Here we are at the end of the show(s). Welcome to the Mana game released last year that may or may not have inspired the last thirteen weeks of Mana nonsense.
Visions of Mana
Aka Seiken Densetsu: Vuijonzu obu Mana
2024
Playstation 4/5, Xbox X/S
What’s the story?
Every four years, eight innocent people and their lone bodyguard go on a pilgrimage to the Mana Tree to be martyred for the good of the world. That sucks! It is eventually revealed that this is all because the Mana Goddess is (still) super terrible at her job, and ritual sacrifice is the only way to keep the planet turning. Obviously, you are going to take a swing at doing something about all that.
Who are the baddies?
Initially, your antagonist appears to be some dork that is super not into this whole sacrifice thing. He royally messes up your pilgrimage, and, just when it looks like you are going to get some revenge for that move, he releases the real big bad…
What is the Mana Sword?
Turns out this whole cycle of death is the fault of… Sephiroth. Seriously. He was a big hero with long hair who often forgot to wear a shirt, he was an unparalleled war hero, and after he saved the world, he turned apocalyptically bad. Anywho, he has apparently had his grip on the Mana Sword all this time, so he is going to wreck up the place with everyone’s favorite pointy stick. Note that since Wannabe Sephiroth is double the height of any other human on this planet, the Mana Sword is proportionately huge.
How does it play?
Like a goddamned dream. You have all the precise control of the Trials of Mana remake, plus now the world is huge and made for someone who can double jump and infinitely air dash. See a mountain off in the distance? Murder some rabites, and then hop on up like a superpowered goat. This isn’t just a good Mana game, it’s a damn good game.
Is it pretty?
Yes. We are looking at Playstation 4 graphics applied to the always appealing designs of the Mana world. You fight familiar monsters that premiered on the Gameboy! Krakens never looked so good! The only issue is that the lip-sync on models is distractingly bad, so try not to make eye contact with anyone dispensing sidequests.
What is Magic?
Magic is barely separate from random skills (like the always handy but theoretically mundane “throw dart”). So everything is accessible either through progressing on a character’s sphere grid, or equipping a distinct item. And, while these skills can be useful in the right situation and sling remarkably quickly (for this franchise), they are not all that impactful. Gone forever are the days that Exploder will win the day…
What’s Watts?
Watts is the last remaining resident of the Earth Kingdom, and will happily impart lore about the area/local mines. He is a generally helpful dude, but doesn’t sell items or anything. What does he do all day if he isn’t blacksmithing?
Are there Duck Soldiers?
Bad ducks are found in a desert, but it is a desert that is technically the Earth Region sapped of life. Mad Mallards should be crawling all over the Fire Region! And not just the volcano! I don’t care if that would unbalance the opening of the game!
What makes it good?
Visions of Mana feels like the best PS2 game ever (complimentary).
What makes it bad?
It would be nice if healing items were automatically equipped to the combat ring menu instead of watching your party members perish and only then realizing you do not have access to the nine Cup of Wishes you had found in those random treasure chests. But at least you die with the consumable that grants 5% more lucre!
Anything else?
Unfortunately, Visions of Mana had abysmal sales that put Demon’s Crest to shame. If this winds up being the end of anything approaching a “big budget” Mana game, it would be a solemn/wonderful way to go out.
Even Worse Streams Presents The Mana Franchise
Night 12
Visions of Mana
January 14, 2025
Random Notes:
- Time to stop swearing and play the last of the Mana franchise with fanboymaster, Cassandralyn, Chromes, and BEAT. We’re going out with a bang!
- Since we skipped the frequent opening cutscenes at the beginning of Visions of Mana, we start with an explanation of what is going on in this world. This is basically all covered at the start of this very article, but the tldr is that trees eat people.
- BEAT proposes playing Skies of Arcadia, but we already have our next marathon on the menu. It is going to include a few kickflips.
Ample Vigour joins as BEAT admits that he would play this game because it “has got an air dash and shit.” Don’t get too excited, though, he is just Mana curious.- Looking at recent Games Done Quick Crazy Taxi streams segues into a discussion of archetypical white guys, and then a Kevin Smith oral history.
- “There’s always the planet where they sacrifice people because they read the lottery once.”
- As we enter Mt. Gala, we get to share Rock Band stories.
- Caithness joins and is impressed by infinite air dashes.
- This video does include me explaining the general plot of the game. It was already covered above, but I might provide a little more detail on stream. Be aware of further spoilers. At least when no one is interrupting me…
- “Don’t make up moon phases.” “I didn’t!”
- Looking at Berserk means we need to talk about ludonarrative dissonance in anime game adaptions.
- “You think I’m well adjusted?” “Well, comparatively.”
- Caliscrub sneaks in as we are entering Etaern, aka Cat Town.
- The dragons are xenophobic, the cats are stream punk, and the squirrels are merchants. Please do not search for any extra racism in these fantasy races.
- Ask people how humans would operate with tails. It tricks them into opening up. It tricks BEAT.
- “When it goes on his website, the first Tony Hawk should be tagged as a Superman game.”
What would you name your giant wolf-pickle?- Skreamin Red Skull raids our stream. Do I have to become a vtuber now?
- And we wrap up the stream by discussing the (then) possible announcement of the Switch 2 (spoilers, it happened) and un-releasing the Kraken.
Next time on Manapiece Theatre: Let’s tear down that tree!
There is surprisingly very little discourse about this game on the internet, at least, in publicly visible spaces, so to speak. I think a combination of poor marketing, bad press from the dev studio firing all its employees immediately after release, and generally rather unspectacular graphics, especially general character/monster models, killed it.
One common refrain I see in all the negative reviews, on Steam at least, is that the story feels weak and like a watered down version of Final Fantasy X, which does it no favors when it occupies so much of the game’s screentime.
Either way, this game underperforming probably killed the series for good. Which is a shame – they had hit on something good with Trials of Mana, and had they continued improving on it, or learning the right lessons from its remake, we could’ve had something amazing, Alas.