Visions of Mana – Did you know, the first game of the series Mana Originally named… Final Fantasy Adventure Are not? (not to be confused with Final Fantasy Legendthis version will later become the line… SaGa!).

Visions of Mana is the newest game in the series Manaand it can be said that it is a completely “new” game, not a remake, nor the first “spin-off” in nearly 20 years (not including games only available in Japan such as Rise of Mana).

The responsibility of reviving the game series is huge, so what? Visions of Mana Can it “carry” the brand? The following review from MarkGame will give us the answer.

YOU WILL LIKE

Combat is a treat for JRPG fans

Although originally a spin-off game of Final Fantasygame series Mana tried to abandon traditional turn-based gameplay, replacing it with a real-time combat mechanism – even when the game was still struggling to run on… GameBoy.

Visions of Mana is not an exception, when players freely control characters to run and jump freely on the battlefield, slash swords, use magic, dodge attacks, etc.

In fact, if you look at it as a whole, fighting in Visions of Mana did not reach the same level NieR: Automata – with classy smooth dodging moves, but the gameplay is a bit… outdated and basic, although the game maker has “enhanced” players with moving moves like Double Jump or Air Dash to do Increase combat speed.

Regardless, the combat mechanics of Visions of Mana stands out in another way: customization.

More specifically, in the world of Qi'Diel there will be artifacts called Elemental Vessels, these artifacts contain the primordial energy of each element. The special thing is that any character (there are a total of 5 characters that the player can use) can “change class” by equipping a different elemental Vessel, and from there also change… profession. .

For example, our guy Val will initially be a normal sword-slashing warrior, but installing the Sylphid (wind) vessel will turn into a Rune Knight and of course have the ability to engage in close combat and deal extreme magic damage. But if you equip him with the vessel Luna (moon), Val will turn into an Aegis with “huge” defense, along with many completely new internal skills in the skill table – mainly increasing defense ability. dwell.

These professions are specific to each person, for example, if the same Luna vessel is inserted into Morley, it will produce Nightblade, with a special ability to activate effects when dealing critical damage. If you include the initial “waste” position without Vessel installed, each person has 9 positions, with a total of 45 occupations, with different supporting skills.

This not only helps players have a comfortable customization in combat, but is also relatively important. At easier difficulty levels, the player can “spam” random attacks and still win, however at higher difficulty levels, the boss monster is extremely strong, and the player needs to find its weakness. to rebalance your career accordingly.

Furthermore, each spell learned in this profession can… be carried over to another profession to use, increasing the customization and creativity of the player's gameplay (or if you are lazier, you can look up ” vision of mana optimal build” on YouTube is fine!)

Recently, linear JRPG games seem to have lost something quite typical of old JRPGs, which is the requirement for players to carefully prepare items, professions, skills, and magic before “punching”. ” a certain boss monster, and if you accidentally fail, you will have to go out and reconsider for a while to optimize.

Instead, the game will be more “instant”, mainly focusing on the player's skills to dodge, block, and parry in each battle, specifically by “locking” positions. of a character, or by simplifying the skill tree, almost making “leveling” just mean increasing stats.

combat mechanics of Visions of Mana stands out in another way: customization

Therefore, a game like Visions of Mana brings a feeling of excitement to prepare, test new formations, new skills, learn weaknesses and strengths to fight “difficult” bosses, truly scratching people's JRPG “itch”. wrote, and probably also gives many “nostalgic” JRPG fans, especially when the boss monsters in Visions of Mana There are relatively unique mechanisms, making these fiery battles more exciting!

Another plus point is that the game plays quite smoothly both on Steam Deck and on PC, with a stable, smooth 60 FPS. However, the game has a minus point: the AI ​​is relatively poor. With difficult bosses, the player must constantly switch characters and give orders, otherwise the supporting character will suddenly die because of “stupidly stepping” on an obvious wide-range move. just to add an attack or two to “scratch the itch”.

Eye-catching graphics!

One of the strengths of Visions of Mana The graphics are quite eye-catching, fresh, the colors are radiant, and moving across the vast fields and towering mountains gives the writer a unique grandeur and vastness.

The boss monsters are described beautifully and in detail, the characters are drawn in a very soulful and emotional anime style, and especially the color scheme between the scenes is simply extremely soothing and satisfying. , just look at it and it's beautiful!

This is necessary, because you will have to go back and forth between places a lot, do side quests, search for treasure chests, ingredients, etc. It would be terrible if you had to “suffer” the scenery. “painful, painful” between each move, right?

