Visions of Mana review

Full disclosure right off the bat: Secret of Mana is my favourite game of all time, meaning Visions of Mana already has in me a tough audience. I hold many fond memories of that game, some over three decades old, a title that has touched me like no other since. The Mana series itself has been a bit up and down over the years, and hasn’t had a proper new Western entry to speak of – aside from collections and remakes – in over 15 years. So Visions of Mana comes as a beacon of hope of sorts for fans of the series, but newcomers are also wondering what all the fuss used to be about. But for a series so used to living on past glories, can it stand up against today’s standards, and the heavy weight of the expectations thrust upon it?

For this new adventure, we join Val, a Soul Guard, on his journey to the Mana tree. Every four years, the Soul Guard escorts eight Alms from around the world on a sacrificial pilgrimage so their souls can be given to the tree to maintain the flow of Mana and sustain life and prosperity for all. Each Alm is from a specific area of the world under the protection of a specific elemental, and our journey starts proper with Val and the Alm of Fire, Hinna, about to embark on their journey of virtuous sacrifice.

With Hinna acting as a non-controlled support character, you begin as Val, from a third-person perspective roaming the land, fighting monsters to protect your charge, on your way to pick up more Alms. Enemies are visible in the field in groups, and once combat is initiated, you fight them in real-time with a variety of traditional quick and heavy attacks as well as aerial attacks for those enemies that have taken flight. It’s very similar to the Trials of Mana remake combat in that a ring appears around you during the fight, which in most cases you can escape from if the fight is a little too tough. Although generally speaking, the game tends to lean towards the easy side, while providing a gentle challenge at times. That said, there is definitely a level of challenge in certain boss fights, particularly towards the end of the game, and you can still even wander into grunt fights under-levelled, especially if you don’t engage in combat regularly to gain EXP and level up.

As you meet more Alms on your journey they will join your roster. You will eventually recruit a playable party of five, from which you can choose a main character to control and two others to support you. And this is where the pretty deep party customisation in Visions of Mana comes into play. As you progress, you’ll find Elemental Vessels which allow each character to change their class to their version of that elemental. With 8 elements and 5 characters, that’s 40 different classes, and each one has different skills and perks to unlock. You earn Elemental points in the field and as you level up, these allow you to invest in these different class skill trees. It gives you an amount of customisation that is almost overwhelming initially but means you can tweak your party to your preference, and give your controlled character (which doesn’t have to remain as Val once more are recruited) and your two supports the right build to succeed.

The Elemental Vessels also serve another purpose, as they provide additional traversal options throughout the world, as well as helping to solve puzzles in dungeons. They are a nice addition, with, for example, the wind Vessel allowing you to ride updrafts, or the water Vessel letting you ride water bubbles upwards to reach new areas. However, they never really elevate the concept to anything you haven’t seen before, and with eight to find, the traversal of some seem to overlap a little by the end, with some just becoming a means to cross a gap rather than anything more complex. It would have been nice to see more made of them, or maybe some used in combination for other traversal options later in the game.

One piece of advice I would give anyone playing Visions of Mana is to be patient, and that’s for two reasons. Firstly, the opening hour or so of the game is very start-stop with cutscenes. You’ll run somewhere for a bit and then watch some story beats, or read a tutorial. There’s a lot to absorb, but the game world looks gorgeous thanks to its bright colours and pseudo-cartoon aesthetic, so viewing these scenes isn’t a chore. But for those who want to get going, you will just want to get beyond this so you can explore and start bashing monsters in earnest.

The other, slightly more disappointing cause for patience is Visions of Mana’s story and character development. Because of the decision for your party to be made up of Alms, it means you’re essentially a group of travelling do-gooders hellbent on saving the world. There’s little disagreement or group conflict, or even much peril to speak of for the first half of the game. Careena, the wind Alm is perhaps the only exception, as she offers light witticisms and selfish resistance initially, but even she falls in line and focuses on the journey to the Mana tree unquestioningly after a while. Thankfully the character arcs and self-reflections improve in the second half of the game, as does the evil that arises and becomes apparent to the group. I just wish this had come earlier, either in more complicated character interactions or indeed earlier foreshadowing of the evil and trouble the group would encounter. It would have added more foreboding, and made the world and cause feel more organic than it does in those early hours.

But it doesn’t make Visions of Mana a bad game; far from it. The combat and customisation of your party make it moreish to progress, and the beautiful, varied environments accompanied by a soundtrack that does a good job of bringing to life this fantastical, magical world, make adventuring a joy. Admittedly the combat isn’t quite as cathartic as something like Tales of Arise, and the characters aren’t as well-rounded either, but this is still a very enjoyable entry in the Mana series. Fans of the franchise will also appreciate the front and centre role the elementals play in the story, and the many references to previous games you can find hidden throughout.

In many ways, it feels right to reflect on the title of the game itself. Is Visions of Mana really the vision for the future of the series? If so, the direction feels a little safe and well-trodden. We’ve been here before with the Trials of Mana remake and despite some new ideas, it never reaches the heights of the genre or the series itself. That said, given the up-and-down nature of what the series has given us, perhaps solid gameplay and stability are what we need. I hope this isn’t the peak of where Square Enix’s ambitions lie for the series and instead, it’s used as a springboard to achieve greater things for a series sorely missing an all-timer since 1993. It’s not the spiritual sequel to Secret of Mana I wished for, but it’s still an enjoyable entry in the series that’s been over 15 years in the making.