I’ve never played games in Mana (Seiken Densetsu) series before. I’m aware of the popularity of Secret of Mana, yet to this day I’ve not checked it out, nor it’s poorly received remake. However, as a fan of certain type of Japanese action RPGs, mainly the Ys series from Falcom, when I’ve first seen the gameplay from the Trials of Mana remake, I got very interested. Now, after playing through the game several times and doing everything I could think of, I gotta say – I’ve had a lot of fun with the game.
The original Trials of Mana has been released for SNES in 1995 in Japan only and had its first official worldwide release a few years ago on Switch with the Collection of Mana. From what I could gather about the game, just as the well known and loved Chrono Trigger released the same year, the game has been pushing the technological limits of the console and had quite a few interesting twists and ideas on what an action RPG from Japan could be. One standout idea, that haven’t been transferred to this remake, was a three-way co-operative gameplay, where you could have your friends control the two partner characters (as soon as you get them available in the game). While another interesting concept was that the story changed and had several completely unique variations depending on which main character and which companions were selected at the start of the game.
This is preserved fully in the remake and is something that I really loved. Here’s how it works – the game has 6 potential main characters, all of whom get involved in the overall story regardless of your choice. However, the main character that you select will remain the leader of your small “party” and will be the one to be “chosen” in the storyline. While the two other companions that you select will have their stories play out in a potentially slightly cut down version. However, the entire cast is actually divided into pairs, and if one of the companions is in that “pair” with the main character, their story will play out almost exactly the same as if they were the main character, while only the third companion’s story will be shorter. This creates lots of different combinations, leading up to 3 main villains (each representing the adversary of one of 3 pairs of heroes), and the final dungeons and final bosses of the game are completely different for those pairs.
What’s especially fun is that, while it is technically possible to get a “lesser” combination, where every party member has a “disconnected” story, you will still get a fun and unique combination, with lots of dialogues, party banter and story bits. Same goes for the gameplay aspect of this all – while all characters represent a certain RPG archetype, all have certain focus, advantages and disadvantages, you can’t build an actually bad party. All combinations are fun and valid and it’s more to your preference of how you want to play the game.
Of course, for all of the fantastic variation, the story in all of its instances is rather plain, especially by today’s standards. The heroes are teenagers, there’s hope, love, evil, challenges, personal growth and all of the most predictable tropes and story bits you can think of. It’s never terrible, but if you really dislike stories that are this simple, you might not like what you get. Depending on the characters you select, you can get a more nuanced or less nuanced take on the plotline, but it doesn’t matter if your hero’s goal is “I want to get stronger” or “I want to save my nation from corruption that turned everyone evil”, “I will save my pwecious fwiend” or “My mom wanted to sacrifice me” – it’s all pretty simple in the end.
As is the gameplay, actually. It is quite fast paced and fun and while you can actually build the characters in unique way, not just in terms of leveling up different skills, but also in terms of upgrading their class in several surprisingly different ways. Yet, it’s a rather primitive hack and slash at its core. Dodging is helpful, but not even always vital, there’re no more in-depth concepts like in recent Ys titles, like the perfect blocks or perfect dodges, the fights tend to be relatively easy, even though for all of the “Strategy” tab options your companions tend to be incredibly stupid unless you switch to control them. It’s not a bad thing, in my opinion, but if you’re looking for a more involved action RPG combat, this game isn’t it.
It is also somewhat surprising how linear it is, given the whole idea of story variations. Basically, apart from one very curious and easy to miss choice, the only thing that changes anything in the game is your choice at the very beginning when you select the party. Afterwards, the flow of the game and most of the locations will always work the same way. It’s not something to consider if you’re planning to play the game once, but if you are interested in seeing the rest of the ways the story can play out, it’s just disappointing. Still, it’s wonderful to see what there is, since in recent years even the remakes tend to simplify variations of the game that the players might not see in one playthrough, like it happened with recent Resident Evil 3 (2020).
I also absolutely loved the way the game sounds and looks. It’s so wonderful to see Unreal Engine 4 used for something so stylized and cartoonish, while smartly using all of the technological features that the engine is capable of. The character and monster designs are delightful, locations are colourful and fun to go through. And the music is absolutely wonderful. It also is a welcome departure from the modern approach to soundtracks and doesn’t even bother to use “real instruments” for “cinematic feel”, instead recreating the synthesized (and already wonderful) soundtrack of the original game, that is available as an option, in an also synthesized but no less catchy and fantastic way. I’m shocked, the soundtrack is not sold digitally on Steam yet.
Overall, while Trials of Mana has its down moments and it can be a bit too simple in terms of both gameplay and storytelling, it’s such a fun game to play through. If you’re in a mood for a simple, but adorable adventure that hearkens back to the simpler plots of early 90s jRPGs, Trials of Mana 2020 remake is a joy to play.