Visions of Mana

I adored both Secret of Mana and Secret of Mana 2 (Seiken Densetsu 2 and Seiken Densetsu 3, respectively). They're not quite at the top of gaming mountain for me, but they're both enjoyable experiences worthy of multiple playthroughs. I haven't revisited them in years, but the first Secret of Mana remains my favorite by a small margin, largely because of its brighter color palette and catchier soundtrack. Visions of Mana is a welcome addition to the franchise and, while I wouldn't rank it above those classics, it's still a thoroughly enjoyable adventure in its own right.

Gorgeous Visuals

Let me start off by mentioning how spectacular the visuals are. This is exactly how I envisioned a 3D Mana game to be. It's bright, colorful, and the cartoon style is an absolute slam dunk. The environments are lush and bursting with color. Each area has a distinct identity. The vibrant green grass and tree leaves brint the praire and forest areas to life, while the warm shades of brown in the desert are surprisingly pleasant. The aquatic city and dungeon also have a really cool visual and feel to them. One of the characters remarks how the it feels like you're underwater, but not actually underwater. Overall, Visions of Mana is a feast for the eyes. There's very little you could do to improve the visuals for Visions of Mana.

Play as You Like

The combat is another one of its strong suits. It is very much good old-fashioned hack 'n slash. You can perform a regular attack, a strong attack, a jump, and an evasive dash. In addition to those fundamental maneuvers, you can cast magic spells or ranged attacks. They both function the same and require MP to perform. You eventually travel with a party of five, but can only battle with three at a time. Individually, each party member has certain strengths and preferred methods of engagement. On top of all this is the class system, which adds a customizable layer of which spells, powerups, and buffs they can access.

Just like previous versions of mana, you are able to specify your party member's strategy. You can instruct them to either play it safe and defensive, or aggressive and pursuant. You can also specify whether they should favor ranged or close-quarters combat . You could even allow party members to use inventory items such as recovery items.

Customizable Approaches

The straightforward combat and deep class system generates a flexible quality about the gameplay. As a player, you have the ability to either "set it, and forget it", or delve deep into the different classes, exploit enemy weaknesses, and devise an optimal strategy for each enemy encounter. You can play this game to your liking. I am very much a "set it, and forget it" person. The opposite philosphy of wanting to optimize a build for each character can be championed instead. Both of these approaches can easily be accommodated.

In the World of Qi'Diel

You begin your quest as Val, a gifted swordsman from the village Tianeea. You have been selected as a soulguard. It is your duty to escort the alms to the mana tree so that they may sacrifice themselves to the goddess and maintain life throughout the world. For if a village fails to send in a soulguard, they will experience catastrophe. The reasons why this scary tradition exists are revealed later in the story. It just so happens that your childhood friend and romantic interest is an alm. Together, you must travel throughout the world meeting up with other alms so that everyone can reach the Mana tree and offer up their souls to preserve the world.

Characters

It's a classic straightforward setup to the story that's pretty much cliche, but also effective, at this point. The story does take a few surprising twists and turns and even offers character archs for each party member. My favorite of these was definitely Moreley. Tragedy besets his village, Etaern, because a sacred hourglass broke as he was climbing atop of it as a child. This set off a change of events in which Etaern is vacant and can send no alm. Thus, the village experiences calamity. He ends up being selected as an alm himself. On the wind back from the Mana tree, he discovers that there where malevolent forces that caused the sacred hourglass to break. Him climbing on top of it as it broke was a mere coincidence. He is able to stop blaming himself for his village's destruction and reconcile with his lost mother.

Other character's experience similar story archs. But I found Moreley's character arch to be the most interesting and my favorite character. I always included him in my party. They're not all equal, though. I thought Careena's was the least interesting. In fact, the only other really intresting character was the main guy, Val. The rest where fairly plain vanilla. I even thought the final villain, Daelophos, was ultimately kind of lame, even though he absolutely looked the part of the big bad guy. The battles against him where actually quite epic.

Serviceable Story

Bottomline: the story is nothing special. It's engaging enough to provide our band of unlikely heroes with enough motivation to go out and rescue the world. I've never been a stickler for good story in games. Hell, Donkey Kong Country remains one of my favorite games of all time and contains barely a skeletal outline of a story. The monkeys just want their bananas back. The story in Visions of Mana isn't anything epic like Chrono Trigger, but it is absolutely serviceable.

Hamstringing Flaws

Even though I had quite a lot of fun playing this game, I ultimately couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. This is not a bad game at all. In fact, it is a very good game that's worthy of a thorough playthrough. The first noticeable issue are the constant cut scenes and overly long dialogue. There's just too much of it. It becomes grating when a cutscene begins after you've only taken 20 steps.... and then it happens all over again. Moreover, I felt much of the dialogue itself was unnecessary. At the very least, it should have been the type of dialogue that the characters engage in as you walk through the world without any interruptions. That way, the action won't get interrupted.

Goofy Voices

Another item of complaint: the English voice acting. It's difficult to take any of it seriously, but the crown offender is Careena's voice. A southern drawl in a JRPG fantasy setting? I can't think of anything more immersion breaking. The rest of the voices are tolerable, but they're not exactly good either. There's a distinct half-campy, half-serious tone about each of them that makes them offputting. It's not 90s Resident Evil levels of bad (not even close), but it's definitely an area that needs improvement. You might be better off switching the audio to the Japanese voices and rely on the text.

Pacing Issues

My last grievance with Visions of Mana was the closing chapters. When you reach the Mana tree for the first time, a certain plot twist occurs and you have to venture out into the world once again and defeat a new series of bosses. This is actually something that also happens in the Secret of Mana games. I actually didn't like how the Secret of Mana games did this. It would work its way up to a climax, perhaps a final battle, hit you with a plot twist, and then send you out into the world to defeat the Mana beasts. It wouldn't even send you to new locations; you retread what you have already ventured through in order to reach the beasts and destroy them. I must say, however, that Visions of Mana does offer closure to some character arcs upon returning to familiar lands to slay the mana beasts. So, it's a bit more tasteful.

Almost a Banger

Had it not been for these bothersome flaws, Visions of Mana would have been an absolute banger. The combat is fun. The character classes make it so that it can be as deep as you want it to be. The visuals are stunning. The music is actually quite good. Not as awesome as Secret of Mana, but still pleasant to listen to. In fact, that first Seceret of Mana is still my favorite Mana game. I'll admit my Super Nintendo bias upfront, however. Perhaps one of these days I'll play the remake of not just that one, but Trials of Mana as well. I just hope they don't flood with you dialogue and cutscenes a'la Visions of Mana. I also hope there's little to no voice acting. I feel like those games would be better off without it. I shall see.