Trials of Mana - review

Genre:RPG.

Developer/publisher: Square Enix.

Platform: PS4,switch,PC,mobile.

Official Site: N/A

Release date: 2020-04-25.

 

This game is a remake, its apparently pretty faithful...

Gonna be honest here, I have never played a mana game but this

was a nice game to just casually play, it is linear  and little to worry

about missing anything except maybe the cactus thingies.

Most of them are easy to spot but there are a few easy to miss!

I wish I could be completely positive about my experience with this game but I can't.

Anyway...

I got into this while waiting for xenoblade 3 to come out... I decided to continue playing this

from the demo I tried a while ago, it was easy to pick up the pace and/or understand

what's going on plus when chara's mentioned this or that also please be warned

this game is fairly straight-forward in terms of plot, there's not a whole lot of talking

and its pretty on point nor does it ever drag itself out more than needed.

Sadly it seems this game has dropped tremendously in value, I bought it for 30$

and it is now even 20ish euros. After playing I can definitely see why... it is not long

so unless you really love action rpg's most people would give up cuz certain things.

 

Pro's

- A simple, yet traditional story with some replay value.

- Good music, the ability to switch to the original bgm is nice too.

- The ability to choose your protagonist and those who tag along.

- Most of the bosses are all unique and fun in design maybe a lil frustrating too.

 

Con's

- Over two hundred chests but most contents are healing or revive items....

- Class change items shouldn't be locked behind RNG, nor be able to get duplicates of.

^^(Maybe actually put nice things in treasure chests?)^^

- Terrible AI is terrible.

 

The quick and dirty  would be that this is something to look into if you want something traditional unfortunately this games pitfalls are the god awful AI, I think its even worse than ff15!

it also has a nice class system but I found it to be such a hassle when it came to the

second class changes which involves unknown item seeds... it is never guaranteed whether

you get a light or dark class item??? so unless you want to farm and put up with stupid RNG s

 you'll probably have to take what you can get. If you can get past all this it could be a fun game.

 

I am well aware that you can't always get what you want and I already sucked it up and rolled

with classes I didn't want, so I'd like to believe i'm mentally strong enough in that regard.

Anyway bullshit RNG is still bullshit RNG no matter how you slice it. Even worse

if it is determined from the moment you get the item from the chest. REEEEEE~

Anyways I adored the characters and even made a start to the second playthrough but it seems

aside from the prologue and personal motivations most will be the same, a guide said some

of the end game will be different so that is nice. Sadly the AI is horrendously bad

and I was frustrated at watching my team mates die over and over and over again

to the stupidest things. Good news though the only difficulty specific trophy you can

just switch to before the boss itself! so no need to suffer on hard the entire game unless

you want all the challenge! you can just play on normal till then.

 

Sometimes I wonder why I put up with BS like in this game... I must've been really bored

to plow through this game but hmm I guess what was nice was nice even if somethings weren't nice.

Hah... I don't think Chawlotte's UwU speech was ever a problem... IMO there were worse things.

I wouldn't be surprised if people gave up on this game... the beginning might seem

like this is gonna be super stress-free but the AI will end up testing you.

 

For what its worth a nice, fun game but it has noticeble setbacks!

I do want to play the other mana games someday, they do have its charm

but as you can see, you must be willing to get past some setbacks.

Now for all my screeching, another good thing is despite them recycling three bosses

the main game isn't any longer than it should be. If you're still up for more there is a post-game

scenario but I am not sure why they had to split it from the main game. Maybe because

due to the extra classes making MP no longer an issue thus breaking the game.

Anyway if I had to score it this game it might get an 6.7/10 from me which translates to

 well its fine really but could be a little better? it might be even better if you want

a game with not much talking cuz there really wasn't. At the end of the day this was a classic.

 

More rambles after the jump, its more or less just my own experience

with this game and some parts may be a little ranty.

 

 

  I picked Hawk, Riesz and Chawlotte on my first play, which went okay-ish enough

unfortunately while Hawk is awesome with his ninjutus he doesn't really shine till endgame

where MP ceases to matter, I think I can say the same for any mage too.

Chawlotte's magic imbue skills and healing were a blessign though, definitely recommend

to take her as a 3rd companion! For second play which is unfinished at time of writing

I picked Duran, Angela and Kevin! Duran and Angela actually have a nice dynamic going on

but the cast doesn't really interact and are just tagging along to see ends meet. :( 

While a healer's always nice UwU I was a bit nervous going in again without one

but there's an exp bonus for clearing once, so you'll lvl up twice as fast! and well items are there.

