Trials of Mana Reviews

10/10 You get to play as a midget retard.

Game always crashes. Not worth the purchase at any price.

fantastic, loveletter to the original game

good. Angela is so gorgeous!

I've played and thoroughly enjoyed the original and in many ways this is an upgrade, in other ways a bit of a downgrade, but the balance is heavily toward the positive. [b]Better than the original:[/b] Kevin's transformation: This happens immediately and doesn't interrupt gameplay. If you hadn't experienced the annoyance of waiting several seconds on every single fight for him to transform when fighting at night, you cannot properly appreciate this. Spells no longer pause gameplay: Similar to Kevin's transformation, gameplay is not interrupted every time a spell is triggered. Character AI Customization: This is pretty neat and you can assign strategies for a deeper level of customization of how your companions operate. Additional Content: There is some nice post-game content, including an additional class change complete with additional class strikes. There's also a new game plus mode and additional difficulty settings, though the game is pretty easy save for a few specific areas which can be tough. Some of the Villains: Beladonna in particular I found to be well voiced and with a deeper motivation than the original. The Crimson Wizard was pretty good along similar lines also. Enemy Class Strikes are not full-screen: In the original, enemy RNG could result in likely TPKs which were hard to avoid. You can avoid the vast majority of attacks in some fashion in Trials of Mana. Boss Fights and Combat: Flying monsters, AOE attack indicators, dodging, and boss fight mechanics are a lot of fun. Class Customization: You get to build your stats as you progress as well as assign passive abilities which can be a lot of fun and add to more complex gameplay. [b]Worse than the original:[/b] Voice Acting: This isn't truly awful, but I really dislike Kevin's voice, mostly because it completely changes his personality. I always pictured him as a sort of gruff character with a deep voice in the original, and it's just completely off. A lot of people dislike Carlie also, but by far the worst are some of the elementals. Mercifully, they don't have a lot of scenes. Some of the Villains: Unfortunately some of the villains like Bill and Ben and Malocchio transformed into something cheesy and far less menacing than the original. Small AOE Class Strikes which can easily miss: I miss the old eruption sword in particular and was very disappointed with Duran's duelist class. You have to aim them carefully, and during the animation enemies can walk out of the AOE. This can be very disappointing, and it is very imbalanced. Final Boss Balance: There used to be a huge difference between the end game bosses level of difficulty. I am a bit on the fence about this one, but I think it is a net negative. Completing Hawkeye's story in particular was a letdown in that the boss was pretty easy. Platforming: Thankfully this isn't extremely common, but there are some really annoying platforming sections. Most of it isn't bad, but there are a few cases where it locks you into a fixed camera angle. [b]Missed Opportunities:[/b] Character Balance: I wish they had balanced the player choices a bit. Kevin is easy mode with his multiple high damage attacks. Kevin and Hawkeye both have multiple attacks and it continues to be dominant, especially with Kevin. Duran remains solid, but his additional reach doesn't put him in the same league.

Excellent remake for its adaptation into a newer depth and dimensions of freedom

Games short, but game is super fun.

TL;DR: Better than FFVII Remake and FFXVI in terms of keeping the pace and me invested. 8/10 Buy on Sale. This is a 20-25 hour game. 30-35 if you are going for all Achievements. The good: -Gameplay, fast paced action around every corner. A good blend between JRPGs and "stylish action games". -Character classes, Fun classes with a lot of build versatility. -Soundtrack is fitting, even the original OST is pleasant to listen to. -The story, A lot is skippable and ignorable, plus it diverges at 2/3 of the way through, opening different final dungeons and bosses, depending on your main character pick. -The Balancing, its well balanced, there were a hand full of encounters that gave me problems on "hard". The bad: -The Story again, If you decide to sith through the cutscenes. It does not help, that the characters are badly written and act like literal idiots. (Riesz Prologue anyone?) -Characters range from bland, one-dimensional, to incredibly annoying (Kevin and Charlotte) -Combat Camera can be a tad on the off-side during crucial moments. The Ugly: -Switching locked-on targets is jank hands down, didn't work properly once. -Charlotte again for her incessant whining and shouting. The second to last boss fight of her route was pure torture for my ears. So all in all a very good game, apparently true to the original.

After the uninspired Secret of Mana remake, this remake ended up being tolerable.... except for one thing.... Charlotte's voiceover. I'll give it a pass, aside from that.

The game is good, with cute design as for a remake game. However if the cut scene showing time can arrange a little bit smoother, that would be great, because the scenes are always suddenly show up.