Could Visions of Mana be everything I ever wanted?

If you’ve been watching our GOTY 2023 Podcasts – and if you haven’t, you absolutely should – you’ll spot a running theme whereby moments in games have brought me to tears this year. Sometimes that fact worked in my favour, other times my cold-hearted fellow podcasters couldn’t care less about my game-induced weeping. Maybe I’m just getting emotional in my old age, or maybe games have just been that good this year. In reality, it’s likely a bit of both. But, as sure as Lyle Carr loves Freezer Pops, it happened again during The Game Awards, when Visions of Mana was announced, with a surprise trailer. Someone hand me the tissues.

I should perhaps clarify with some background before we get much deeper. The Mana series holds a special place in my heart. Secret of Mana way back in 1993 on the SNES is my favourite game of all time. Its glorious story, characters, and soundtrack were all wrapped up in a world full of weapons, powerful magic, and mystery that I just adored 30 years ago, and still do today. It’s the peak of the Mana series, by far, and despite many attempts, Square Enix hasn’t quite captured that magic again since.

But there are certainly some things Square Enix could do to give it a fair stab. Opening their trailer with a delicate piano reimagining of “Fear of the Heavens” – the opening theme tune to Secret of Mana is a massive step in the right direction, and certainly moistened those tears ducts, and raised many a goosebump. And drawing your focus away from the music for a second, we’re treated to visions of numerous locales, suggesting a wide and varied world, with different biomes and towns to explore and wrap yourself in.

And then we see, presumably, our protagonist for the first time. What appears to be a brown-haired male, with a pink top and waistcloth atop blue pantaloon-style trousers and brown rough boots. Their hair is tied with a pink bandana, and they wield a sword as their main weapon. Wait just a hero-stealing minute, is this just Randi from Secret of Mana sporting a new hairdo? Our hero Val clearly looks the part, and I hope he fits the role too. Later in the video, we see familiar enemies too. Val is delivering the smackdown to Rabites and Mushbooms, both of which are game enemies in Secret of Mana, and at this point staples of the Mana series bestiary. We even get a look a little later at a boss fight involving the Mantis Ant – the very first boss of Secret of Mana so it’s clear Secret of Mana really is the inspiration here, and I’m all for it.

I know I keep harping on about Secret of Mana, and despite its clear influence, Visions of Mana will definitely be its own game. But y’see, I’ve been stung before. There’s a very painful reason why I want this game to be the true spiritual successor to Secret of Mana. And that’s because the game that should have made me feel as awestruck as I did 30 years ago was Secret of Mana HD, on the PS4 in 2018. A masterclass in how not to remake a classic, it is definitely not the reimagining I had as a child when I imagined what future technology could afford my most beloved game. With that opportunity missed, I wondered if the magic I felt for Secret of Mana would ever be rekindled in the series again.

But Visions of Mana gives me hope. Hope that it understands it has some source material to crib off, to offer fans bits and pieces to cement the legacy of the series. But thankfully, the trailer gave me more reasons to be optimistic with its new take on established facets. Magic, for example, is clearly making a return, most likely in the form of mana elementals from previous games. Val appears to perform some sort of wind attack on a boss, but it also seems that magic will be used in traversal too. We see both what appears to be wind and water elements used to get around, which will certainly make the world and getting around it more interesting and intertwined with the Mana lore itself.

It’s certainly an interesting prospect and a trailer that whetted my appetite and brought a tear to my eye for all the right reasons. It felt almost personally poetic that the trailer ends with Val in front of the Mana tree, mirroring the start of my Mana journey all those years ago, as our heroes Randi, Primm, and Popoi stand in front of it as that opening theme tune crescendos. Visions certainly has lofty expectations from yours truly, but all suggestions point to the fact, that this could end up being the game I’ve wanted for over 30 years. Let’s keep those fingers crossed for 2024.