Trials of Mana

Rating: 9/10 Summary: Trials of mana does a ton of things right and is likely one of the top contenders for the action RPG genre made by Square Enix for best in its class. Fantastic class depth, decent amount of replay-ability, fun and easy to pick up without the problems of old. The world and atmosphere is simply something I didn't want to leave and can't wait to revisit the title again in the future. Review: I was first introduced to the series much later in its release timeline via playstation 1 emulator back in 2005ish. The game? Legend of Mana. A classic in its own right is what inspired my intrigue for later mana titles such as Sword of Mana released on the GBA. However due to these games mainly being released for consoles I did not own, I was mainly forced to experience them second hand via emulation. Fast forward to modern day and I cross paths with Trials of Mana. Trials of mana is a fantastic remake of the original Japanese title Seiken Densetsu 3. The game itself feels like a culmination of the best of the QOL lessons learned by Square since they first began experimenting with the AJRPG genre. To be honest, I have more good to say about this game than bad however that is not to say the game is not without its faults. With the game being a remake of a 26 year title it certainly is victim of tropes that have long since become annoyances by the modern gamer standard. The first one that immediately stands out to me that would have made the game borderline unplayable is the character charlotte. She is a tiny statue character who talks very much like a 6 year old. Now with the Japanese voice acting this isn't as discernable to me as a light speaker. However, in english, this would have drove me absolutely insane. Even in text, she is translated as talking much like a baby when the character is canonically 15 years old. No adult by any means, but certainly way past speaking like that. There is no lore reason, the character is simply incredibly immature and plays into the tiny stature childlike trope from early 90s/2000s anime. Ironically, she became one my strongest characters (more on this later). There are other minor issues I experienced like poor camera angles during combat or some systems not being explained in the game guide after a long break I had to look up. Also the game would randomly switch to Japanese text on boot but none of this was ever a huge issue, the game is extremely well optimized and the issues I had were pretty minor. The story I would say is no blockbuster. This game's writing very much has a childlike paint to it and if you're walking into this thinking its going to be some incredibly dark or have some crazy themes you're going to be disappointed. None of the mana games are really like that but that is OK! It is very much a light-hearted and colorful adventure and I enjoyed the ghibli-esque wonder the games monster and world design inspired. It is light, fun, and silly very akin to the older disney animation movies. If you can let your guard down and enjoy the medium for what it is, you will enjoy the story and while I wasn't particularly impressed with the twists or anything I can say I enjoyed it. It was a fun escape and I don't think you can ask for more than that. The games character, monster, and world designs are really good. With each new area came new monsters, music, and not just recolorations! There are multiple monsters for multiple areas which a lot of games these days simply just don't do. It made me appreciate the effort and detail that went into each one. The monster designs themselves are mostly criminally adorable. I definitely felt bad about murdering some of them for XP and the cute sounds they made. They all have their own abilities which I would say have quite a bit of quality put into them and depending on the time of day in-game, you can ambush them while they are sleeping which probably isn't helping me beat the allegations. The combat and class system in this game is surprisingly well done and deep. There are multiple class changes with multiple ways you can build your character. Your passive abilities, if done right can really set you up for a good time in the post game boss. While you can grind monsters if you really want to, I never found it to be necessary on hard difficulty. Your team-mates are beyond competent when you specify their AI correctly. Its actually one of the first times I've felt like I had real partners. Most monsters are at your level or at least 2 levels ahead and scale appropriately. I never felt like I was struggling or mobs felt like sponges. It felt appropriately scaled the entire time and for the most part I full cleared dungeons. The combat can be challenging for sure, and some of the bosses will definitely take a couple of tries but it never feels cheap. I never looked up a build guide and went for the long con for my mages. While I felt like they struggled mid to early game, end and post game they were extremely OP with my passives granting 20+ MP every 2 seconds being in battle. They never starved. That may sound like it trivializes a lot of fights but it really didn't. The post game boss certainly gave me a run for my money and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge. The game rewards you for doing what a RPG player wants to do. You want to explore? Here's a chest. You want to stun lock bosses or enemies? Go ahead. You want to grind? Fine, become a god. It keeps a lot of the mechanics that a traditional player would want to do but makes them mostly optional. The encounter system is not random, monsters are on the map but you can engage or not engage quite easily. If you want to run, the system is lenient enough to where you're never punished for it. The game doesn't rob you of your experience, even bosses can be cheesed with stun locking or status effects. It feels extremely fair. The game definitely respects your time, I never felt like something went on longer than it had to and it has quite a bit of replay-ability with the multiple different endgame bosses, post game boss, and collectables as well as new game plus. I will definitely come back for another run on the other 3 characters. The soundtrack in this game is also worth mentioning as an absolute banger with Powell being one of the stand out tracks to me that I constantly listen to on the side. All in all, I would most certainly recommend this game. It does a ton of things right I could yap on about for hours, but to save yourself the time. I would certainly recommend you experience the wonder and magic of the world of Mana for yourself if it has peaked your interest.