Review | Visions of Mana

A short review

Visions of Mana is a 2024 action role-playing game developed by Ouka Studios and published by Square Enix. It's the fifth main entry in the Mana series, following the art and design approach seen in the previous Trials of Mana remake.

• Trials of Mana Review

Development began in 2020, marking the first mainline title since Dawn of Mana (2006—a long time ago!). The team included several series veterans, like producer Masaru Oyamada, artist Haccan, composers Hiroki Kikuta, Tsuyoshi Sekito, Ryo Yamazaki, and series creator Koichi Ishii, who worked on monster redesigns. The gameplay and world design aimed to recapture the essence of the earlier Mana games. Personally, I think the 2D era was the peak of the series. While I enjoyed Visions of Mana more than the Trials of Mana remake, I still found it a bit dull overall.

You can play Visions of Mana on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S.

Welcome to Visions of Mana - a game sweet as a candy, and boring at times. A lot of times.

Story and the characters

The story follows Val, a young swordsman tasked with escorting a group of Alms—sacrifices chosen to restore the world's flow of Mana. Giving their lives brings peace to the world (sound familiar?). The main plot centers around a pilgrimage to the Mana Tree, where a cruel fate awaits. But the story is deeper than this short synopsis suggests, though, in my opinion, the plot and characters are the game's weakest points. I felt like the game consists of 2 parts/arcs, the first being the first 20-ish hours of the game and the second 20-25h till the end of the game (both dragged on too much, with slow pacing and too much "go there, talk, go there, talk" parts).

It’s not like the Mana series has ever been known for groundbreaking stories or characters. By now, this kind of straightforward, cheap narrative feels overdone. There are plenty of games with mind-blowing stories and characters, but this just isn't one of them. The English dub (which I chose) is terrible, making it even harder to connect with the game—especially later on. There are many cutscenes (which is usually a good thing!), but they’re boring, childish, and sometimes downright pathetic. Maybe this story would’ve been fine if I were younger, but even then, I doubt I could connect with these characters.

Near the end, especially after a certain plot twist, I completely lost interest. The story left me bored and disappointed. It's time for something fresh and maybe even darker—not the same tired formula.

It's fun to fly inside bubbles, but it's not fun when you don't have to think like ever to reach a chest or parts of a map. What happened with exploring and trying to find everything without the game pointing it out for you on every step?

Game design, exploration

Gameplay features exploration in open areas and action-based combat, where elemental powers come into play both in battle and while exploring. The entire game revolves around elemental spirits, which unlock new combat classes, moves, and exploration abilities in dungeons.

However, the world isn't really open. It follows a semi-open concept, where you defeat enemies and collect items. I had fun exploring, especially in beautifully designed areas, and enjoyed the double-jumping and dashing. But beyond that, things felt underwhelming. My biggest gripe is the over-reliance on map pointers. I get that it's a quality-of-life feature, but whatever happened to exploring on your own? When you enter an area, open the map, and see everything marked—it feels like a checklist of chores.

If you like following pointers and prefer a game that doesn’t require much effort in exploration, this is for you. Just don’t expect complex puzzles or engaging dungeons—they mostly serve as visual rewards for the journey and little else.

One of my favorite parts, though, was the special side-boss fights (a Nemesis-like system). They’re hidden, which makes finding and challenging these enemies exciting. I just didn’t feel that same drive for most of the game.

Kudos for introducing world map! It's been a long time! I don't get why you can't fast travel to every location, but just the ones on the continent you are on. Weird decision. Also, the world map travel holds no secrets.

Combat

I have a love-hate relationship with the combat. Visually, it’s stunning—the magic and special moves are a blast to watch. But it’s also boring. Even though you unlock new moves and classes, each character is stuck using the same three main weapon types. For example, Val’s dark and wind elements both use the same weapon. While you get new moves and support skills, the base moveset stays the same.

When your basic combo only has three hits, and you're spamming them for most of the game, it gets old fast. Thankfully, boss fights are a bit more fun—not by much, but they can be challenging later on, especially the optional hard and elemental challenges.

I had higher expectations for the class system and the perks that come with it. It’s simple, but still better than in the Trials of Mana remake. If there had been more variety in monsters, combos, and a decent skill system, it would’ve been amazing. The abilities and capturing monster abilities is a fun feature though.

Visual effects are beautiful. They give some points to the combat, but the combat is not about the visual stuff, it's about the challenge and fun. Mashing 3 combos is not really that category.

Side Content

The side content is lackluster, to say the least. Side quests are your typical fetch quests, filled with boring lore that doesn’t add much to the game. Sure, you’ll get money and sometimes weapons, but I ended up skipping them as much as I could. I don’t see the point in hunting the same monsters 30 times or protecting random people on the map.

The best side content is the elemental challenges, where you must defeat enemies within a time limit. You need to prepare with the right counter-elements, and these challenges offer the most fun and difficulty. It’s a shame the rest of the game doesn’t require the same level of thought or preparation.

Post-game content isn’t all that interesting either, but the challenges involving the black rabbit boss and the post-game boss are something else. There’s a massive difficulty spike that you're not ready for. I don’t get it—the game is easy, even on Normal (the third difficulty), but suddenly, some fights are ridiculously hard.

Maybe you find the plot intriguing. For me, it was one boring conversation after another. Val is so bad, it made me change him and just control someone else. Not really top notch writting and storytelling.

Conclusion

While many fans may be happy with this new Mana entry, I’m not too fond of this formula. It’s a beautiful, technically solid game (although 60 FPS on Performance mode struggles in some areas), mostly suited for relaxing and taking in the scenery. It’s not a game that will challenge you or make you think.

The soundtrack is solid, but I’ve never been a huge Mana fan outside of Legend of Mana (which I love).

My advice? Wait for a discount and give it a go if you love the genre. But if you ask me, Visions of Mana is nothing special.