Visions of Mana Preview

ManaRedux’s Note: With the excitement of Visions of Mana all around us, I thought I’d ask my good buddy Granivolus to take over official preview duties, and there’s likely more on the way!

Hello, my name is Granivolus. I’ve been a fan of the Mana franchise for a fairly long while, although my experience isn’t much to really say of. I’ve played Final Fantasy Adventures, a bit of Secret of Mana Turbo, Trials of Mana SNES, a bit of Legend of Mana, Children of Mana, a bit of Dawn of Mana, and a bit of the Trials of Mana remake. This is my first time writing a blog post, but I hope to make this an interesting read.

Seeing Visions of Mana revealed for the first time last year, I was genuinely stoked for the game, and genuinely proud of the developers for reaching this stage; the original developers led by Koichi Ishii left the franchise after concluding the “World of Mana” project (Children, Dawn, and Heroes of Mana), and a new development team took the helm despite seemingly having no experience. From humble beginnings making mobile games like Rise and Friends, they worked their way through trial and error remaking the first four Mana games. I’m proud to see them confident enough to make the first brand new mainline Mana game since Ishii’s departure.

And with the demo finally out, I’d like to say their confidence is well placed. It’s absolutely fantastic to play, with the world vibrant and alive as you explore the few areas you’re given access to. I’ll do my best to review the demo by starting a new save, and looking at things with a more critical eye. For reference, I’m playing Visions of Mana on a Xbox Series X; experience may vary on a PlayStation 5 or PC/Steam Deck.

Upon starting the demo, we’re presented with a cutscene that seems to be a fair bit into the story, but still early in the game; a new Alm has been named, and a snowstorm is finally subsiding. Our goal is made clear pretty quickly: we need to reach a town called Rhata Harbor, to board a ship to reach Illystana and meet the other Alms. We’re also introduced to Li’ls Cactus, although we won’t see him for a while yet.

From here, we finally get control of our party, and we can explore Rime Falls. Anyone who’s played the Trials of Mana remake will be quick to the controls, as the game plays virtually identically. Just downhill is a group of Rabites, where we can dig into combat and see how it plays.

Visions of Mana combat is fairly similar to Trials remake, where you press X for light attacks, and Y for heavy attacks, and can use the ring menu or shortcuts to use items or spells. However, there are a few key changes. The Class Strike gauge has been nerfed significantly, only being one bar that’s shared amongst the entire party, and characters who are linked with an Elemental (a Vessel) get access to a special item unique to that elemental. Sylphid uses a wind boomerang that knocks enemies into the air, and Luna drops an orb that slows enemies down, while conversely speeding up the player’s spell casting.

Characters are also given a different class depending on what elemental they have equipped, with up to 3 different weapons classes. Val by default uses a single handed sword (Guard), but pair him with Sylphid and he wields a two handed sword (Rune Knight) or a lance and shield with Luna (Aegis).

While general combat is mostly the same, enemies are presented in a more difficult manner; they no longer have telltale ranges for their attacks. While some later enemies still have windup and telltale signs for what attack they’re going to do, it’s ultimately up to the player to recognize said attack and respond accordingly to their own intuition.

After taking out the Rabites, we come across a new mechanic for Visions: Elemental Vessels. By using these in the field, you can affect your nearby surroundings to assist in navigation. The Luna Globe here will slow down the waterfall, letting you stand on the frozen chunks to safely cross the river.

Continuing down Rime Falls, the area is fairly short and linear, but none the less beautiful. Arctic foxes will roam the area, but flee if you approach, and red flowers stick out as the winter slowly goes away. As you near the exit, you start to see a bit of green, promising a warmer scenery.

Entering Fallow Steppe, this is where the meat and bones of our demo lie. A massive area filled with Grizzly Syrup, materials, and treasure treasure, we’ll be spending the majority of the demo here. We’re also introduced to the Pikul, large yet stubby wolves that will make travel quick. One could just rush straight to Rhata Harbor from here, but there is a lot to do around here that’s worth talking about.

You can find Elementites, ores that protrude from the ground that only activate when you have its specific elemental. Interacting with these will restore some Mana, but its main appeal is that you’ll earn some much needed elemental points for your skill trees. As far as I can tell though, I only found two active Elementites in the demo.

