When it was first shown at The Game Awards last year, Visions of Mana definitely turned heads for those looking for a new RPG that had some whimsy, especially after the high that darker RPGs like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Final Fantasy XVI provided. Square Enix was kind enough to release a demo of the colorful game this week, and it looks set to scratch an itch for those looking for a JRPG a little more lighthearted.
To be upfront, I’ll say this: I’m not too fond of downloading and playing JRPG demos, especially for ones I’ve already decided I want to play, like Visions of Mana. Having already been sold by what I’ve seen in trailers, I feel like demos can be a disservice for a couple key reasons. For one, they’re essentially betas that obviously don’t have the polish you might expect from a full release, and I felt like I had that here–not to mention oftentimes these demos come out so close to release that any feedback players might have won’t matter. The biggest reason I also don’t like playing JRPG demos is because some don’t let you carry your progress over.
Both these issues happened for me.
Before I go over those issues, I’ll talk about what the demo entailed. Upon booting it up, it’s pretty top heavy with explanations that you have to read. There’s no actual preview to perform the various tasks the game expects you to do. It just told me to be wary of the various abilities and power-ups the characters in my parties had. While it’s all useful information, this kind of first time user experience isn’t one that I’m particularly fond of but if you played an action JRPG, much less a Mana game before, you should be right at home with what you can do here.
I’m not going to go over the story as that’s typically nothing to talk about in a demo, but I was a little dismayed to see that cutscenes and spoken dialog look like almost no effort was put in to match the dub with the animation fo the characters’ mouths moving. There were scenes that were better than others when it came to doing this, but this was definitely a polish issue I noticed right away.
Visions of Mana has quite a vast world to explore.
Getting back to it, the demo begins on a snowy mountain that you have to make your way down from, with waterfall streams and enemies blocking your way. When you come across streams, you have to interact with a crystal nearby to slow the flow of time and give you the opportunity to jump on icy platforms to prevent from landing in the freezing water. You have a double jump ability in your arsenal, but I felt like it was a little too floaty, and it felt janky as a result.
Still, getting through those obstacles were easy enough. This area was about getting your feet wet with the combat system, which the Mana games have always been known for. The demo put three characters in your party who you can switch to at anytime by tapping up or down on the D-Pad. The main protagonist, Val, has a big sword and the most HP, so he’s somebody you could definitely use at the front lines to deliver and receive the most damage. That said, because he uses a greatsword, his attacks are sluggish. The girl in your party is Careena who wields a spear and has a little buddy who can offer extra damage. Finally, there’s Morley who looked like a classy knight and also wields a sword. Each of these characters felt different and the various magic equippables to them offers different elemental damage, and the demo encourages players to mix and match to your advantage. I did this for fun, mainly, not because I found any of the battles overly difficult.
After you get through the short icy mountain level, you find yourself on larger plains and riding on these dog-like creatures to more quickly get to the harbor town you’re supposed to go to. I chose to look around here as the area was vast, but I also got off my mount. After dismounting, I got lost on the map, and didn’t know if I could regain the ability to go on rides again, so I ended up heading to the destination on foot. A few battles later, I found some sidequests that were really just extermination requests. I found five sidequests in the demo but only did four since I didn’t feel like there was much of a reason to spend time doing them all in what’s just a demo.
Why do why always end up fighting a kraken in JRPGs after having so many good conversations on a ship?
When you get to Rhata Harbor, there’s a short scene involving one of your party members being called a thief, and when you get that issue sorted, you end up on the open seas in one of the village’s ships. Of course, this is a JRPG. Only bad things happen on ship voyages, and we ended up fighting a kraken boss. I took the thing out with ease, but if there’s one thing I have to mention with the demo’s bosses–I feel like they have a little too much HP. Once you figure out how to kill something, I feel like it should be second nature in these games, but it just felt like Visions‘ bosses just have a lot of HP so you can spend a longer time fighting them.
All things considered, while the game shaping up quite well, it’s also shaping up to just be a fine game. I know a lot of people have a lot of fine memories of the Mana games, and I’m sure this one will add to those memories, but this also ended up being a really competitive year for the genre. Visions of Mana is scheduled for release on the PlayStation 4, 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. You can play this demo on PlayStation consoles and look forward to receiving three weapons in the full game.
