RPGs, especially those hailing from Japan, are no strangers to tropes and tradition. Series like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Pokemon and plenty more all have their own recurring ideas, or share ideas with the genre, and some of the most memorable entries do well to play with or even subvert what fans expect going into a new game. Visions of Mana strikes a wonderful balance between the identity it’s inherited from its predecessor and the sheer amount of time between entries that’s seen many shifts in genre sensibilities.
To recycle a little of what I said in my preview, Vision of Mana – like the franchise’s other entries – builds on a lot of familiar themes and motifs (a Mana Tree, a legendary sword and so on) but is its own self-contained story with a new cast of characters on an entirely new adventure. In this particular world, all communities have been built around the nature and geography of eight distinct elements, and all are kept safe and prosperous by the mythical Mana Tree. The upkeep of said tree is reliant on a pilgrimage carried out every four years by an appointed group of “Alms,” each of whom represent a particular element, and under the protection of a Soul Guard. That responsibility now rests on Val, along with a steadily-growing entourage in what is initially the very same pilgrimage but quickly becomes something more as a series of events steers the group toward uncomfortable truths.
Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot more I’m willing to say about the specific beats of Visions of Mana’s story, because it’s all best experienced fresh. What I can say though, is the game does a markedly excellent job at leaning into its history and the stories that came before and inspired it while also posing deeper philosophical questions. Though it eventually veers back into tried-and-true swords and sorcery stuff, the game spends a good portion of its middle act exploring ideas of personal autonomy in the face of dogmatism and systems of faith, and does so in a way that feels completely contextual to the journey.
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Said journey is a globetrotting trip of about 30-35 hours for those just wanting to see the key story beats and “save the world,” but there’s plenty more to do besides and a lot more to discover about this curious world and those that live in it. I spent about 60 hours all up getting the absolute most out of the game, which impressively continues to expand all the way up to, and beyond, the credits. Occasionally-heavy narrative moments aside, there’s a degree of whimsy here that’s emblematic of the Mana series and makes existing in this world feel warm and inviting all the way through, and really encourages taking the time.
There’s definitely a huge tendency towards “fetch” style side quests, with most folks you meet seemingly having saved up all their worst errands to ask them of the one group in their entire world that is guaranteed to be doing something much more important. There are some enjoyable arcs off the beaten path though – like an ongoing quest series where you look for spots in the environment matching certain paintings. They’re not complex but they encourage you to really explore and find new angles and views, often taking me to places I wouldn’t have otherwise known were there. They also tend to highlight Visions of Mana’s most annoying adherence to a genre trope – ruining an otherwise very flexible fast travel system by forcing you to manually sail or fly between continents any time you want to leave the one you’re on.
The nuisances of travel aside, there’s an interesting rhythm to progression in this game, a lot of it coming down to the eight elements this world is built on. As you make your way across continents, meeting new Alms and acquiring each legendary “Elemental Vessel,” not only are you give new ways to traverse – like wind-powered platforms or bridges of light – but a wealth of new options to build out your party with Visions of Mana’s unique “class” system. Here, every character is capable of equipping any of the eight Elemental Vessels, essentially offering up eight entirely different classes per character, each with unique abilities, buffs, gear and overall look.
Admittedly, my first handful of hours with Visions of Mana had me concerned that combat was also going to be too repetitive, but as I got deeper in and gained access to all of the classes while also amassing a greater library of abilities it all started to click into place. See, in this game, how you perform in battle is just as much about how you compose your party as it is about the buttons you press in the moment. That might sound obvious for an RPG, but it’s truer here more than a lot of similar games I’ve played. Without the right combinations of characters, elemental vessels, ability seeds and gear it’s possible to be completely eclipsed by enemies even within or below your level range, and vice versa with the right stuff.
And rather than gently locking your party members into particular paths or archetypes, the game actively encourages you to constantly be switching classes around and experimenting with different combinations – on higher difficulties and in tricker fights it almost becomes a puzzle of studying the enemy’s affinities and move set and building the appropriate team around them. For those less inclined toward micromanaging various builds, there’s still plenty of room to “button mash,” especially on lower difficulties, but there’s so much satisfaction in gaming every system for the best possible outcome. Plus, your ultimate reward for mastering all of these classes is a huge amount of power and flexibility to create some truly cracked builds for your New Game+ run, really emphasising this game’s steady and incredibly satisfying power climb.
Simply running around each of the game’s distinct areas is rewarding in itself as well, not just in your efforts to acquire new gear and potential, or for the way it all factors into this economy of elements, but because they all look positively lovely. Visions of Mana has to be one of my favourite examples of art triumphing over technology in a game of this scope. The game doesn’t seem to be pushing a lot of fancy effects or middleware to achieve its lush, vibrant and dynamic environments – instead, it’s simply crafted with a huge amount of effort and care with a clear vision. At almost any point in the game you could stop, look out at your surroundings and see what looks like a gorgeous bit of concept art or something you’d see on the cover of a SNES RPG classic (I’ll let you imagine what that might entail).
It’s a great melding of the kinds of designs Mana fans will be familiar with and want to see in a new entry, with slightly more modern sensibilities and razor-sharp design. Going through all of the main party’s outfit variants for each class is especially delightful with some truly outlandish gear that’s as densely-embellished as the game’s environments. The unfortunate trade-off, at least in the PS5 version’s “Quality” setting, is that performance can suffer in busy scenes and battles. It still seems to be a 60FPS target, but there are moments where it’s far below that, making the “Performance” option worth the trade-off in fidelity.
But while the visual side of things is mostly splendid, the sound design in Visions of Mana is a little less of a success. Musically, it’s decent with some memorable themes and motifs scoring big moments of story, exploration and combat, balancing out a fair few otherwise-average pieces. The voice acting, too, is competent with plenty of well-matched and well-performed scripts, but suffers from a near-total lack of lip syncing to the English audio track.
The biggest sin though, is the sheer amount of repeated lines when exploring or battling and the frequency in which they’re used. Val, for instance, has exactly two reactions to picking up a bit of Grizzly syrup – and he’ll utter either of them nearly every time you collect one, which is almost constantly. Switching your controlled party member every now and then somewhat mitigates it, but after 50-odd hours you’ll have heard some clips literally hundreds of times. I’m not kidding when I say I started hearing “Grrrizly!!” in my sleep. It’s not an uncommon criticism in these games, but it’s especially egregious here.