Continuing farther down, we run into another new addition to the Mana franchise: sidequests. There’s a man who wants to return home, but he can’t because monsters have taken over the place as their territory, and he needs you to eradicate them. He also cites a “humongous enemy,” foreshadowing another new addition: nemeses. Similar to Xenoblade’s Unique Monsters, these guys are tougher than average enemies with their own special name, like Gem Valley Ochoro. However, I haven’t seen if these guys will respawn; once defeated, they appear to be gone for good.

After clearing the quest and going further down we come across our last notable addition: Lesser Elemental Aeries. These are optional challenge scenarios where you’re given a time limit to complete a wave of enemies, and this one specifically scales enemies four levels higher than you are. Trials of Mana had a problem where the game was overall easy unless you played on the NG+ locked difficulty No Future, and it seems the Mana team learned to better balance difficulty with Visions. While the main gameplay is generally not that much harder than it was in Trials, the Aeries really test your skills and strategies by pitting you against waves of higher leveled enemies under a seemingly strict time limit. Managing to prevail will give us an ability seed, allowing us to let a character use a special spell or ability.

After this, there’s nothing more particular to note collectable wise prior to reaching Rhata Harbor. However, I do want to take this time to really point out how beautiful the Fallow Steppe is. There’s several vantage points where you can get a clear view of the surrounding area, and it looks surprisingly massive. The woods down south give a almost different vibe compared to the southern area, but ultimately there’s nothing else aside from some more sidequests, treasure, and another Nemeses. Li’l Cactus can be found in the northernmost point of the map, but at this point it’s time to head to Rhata Harbor.

Upon entering Rhata Harbor, you’ll be given control of Val regardless of who you were playing as. More story follows, with Careena very quickly finding herself a suspect of thievery, and it’s up to Val to find the lost key to prove her innocence.

While exploring, you’ll come across a few staple shops in the Mana franchise: the item, weapon, and armor shops. These aren’t anything notable compared to past entries, although there is also the Dudbear shop; by trading in you Grizzly Syrup, you can obtain some rare consumables or permanent stat boosting items. I only managed to obtain ninety Grizzly Syrups in my playthrough, which sadly wasn’t enough for all the stats boosting items.

After proving Careena’s innocence and meeting up with an old friend, your next objective is to board the Primm (a cute Secret of Mana reference, I see). This is the Point of No Return for the demo, as it leads into the boss where, upon defeating it, you will be brought back to the title screen. Upon boarding, we get our first hint that something doesn’t seem right with this Alm tradition: supposed legends use to say that Alms were not needed to be sacrificed to replenish the Mana of the world. Before we can dwell on this though, the Primm is suddenly attacked by an aquatic monster, and we fight the Kraken boss. Once the boss is defeated and we ensure everyone is safe, we approach Illystana, and the demo ends.

Now, how does the demo hold up overall? As I said back at the start, I genuinely feel the developers’ confidence in making the next big Mana game is well placed. The game teems with life and personality, the areas rich with landmarks and content, and the Job class mechanics feel very fascinating to experiment with. I genuinely loved the Aerie scaling the enemy levels to ensure I couldn’t power wall through the challenge, forcing me to strategize and plan to claim victory with the tools I’m given. The game itself is extremely visually impressive, outdoing Trials and really starting to look as a game that belongs in the era it’s released in. This game makes me proud to be a Mana fan, and I’m stoked to recommend this demo to anyone who’s willing to give it a try.

However, the game isn’t without its flaws either. Character models still have that quirk from Trials of Mana, where in some cutscenes they tend to look unfocused and blankly staring away from where they’re supposed to be talking, or using a default pose/expression. I didn’t see anything particularly egregious, but it does still give me the same vibes as modern Pokémon cutscenes, which isn’t exactly a compliment. Air dashing is surprisingly fairly overpowered, allowing you to traverse large distances before the fall speed catches up to you. I could see it being used in Speedrunning to skip sections or cross gaps intended not to be crossable. I feel that Nemeses, if they are being inspired by Xenoblade’s Unique Monsters, should have an option to refight them (similarly, I’d like to rematch Aeries after beating them). And while I did play, I had a handful of weird freak glitches, but I haven’t been able to replicate any of these. They were mostly graphical, so it could be possible these are merely one time bugs from a not-quite-finished build.

All in all, if I had to rate the demo on a scale of 1-10, I’d easily say this demo is an 8/10. It shows strong promise that Visions, as well as the Mana franchise as a whole, is in the hands of people who genuinely love these games as much as the fans do. And for that, I’m genuinely grateful for the team, and I absolutely cannot wait to dig into this game to full 100% completion.