also hails from a unique region, thus they sport unique cultural garb. Upon further scrutiny, you can see nary a polygon edge alongside the reasonably high-quality textures, which really helps sell the anime art style. And, oh man, the shaders on them are amazing. They draw your attention and just pop! The level of detail on the richly inspired outfits sells both the characters and the world which they inhabit. What makes this even better is the class system, which gives each of the five main party members 9 unique designs each. The class change animation is amazing while being very reminiscent of magical girl transformations. To top it off, each outfit is also just as well designed as the base class outfits. The Mana flair is also front and center with each outfit eliciting one of the eight classic elementals. It’s interesting to see how each character expresses themselves differently even with the same elemental class. This also stacks with the cultural influences and style niches the characters themselves fill. The outfit diversity on display is astounding. Plus, I also love how the snowman and Moogle status effects look. It may suck to have your combat abilities subdued, but it’s a MOOGLE. I also love how every character has a unique snowman. Everyone will definitely have their favorite classes for each character, ignoring the gameplay utility, purely for how good some of these designs are. I know I sure did.
The animation work is also astounding and makes these characters feel even more alive. Cutscene and combat animations alike breathe life into these characters. Idle animations, canned animations, Class strikes, and cutscene animations do a good job of showing the emotions and key traits of each character. I was genuinely in awe at how awesome some of the animation work is. Careena especially receives a lot of love, as she receives several scenes where her lively personality comes out in full force. I also loved some of the side character Aesh’s animations. He doesn’t have anything crazy and mostly uses canned “emote” animations, but they’re well done and cracked me up with how well they matched his character. Parts of each character model are also physically driven. You can see parts of their clothes and hair move, creating satisfying secondary animation. As far as combat animations go they’re incredibly weighty in the sense that you can almost feel the movement. Jumps, slashes, and recoil all feel real despite the fantastical nature of the movements. Class Strikes and Elemental Vessels also offer some bombastic spectacle. Class Strikes, as the name implies, are tied to the class system. So your characters get sick new digs AND huge special attacks that tie to their weapon and selected element. Basically all of this, sans the class elements, applies to the monsters as well. They may not have as many animations but even how monsters attack and move is bursting with appeal.
In its Super Famicom heyday, the Mana series contained some of the best environment art and sprite work on the console. Every area was immensely inspired and brimming with detail and color. Truly some of the best graphics of that console generation. And honestly, I feel that Visions of Mana continues this tradition. The game may lack the raw fidelity of more realistic games, but I found myself wowed by its presentation. Art style truly does go a long way. Every area is spectacularly lit and designed. ART DESIGNED. The grass, trees, and other foliage blow in the wind. Funnily, the windier parts of the game even have the trees bending! The water in some places is astoundingly gorgeous. The game may only use SSR for reflections, but the way it captures the colorscape on the water at times is nothing short of striking. Particular rock formations and vistas even took my breath away. To me, this is the near the peak of stylized graphics. And don’t even get me started on how good the colors are. They’re vibrant and even ethereal at times. You’ll go from gorgeous green fields to wonderfully sunlit vistas to cool blue hues or purple-y darkness. I’m not even going to show the best areas because I believe that you need to see them for yourself. The thing that ties everything together is the fairly high LOD. You can see objects and scenery far in the distance and pop-in isn’t super noticeable in most scenarios, usually only applying to some props, monsters, and foliage. Being able to see the vast landscapes you’ve explored far off in the distance left me with an indescribable feeling of wonder.
Every aspect of the game’s art ultimately culminates in something beautiful that evokes nothing but pure joy. This is the soulful core of Mana’s art. It’s a mix of charm and jaw-dropping gorgeousness. I already loved the Trials of Mana remake’s art despite its simplicity. It just worked. I’m happy to say that Visions of Mana went above and beyond in iterating on that style and delivering a splendid visual presentation.
Solid as the Ground ‘Neath Our Feet
Action RPG combat, environmentally driven exploration, and a lot of heart make the basis of any good Mana game. Scour a variety of environments while quickly dispatching your foes to proceed to the next batch of quirky monsters and stunning fields. All of that is still here in Visions of Mana but with a sprinkle of modernity. This means that the areas are vast and that optional side objectives await you at every corner.
Both the vast areas and more constrained maps are filled with numerous side activities that can net you some treasure or resources to bolster the party’s strength. There are tangible rewards for exploring, making it even more satisfying. Some chests contain useful items that can expand the skill plots and increase the amount of abilities characters can equip on top of having good gear. Story progression also ties back to exploration, as more content is constantly unlocked in previously visited areas. It’s possible to make new discoveries or employ new traversal abilities to uncover secrets. Better yet, exploration improves your characters while the new items and abilities you gain play into new battle possibilities.
