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Meh, I'm over it. Still don't like Rain Reign, and my review still stands, though. This review was written on June 24th, 2019.
(I wish I could find a bigger picture in higher quality, but I've come up empty)
I give one of the most beloved games in the Mana franchise...an 83/100!
If you ask a fan of the Mana series what's generally considered the absolute best game in the series, the most common answer is one called Seiken Densetsu 3. But it also had the awful distinction of being the only mainline game in the series that never got released in the United States. This was for a number of reasons, such as being released late in the SNES's life cycle, a number of bugs that technology back then couldn't quite address, a general lack of interest in the series, and so on. But it was considered the holy grail of not just Mana games, but SNES games as a whole, to the point where devoted fans made their own English translation of the game and clamored for Nintendo or Square Enix to release it here in some capacity. But it was seen as a hopeless cause, and as the years passed, people began to lose hope for the game ever coming to the US.
That is, until now. In June of 2019, Nintendo announced that a remake of Seiken Densetsu 3, titled Trials of Mana, was not only in the works, but would also be getting a US release...and on that very day, the Collection of Mana, a game bundle that had all three original versions of Adventure, Secret, and Trials, came out on the Nintendo Switch, with Trials FINALLY receiving an official English translation after nearly two decades of being ignored! Fans went nuts, and since I was dabbling into the Mana series myself, and wanting to support the series in some capacity, I bought the Collection and played Trials about three times. It's a great game, don't get me wrong, and it definitely improved on a lot of flaws that Secret of Mana was bogged down with, but I honestly don't feel it's the masterpiece people are making it out to be. But let's see how the game holds up.
The story goes that the Mana tree is dying once again, and the Goddess sends several fairies to the world below to find someone who can restore it. All the fairies are unable to make it there save for one, due to the steady loss of magic, and the remaining fairy settles on the first person she can find. That person turns out to be chosen as the Mana Knight, who can wield the legendary Mana Sword and save the world. The thing with Trials is that instead of playing as one character, you're allowed to play as one out of six, with an additional two as your party members, and all of them have their own unique skills, strengths, weaknesses, weapons, and storylines. Whoever you choose determines the villain you fight against in-game, and while the differences between storylines aren't apparent at first, as they're mostly limited to near the end of the game, you fight different final bosses as a result. You can also upgrade your character's classes, and you can choose either a light path or a dark path. For example, with Duran, the knight character, the light path allows him to use healing spells and be more defense oriented, but his dark classes can beef up his attack strength and not only attack more than one enemy, but absolutely obliterate them with massive amounts of damage.
One thing I can definitely say that Trials has over Secret is that its sprite artwork and backgrounds are much better. The sprites are detailed but not as pixelated as Secret's did, and the colors aren't as obnoxiously bright and blinding as they were in Secret of Mana. Some of the boss sprites are especially great. I mean, where in any other game do you fight three floating clown heads in a spacial dimension or a giant blue lizard chameleon thing that hops around and underneath ice floes? It helps that the text boxes aren't see-through this time, so you don't have to squint your eyes just to read the text against a light background! Furthermore, Trials gets rid of the tedious weapon grinding, so that's a massive point in its favor. The gameplay and story progression are much more streamlined, so you never feel like the game just randomly stops at some point leaving you wondering what the hell you need to do next. I don't have much to say about the soundtrack. I mean, I liked it, but I didn't feel it was as memorable as Secret's was. I do appreciate that each enemy has its own battle theme, so the battles don't feel stale with the same music playing in the background whenever you fight a boss.
What about the characters? They're...alright. They have more personality and depth to them than Secret's did, and each of them have their own reasons for going on their journeys. You have the dutiful knight, the mischievous magician, the flirty thief, the motherly amazonian princess, so on and so forth. But honestly, I kind of feel like more could have been done with them. Riesz, the amazon princess of the kingdom Laurent, is solely focused on finding her brother and cares about her subjects, but we never see anything of her beyond that. Duran is a knight who wants to get revenge on the magician that killed his friends and wounded his pride, but again, he doesn't really have anything beyond that. All of the main characters are like this, and while some of the villains are more interesting with their backstories, with the exception of Malocchio who's basically just a flat villain who never does anything, they're still your typical evil villains who want the holy power for their own purposes, whether its to take over the world or achieve immortality. I've heard people praise this game for having great characters that have a lot of depth, but I'm not really seeing it here. Other games I know have done these archetypes better. But for all I know, maybe the remake will address this and have the characters interact more, or maybe expand on their personalities and backstories. I mean, I like them fine, but I wish the game had fleshed them all out more.
But even with these flaws, Trials of Mana is a genuinely fun game with a ton of replay value. You have to go through three playthroughs just to see most of the game's content, and the number of ways you can arrange your main party, both by party members and the classes you upgrade them to are limitless. There's a ton of possibilities to choose from, so depending on the choices you make, you won't feel like the game plays the exact same way, even if it feels like it does when you first start. I say Trials, while not perfect, absolutely deserved to finally come to the US, and to all the fans who clamored for Square Enix to finally release it, pat yourselves on the back. You wanted it, and now your wish has been granted. The remake is due to come out in a year, and I'm looking forward to it! (Though I admit, I'm not a fan of the overly revealing costumes for the girl characters with the exception of Charlotte, since her costumes are fine)
(I wish I could find a bigger picture in higher quality, but I've come up empty)
I give one of the most beloved games in the Mana franchise...an 83/100!
