Visions of Mana Review — A Vision Of Great Things To Come

Visions of Mana has been a key highlight of the year for me – to a degree not many other games this year or in recent memory have made me feel so young at heart while playing through the game. It feels as if I have been transported back in time to a younger me, experiencing a great JRPG adventure. To say that this is one of my happiest moments of gaming this year is a stone-cold fact. It’s an instant classic and will be atop the pile of great JRPGs in recent years.

As a fan of the Mana series since the SNES days, I can confidently confirm that this is a return to form and to see its return to modern audiences while appealing to old gamer heads like me is just awesome to see.

Your adventure begins playing as Val, a soul guard who accompanies Hina, the chosen alm of fire, on a pilgrimage to the Mana Tree. A journey that all alms must complete to ensure the fate of the world and the Mana Tree are protected.

It is a genuinely simple story that really delves deeply into the personal relationships of your characters. The journey itself is a worn-out track, familiar and safe but reliable. If you’re looking to be inspired by some newfound appreciation for JPRG stories, this really isn’t the game you want. This is McDonalds. You know what you’re going to get.

On my 45-hour journey of the game, you will meet up with a small group of characters who really open up about their motivations, delving deep into their backstory, and the game prioritises these interpersonal relationships between each other. It is a slow burn; the story eventually takes some longer strides as you progress in the main story. I appreciate that it definitely does try to make the story a key focal point, even if it is its weakest link. The characters themselves are the main force behind the narrative.

The voice acting is fine, but admittedly, it’s sometimes borderline cringe. At moments, I had to pause and reflect to myself that these are how most JRPG characters sound; they are unique to the JRPG genre. This is at its core a traditional JRPG. This doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad thing. In this game, tradition fights with modern-day sensibilities, and voice acting is one fight that really doesn’t do much to evolve the genre. It all sounds very same.

But if there is one major lesson, I’ve learnt about this game is that it doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel to be a great game.

The presentation of the game is just stunning as you explore the beautifully detailed and varied locales. The game itself isn’t necessarily open world, however it is open when you visit a new area and there are many areas that you visit that vary from small sections to big wide and open environments. It’s one of those situations where you can either make the most of your time with the game and go hard with exploring, or you can go less exploring and mainline it for the next story moment. Either way, the game provides enough opportunity for both playstyles.

I also want to highlight the choice at the beginning of the game, I highly encourage the choice of Performance mode, reason being is the inconsistent frame rate, with performance mode I noticed it played a lot smoother yet still being able to maintain its sharp and beautiful art style. It really is one of the most gorgeous games out there now. It was like I was playing an Anime, and this art style is a great direction for the Mana series.

The different locations on offer are what drew me heavily into the game; the vistas and areas are awesome, even in moments where all you do is take a moment, chill out, and look around the beautifully crafted world. It’s rich in colour and variety, heavily adding further context to the world-building, which I feel the game does exceptionally well.  It’s full of JRPG goodness, even if it’s all a bit familiar.

While I have fawned over the beauty of the game, there are quite a few things to do within the world. As you travel around, there are hundreds of treasure chests or little highlighted treasure spots that litter your mini-map. One can tackle the main objectives and mainline the game or get lost in the absurd amount of side quests that you can complete and just maximise your time with the game. Mini-games and side quests are not to the degree of FF7 Rebirth‘s insane amount of side content, but there is enough available to you if you choose to adventure off the beaten track.

I mentioned the influences of Final Fantasy, specifically the newer FF7 instalments. Visions of Mana keeps the combat action focused and real-time, heavily inspired by the FF real-time battle system and its own history with real-time battles. You can see the monsters in the world, and as you make your way through the story, you simply attack them, and battles take place in a small cordoned-off ‘bubbled area.’

You use a mix of light and heavy attacks, magic, items, and special attacks akin to the limit breaks to defeat your enemies. Each character can be fitted with weapons and gear, but gear can be locked behind a job class system that allows a great degree of flexibility.  Changes to classes are simple and effective as you try to mix and match what works best for your small team.

This is where the game gets addictive. The job system is quite fleshed out, and the different classes you unlock for each character are unique. I spent quite a lot of time mixing and matching roles to what I wanted. All with the intent to create my perfect team.

Each class then has its own skill tree, which you can upgrade. What I loved about this is also how the designs are a throwback to the 16-bit games; it’s fun to see it and just another reason why the game is very respectful of what came before. As a Mana fan, there are many throwbacks and easter eggs for a sense of nostalgic bliss.

The battle system is quickly explained and very easy to master, it started off as highly addictive but after the 40-hour mark I was feeling a little bit of the repetitive nature of it, it wasn’t bad at all, it was solid and entertaining just felt like I was in loop. Like any great RPG, if the battle and upgrade systems are solid, which they both are in these instances, then you’re in for a damn fun time! Mana delivers this on a continuous basis.

Nostalgia is a keyword here; when I play this game, it makes me feel like I’m playing the original Mana game for the first time. The combat is addictive, the visuals are gorgeous, and the story, while not its strongest point, is simple and effective. The strongest compliment I can give it is it makes me want to come back and play this game every moment I’m not playing. It’s just a very well-made game. There are negatives, but they are eclipsed by strong positives.