Visions of Mana

(This review contains minor story spoilers, major ramblings, occasional crying) As a fan of the Mana series, I had high hopes for this game. An all-new Mana game with involvement from original creator Koichi Ishii sounded almost too good to be true. And since the 2020 remake of "Trials of Mana" had turned out truly excellent, we had good reason to get hype for the series' first mainline release in almost 20 years. When I finally did get my hands on it, I sadly spent most of my playtime feeling varying degrees of disappointment, annoyance and frustration. First, there is the story (again: minor spoilers ahead)...the premise is strange as hell, and from the very start left a sour taste that never went away and just made everything feel "off". I really hated the idea of the mana tree being some kind of blood god that requires humans to sacrifice their souls to it in order to keep the world from falling apart. And then you learn that most folks in this twisted world are fine with this and actually more than willing to give up their life for the greater good, seeing it as an honour and their sacred duty. That is some cult ♥♥♥♥. The writing and characters are unfortunately pretty shallow and one-dimensional. Ironically the one character who starts developing a different view on things ends up paying for it not much later. There is a ton of dialogue between the party members in this game, but a lot of it is redundant. Just a lot of repetition and filler, presented to you via a multitude of cutscenes. Oh boy, the cutscenes. I must have spent half of my playtime watching cutscenes. I was aware you could skip them, but I foolishly kept thinking something interesting or important or maybe even funny might be said. I was wrong. They just contained the same well-estalblished informations over and over again, and they just NEVER stopped coming. Quite a few times, a cutscene would end and I would regain control...only so I could walk a whopping three meters to the next flippin cutscene. It was exhausting. Occasionally, the cutscenes would be rudely interrupted by some gameplay, which consists of lots of walking, some jumping, and a few fights here and there. Unfortunately, and this is probably the game's biggest flaw, the combat did not feel good to me. It was a drag, and I never looked forward to it. In the previous game "Trials of Mana", it was a ton of fun to quickly chain light and heavy attacks together and "cancel" them into different levels of class strikes almost like supers in a fighting game. Compared to that, the combat here feels downright sluggish and even more mashy, because enemies tend to take a lot more hits. Every attack, melee or magic, just felt weak and unsatisfying. I kept investing in abilities and the elemental plot, waiting for the point in the game where my characters would start to feel powerful, or the fighting would start to feel good, and that moment just never came. I thought I must have missed something along the way, but guides and walkthroughs I checked near the end of my playthrough did not confirm this suspicion. Most of the time I felt annoyed while fighting, and the boss fights especially were simply not fun. Besides taking too long to kill, enemies knock you out of your attacks a lot and constantly knock you away from them so you have to close the gap again and again. And on top of that, your CPU-controlled companions just keep getting themselves hurt and destroyed in the dumbest ways possible. I have watched CPU allies which had their behavior set to "survive" (the most defensive, evasion-focused setting) get absolutely wrecked after standing calmly in place while enemies charged their attacks right in front of their face. The game's strongest suit is definitely its graphics; environments do indeed look pretty impressive, detailed and beautiful. I also liked the concept of characters choosing an elemental class and gaining special abilities and spells as well as a unique appearance based on that element. Character designs, on the other hand, were rather hit and miss...I did [i]not[/i] vibe with that weird ass cat man and his goofy Prince Valium haircut. And, of course, there is music in this game, and the best way to describe it would be "pleasant". It's nice and pretty and all, but I didn't really notice it too often. Most of it seemed to just blend together into one big mush of flutes and violins, overall failing to give each region a distinct musical personality. Some of the boss themes were actually the most notable pieces here. It is of course not a [i]bad[/i] soundtrack at all, it's just nothing special either. There is simply none of the impact or gravitas of the SNES era soundtracks here...and a lot of the time your party members are talking over the music anyway. Visions of Mana even in its best moments was still just an average game for me, and that's very unfortunate because it's a game I was looking forward to and that I wanted to be amazing. It is, despite all its shortcomings, a game that you can tell had some love and effort put into it. It means so well and tries so hard to entertain us and be epic, and it SHOULD have been epic, but ultimately fails to rise to the challenge. While I can definitely see myself going back and giving it another try some time, I'm not expecting that my opinion will change a great deal.

Visions of Mana is like ordering your favorite meal and realizing they just changed the plate. The combat? Solid and fun. The story? It’s… there. The characters? Well, they might as well be strangers on a bus. Endgame/Final chapter? It’s the same old stuff, just with a fresh coat of paint. Did I have fun? Absolutely! Would I recommend it? Only if you're a die-hard Mana fan—and even then, maybe wait for a sale.