If you ask a fan of the Mana series what's generally considered the absolute best game in the series, the most common answer is one called Seiken Densetsu 3. But it also had the awful distinction of being the only mainline game in the series that never got released in the United States. This was for a number of reasons, such as being released late in the SNES's life cycle, a number of bugs that technology back then couldn't quite address, a general lack of interest in the series, and so on. But it was considered the holy grail of not just Mana games, but SNES games as a whole, to the point where devoted fans made their own English translation of the game and clamored for Nintendo or Square Enix to release it here in some capacity. But it was seen as a hopeless cause, and as the years passed, people began to lose hope for the game ever coming to the US.
That is, until now. In June of 2019, Nintendo announced that a remake of Seiken Densetsu 3, titled Trials of Mana, was not only in the works, but would also be getting a US release...and on that very day, the Collection of Mana, a game bundle that had all three original versions of Adventure, Secret, and Trials, came out on the Nintendo Switch, with Trials FINALLY receiving an official English translation after nearly two decades of being ignored! Fans went nuts, and since I was dabbling into the Mana series myself, and wanting to support the series in some capacity, I bought the Collection and played Trials about three times. It's a great game, don't get me wrong, and it definitely improved on a lot of flaws that Secret of Mana was bogged down with, but I honestly don't feel it's the masterpiece people are making it out to be. But let's see how the game holds up.
The story goes that the Mana tree is dying once again, and the Goddess sends several fairies to the world below to find someone who can restore it. All the fairies are unable to make it there save for one, due to the steady loss of magic, and the remaining fairy settles on the first person she can find. That person turns out to be chosen as the Mana Knight, who can wield the legendary Mana Sword and save the world. The thing with Trials is that instead of playing as one character, you're allowed to play as one out of six, with an additional two as your party members, and all of them have their own unique skills, strengths, weaknesses, weapons, and storylines. Whoever you choose determines the villain you fight against in-game, and while the differences between storylines aren't apparent at first, as they're mostly limited to near the end of the game, you fight different final bosses as a result. You can also upgrade your character's classes, and you can choose either a light path or a dark path. For example, with Duran, the knight character, the light path allows him to use healing spells and be more defense oriented, but his dark classes can beef up his attack strength and not only attack more than one enemy, but absolutely obliterate them with massive amounts of damage.
One thing I can definitely say that Trials has over Secret is that its sprite artwork and backgrounds are much better. The sprites are detailed but not as pixelated as Secret's did, and the colors aren't as obnoxiously bright and blinding as they were in Secret of Mana. Some of the boss sprites are especially great. I mean, where in any other game do you fight three floating clown heads in a spacial dimension or a giant blue lizard chameleon thing that hops around and underneath ice floes? It helps that the text boxes aren't see-through this time, so you don't have to squint your eyes just to read the text against a light background! Furthermore, Trials gets rid of the tedious weapon grinding, so that's a massive point in its favor. The gameplay and story progression are much more streamlined, so you never feel like the game just randomly stops at some point leaving you wondering what the hell you need to do next. I don't have much to say about the soundtrack. I mean, I liked it, but I didn't feel it was as memorable as Secret's was. I do appreciate that each enemy has its own battle theme, so the battles don't feel stale with the same music playing in the background whenever you fight a boss.
What about the characters? They're...alright. They have more personality and depth to them than Secret's did, and each of them have their own reasons for going on their journeys. You have the dutiful knight, the mischievous magician, the flirty thief, the motherly amazonian princess, so on and so forth. But honestly, I kind of feel like more could have been done with them. Riesz, the amazon princess of the kingdom Laurent, is solely focused on finding her brother and cares about her subjects, but we never see anything of her beyond that. Duran is a knight who wants to get revenge on the magician that killed his friends and wounded his pride, but again, he doesn't really have anything beyond that. All of the main characters are like this, and while some of the villains are more interesting with their backstories, with the exception of Malocchio who's basically just a flat villain who never does anything, they're still your typical evil villains who want the holy power for their own purposes, whether its to take over the world or achieve immortality. I've heard people praise this game for having great characters that have a lot of depth, but I'm not really seeing it here. Other games I know have done these archetypes better. But for all I know, maybe the remake will address this and have the characters interact more, or maybe expand on their personalities and backstories. I mean, I like them fine, but I wish the game had fleshed them all out more.
But even with these flaws, Trials of Mana is a genuinely fun game with a ton of replay value. You have to go through three playthroughs just to see most of the game's content, and the number of ways you can arrange your main party, both by party members and the classes you upgrade them to are limitless. There's a ton of possibilities to choose from, so depending on the choices you make, you won't feel like the game plays the exact same way, even if it feels like it does when you first start. I say Trials, while not perfect, absolutely deserved to finally come to the US, and to all the fans who clamored for Square Enix to finally release it, pat yourselves on the back. You wanted it, and now your wish has been granted. The remake is due to come out in a year, and I'm looking forward to it! (Though I admit, I'm not a fan of the overly revealing costumes for the girl characters with the exception of Charlotte, since her costumes are fine)
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