I really appreciate Square Enix taking risks to revive dormant franchises with new entries while also continuing its flagship Final Fantasy series. Over the past few years, we’ve gotten Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, SaGa: Emerald Beyond, Star Ocean: The Divine Force, and Theatrhythm Final Bar Line. Now the Mana series is the latest one to get Square Enix’s treatment with Visions of Mana.
After about 10 hours with the game, I’ve come to realize that it takes a lot of inspiration from its real-time combat and open-world RPG contemporaries like Tales, Xenoblade, and modern Final Fantasy. But what makes Visions of Mana stand out is its excellent class system that offers unrivaled flexibility and unique combat mechanics. It’s a different approach to classes compared to past Mana games that had more linear progression, but it allows Visions of Mana to stick to its roots. The game also extends this with a simple plot with some relatively predictable twists.
Old roots, new story
Games in the Mana series always share similar plots, typically involving a magical tree, and Visions of Mana is no different. Here, it follows a young boy named Val, who is chosen as the Soul Guard and must make the pilgrimage to the Mana Tree. Along the way, he also must protect “Alms,” special residents in each village who have been chosen to sacrifice their lives to the tree in order to keep the world safe. It’s a rather simple plot, but it immediately sets up the stakes and gets straight to the point. There’s no slow burn that takes forever to know what the protagonist’s goal is, and I really appreciate that.
The story has been somewhat predictable so far. RPGs with religious tones or themes surrounding tradition usually have characters who start to doubt the original mission. Visions of Mana certainly falls into these tropes, but its cast of characters is at least charming enough — with a surprising amount of depth — to keep the story entertaining.
Val and his childhood friend, Hiina, the Alm of Fire, are your happy-go-lucky and vaguely romantic RPG duo. However, their companions, Careena and Morley, are much more interesting. Careena is a dragon/human hybrid who struggles with her own inner self-worth, while Morley is a bipedal cat who carries a deep guilt due to a catastrophic event in his home village. These were enticing starting points for their character development arcs, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how they’ll continue to grow throughout the rest of the game.
Switching it up
Through my journey so far, I’ve collected three Spirit Vessels: The Sylphid Boomerang, Luna Globe, and Undine Flask. These give the party access to various job classes, similar to the Fire Emblem games. Vision of Mana’s spin on it, however, is that each Vessel grants a unique class to every character. This makes unlocking new classes exciting every time I find a new Vessel. It was like opening up a present on my birthday as a kid—I didn’t know what to expect.
The classes are also different enough, with a variety of unique effects and abilities, that it’s worth switching them constantly in order to experiment. Thankfully, there’s also no limit to how many times you can switch. For example, the Luna Globe unlocks the Aegis class for Val, letting him utilize the power of the moon to raise his defensive stat, while the same vessel unlocks the Moon Charterer for Careena, letting her increase the critical hit rates of her teammates. Not only are the classes diverse, but they all have unique aesthetics, which lends a nice touch of individuality to each character.
Additionally, while innate Class Abilities, like one that automatically raises the party’s magic defense in battle by 5%, can’t be transferred over to different classes, new attacks and moves can. This form of progression feels incredibly natural, and I don’t feel like I’m just wasting skill points when investing in certain classes.
So far, I’m having a good time with Visions of Mana, and I can’t wait to go back and continue the story to collect new Spirit Vessels and unlock more classes. This system feels faithful to the class mechanics of the series while also trying to do new things with it. I’m also hoping that the story can throw a few left-field plot twists my way to keep me interested, as I’ve seen most of them coming so far.
Visions of Mana launches for PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S on August 29.