The combat builds upon what Trials of Mana set up. At its core, Visions of Mana has simple, yet effective, combat. You have your standard attack, dodge, jump, and abilities. They all feel great and have a certain deliberate heft to them. Even if you focus on these core mechanics, it’s possible to get into an addictive rhythm. Attacks can stun monsters, with larger hits being able to send them flying. Understanding distance is key, as properly dashing or jumping will help keep combos going. The returning class system and new Elemental Vessels add extra layers to the combat, as well. Each character has unique classes and they all have different spins on the base combat kit, allowing for a multitude of play styles. Some classes are more nimble for fast-paced action, tankier classes have unique mechanics with shields, and the multitude of mage classes have their own niches and quirks. This level of customization can lead to some crazy builds and synergy while allowing players to lean into their preferred play styles. This is only exacerbated by how weapons have their own unique feel and applications on top of this. Elemental Vessels have a burst mode that improves movement speed and distance, plus each vessel has a unique skill that can do things like alter the flow of time to your benefit or inhibit enemies. Elemental weaknesses are also key, with the right combination of spells and weapon enchantment absolutely devasting your foes. Or you if you’re not careful! The combat is simple to execute yet has a surprising amount of depth once you factor in elements, classes, and movement.
Looming Shadows
As much love as I harbor for Visions of Mana, I’d be lying if I said that it doesn’t have areas that need improving. In the grand scheme of things, my list of misgivings is rather short. There is a very specific rhythm to progression in this game that is unimpeded by the admittedly cookie-cutter side content. The side content isn’t bad, but it is mostly combat challenges and rather bland sidequests that are occasionally entertaining. At least you get some fun gameplay and intermittently useful goodies from them! The actual structure of the game has many appreciable factors despite not straying too far from what you’d expect from Mana. You hit a new area, have a town or two to chill in, expansive areas to explore, smaller sub-areas to traverse, and the odd dungeon to conquer from time to time. Pretty standard, but it’s a formula that ensures that the player is always going to new places and seeing new sights. The area revisits offer new content each time with new paths to take and points of interest you couldn’t interact with on your first run-through. The late game even features new places within old ones. Despite it’s rigidity and somewhat repetitious nature I can’t force myself to call this bad. It’s a finely crafted experience that doesn’t knock your socks off, per se, but it’s nothing short of sound. The reason I’m saying this is because I figure some players may confuse this proven gameplay loop with low quality. Oh don’t worry, there are actual flaws lurking around the corner.
Let’s start with getting what I consider one of the lesser sins out of the way – minor graphical bugs. I did bear witness to some character model buffoonery. Val had a class strike animation where he was sunk into the ground up to his knees and another where he was swinging around an invisible sword. I also thought it was quite humorous when Morley fell in battle and moved along the ground after the fight like a Dragon Quest coffin. These sorts of glitches were few and far between, I only saw maybe 5 bugs like this in over 50 hours of gameplay. Stuff like this is entirely understandable due to how complex games are. Plus, I got a laugh.
Next, there are some less-than-minor polishing issues with key mechanics. The combat itself is very fun and incredibly sound. It’s a good time that has depth. However, there are issues surrounding the great battle mechanics. The first one on my hit list is item queueing. I have zero complaints about the Ring Menu System, it’s a Mana series staple and still works well. The issue is that sometimes characters just wouldn’t use items when I wanted them to. I would have available items, wouldn’t be moving, and would be pressing the right buttons. This was even an issue with the Shortcuts. For whatever reason this never proved to be an issue with my lead character, but as soon as I swapped characters I guess my item menu’s functionality went on lunch. I don’t have any other complaints about item management, everything usually works and is implemented in a standard fashion. But why does it not work sometimes?
My final and biggest complaint revolves around the lock-on system. It’s just outright broken in many cases. My target would often go off screen or my camera would not track it. I figured the implementation would be similar to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which I’m pretty happy with myself. I will say, in many standard fights you don’t need to lock on. Sometimes the lock on even sort of works. To be honest, I wasn’t even going to mention this issue because I found it pretty inoffensive for the vast majority of the game. That was until some fights in the late game just would not cooperate with me. I was actually struggling to see what I was doing in a couple of the later boss fights. I would overall say the lock-on camera isn’t great, but it at least… occasionally works as intended.
