PC | PS5 | XBOX SERIES |
HOW I PLAYED: I played on PS5 with a physical copy.
STORY — 12/20
INTRO
The game introduces you to the basics of movement and combat through a prologue that sets the stage for the main game. This was not overly lengthy or tedious. I was immediately impressed by how good the movement felt and wanted to see where the story would take me next.
CUTSCENES
There are no separate CGI cinematics (do those even exist anymore?) I don't know, graphics have gotten so good. The cutscenes use the main game engine and are abundant throughout the adventure. The majority of the time you'll just see scenes with character dialogue but there were some cool moments of whole cities or villages panned out to give a sense of placement in the world.
WORLD BUILDING
There are like five buildings in the entire game that you can enter and they are tied to story progression. I missed being able to walk into peoples homes and steal things out of their kitchen and bedrooms like in other RPGs. Sometimes I just want to retreat from the elements and chill in a cozy church or talk to the innkeeper. I definitely missed all of this and as a result I felt the game's world felt less lived-in. Like I was visiting a wax museum or Disney Land where everything is a facade. Empty and kind of sad.
There are tons of side quests you can chose to take on. Luckily, I didn't have to round up any cats but my errands weren't exactly worthy of a novel either. Gather mushrooms, kill 5 of this type of enemy, deliver these things to these people. You know the drill.
I think one of my favourite things about this game was how well the characters interact with each other. Remember Final Fantasy XV how they'd chat amongst themselves and make remarks while they ran around? Imagine that but way more fleshed out and sophisticated. There's a consistent banter between your party for the whole adventure; they'll be discussing the plot and make comments about the environments and even events from cutscenes. This was really impressive and lended itself in a big way towards to overall immersion of the game.
OVERALL STORY
Anyone who's played Tales of Symphonia or Final Fantasy X will remember their pilgrimages with the chosen very fondly. Visions of Mana is kind of like that but flipped on it's head. You are the sole guardian this time around and you journey with the "Alms" who are chosen every four years from villages around the globe to represent an element. Your goal is to bring them to the Mana Tree so they can restore balance to the world. This was unoriginal enough and wasn't done any favours by the rest of the adventure. A predictable plotline and an egregiously over padded and drawn out final 10 hours that I speed-ran through to get to the credits. This was a 30 hour game that had I not chosen to pickup any side quests should have been 18-20 hours tops. There was definitely some charm to the story and I grew to like the characters but this is by far the game's weakest link.
GRAPHICS — 15/15
CHARACTER MODELS
The game goes for the anime / cartoonish look rather than photo realistic and everyone looked incredible! The costumes showcased an unbelievable amount of detail and design. Facial expressions were believable and everyone definitely had a distinct personality.
There are a total of 45 different classes in the game. Each character has a designated class at the beginning and a different one for each of the 8 elemental vessels. I found this to be deeply impressive on the part of the artists as every single one of these 45 classes has a completely unique look and unique weapons it can wield. There's an immense amount of variety of play styles and visual eye candy here.
ENVIRONMENTS
I haven't been this impressed with a game world since Elden Ring first came out. I must have spent hours just standing in place and panning the camera around. Wow!! The game looks amazing. Draw distances are huge and colours and textures are abundant.
AUDIO — 12/15
AMBIENCE
I'm a sucker for flutes. There's something about them that fits the RPG, adventure, Tolkien-esque vibe so well. These were some of my favourite tracks in the game. The rest of the ambience that accompanies you is par for the course. Cute. Cozy. Magical.
BOSS MUSIC
From what I could tell, every single boss in the game had their own unique song. They were good, too. Like the game's ambience, the boss music did it's job but wasn't particularly impressive - aside from the fact that it was so diverse.
SOUND DESIGN
I felt like I was playing a mobile Casino game. You know the ones. This is a compliment, of course. The sound design was excellent and really satisfying. It matched the game really well. Punchy, exciting and energetic.
PERFORMANCE — 8/10
FRAME RATE
Even in the most chaotic battles in the game ran smooth. The game offers no graphics options, however.
STABILITY
I encountered a couple of glitches throughout my 30 hours. A party member stuck in the floor. Physics not allowing some debris to fall to the ground. Nothing that forced me to reset or lose any progress, though.
GAMEPLAY — 33/40
CONTROLS
Whether I was running, jumping, platforming or just walking through a town I always felt in control. There's a tightness and responsiveness that I think even the snobbiest FromSoftware fans would admire. It's funny because this game has no business requiring this level of finesse but I definitely appreciated either way.
Ability seed are essentially accessories in this game, they have a variety of effects from granting stats, skills, adding immunities or the ability to cause ailments and a variety of special effects. I counted 270 Ability Seeds when I looked up the Wiki. It felt like a lot when I was playing but I never could have guessed it was this bloated. Talk about decision fatigue. There comes a point when options no longer serve you and they become a chore. Initially each character can equip two of these with the option to add more slots by acquiring special items. They never felt useful or powerful and just annoyed me in the end.