When it was first shown at The Game Awards last year, Visions of Mana definitely turned heads for those looking for a new RPG that had some whimsy, especially after the high that darker RPGs like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Final Fantasy XVI provided. Square Enix was kind enough to release a demo of the colorful game this week, and it looks set to scratch an itch for those looking for a JRPG a little more lighthearted.
To be upfront, I’ll say this: I’m not too fond of downloading and playing JRPG demos, especially for ones I’ve already decided I want to play, like Visions of Mana. Having already been sold by what I’ve seen in trailers, I feel like demos can be a disservice for a couple key reasons. For one, they’re essentially betas that obviously don’t have the polish you might expect from a full release, and I felt like I had that here–not to mention oftentimes these demos come out so close to release that any feedback players might have won’t matter. The biggest reason I also don’t like playing JRPG demos is because some don’t let you carry your progress over.
Both these issues happened for me.
Before I go over those issues, I’ll talk about what the demo entailed. Upon booting it up, it’s pretty top heavy with explanations that you have to read. There’s no actual preview to perform the various tasks the game expects you to do. It just told me to be wary of the various abilities and power-ups the characters in my parties had. While it’s all useful information, this kind of first time user experience isn’t one that I’m particularly fond of but if you played an action JRPG, much less a Mana game before, you should be right at home with what you can do here.
I’m not going to go over the story as that’s typically nothing to talk about in a demo, but I was a little dismayed to see that cutscenes and spoken dialog look like almost no effort was put in to match the dub with the animation fo the characters’ mouths moving. There were scenes that were better than others when it came to doing this, but this was definitely a polish issue I noticed right away.
Visions of Mana has quite a vast world to explore.
Getting back to it, the demo begins on a snowy mountain that you have to make your way down from, with waterfall streams and enemies blocking your way. When you come across streams, you have to interact with a crystal nearby to slow the flow of time and give you the opportunity to jump on icy platforms to prevent from landing in the freezing water. You have a double jump ability in your arsenal, but I felt like it was a little too floaty, and it felt janky as a result.
Still, getting through those obstacles were easy enough. This area was about getting your feet wet with the combat system, which the Mana games have always been known for. The demo put three characters in your party who you can switch to at anytime by tapping up or down on the D-Pad. The main protagonist, Val, has a big sword and the most HP, so he’s somebody you could definitely use at the front lines to deliver and receive the most damage. That said, because he uses a greatsword, his attacks are sluggish. The girl in your party is Careena who wields a spear and has a little buddy who can offer extra damage. Finally, there’s Morley who looked like a classy knight and also wields a sword. Each of these characters felt different and the various magic equippables to them offers different elemental damage, and the demo encourages players to mix and match to your advantage. I did this for fun, mainly, not because I found any of the battles overly difficult.
After you get through the short icy mountain level, you find yourself on larger plains and riding on these dog-like creatures to more quickly get to the harbor town you’re supposed to go to. I chose to look around here as the area was vast, but I also got off my mount. After dismounting, I got lost on the map, and didn’t know if I could regain the ability to go on rides again, so I ended up heading to the destination on foot. A few battles later, I found some sidequests that were really just extermination requests. I found five sidequests in the demo but only did four since I didn’t feel like there was much of a reason to spend time doing them all in what’s just a demo.
Why do why always end up fighting a kraken in JRPGs after having so many good conversations on a ship?
When you get to Rhata Harbor, there’s a short scene involving one of your party members being called a thief, and when you get that issue sorted, you end up on the open seas in one of the village’s ships. Of course, this is a JRPG. Only bad things happen on ship voyages, and we ended up fighting a kraken boss. I took the thing out with ease, but if there’s one thing I have to mention with the demo’s bosses–I feel like they have a little too much HP. Once you figure out how to kill something, I feel like it should be second nature in these games, but it just felt like Visions‘ bosses just have a lot of HP so you can spend a longer time fighting them.
All things considered, while the game shaping up quite well, it’s also shaping up to just be a fine game. I know a lot of people have a lot of fine memories of the Mana games, and I’m sure this one will add to those memories, but this also ended up being a really competitive year for the genre. Visions of Mana is scheduled for release on the PlayStation 4, 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. You can play this demo on PlayStation consoles and look forward to receiving three weapons in the full game.
by Danreb Victorio
