July 30, 2024 - Reading time: 2 minutes - Category: thoughts
I played the excellent Trials of Mana remake last year and really enjoyed it, so when Visions of Mana was announced I added it to my wishlist immediately. A demo recently dropped, so I gave it a try.
Visions of Mana is... alright. It looks incredible, the art style is fantastic. The voice acting is a little goofy, which I expected. The character designs are kind of dumb. The gameplay feels just okay. Combat is flashy, with a ton of particle effects flying all over the place, but also feels a little clunky and slow. Movement outside of battle also doesn't feel great, and they seem to have gone for a much larger world with a mount, and it leads to a feeling of emptiness while moving through the world that was absent in Trials of Mana.
The demo drops you off in what appears to be the late early game, and drops a bunch of mechanics on you that aren't fully explained. I got the hang of it, with the elemental affinities being a rock, paper, scissors matchup against the enemies, but there are a ton of other mechanics like classes, skills, and abilities that I didn't really gel with right away. I'm sure in the full game it'll be a gentler introduction.
Visions of Mana is still on my wishlist, but right now it's not a day one buy, and maybe not a year one buy either. I'll probably pick it up when it hits the $25-$30 price point, considering all the other games I want to play.