Visions of Mana Steam Charts & Stats

Good game

4/5 fun combat average story with an ending that felt short

It's a fun game. It's a shame Square refuses to acknowledge it's existence.

This game is incredibly gorgeous. It's a breathtaking blend of painterly textures with semi-realistic lighting that calls back to the prerendered games of Square's past. It's so pretty to look at, that it's hard to care about any of its shortcomings. The combat might be a bit basic and the story isn't treading new ground, but the characters have good chemistry in line with the "Tales of" series of games that much of this title pulls inspiration from. TBH, I'm mostly leaving a review to say that it's a shame the studio that made this was shut down immediately after this game was released. They deserved better considering how much effort was on display here. Considering the simplicity of previous entrees in the Mana series, this is a huge improvement across all areas and is definitely a step in the right direction. Basically, if you want a fun action JRPG with a cute little story and a gorgeous world, buy it.

I really wish we could give games something in between recommended and not recommended on Steam, because while this game definitely has elements some will appreciate it, it's really hard to "recommend it" to any but a very particular crowd. Essentially, this game is very mid. It's the kind of game that would have been considered good 20 years ago, but we've all grown to expect more from the genre, especially from Square Enix. On the positive side, this game is aesthetically an absolute gem. A bright, colorful fantasy world, with a very lively world and a charming, colorful cast of characters. It's exactly what you'd expect from the Mana series. The game also has a pretty rich class system with lots of options for customization for your party, but it's not something you have to think deeply about unless you crank up the difficulty. On the negative side, the gameplay loop is an extremely run of the mill action RPG. Go from point A to B, beat up some bad guys in between, maybe find a treasure chest or two along the way or complete a side quest, go buy the next best equipment at the shop, rinse, repeat. If you've played any JRPG since the 90's, you've experienced this before. The combat system is fine; if you liked Trials of Mana, you'll like this too. Passable but not trilling. A so-so RPG can absolutely be redeemed by a great story, but unfortunately, this game does not have that. I don't know how to describe the writing in this game, but everything is very dull. Not for lack of trying; there are absolutely the bones of a great story, but it just not come together at any stage. Which is such a shame, because as I said, I really liked the characters in this game. It's almost as if the game's script just had one more draft to punch things up a bit, it'd be good, but it just doesn't do much for me. Maybe I'm just spoiled by masterclasses of JRPG storytelling like the Xenoblade games, but I don't know, I don't feel like I should have to grade games on a curve when I know there are better things out there. It probably sounds weird that I'm recommending this game, and again I'll say that there are probably people out there that will see past the flaws and enjoy it for what it is. It's not a bad game at all, it's just not a great one. It's the definition of average, and sometimes that's OK. If they make a Mana 6 (which I hope they do), I just hope that they liven up the combat and get stronger writing, because I think this series deserves it.

A really fun, though somewhat standard, fantasy adventure. The story starts off very strong with the concept of the alms and the guardian, and the twist during one of the earlier chapters is genuinely shocking. The playable characters are mostly great, and some of the dungeons are really interesting mechanically. The story loses some steam after a point, and chapter 7 is way too long in my opinion. The villain is also not the strongest, but there are some interesting scenes tied to him. The combat is fantastic as I've come to expect from the Mana series. Overall, I had a good time with this game. There's something about the Mana series that pretty much guarantees a magical experience.

I have two ENORMOUS irritations when it comes to adventure/action RPG games: 1. Games that gate keep saving only at certain places rather than in the menu or hot key. 2. Games that don't autosave. Unless I'm missing something this game has both. I was stupid and died in a battle I shouldn't have attempted because it was early and there was a super high level monster that I just wanted to try to fight. He killed me pretty easily and i was brought back about 15 minutes because I hadn't saved at one of the few spots at which the game graciously allows you to save. Whenever that happens early on, I know that at some point in the late game it'll happen and piss me off even worse so it's an instant uninstall for me. As a married guy with a kid, I don't get tons of time to game and that's totally disrespectful of my time.

interesting story if it wasn't for that it is told by an 8 year old. Gameplay is fine. lots to do. The story telling is just so bad if you like more mature dialogue.

What a beatiful mess. This is the first time I played a game where, for every aspect of it, there was something a loved and something a hated. Also, very overpriced, only pick during a sale. I never played the old Mana games but wanted something simple to play in-between sessions of more intense games like DOOM ou RE, and this game did the job. Story The story is a little darker than the other Mana games. The Mana Tree is dying and a group of choosen people (the alms) need to travel to the Mana Sanctuary to sacrifice themselves and recharge the tree and give the world more time. I found the story to be actually interesting but something that botters me is how the people of this world not just accepted this cycle as normal, but are actually happy when their brother ou daughters are choosen to be alms. I can understand the idea of getting used to how the world works and stop fighting it...but to be happy that you kid got sacrificed? I expected that to be just a thing in the starting village, since it was a tribal, isolated village, but no, everyone in that world thinks like that. Combat Simple but fun, has more skills than Trials and weapon diversity. Just two problems. One problem is that, for a combination of reasons, hitting enemies with melee attacks is way harder than it should. The character don't move foward when attacking, heavy attacks send most enemies flying away and the hitboxes are smaller than you expect. The camera also doesn't help much. The second problem is the skill tree. It's more like a skill list. Every class has a list of active and passive skills that need to be unlocked in order. Active skills can be used by any class, but passives are restricted. This gives the false idea that you have a lot of options, then you realize that most skills are just stronger versions of the basic ones. Exploration / World / Characters This game is beatiful. That was one of the main reasons I picked it. Sure combat is repetitive and most items you get from chests are useless, but the scenery compensates that. There is a lot of variation, from jungles to snowy mountains. As you progress in the game you find items that unlock both combat and exploration abilities, like creating floating bubbles or tornadoes to reach higher places. Now the characters....are something else. They range from gorgeous to horrifying. Most female NPCs also have weirdly tilted eyes, almost like the elves from Skyrim. The cat-people looks like they were designed for one of those furry hentai games from itch.io. The "water people" have squirel tails for some reason. In terms of personality, they have the classic J-RPG/anime stereotypes that you can guess just by looking at them. Not great, but not horrible. Other Stuff Some people may want to know that Square Enix hired a chinese company (Net Ease Games) to make this game, who gave the job to its japanese subsidiary Ouka Studios. Then they just closed the studio shortly after this game release.

Skills/abilities/spells/passives/Team Comps galore! Banger music tracks and amazing credits song. Sidequests, map markers, special areas, timed trials, post-game unlockables! BUT... Really slow start. Combat is an absolute slog in the beginning and not much story stakes until like... 65% in. Despite my gripes with the combat, AI, story, and some character development, it was fun, and if this is how the Mana series ends, well, I wouldn't be mad.