We all expect JRPGs to be visually arresting. There’s a level of visual balance and colour that comes as part and parcel of the genre, and it’s hard to deny how well that works. What isn’t always guaranteed, however, is that the story beats and narrative throughline can live up to that same level. In Visions of Mana, the balance between beauty and brilliance tips slightly to the former.
Playing as a Soul Guard named Val, you are tasked with escorting “Alms” – selected representatives from each elemental village – on a sacred journey to the Mana Tree, where they are sacrificed in the pursuit of environmental harmony. It’s a solemn duty, requiring a serious level of devoutness, and yes, conceptually it’s metal as hell. You’re literally taking these people to certain death, for “the good of the many,” which the game posits as an honourable and sacred responsibility.
I had high hopes. Visions of Mana is the latest entry in a well-loved series, so there’s been a lot of hype around Square Enix‘s latest offering – in many ways, the game does stack up, but not everything can live up to a legacy.
I would do literally anything for my Pikul
As is good and right, the first thing I want to highlight is the Pikul. These adorably huge fox-like fellas are your vehicle around the long stretches of environment, à la Appa from Avatar: The Last Airbender – and from the moment I laid eyes on this angel, I was obsessed.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a devotee to fast travel, but if you present me with a Big Beautiful Puppy and tell me I can literally ride it into the sunset with a stunning vista at my back, I’m 1000% going to do just that.
Now that that’s out of the way, I can properly get into the review.
A teensy dollop of emotional edging
It would be kindest to say that Visions of Mana has some pacing issues. While the game starts off solidly, with a straightforward premise and some strong story beats, unfortunately the latter half of the game starts to fall off the wagon, leaning more deeply into exposition dumps and tropes that could’ve been predicted a mile back.
That’s not to say there weren’t a selection of redeeming moments – which, for spoilers sake I won’t go into in depth – but at its core there was a level of promised emotional pay-off that I just didn’t feel landed.
From the perspective of someone who made a secondary career off of death positivity and education, I had hoped that Visions of Mana and its sacrificial premise would resonate more deeply than it did in the end – and while I’m sure there will be people out there who absolutely adore the way things unfold, I’m just not one of them.
Seeing Visions of Mana‘s story progress with such minimal pushback from the sacrifical lambs was surprising, and not necessarily in a good way. In the real world, the death positive movement preaches that it shouldn’t be deemed taboo or problematic to openly discuss the realities of death. In Visions of Mana, I had hoped that sending these characters to their doom for the betterment of others would provoke a more nuanced conversation.
Sadly, that’s not really the case. When discussions do arise, they’re brushed aside in favour of an at-times grating level of optimism that reads as false, even considering that this is a world where “sacrificing myself is an honour” is without doubt the pervasive opinion.
It doesn’t help that for all the characters’ growth and development, there really isn’t the room to fully interrogate some of the more philosophical questions. They’re great when it comes to distinct personalities, give or take a few puzzling accent and emphasis choices, but depth-wise? If they were a swimming pool, I wouldn’t exactly feel comfortable leaping off the diving board.
They also have a tendency for repetition, which doesn’t help matters – especially when interacting with some of the items you pick up. As a person whose echolalia has a mind of its own, I beseech Square Enix: please, next time, vary it up just a bit more for the sake of my poor brain. If I hear the word “grizzly” one more time, there’s a good chance I may short circuit and perish.
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Combat is the game’s most redeeming feature
Visions of Mana absolutely shines in one clear area, and that is its combat system. Who knew that swatting a bunch of tiny mushroom creatures and assorted critters would be such a satisfying feeling? With a slew of class options and dynamics available to you in the game, Visions of Mana delivers a consistently engaging combat style that feels equal parts silly and strategic.
The game eases you in considerably, with early enemies and bosses proving reasonably easy to dispatch. Later on, however, the bosses rapidly increase in difficulty, and it becomes much more important to go in with the correct strategy and – crucially – with the right elemental vessel.
Thematically, each boss has its own fairly straightforward strengths and weaknesses when it comes to the elements, and it’s never particularly tricky to deduce what they’d be – much like Pokémon, really. But the challenge level of the combat means that even when you’re appropriately prepared, these bad boys can still put up a serious fight. Sure, the battles are ever-so-slightly let down by some issues with synchronisation, but on the whole they were a clear highlight for me.
It’s also genuinely impressive how variable your characters can be when it comes to the class system. Different items can affect their class considerably, which significantly increases the quantity of choices you can select from. This level of specificity makes you feel much more active in the adventure, and definitely hits home.
With all the variable ways that you can approach things – whether it’s different classes, vessels or strategies – there’s a freshness to each encounter that helped skew me towards “this time I’ll get ’em for sure,” instead of “I’m not immediately good at this and therefore I’m mad at everything”.
Does Visions of Mana live up to its promise?
When a game is tasked with bringing a legacy into the modern era, it’s easy to pick out bits and pieces that don’t necessarily align with your nostalgic memories. For what it’s worth though, Visions of Mana does come through when it comes to being that same level of fun.
Do I think they could have gone harder on the narrative? Absolutely. Did the dialogue skim over plot points that deserved more attention in favour of exposition dumps? Sure. But did I have a good time playing through the game nonetheless? Yeah, I actually did.
Visions of Mana isn’t necessarily breaking the mold, but it’s a good time if you’re keen to rollick around an assortment of biomes, smashing monsters with big ol’ swords and delving deep into the class system. While I don’t necessarily see myself undertaking another playthrough of the game, I do think that fans of the series will enjoy what’s in store. Just brace yourself for the inevitable “grizzly” cry to get stuck in your head.
Three-and-a-half stars: ★★★½
Visions of Mana
Platform(s): PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows
Developer: Square Enix / Ouka Studios
Release Date: 29 August 2024
A code for Visions of Mana was provided by the publisher and played for the purposes of this review. GamesHub reviews were previously rated on a five-point scale. As of 29 July 2024, they have been rated on a ten-point scale.