My unfinished NG+ playthrough currently stranded at gusthall.

 

It is sad but the group seems like they barely acknowledge each others presence, even worse

for the 3rd chara in the group. It gets a bit better in the post game but still... sad.

Sigh this game has a nice cast but with RPG I love to see them interact so its a shame

Mana can't live up to that, maybe its just not that type of game huh? oh well.

I like how Duran and Angela only have a single braincell but 1+1 = 2 right? I kinda ship it too....

even more than  Hawk/Riesz but I think that is because Hawk is already interested in Jessica.

I was playing with JPN voices so Chawlotte didn't bother me as much but... I can see the

ENG voice for her being kind of annoying cuz of her speech which is still reflected in text.

It kinda looked like it was a family trip with Hawk being the dad,Riez the mom and the kid.😅 

Hawk's voice is Ono Yuuki too so that was a treat! Nakamura Yuuichi voices a villain too

but all I kept hearing was like an evil thancred. Oh and Sugita voices an absolute clown. >_>;

 

Graphics wise, it looks nice enough but a bit here and there it could look cheap.

The models look really good tho so in my opinion its all good, love how there's so many flowers.

Music is really good maybe it makes the game a bit too chill with easy going vibes

while defeating mostly cute mobs? ok some weren't cute but... yea. This game looks very anime

so if you're looking for an anime-ish rpg adventure this could be an option!

 I do have to mention that some enemies are designed too cute to kill others just look funny.

This game is pretty short but has some replay value due to being able to play

as chara's whom you didn't play as before and see their personal stories to conclusion.

I do wish there was more banter between the characters during their travels but

they probably couldn't do much due to being able to choose who joins...

and there are six members you could chose from so yea I don't blame them

but still sad to see them not interact that much. Other heroes not chosen may appear

here or there some might even show you a peek of their personal struggles but eh I was like

oh that's what's up with kevin huh? before he disappears. I didn't mind Duran

but it seems like only the opening acts are different as well as the end results and the middle

being overall the same, just different actors depending on whom you pick!

and like I said before the jump break the end game bosses will be different which is nice.

 

 Honestly despite it being short I couldn't really find myself playing longer sessions

unless I forced it... maybe its the gameplay? idk I found myself quickly getting bored or tired

this was especially true for the first half of the game but once in ch5 I went like a train.

This game can look pretty...

 

Combat is pretty simple action stuff but its not that easy either, the AI of the party members

is pretty bad though so I definitely had to set Chawlotte to heal only and for Riez

to attack whatever I was targeting to make it more bearable.

Most of the time I found myself mashing with Hawk even though his class is interesting

and allows for more... I always find myself running out of MP quickly and most money

was spend on weapons which means you'll have to GRIND to buy MP items wtf is this shit?!

Allies would also burn through MP quickly meaning everything can become sluggish....

especially later in the game. Sigh this game has so much potential but so much brings it down.

Bottomline is I guess you should suck it up farm some money and buy mp items huh?!

It is not untill post game it gets better... sheesh good luck getting there!

 

 

There's some ability tree system which you use with points gained from lvling up...

the first 15 lvls weren't wow worthy which was honestly pretty bad since

I kept wondering if they'd learn new moves but nope its just buffs for the most part

anyway just keep playing and more will open up.Then when it comes available pick

whatever you think is best or more suited to your style. Like I have already said the second

class change might be more difficult if you don't get the items for your desired element

which is all RNG something I really disliked.  Point allocation is important too, for example

if you make Hawk a ninja then put points into luck+spirit/int. It doesn't matter if you

put some points into strength or stamina when you were  still in your base class.

You can always reset it later and redo it if it was too messed up but that costs money.

Chawlotte would be obvious and only int and spirit. Riez is spirit, luck and strength.

Some people said Stamina is a pretty useless stat so don't poor too many points into it???

unless you have Duran as you can turn him into a healer tank/paladin.

Hope this helps make this game a little easier to understand.... because it is very

possible to put points into the wrong things and end up having a hard time.

