Visions of Mana review — Yup, it’s a game

I was relatively positive in my PAX East and August Previews for Visions of Mana. Earlier this year I played two games that take themselves much more seriously: Final Fantasy 16 and Persona 3 Reload. Going to something simpler, perhaps even cozier, with Visions of Mana was nice. But as time went on, Visions of Mana started to show its cracks. What originally felt simple and cozy became boring and lacking in depth. Visions of Mana is not a bad game, but it does not bring much satisfaction in either gameplay or narrative. A well put together game with a lack of narrative nuance and mechanical polish that hinders it from being truly great. When you reach the point in the game where you can tell the budget ran out, you start having a lot less fun. Am I missing the point? Or maybe this was the goal? Either way, Square Enix has now delivered the full game to us at GamingTrend on PC and PS5 and these are our thoughts.

Visions of Mana was a new experience for me, having no prior Mana series experience. Some of the series staples I’m familiar with through general internet osmosis. There’s the first game on Game Boy which got localized as Final Fantasy Adventure. I know Secret of Mana on Super Nintendo has an iconic Mantis boss, and Trials of Mana for Super Famicom wasn’t released in the west until the remake for modern platforms and the Collection of Mana. Other than those and a few other tidbits, I’m a newbie. I say this to establish that, other than small references in enemy and character design, Visions of Mana is entirely its own thing. After about 25 hours of gameplay, other than the aforementioned design similarities, the story and characters are set in their own world, which was great as a newcomer. Traveling these expansive areas and learning about the lore of this world was fun.

The game opens on a stunning scene detailing the process of how the world of Qi’Diel sustains itself. Every four years The Faerie is sent to the settlements of the world to name an Alm, who then each join Soul Guard to travel to the other Alms of different elements, eventually ending their pilgrimage at the Mana Tree where the Alms sacrifice themselves to sustain the flow of Mana in the world. “There is no higher honor than to be named an alm.” The premise gave me flashbacks to Final Fantasy 10, the difference here being that there’s a whole party of sacrificial figures instead of one dancing queen.

All of the characters have different personalities and even dialects. You start your journey with Val and Hinna, the Soul Guard and Alm of Fire respectively. Eventually you meet the Alms of Wind, Water, Moon, etc. Careena, the Alm of Wind, speaks with a stereotypical Southern United States accent, which is pretty unique. Morley speaks with… somewhat of a Spanish accent? It’s hard to tell because it comes and goes. As neat as it is to have such differing dialects and speech patterns, they’re not consistent. A later character doesn’t even have an accent, but every line they say has different inflections, leading to sentences sounding like they were all directed by different people. In fact, most of the voice acting is pretty bad, with a lot of side characters sounding flat and none of them having the same accents that the main cast do. At one point you see a flashback to a young Morley but he has no accent whatsoever. Don’t even get me started on the trio of cat merchants, who speak entirely in cat puns. It’s extremely jarring and inconsistent.

The residents of the world are basic, but the same cannot be said for the visuals. This is an extremely vibrant and colorful world. I’ve encountered so many unique locations from grasslands, icy mountains, and beaches, but the wild part is when you encounter stuff you hardly ever see in RPGs like a haunted house village reminiscent of something you would see in Luigi’s Mansion. The diverse and varied landscape always has you encountering new areas with unique melodies that always fit the tone of where you are.

I found jumping around and exploring all the nooks and crannies with hidden treasures and item pickups, occasionally blasting through a small enemy crowd in five seconds before going right back to taking in the sights and platforming to be the best part of the game. Treasure chests, item pick ups, Grizzly Syrup, Elemental Stones, and even a cute friend called Lil Cactus; exploring and finding all of these was fun and worthwhile for the first 40% of the game. But eventually, I realized that while I appreciated the gear I found, the Syrup used as currency for a “special” item shop, and the Lil Cactus giving you passive bonuses like additional experience, it all made an already easy game that much easier.

Visions of Mana gives you most, if not all, of your combat options within the first hour or two. It was overwhelming and unnecessary, because combat with regular enemies can be breezed through in mere seconds. Having almost instant access to the uber powered Class Strikes just feels like overkill. Most basic enemy encounters can be taken out with your basic Square or Triangle attacks. Once you unlock your second playable party member they even introduce mid-battle character swapping using Up and Down on the D-Pad. I haven’t needed to swap once because with your computer controlled party members, all decked out with the same overpowered gear and skills as you, nothing stands a chance – even late game bosses.

Most encounters in the game amount to you dashing to the center of the enemy crowd, using your Moon Elemental Vessel, which slows down time in a small area, and then your entire party clears them out in no time. Now, why not avoid using this overpowered ability so battles can be more challenging? It doesn’t matter. All of the Elemental Vessels completely destroy any semblance of challenge. There’s nothing wrong with an easy game, I love my Kirby games. The problem is giving you a moveset from the first second that destroys most enemies. Adding on dozens of other options made me not want to engage in the exploration anymore. That previously mentioned 40% mark? I stopped exploring altogether at that point.

I’ll still fight enemies as I go to keep my party’s levels up, but it got to the point where engaging in the game’s mechanics started making it not fun. Everything I did made the game so much easier. Lil Cactus was nice, but the first benefit you get from him (which is forced on you) is making all the treasures and Lil Cactus locations visible on the minimap. You can turn the entire minimap off, but then you’re left without a convenient map. Enter an area, hit every blue dot possible, defeat every enemy along the way, get to the next story beat, repeat. The sense of exploration disappears, so now the only fun comes from forcing myself to not make the game easier than it already is. It’s worth noting you do have multiple difficulty options, but those can only be selected at the start of a new game and not changed mid-journey like in other modern RPGs.

I feel a bit bad, I’ve been pretty critical. Despite these gripes, Visions of Mana can be fun. Equipping the Elemental Vessels, which could be equated to class or job changes in other games, acts as the main gimmick of the game. These abilities, like the Moon Elemental slowing down time, are extremely strong and there is something cathartic about mixing and matching party members with Elementals. Every character has different weapon types and skills, so even if everything evaporates if you look at it hard enough, there’s an almost comedic twist to everything when you try different combinations to speedrun fights.

Setting up your party to absolutely destroy everything in their path is certainly enjoyable, though it loses its luster once you realize that just about any build will do the job. One of my favorites involves Val as a tanky healer using the Earth vessel and casting buffs on the party, Careena as a debuffer and damage dealer with the ridiculously overpowered Water vessel, and Palamena using the Fire or Wind vessels to kick everything into oblivion with an explosive tackle. By playing as Palamena and setting the AI to go all out, the game basically plays itself. Once you settle on a comfortable playstyle, there’s no real reason to change it up even in the face of enemies who resist your attacks, as you deal so much damage regardless. By the time you get the final party member, you’ll probably have already found something you like, making him a permanent bench warmer.

Just like with the class system and building your party, the story has some moments that stand out amongst the bland. A certain twist we were both expecting went farther than we thought it would, while another twist later on is a cool idea that could have used any foreshadowing whatsoever. The cool locations are the game’s best feature, but it’s not like there’s no good to be found in anything else. It just needed a lot more time in the oven to come together properly.

That’s definitely the issue with Visions of Mana: it needed more time for game balance. Restarting playthroughs by the time you’re 20 hours in, with review time around the corner, isn’t feasible. However, Flynn did playthrough the opening on Hard as opposed to Normal and it’s just as easy as everything else. Enemies might have more HP or you might take more damage, but I couldn’t tell the difference.

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