中途半端の一言に尽きる。 ストーリーのテーマ設定は大人向きだが、表現を子ども向けの枠内に収めようとして消化しきれずに失敗しているのが、このゲームの最大の問題。ほかにも、種明かしを終盤まで引っ張る割に内容が拍子抜けだったり、散々迷惑をまき散らした人物を美談で終わらせようとしたりと、最初から最後までモヤモヤし続ける。 主要人物の掘り下げも浅く、特に主人公に感情移入できなかった。むしろ他のプレイアブルキャラのほうが好感が持てるくらいで、ぶっちゃけ強制的に主人公を使わされる場面以外は可能な限り視界に入らないようにさえしていた。 システム面も出来が悪く、ストーリー上マップ移動を制限する必要がないのに、いったん乗り物に乗らないと別の大陸に移動できない、その乗り物の呼び出しのたびにカットシーンが入り、スキップできるまでラグがあるので無駄な時間を取られる、建物に入らないとサイドクエストの有無が確認できないなど、細かな部分でイライラが溜まる仕様。 戦闘はリメイク版聖剣伝説 3 Trials of Mana と同程度で悪くはないが、一部に特定のビルド、パーティー、スキルの発動順でないとクリア不可能なコンテンツがあり、これもパズルを解く楽しさというより単純なイライラ要素に成り下がっている。 強くてニューゲームはあるものの、これらの苦痛に耐えるほどの報酬がある訳でもないので、有り体にいって時間の無駄。 良い点を挙げておくと、カリナ、パルミナ、ジュリがかわいい。多くのモブや一部のボスもかわいい。モートレアはギャグ枠。町と一部の戦闘を除いて主人公不要。 ストーリーやキャラクター、あるいはシステムや戦闘は、いずれも改善しようと思えばできる範囲で、どちらか一方だけでも改善されれば十分楽しめるゲームになっていただけに、勿体なさが残る。シリーズのファンとして、「おすすめしない」を付けるのは忍びないものの、面白さとイライラのバランスを考えると 55/100 点といったところ。ナンバリングを埋める以外の目的でのプレイはお勧めしにくい。

混乱的核心排布：最核心的职业混搭gameplay居然给排到到主线完结之后； 混乱的中心思想：献祭还是创业深度思考，被天降封印人情感故事通通打成了小丑； 混乱的幻化功能：巨难看的职业套装搭配无法幻化的人物外形，偏偏武器能幻化； 混乱的场景搭配：我居然在用火元素打光之迷宫boss的weak； 混乱的支线设计：接大世界的单，争当环世界跑断腿牛马人； 混乱的情感激发：孩子们，扣1真的没用。 除了工业堆料出的场景美术，你完全找不到一丝JRPG特有的那些细腻感， 你能在《圣剑传说5》里感受到的，更多是网易临时团队留下的一片混乱。

got this game to swing a big sword great game to swing a big sword 180 hours. still swinging big sword.

这个游戏，是由万代、卡普空等日厂的前员工，组成的网易樱花工作室，和SE，联合出品的，半开放世界日式rpg。是圣剑传说的续作。 这个游戏的过场动画锁30帧，我需要自己下载解锁帧数的mod，才能看高清流畅的60帧过场动画。 游戏一股廉价二游味，不是说二游不好，而是廉价。廉价在场景建模，通马桶的支线，以及恶心人的剧情。 操作手感一坨，特别是跳跃，有非常恶心的前后摇。 网易滚回去做你的手游去，别来pc、主机沾边。光角色好看有个J8用，我们pc玩家不吃你这一套。你战斗、剧情垃圾，整个游戏就是一坨。我要是喜欢你这些好看的角色，为什么不去玩奇迹暖暖，而是玩你这个b游戏？ 新人，如果你是奔着角色好看来的，不如去逛Pixiv站。这款游戏只有角色好看，其他一无是处。

Nossa esse jogo foi feito com muito amor e carinho, tem muito capricho nele! Não sou novata na saga mana, mas esse jogo foi um dos melhores que joguei da saga! Me divertir muito e sentir cada emoção! Os personagens são muito carismáticos, me apeguei em cada um deles, difícil deixar um de lado! Tem variações de builds e combinações isso deixou o jogo muito rico! O mapa é muito divertido de se explorar, é bem colorido e cada lugar que eu passava ficava com os olhos brilhando por ver tanta beleza! Esse jogo ficou aqui guardado no meu coração, deixou ele bem quentinho! Superou minhas expectativas, ele é mais incrível do que eu imaginava antes de jogar! É uma pena que não tenha uma tradução Br, tive que baixar de fan Vale muito a pena!