It would be an understatement to say that Visions of Mana has high expectations to live up to. There hasn’t been a mainline entry in the Mana series in nearly 20 years, with only spin-offs and 3D remakes of older games to tide fans over in the meantime. But thankfully, the wait has been worth it. While there are some glaring flaws, Visions of Mana manages to bring the series into the modern era with excellent combat and class systems, as well as a new cast of likeable characters. Not only is it a great Mana game, but it’s become one of my favorite JRPGs in years.
If I had to sum up my feelings about Visions of Mana’s storytelling in its early acts in one word, it would be “simple”—and I mean that as a compliment. I’m a big fan of games that tackle complex topics or have a dense story to unpack, but it doesn’t have to be complicated just for the sake of it. Visions of Mana keeps its plot simple instead of cluttering it with unnecessary exposition—at least at first.
You play as Val, a skilled swordsman who must escort a group of people chosen to sacrifice their souls in order to preserve the Mana Tree. Among them is Hinna, Val’s childhood friend and girlfriend, and I found the duo endearing from the start. You’d normally expect a character in the role of Val’s guardian to be someone who takes things too seriously, but instead, he’s cheerful, charming, and brimming with optimism. And rather than dwelling on the fact that she’s being forced to sacrifice herself, Hinna is honored to have been selected and excited to make her pilgrimage with Val by her side.
The group members they acquire along the way have their own distinctive personalities that add variety. Careena, for example, is spunky but irritable and—for some reason I’m still trying to figure out—speaks with a thick Texas accent. Morely, meanwhile, is by far the most serious of the group, but it’s his straightforward demeanor that leads to some of the funniest moments. It quickly becomes clear what shaped your new friends into the people they are, and each has a fitting arc that gives them a chance to grow as individuals by confronting their own flaws head on. Rather than feeling like side stories, their stories are woven into the central plot in a way that feels organic. Understanding these characters better helped change my perspective on them entirely—for example, Careena starts the journey as a kid and I had initially dismissed her as rude, but by the end I found her to be one of the most endearing members of the group.
Visions of Mana’s main story had me intrigued from the start, but while I loved the fast pace of the first half, it slows down completely after that. To avoid spoilers, I can’t go into detail about my biggest gripes, but there’s a large chunk of the last 15-20 hours (I ran through the campaign credits in just under 40 hours) that I felt was unnecessary filler. There’s ultimately a lot of replays, and it feels like an unwanted detour from where the story had been going.
This turning point is also where the simplicity I initially loved was thrown out the window and the dreaded exposition dumps began to pile on top of each other. Overall, I still found the overall story enjoyable and the ending emotionally satisfying, but these pacing issues subsequently frustratingly ruined much of the initial momentum that had been built.
But the real star of Visions of Mana, the one that shines even when the story falters, is the combat. Combat is fast and frenetic, with a number of systems to keep an eye on. You have your standard and special attacks as well as moves and spells, like fireballs and shurikens, to vary the fun and exploit enemies’ vulnerabilities. It’s also a strategic game, as attacking, taking damage, and using moves slowly fills your class’s Strike meter, which then allows you to perform a devastating attack that you’ll want to unleash as often as possible (preferably at the right time). Throughout all of this, you’ll also incorporate equippable items called Elemental Vessels, each of which offers its own special ability. For example, the Moon Globe will briefly create a small bubble on the battlefield that slows down enemies while speeding up the party’s attacks and spell cast times.
However, when a character equips a given elemental vessel, it will also automatically swap to its associated class, which brings me to my favorite mechanic in Visions of Mana: the class system. While the function of the moon globe itself will never change, the role, moves, and abilities of the character equipped with it will, and each character has a class of their own for each element available.
The Luna Globe will transform Val into an Aegis, switching him from his default melee role to a tank that lets him wield a spear and shield rather than his usual sword, but Careena will instead become a Moon Charterer and take on a support role thanks to the Fan Dance. As an Aegis, Val can use a move to aggro enemies and gains an ability that lets her survive what would otherwise be a killing blow with 1 HP once per battle, and it’s how these options come into play when you change classes that really showcases the fun of each class.
You’ll unlock even more moves and abilities for each ship through the Elemental Plot, which acts as an upgrade system. The main difference between these two types of actions is that all the moves you learn are permanent and can be equipped regardless of a character’s class, while abilities are tied to the class itself. So Val won’t get that fatal blow protection unless he’s an Aegis, but he’ll still have the option to add the aggro move to his repertoire, which is a nice reason not to invest in just one class.
But the coolest part is that when you first equip an elemental vessel, you’re treated to a wonderfully cheesy costume transformation cutscene straight out of a Super Sentai series, as the character dons their new themed outfits and weapons. Even if I didn’t really want to equip a character with a particular vessel, I would still do it at least once, because the cutscene never failed to make me smile. And don’t worry, once you’ve completed the initial transformation sequence, you can simply change classes by pressing a button on the menu screen between encounters.
Ability Seeds, obtained through quests, chests, and battles, add even more depth to combat. Some seeds grant you passive bonuses like increased stats, while others grant you an entirely new move to use. Later, you can even transfer the base stones of defeated enemies and bosses into more powerful seeds. One of my favorites lets me summon a late-game boss at my own pace to unleash some serious damage.
All of these systems are tied together in a way that encourages strategy rather than button mashing. I had my favorite classes for certain characters, but some situations required me to invest upgrade points into a ship I would never use on them just to unlock certain moves, or even reclass them entirely. This may seem restrictive, but I really appreciated that it encouraged me to branch out and try classes for characters I wouldn’t have wanted to in the first place, and it kept me from putting all my eggs in one basket.
For example, I would normally have liked Morley to use the Water Elemental Vessel class, which turns him into a hybrid of stage magician and X-Men Gambit who can stun enemies. But to defeat a particularly difficult boss, I had to switch him to a class that could maximize damage thanks to its focus on critical hits. This also meant swapping out some Ability Seeds that focused on increasing his critical damage and success rate for full synergy.
You’ll want to make sure you understand how to get the most out of each class, as Visions of Mana’s bosses can be tough even on normal difficulty if you don’t take advantage of all your options. There are some really inventive boss designs, both visually and mechanically. Some will focus heavily on area-of-effect attacks while others will rip your Elemental Vessel out of your hands, temporarily preventing you from using it. Each boss kept me on my toes, and killing them always felt rewarding.
Exploration is also a big part of Visions of Mana. From lush jungles to snowy tundras to coastal villages, each location is unique and showcases the beautiful art style: vibrant and straight out of a storybook, which fits the fantasy tone. Hidden chests and collectibles kept me exploring every inch of the map and drew me to optional areas I would have otherwise overlooked. There are also side quests, collectibles, and more to complete, and I can’t wait to dive back in and finish everything Visions of Mana has to offer.
That said, while the art style itself is excellent, I did notice a fair share of visual glitches. There are plenty of moments where lip syncing wouldn’t match up, and at one point a character would speak without their mouth moving at all. I also encountered a few huge frame rate drops despite playing in Performance mode on PlayStation 5, though they were extremely rare.