 

Honestly the class change system is horrible when it comes to the second one, its so rng invested

or maybe I just didn't understand it? its just sad if you keep getting the opposite

elemental class item than you want. Also after I changed Riez to her second class I still kept

getting that same item and then I got the opposite element item than I wanted for Hawk.......

I sucked it up cuz I couldn't deal with this shit. /tableflip/

I think it would be better off to put those things in chests and get rid of the

??? items seed altogether. The bandaid would be that you can never

get ??? items for characters you don't have in your party, So that is a relief.

Speaking of chests, there are over 200 treasure chests in this game but they all seem to only drop

healing or revive items! nice, but the wao sugoi! wears off pretty quickly like this

and I am pretty sure I can count on a single hand every piece of equipment I got from them.

I am grateful for the chocolates and revive items tho....

Maybe it would have been better to do away with the unknown item seeds and just

put the class change items in treasure chests found in ch5 dungeons.

I found out those ??? items seeds were as rng as they were in the original

and let me say there was no need to be that faithful for a 2020 remake.

If they had done what I wrote and kept everything else the same except finetune the AI too

this game might have been a lot better to me. My standards are not very high...

once again sometimes being too faithful is detrimental. Too make it even worse

the best equipment is from rainbow seeds... which ones again is all RNG

but thankfully before I hit the post game boss I got some better things.

Sigh they really couldn't put them in chests huh? they made an rng system for it.

That fight was cursed, as is the exp gotten from it.

 

The only time I contemplated switching the difficulty to the easiest which was that

stupid wall boss and the ninja twins. Good thing next boss everything felt normal again

so I didn't switch, I'll admit sometimes normal fights do feel like a slog even

if I upgraded my gear at every opportunity. I mostly fought everything in my path

and the only times I had to grind was a whopping one lvl before the sylph boss

cuz I wanted to unlock classes since for some reason it one-shot my allies at lvl 17.

Doing that sloggish grind the fight was more manageable! The other time I had to back off

and get two more lvls + the gear from jungle of visions was vampire dude.

Without being lvl 57+best gear I just couldn't take out the adds...... 

Hey, its the game telling you to upgrade your gear!

Sadly every boss afterwards was easy again, and as you can see when I did have trouble

a lvl up or two did the trick.  Even the post game boss didn't stand a change

and I even switched to hard for the trophy..... then again due to postgame exclusive skills 

MP ceases to be any problem so I could keep using ninjutsus.

Overall Trials of Mana might be nice if you want to follow the stories of a bunch

of heroes in a fantasy setting that doesn't seem to take itself too serious!

due to some enemy design it might be better to turn of your brain as well.

Other things that bothered me would be there are no chapter breaks such as some text coming up

that says which chapter it is, it will just continue so if you're on switch the only way

to know is when you save. Atleast ps4 has trophies but at times it felt jarring...

Best example for this would be at the end of ch2, I even expected a boss shortly before it

but the game just casually progressed in a way I was like wut. At times I was worried

if I was missing cutscenes too, it tends to go fast with little rest or a moment for the gang to chat.

Then again I like how this game doesn't have you fight the villains only for them to get away

or have you lose in the cutscene afterwards! I got tired of this from the trails series

and ch5 makes up for all the times there wasn't a boss, they were saving them.

Most of them are well designed and maybe you'll have to retry if you did fail...

Sometimes the AI might seem to have a sliver of intelligence only to lose it, it is always

a gamble to see if they will cooperate, but it is easy to command Chawlotte

for a second to Imbue the other two with an element the boss was weak to.

I wish there was more funny moment like this...

 

 In terms of plot its a lot like the older games that just say this and that, so and so... go here do that.

Try not to judge this game too hardly from its demo, some bosses do at times get interesting. 

 If you can complete chapter 2 on normal then you can beat the game! Due to things

like the AI I wouldn't blame anyone for switching it to the easiest difficulty in fact

I recommend it, I do not understand why they try to get away with bad AI but it is what it is.

 Anyway this game could be fun if you like older styled games or if you don't have

much else to do and just want something simple but not that easy either.

I would love to try out more mana games but maybe this series isn't for me? 

so maybe I should stick with more story oriented games. I say as I just bought

secret of mana for 18$ on the same day xenoblade 3 came out. Whoops!🤡🤡🤡

6.7/10

This game doesn't hold much value but maybe if you see it on a sale and are in the mood

for something traditional? heh I sure mention traditional a lot with this game

but trials of mana does really feel like a traditional RPG.