However, the writer evaluates that the character movements in combat and in scenes are still relatively stiff, not yet polished and smooth, as well as in some places the design seems a bit “lazy” when almost ” copy-paste” exactly the same.

One of the strengths of Visions of Mana The graphics are relatively eye-catching, fresh, and the colors are radiant

YOU WILL HATE

The plot is like… “bran pot”!

In this world of Qi'Diel, there is an ancient tree called Mana Tree, which maintains balance in the world. Every four years, a fairy will come to each village to choose a virgin to be “Alm”, and this person will be accompanied by a “soul guardian” to travel to the Mana Tree and dedicate her body to the ancient tree. this world, otherwise the world will be devastated.

Each village will have to “hand over” an Alm, the Earth village will have an Alm of Earth, the Fire village will have an Alm of Fire. If a person runs away from this duty, disaster will befall the village they live in, and natural disasters will occur throughout the world corresponding to the element that Alm does not come to dedicate himself to.

Players follow Val, a spirit guardian of the Fire Village, and his childhood friend Hinna, as the two wait for the fairy to “judge” who will be the jinchuu…, fight, sacrifice. this year's economy.

Unsurprisingly, Hinna is the chosen one, and the two set off on a path of sacrifice to preserve balance in the world, as well as ensure the safety of their village. Gradually, they went to other villages, recruited more teams (basically other Alms) to set out to “sacrifice” for the great cause…

If you feel “this scene is so familiar, I've seen it somewhere before”, you are probably a die-hard fan of the movie. Final Fantasy Xor Tales of Symphoniabut the similarity only reaches… halfway, after that the plot becomes a bland “pot of bran”.

The first strange thing is that at first almost everyone seemed quite… eager to go to the sacrifice, and the villagers were not surprised at all, even congratulating the families chosen to be Alm, just like that. This world is all holy. Fortunately, this was somewhat pointed out near the end of the game, however the writer feels that these explained events are just for “show”, done “over the top” and do not have much weight.

Because the team is all Alm, people who are determined to “sacrifice for the cause”, almost the entire team does not have much so-called “character development”, everyone seems to be a saint with their own characters. just different personalities, making the bond between the team feel extremely shallow.

Sometimes, the characters even have quite opposite expressions in two adjacent scenes to the point of laughter. For example, while walking on the road, it “seemed” like the team started to show that they were still a little scared about being sacrificed, and wondered if this was the only path?

Suddenly, in the next scene, Hinna felt extremely “excited” when she and her friends went on the pilgrimage to her death, as if that story had never been told before.

Even in the middle of the game, a rather unexpected event happened (which the writer will not reveal). This event should have had a huge impact on the entire team, however the writer hardly felt any change in the team members themselves, they were still happy and cheering. We've gone all the way together, maybe now the goal seems “a little different”.

When the plot is shallow, patchy, lacks consistency, and comes with an ending that feels forced and a bit rushed, the writer will have a relatively negative view and give it a very low rating.

And the writer really didn't like the ending Visions of Manabut I won't go into too much detail, I just want to say that I feel like playing the past 35 hours was a waste of effort and didn't get anything worthwhile in return!

For JRPG enthusiasts like the writer, a “patchy” plot is acceptable, a shallow plot can also be forgiven. However, when the plot is both shallow, patchy, lacking consistency, and comes with an ending that feels forced and a bit rushed, the writer will have a relatively negative view and give it a very low rating.

The world is empty

Even though the world of Visions of Mana very beautiful and eye-catching, however an outstanding problem is that it feels too empty, repetitive and lifeless.

What is repeated here is not the scenery, but the pitifully small diversity of flora and fauna.

Not only is there a lack of diversity in monsters for players to “mine”, but the variety of items dropped on the map is also miserably low, to the point where the writer almost doesn't want to pick up items on the map anymore, because Probably 50% of it will be “Grizzly Syrup”, but if you don't collect it, you can't because Grizzly stores sell quite 'delicious' stuff.

As for the side quests that help explore the world, they can be summed up in two words: boring and repetitive…

In general, the world of Visions of Mana It's in the category of “good paint” but inside there's almost nothing worth mentioning, it's worth making players “wow” with excitement when they discover a certain corner, or solve a surprising puzzle to find a For example, treasure chests with rare items, which are abundant in many games Mana old.

world of Visions of Mana very beautiful and eye-catching, however an outstanding problem is that it feels too empty, repetitive and lifeless