MECHANICS
I found the levelling and progression system to be dull. The menus and everything looked great but it was lacking something. It wasn't satisfying. The entire party essentially levels up at the same time - even if they weren't in the battle they gain EXP which felt redundant.
I praised the diversity of the classes earlier but overall it felt like a lot of fluff. I prefer having each characters specialize in one style as opposed to all of them being able to adopt 8 progression paths - and be able switch back and forth at any time! It was too much. Like, why even bother assigning a role to the characters in the story if they actually don't mean anything?
Anyone remember collecting precursor orbs in Jak and Daxter? Well they're back! Sort of. This time they call them Grizzly syrup. These orange blobs are scattered everywhere and can be traded for healing items, mana recovery, ally revival, increased EXP and Lucre (money) gain and permanent stat increase. Some of them are placed strategically in high places forcing you to practice your parkour and platforming skills. It was surprisingly fun to go out of my way and clear these non-respawning globs off the map.
I struggled a lot with this score because the game does have some cool mechanics going in its favour but the real core stuff is poorly executed and didn't engage me.
PACING
This is where the game really exceeded my expectations. The moment to moment pacing in Visions of Mana was superb. This is because of the exceptional use of fast travel throughout the game. Not only can you fast travel back to any town you've visited from anywhere at any time, you can fast travel to specific locations within the towns. Need to stock up on healing items? Select your town and then select from a list of locations within to town to be transported to. This was a real delight and kept the gameplay going at such a high pace.
As for the pacing of the game overall - I don't have such nice things to say. The story was predictable. Filler was so obvious and all of the dungeons ended just as they started to get interesting. There was a massive lack of scale and scope for me personally that I have enjoyed in so many other JRPGs. For example: once you acquire your flying mount you can basically see the entire world on screen at once. It feels tiny! I remember PS1 RPGs that were bigger.
UI/UE
You know me. If I don't notice it then it did its job.
BOSS QUALITY
The boss encounters were frequent enough and provided a modest challenge. I thought the designs were cool and they came in many different shapes and sizes. Most of the mechanics were repeated: watch out for the big red area on the ground, jump and smash the attack button. Only one boss in the game stood out for me as having a unique arena and mechanics.
ENEMY VARIETY
Every single new area I explored offered at least two new enemies types - right to the very end. This was awesome. There was, predictably some reskins in the game but this is to be expected from the genre.
GAMEPLAY VARIETY
Collect-a-thon. Check. Platforming. Check. Action packed real time battles with tons of spells. Check. Mount. Check. Flying mount. Check. I could keep going. There were elements from so many different games that they pulled off effortlessly.
We haven't talked about the Alms much. So, each of them is given a special item called an Elemental Vessel that represents, well, their element in question. You can use these elemental vessels not only in combat to execute special moves but also in the overworld while you explore. Each of these has their own unique mechanic to aid in you exploration. Want to ride a rocket? How about hop on a giant gust of wind? Need grappling hooks to traverse huge gaps? We got you. There was a ton of variety and I had a lot of fun.
REPLAYABILITY
There's post game content to try out once you've beat the main boss. Tons of side quests to take on. Five party members which 8 possible classes each to dabble in. And always more Grizzly syrup to go out and collect.
BONUS — 0/3
OVERALL — 80/100
GOOD
Visions of Mana My initial impressions of this game were that of utter enchantment and fascination. I couldn't believe how good the environments looked. The controls felt like something Miyazaki himself had approved and the seamlessness of exploration and battles had me totally sold. But by the time I'd gathered everyone in the party and the game had opened itself up fully I felt deeply let down. It never really got off the ground. Like a promising college athlete that fails in the pro leagues. After the honeymoon phase it just fizzled out. What I think is holding Visions of Mana back from being a truly great RPG is a great story. A game does not survive by graphics and sound design alone; it requires definition, it needs a soul.
PROS
✅ Stunning environments and character models
✅ Moment to moment pacing is magnificent
✅ Controls are very impressive
✅ Huge amount of gameplay variety
CONS
❌ The story is kind of pathetic
❌ Final 10 hours are a giant waste of time
❌ Character progression lacks focus
❌ Game lacks a sense of size and scale
TLDR: 80/100 (GOOD) Visions of Mana is a visually stunning RPG with exceptional environments, detailed character models, and fluid controls that make exploration and combat highly enjoyable. The game excels in moment-to-moment pacing, offering diverse gameplay mechanics, from platforming to real-time battles and exploration-enhancing abilities. However, its weak, predictable story and lack of world depth hold it back, making the experience feel hollow over time. The final stretch is unnecessarily drawn out, and character progression lacks meaningful impact. While it offers variety and smooth mechanics, Visions of Mana ultimately fails to deliver the depth and soul needed for a truly great RPG.
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