Visions Of Mana Review

Looking at Square Enix’s game catalogue, there’s no shortage of incredible JRPGs. They’re the publisher that many people first think of these days whenever the discussion of role playing games comes up. But one series that I feel has always been seriously underrated, especially here in the west is the Mana series. With it’s origins kicking off in the early 90’s, the series has seen consistent love from it’s core fan based but has never been as popular as the Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest series despite most of it’s mainline games being really solid experiences. Now almost 20 years on from its last mainline entry, the Mana series has gotten its first new game with Visions of Mana. Capturing the spectacle offered by its earlier games, giving us a grand and vibrant new world to explore and a brand new cast of likeable characters to fall in love with. While it’s not a perfect game and does fall down in some areas, there’s a lot to love with Visions of Mana.

As mentioned, Visions of Mana contains a brand new story, containing a fresh cast of characters. So in that regard, it’s very newcomer friendly incase you’re new to the series and considering jumping in. The game follows Val, a young guy who resides in the village of Tianeea on his journey to escort a group of chosen sacrifices, referred to as Alms to the Mana Tree. This ritual that takes place every 4 years sees a group of people sacrificed to the tree to ensure the flow of Mana to the world continues. Things take a twist when Val’s childhood friend Hinna is selected to be one of the Alms and he is tasked with being her Soul Guard. Kicking off a quest that comes with plenty a challenge along the way.

The story itself begins with a premise that’s easy enough to follow and gives you a sense of purpose that makes you want to see the end of the quest you’ve been tasked with. It’s nothing groundbreaking but I found the catalyst that kicks off the journey to be an effective one, and the story and characters develop at a steady pace. At least in the first half of the story. The same unfortunately can’t be said for a big section around 2/3 or so through the game, where I found the pacing to really take a hit and where a lot of the gameplay padding, repetition and grinding really become noticeable in comparison to the rest of the game which is otherwise pretty well designed. If these sections were trimmed down and cut out the unnecessary grinding it would have resulted in a much better overall experience and a much better flow.

The real highlights when it comes to the game and plot are its really great cast of characters and the colourful vibrant world you get to explore along your journey. The game’s lengthy runtime gives the characters the time they need to get to naturally discuss their backstories, motivations and also the room to grow and develop in a way that also compliments the main overall story of the game. I did find myself liking some far more than others, which is often the case with stories that contain a large cast, but I didn’t find any characters unbearable or wishing they had been omitted from the story. The world itself also gets developed too the more you progress as more and more lore is revealed to Val and I also appreciated the various biomes the story takes you through as it offered up a lot of varied places to explore and kept things visually fresh across the roughly 40 hour journey it takes to complete just the main story. 

Combat systems in RPGs are something I always like to draw attention to, as it’s an aspect of the genre that can differ drastically and even make or break a game at times. Visions of Mana features a fast paced action combat system in which your chosen player character has the ability to perform light, heavy and special attacks, dashes and spells that can be really effective when used against enemies that are weak to the elemental affinity of the spell. Landing attacks as well as taking damage will also slowly fill up the class strike meter and when filled, allows you to unleash a powered up ultimate attack that can be devastating to your foes, and also come in handy to turn the tide of battle if used at the most opportune time. The party AI is surprisingly good and are competent all on their own. But you do still have the ability to customise behaviours and when to use particular skills. A feature that becomes really handy during the game’s tougher battles so you can further tailor how each member will act when you aren’t controlling them.

In true JRPG fashion, Visions of Mana also comes with a deep layer of customisation that you can use to tailor Val and your other party members to your liking and to match your preferred playstyle. One layer of this comes in the form of ability seeds, these are equippable items that fill one of your character’s ten seed slots and enhance your characters with passive buffs, summons and new attacks, among other things. The deeper customisation though comes with the game’s class system. These are changed by equipping Elemental Vessels to a character. These are unlocked fairly frequently as you progress through the story. You can freely switch characters between classes at any point but each character can only have one Elemental Vessel equipped, and while utilising it, it can’t be equipped to another party member. So you’ll need to pick the classes that best suit your playstyle and the characters they’d be best equipped to. As each class comes with it’s own set of passive skills, unlockable abilities that have the ability to be persistent even when changing classes again, providing the ability to come up with some really unique builds and also class specific weapons. I loved how well these layers of customisation complement each other to come up with some really powerful characters and allows you to come up with builds that complement other characters in your party too, and how the class system encourages you to try out different classes to be able unlock their class specific attacks to be utilised as permanent addons. 

It’s a good thing the customisation is such a deep system as I found that strategy and load out optimisation to be required to be successful in combat as the game offers quite a challenge, especially with the bosses in the later half of the game.

Whether you’re a newcomer to the Mana series or a returning player, there’s a lot for you to love with this one and it offers a great experience overall. Though there are a few issues that did hold the game back a little. The first being performance. I encountered numerous issues with the framerate dropping during dense areas or during combat when things get chaotic and fast paced and the particle effects start flying. There’s also a fair amount of pop in of textures that I witnessed over the course of my playthrough. I also found that the game’s side quests felt uninspired and very repetitive compared to the main questline of the game, often boiling down to just being item fetch quests or monster slaying requests, which after a while made me not too interested in engaging with them outside of when I needed to. These issues along with the aforementioned gameplay pacing around the game’s third act aren’t game breaking by any means, but are still something you should be prepared to face before deciding to invest close to 50 hours to get through Visions of Mana. 

Overall, Visions of Mana offers a solid JRPG experience with an interesting cast of characters and a world that is fun to explore. I loved the multiple layers of customisation that the game offers to really tailor the experience and your party to exactly how you want to spec them out. I would have appreciated better pacing overall and side quests that were designed better than what we got but the main story mostly makes up for the issues. The game also offers a lot when it comes to content and replayability too as even after the credits roll, there are new post-game quests and bosses to bear as well as a new game+ and new difficulty mode you can jump into. I just hope it’s not another 18 years before the next mainline entry in the Mana series. 

If you want to see more content like this and never miss one of our frequent gaming and anime giveaways come and Follow Ani-Game on Twitter.