The game that everyone seems to be talking about right now is Final Fantasy VII Remake, and based on everything I am hearing it is a pretty great game. While I own it… I just haven’t been able to bring myself to booting it up and playing it. The truth is, Final Fantasy VII just isn’t that important of a game for me personally. At the time it came out I was super heavy into PC gaming and as a result I was playing Fallout instead. I did not get to play seven until it eventually got a PC release, and while it sounded amazing on my Yamaha based wavetable soundcard it already looked dated compared to the graphics I had been experience on the PC. Later on I got a PlayStation and the very first Final Fantasy game that I played on it was VIII, which probably holds that same game changing place that seven does for a lot of players.
The Secret of Mana series for me personally holds an equal place in my memory as Final Fantasy, and once I found out there was a third game in the Seiken Densetsu series I desperately wanted it to see localization. The Mana series blended two games that I absolutely loved… The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy and rolled them into an extremely engaging package. I even liked the not-officially-in-the-series-but-possibly-should-be Secret of Evermore, which effectively used all of the same mechanics but more like if the Mana series had a weird love child with Earthbound. I was never really a handheld player, so I completely missed the release of Trials of Mana until it recently came out as part of the Collection of Mana. However at the same time that was announced we got a glimpse of a proper remake of the game, and ultimately I held out playing it until now.
Trials of Mana has become my new main Switch game since I more or less fell off the Animal Crossing bandwagon. I’ve been playing this before bed and as a result I am not super far into the game, but absolutely loving it so far. It is a seamless blend again of two genres that I adore, the Zelda-like and the Final Fantasy style RPG. There are so many weird in jokes for those who have loved the original Mana series and some cross pollination with Final Fantasy as well. I had to look this up to make sure, but they absolutely substituted Final Fantasy IV/Shadowbringers style dwarves in place of what apparently were mostly skull faced guys in the original. I’ve not encountered a Lali-ho yet, but I am absolutely inserting them in my mind.
Some time ago I wrote about the demo, and I opted to load those save files but also still create a brand new game just in case copying the save does anything. Originally I went with a team of Duran, Charlotte and Reisz which was fine… but I did find Charlotte to be a little annoying. So in the reboot I am mixing things up a bit and choosing at Ash’s suggestion the diametrically opposed character to Duran, aka the moody space princess Angela. I kept Reisz because she looks badass and I am hoping if rumor is true I can turn her into effectively a dragoon later in the game. Mostly it was a toss up between Duran and Kevin… but it largely came down to me not really liking Kevin’s default outfit and wanting to swing a big sword. Duran also reminds me of the hero from the first Mana game I played, so there is an awful lot of nostalgia there as well.
As I said I am not terribly far into the game, having only gone through a few scenarios, but I am really enjoying what I have played so far. The demo takes you up to a specific point and I have played through a couple of different sequences that occur after that and have collected my second element. It sounds like there are six different elements that I need to collect, so I still have quite a long ways to go considering I figure there is a final act that probably occurs after having collected them all. The hardest part to get used to is that you the character level up abilities rather than having weapons that holy weapons that gain experience. So far I have upgraded my gear twice, but it has all been purchased through shops and I have yet to see any world drops.
I definitely suggest checking out the demo, which is probably a post I have in me at some later date talking about this new golden age of try before you buy. After getting my hands on and playing through the final released game, the Demo should give you a really good idea if the game is for you or not. The combat gets a bit more nuanced but for the most part it is a very fluid Zelda-like with jump attacks. The game feels like I remember feeling while playing Secret of Mana. While I have played through Final Fantasy Adventure which is actually the mislabeled first game in the series, I feel like I need to dig up the Gameboy Advance Sword of Mana remake and play it at some point on my RG350 emulation handheld.
I had no idea that Sword of Mana was a remake of the first one. I loved FFA back when it was new, and I love the remake they did when I played it on Vita. (Same for Secret, too, actually). I haven’t been able to decide if I want to play through Seiken 3 on my Collection of Mana or give the new 3d remake of Trials that playtime.
Wasn’t the Mana series supposed to be a spinoff from the Final Fantasy series? Tbh, this series holds a place in my heart while Final Fantasy is just… well… Maybe more like the Mario series. Impressive, but I don’t have a personal connection to it. While Riesz is my princess. I picked her as my main when I first played and now again in the Collection of Mana port. I wonder if I should pick a different main the next time I play.