For a series that started as an action-based Final Fantasy spinoff, this adventure revels in its RPG roots.
It took an entire hour for Visions of Mana to click with me.
I’ve poured a lot of time into Square Enix action RPGs lately. Between Final Fantasy 16, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and even 2020’s Trials of Mana, I expected Visions of Mana to play similarly when I demoed it this month. Yet what I saw was the opposite: Combat is slow-paced, even though enemies can bombard you with rapid attacks marked by AoEs. There’s no combo system, despite the fact that Trials of Mana, a 3D remake of a 1995 Super Famicom game, had one. I struggled as I initially tried to button mash my way to victory, which only slowly whittled away at the HP bars of basic enemies at best.
I love the older Mana games, but the combat felt so off at first. Could Visions of Mana be straight-up bad? Fearing the answer to that question, I took a few minutes to dig into the game’s menus and analyze all the tools at my disposal. That’s when I turned the corner.
What Visions of Mana lacks in intensity it makes up for with a rich variety of combat options. I couldn’t chain light and heavy attacks together like in most action games, but tapping or holding down those buttons triggers unique moves of varying offensive and defensive capabilities. Each character can equip cooldown abilities, which are perfect for clearing basic encounters in a flash. By the time I reached the demo’s boss I was swapping between my party members to unleash an onslaught of magic that applied buffs, debuffs, and dealt serious damage. Within 60 minutes, I went from feeling like a weakling to a swaggering adventurer despite only gaining a level or two in the process.
I should’ve known not to panic: Abandoning what I knew from the series’ previous game is the quintessential Mana experience.Out on the open world again
The Mana games have never been afraid to get a bit weird, so it was almost surreal to start Visions of Mana in a wide open field that structurally resembles many typical modern RPGs.
