Visions of Mana

This story sucks!!! Ok I'm going to try and leave this review without to many spoilers, though you might actually wish I had included them but basically if you care about story in your RPG then this game is not for you. The best description I can think of is that the writers had the story almost completed and then a couple of days before time to turn it in for finale edits the game lead came and said "The story isn't dark enough, make it so the Alms have to be sacrificed at the end of their journey." This isn't a spoiler since you learn this in the Prologue. Now this has been done before, FFX says hi, but the reason it feels this was shoe horned in is that its not really treated with the gravity it deserves. The whole "Good of the many vs good of the one" is a heavy subject yet this game treats it like a its just a throw away plot point. Sons, daughters, brothers, sisters are chosen for this and yet their villages and family are just like "Good for you! Now have a fun trip." No somber moment, no tearful goodbye, no real reflection that the person is traveling to their death. Even the Alms themselves never really reflect that they are cheerfully, and I mean that literally, going to their deaths. Even the spirits that choose the Alms don't treat it with any respect that they are again literally choosing a person to be sacrificed for the world. They are just like "I like the cut of your jib pal, you go die for everyone." I honestly kept expecting that we would learn that they and the mana goddess were the real villains but nope they are still the "good guys". Speaking of villains why are they the only ones that have actual real reactions to this? Every time one of the villains was talking to a party member I was like "you know what, he's actually got a good point" and not because they are deep, grey type villains with multiple layers, one of them is the classic, mustache twirling type, but because again they are the only ones that are even remotely questioning any of this. To return to my shoe horned in theory its like when the writers were told about the whole Alm death thing they hadn't written the villain dialogue yet so they tried to address it there. Honestly I can't recommend this game unless it is like 70+ percent off and even then just if you are a huge Mana fan and want to see the iconic enemies and some old fan favorite characters voiced and in 3D.