The Light of the Future, Lit by Flames of Passion
Mana as a series has been fairly dormant with remakes, mobile games, and typically Japan-only spinoffs keeping the series alive. It’s amazing that we got a new mainline entry in the modern gaming climate. What makes this even more exciting is that we have many returning key staff and an extremely passionate studio like Ouka Studios collaborating with Square Enix to bring such a wonderful project to life. The two directors, Kenji Ozawa and Ryosuke Yoshida, even shared their enthusiasm for the project on the Ouka Studios website. Many of the game designers have worked on tons of other great projects, including bigger SE franchises like Final Fantasy. Of course, we have amazing returning artists such as HACCAN and even the creator of the series himself, Koichi Ishii. The producer of the game, Masaru Oyamada, has been the series producer for a decade now. This stacked list of old and new talent is wonderful, and a testament to Mana’s legacy. Every key member truly cares about this series and did an amazing job at ushering the series into the gaming landscape of today.
It’s this sort of passion that led to Visions of Mana feeling like a classic JRPG experience while retaining the signature charms of the series. Every little thing in the game feels unabashedly Mana. The story and tone hit home, the combat evolves while iterating on prior games, and the gorgeous art truly elicits the series’ identity. Basically, everything I would want from a series continuation is here, and it’s good. I honestly can’t wait to see how this formula affects the series from here on out… Right?
Knock on Wood
The future of Mana looked brighter than ever before – with remakes of the classic games being released on a fairly consistent schedule and even the Trials of Mana remake selling well over 1 million copies. The success of this venture guaranteed that a new Mana would be made. Visions of Mana started development in 2020 when Square Enix realized that now was the time to fully revitalize the series with a brand new entry. The game wasn’t made in-house or by Xeen, instead, they entrusted the future of the series to Ouka Studios. Even veteran staff from SE and other companies offered their assistance. Ouka built upon the foundations of the Trials of Mana remake splendidly! Ouka genuinely did a fantastic job and I’d love to see them continue the series! Well, that’s what I’d like to say anyway…
The video games industry is in a dire state, wallowing in greed and a lack of respect. Ouka Studios is owned by NetEase, and in an unfathomable twist they gutted almost the entire studio on the RELEASE DAY of Visions of Mana. Some staff from SE may be safe but all of the talent at Ouka are in limbo. This is truly unforgivable. This rancid numbers game that way too many studio owners and publishers want to play is beyond sickening. Were preorder numbers not what they wanted? Did NetEase think more niche projects would have sales that could rival AAA heavy-hitters? How would they know how it would perform on launch day? Maybe this was always their plan, as I highly doubt a decision of this caliber can be made on the fly. I wouldn’t be shocked if NetEase just wanted to crank out some games and roll around in some early-earned goodwill and publisher funds. I’m sure we’ll eventually see some reports crop up at some point, but guess what? I don’t care what their reasoning is. Nothing justifies this. Even if the game does wind up underperforming does that somehow make the studio less valuable? No. Anyone can look at their work and see that they are talented and capable of making functional games brimming with passion.
Visions of Mana isn’t a perfect game, but it is great. I would have loved to see Ouka truly hone their skills further. A Seiken Densetsu 6 would have been amazing even if it was barely changed from Visions of Mana. Quickly, let’s have story time. Yes, there are some unpolished things and some glitches in the game. Not the end of the world, right? Well, when I defeated the final boss for the first time my game crashed to the PS5 home menu when the ending cutscene triggered. I was peeved, but understand that these things can happen. Guess what? I beat the final boss again and their model outright broke and made some of the final moments limp, with the final boss clipped into the ground animationless. Do you know what could remedy this? Patches. And just how are we supposed to get the game patched when most of the dev studio has been laid off? Will the few remaining people, with certainly low morale, manage to create a patch? Will SE take it internally? Probably not to both of those. Really, the only hope I have is that SE scoops up and poaches the talent that was at Ouka from NetEase.
A Bittersweet Vision
Visions of Mana is a wonderful continuation of the series that completely understands the strengths and appeal of the series while knowing what to modernize and what to keep classic. The themes, structure, mechanics, and art all feel explicitly Mana to the point you could swear new main entries never stopped coming out for over a decade. Everything Mana is known for is here and accounted for, all in a modern wrapper. The absolutely stellar art design is in full force with top-notch character designs and jaw-droppingly gorgeous environments. The scale of the game is sober, with the more expansive maps being surrounded by more tightly designed bite-sized areas to create a good level of variety. Combat is appropriately weighty and deliberate, ensuring that every action and movement matters. The revamped class and elements systems offer an assortment of exploration options, combat tactics, and of course more excellent art. The somewhat rigid structure creates an appreciated fast-paced dole out of new content once it kicks in but can leave some players wanting more. Twists to the classic formula on display and the focus on fun more than makeup for this, however. This game is great, excellent even, but some of the less polished aspects make the gutting of Ouka Studio harder to swallow. The basis for what could have been an even greater sequel or the hope of patches to smooth the few remaining rough edges is nothing more but leaves scattered on the wind…
