Visions of Mana Preview – Looking Forward & Back

Square Enix seemingly wants to bring the Mana series back in a big way. Not just with a collection, mobile game, or remake, but a bold new step forward while looking at what made Mana so appealing. Square Enix gave us a chance to preview Visions of Mana at a media-only event at PAX East 2024 and discuss our impressions before its release on August 29th. I can’t talk about story details, but that’s okay because I have a lot to tell you from my short time with Visions of Mana. A lot of the vibes I get from the PAX demo apply here as well but things are definitely more fleshed out. Regardless, Visions of Mana is shaping up to be a delightful game in the metaphorical ocean of RPGs on the market.

I will say upfront that I played on the PC version of the game and had a rather difficult time getting the game to run properly. My Xbox Series and DualSense controllers had issues functioning and display options were lacking at best. But despite all of that – I’ve really been enjoying Visions of Mana. Visions of Mana is the first full Mana series game I’ve played through, though I’m familiar with some of the series staples. I can’t talk about much of the story but in my time with the game I’ve played mostly as two characters: Val, a sword user, and Careena, a spear user. I had two other characters in the party – Hinna and Ramcoh, neither of whom were playable at the time of writing this, but they assist in battle with some small bits of healing and attacks. Combat initiates within the large scale world you explore with small groups of enemies. A lot of the enemies I fought were series staple Rabites along with some other basic enemies like crabs and mushrooms. Because of that basic enemy lineup, I’ve hardly been challenged by the game in the moment to moment fighting but I’ve struggled much more with learning the game’s mechanics. There are far too many mechanics thrown at you in the first couple hours and none of them feel necessary given how easy every enemy has been.

I think that’s something to note: I appreciate that I have been given access to most of the mechanics in the game but for newcomers, it may feel overwhelming. Most enemies can be dispatched with your basic combos but within the first two hours things get more complicated. Beyond standard RPG equipment management, the game very quickly introduces character swapping mid-battle, spell casting, shortcut abilities, multiple in-battle sub menus, elemental vessels which can be equipped for class changes and used in battle as spells, and A LOT more. It sort of threw me for a loop but as I said, most of the enemies I’ve been fighting can be easily dispatched by your basic combos. All of those mechanics do fit in rather nicely once you get used to it. A basic four–hit combo can be executed by mashing Square/X, a heavier, slower combo can be done with the Triangle/Y button, character swapping with Up and Down on the D-Pad which can be done on the fly, the iconic Ring menu is on D-Pad Left and Right which also slows down time to let you select your spell and target without needing to rush, R1 and L1 can be used for shortcuts to your abilities and items respectively, L2 activates your Class Strikes which are extremely flashy specials you can only use once a meter is filled, the Circle/B button is used for dodging and can be spammed, and Jump is set to Cross/A. The basic controls are pretty straight forward when laid out like this but it took a couple of hours for me to get used to it all with how fast paced combat is. As I said, most enemies go down with simple Square/X combos so there’s no need to really use most of it until boss fights which can be pretty disappointing if strategic combat is what you’re looking for in an RPG.

I’ll concede one thing: battles are pretty and flashy. In the only boss fight I encountered with a familiar mantis-like creature, I actually had to use a decent number of dodges, the vessels, and the flashy specials you can execute after charging a meter. It was much more engaging than previous encounters. I hope the rest of the game plays out like that with tons of spells being thrown around the battlefield as I scramble to find pots to recover some of my special meter. This isn’t to say standard encounters are boring, but they end so quickly I can’t help but feel relieved that I got some challenge from one of the first major bosses in the game. It feels like Visions of Mana is meant more so to be about the exploration of its large areas as opposed to being an intricate RPG like maybe Baldur’s Gate. It feels a bit at odds with itself given how much fire power (no pun intended but the only spell I got was Fireball) they give you at the start.

But let’s be real, RPGs are known for two things – cutscenes and visuals. While I can’t mention specifics, I feel like the lore is dumped on the player all at once with in-universe terminology spewed at an alarming rate. In contrast, the dialogue between characters is fairly basic. Dialogue is delivered in these static back-and-forths, film buffs may know these as medium shots. Characters may emote a bit but generally they stare forward, requiring full head movements just to look at others. It’s a bit jarring, almost cheap at times. I can’t help but feel there is some charm to it given how simple the story and character writing is so it’s a mild distraction more than anything as there are more fully animated cutscenes for more dynamic story moments. But then I take a moment to just stand on a cliff side and pan the camera.

The various cliffs and caves strewn about the open fields you can run through are amazing. Areas can be linear in nature as you make progress but you may stop and realize “Oh I missed a treasure chest over there!” and want to backtrack for it because the reward is usually worth it. Item Shops have been pretty expensive and enemy spoils are not paying the bills, although if I had the dancing skills of the shopkeepers, that’d probably change. Treasure chests contain some of the best items and money in my experience. Here are two screenshots, notice the soft green light on the grassy cliff near the waterfall? Well that’s a treasure chest that I missed. Upon backtracking I also found two other items and money equivalent to about four battles. One of those other items gave me more damage output so it felt pretty good to actually explore. Dare I say, it’s a bit like Dark Souls with large areas filled to the brim with small caves and cliff side lips with items to find if you take your time exploring. It’s honestly pretty fun just running around the world and exploring.

I think that’s where Visions of Mana excels. Something I didn’t enjoy at the PAX event was that areas felt a little empty. It took me a while just to find enemies, let alone treasures or items of any kind. But that’s very different in the full release, as the areas you can explore are full of items, money, and the most common thing: Grizzly Syrup. I had asked about these before and was told they’re not tied to any sort of progress but collecting them would be worth it, they were even compared to “collectibles in a platformer”. I’ve now found out what they’re for: Dudbears. These silly dudes are in various towns and the syrups you find are the currency for them. More powerful healing items, much more affordable Cup of Wishes used for KO’d allies, and permanent stat buffs, although those are in limited quantities. It feels like this game is more so meant to be a platformer with action RPG combat. Exploring and picking up various knick-knacks all feeds into making the RPG side of the game better!

Overall, I’d say I’m pretty excited to finish Visions of Mana! You can expect a full review near launch but until then – if anything I’ve mentioned sounds fun, there’s a demo out there for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. There are some visual hiccups and the battles can be basic but I’ve had a lot of fun exploring and the warm, coziness of the world and characters keeps me playing. As my first dive into the Mana series, I’m honestly pretty excited to not just finish this game but go back and try the other Mana games. I guess you could say they got me looking forward and back. If you’ve wanted a SNES-era RPG that feels like it has the budget and scale of a modern game, Visions of Mana may scratch that itch! Thanks again to Square Enix for sending us an early copy. The full game releases on August 29th.

Did anyone catch the reference in the thumbnail? :)

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