Visions of Mana is...not great

Square Enix sent me a review code for Visions of Mana, and unfortunately, the game is not great.

0:00 Premise
1:15 Initial Thoughts
1:53 Game World
2:49 Combat
3:58 Story
4:32 Final Impressions

#visionsofmana #squareenix #secretofmana

[FerrisWheelPro]

Are you still going to pick up Visions of Mana?

[heathlindsay-hayden]

He lost me at the part he said he has 3-D brain rot and has no patience for 2-D SNES games (like the OG Secret of Mana). Like, whut???

[LeonardoRodrigues-ujsm]

Yeah, no. This game is fucking incredible

[seanjoseph]

"However I have played 8 hours of it..."

No, I'm sorry. That's not enough to justify posting a review for a JRPG.

[mrshmuga]

I think having “impressions” in the title/thumbnail would help, as the title currently implies review (with a more unique/opinionated title) when it’s not.

[saynotopw]

We live in an era of ragebaits. I'm sick of it.

[XxTaiMTxX]

“I never completed the tutorial, combat bad”.

Look man, I agree, the opening of the game is very slow, very rough, and not that interesting. This is to acclimate you to the world, combat, and elements. When you only got far enough to get two of the vessels, the combat is still very basic with the most complicated thing being “enemies that fly in the air”.

But, there’s a reason you don’t really review a game you haven’t really played. I didn’t even leave the first island until close to 8 hours in. I was busy collecting everything I could, tracking down the crystal looking monsters for their core stones (which I knew would be useful later), and generally exploring the world. Sure, the rewards for exploring aren’t that interesting or useful, save for a few standouts. Golden Clovers are incredibly valuable, especially in chapter four and onwards (they allow you to get more elemental points to do your unlocks in the grid). So are the items that give you more xp or money in combat. But, most of the chests are like candy and other healing consumables.

I found a fair amount of clovers and Nicollo coins by exploring and looking for the yellow beams. Very useful stuff. Likewise, the grizzly syrup is insanely useful as you can buy items that permanently raise the stats of your characters with it. So, I was always collecting it every time I saw it. Finally, finding the lil cactus entries was incredibly valuable as early on, enough entries unlocks 1.5x experience gains.

There are lots of reasons to explore once you get out of the tutorial… but that doesn’t happen until after a very special event with Hinna. From then on, everything picks up. The story, the combat, and you now have access to all the systems in the game. Tutorial over.

Now, you will be expected to dodge mechanics, watch for tells, match up elements, and use items wisely. You will be expected to use your vessel powers every time they come off cooldown or you will suffer in combat. You will be expected to match elements or be forced to do next to no damage like some of your footage shows against some of the bosses and creatures (which means you were playing wrong in those segments). For some of those segments you were doing 7 damage when you should have been dropping 20-30 damage per hit, if you had been playing well and paying attention.

Also, how are the unlocks for your elements complicated? The game spells it out simply. If you unlock a skill in there, any class your character is can use it. However, the passives only work if you are that class. Each class is good at a specific thing. Each character has a specific theme (Val, for example is all about imbuing weapons with elements to make fights easier, as well as putting down elemental shields on teammates to make you harder to kill). So, it’s beneficial to unlock all the skills and then start specializing the play style of your characters and filling out one or two elements that fit their chosen roles in combat (I made Morley a crit master early on and then set about increasing his damage output as much as possible while dumping traps into monsters, meanwhile I made Careena a Magic user who specialized in throwing her wind stuff as often as possible so she could immobilize enemies and stun them frequently).

There is nothing “complicated” or “overwhelming here”. Most of these systems are insanely simple and easily understood by the pop ups. Unless you just don’t read. Or can’t read.

It’s weird to say “game is meh because I don’t know how to play”.

[billythekid]

I think you're the only reviewer that has said anything bad about this game..

[Janfey]

stop filming your face, just show the game

[plaue]

😂😂This games class system is TOO DEEP for you??? Holy crap, simply STOP playing RPG’s altogether then. Baldurs Gate 3 might make you insane.

I COMPLETELY understand not liking the game though.

[dios_del_encanto]

I'm really excited for this game. I've been a fan since Secret of Mana. Though I would've recommended playing the Trails of Mana Remake over Secret of Mana or the SoM Remake to get a better idea if the series is for you or not.

[JMrealgamer]

Not great to YOU which is perfectly fine. I’m on the other hand loving it. As someone who’s played most of them this is a breath of fresh air.

[joeyleblanc]

How old are you anyways. lol I love the game myself. And Nice fake death Threats at the end mate.

[WizPigTactics]

I'll accept he didn't like the game but his description of the combat feels very off...
For the more challenging side enemies, even in the demo I could not just button mash my way to victory.
You actually get punished for doing so in this game since stagger presses are a thing for longer combos.
Maybe he didn't make it very far, or the difficulty slider was off?

[danablaqsmith]

The graphics & characters would draw me into wanting to play this game

[neverends]

8 hours and you gave it full review?
I'm not even a Mana fan nor follow the series, but this is gotta be a joke review 😂

[godless]

Not even willing to give a 2D RPG a try? Hell . . . Most of the greatest RPGs ever made were 2D lol. And giving a review after only 8 hours?

What the fuck are you thinking?

[kyebrackens]

Bruh. Reply to this. What RPGs have you played? A chest tucked away behind a rock/building is as “thoughtfully placed” you’ll get in basically any game with chests. I’m not sure where tf else you expect to find a treasure chest. Almost every RPG has an upgrade system, some simple and some difficult to grasp. Personally, I don’t see what’s so difficult to grasp about this system. It’s a class system, therefore it’s assumed that each class will have its own abilities. You’re 8 hours in doing 7-12 damage per attack, the game isn’t the problem buddy, it’s your lack of brain cells to upgrade equipment as you go. If you want a game with realistic facial expressions, maybe don’t play a game where the cast is full of anthropomorphic animals and humans. You seem to not have much experience playing games of this style so if you just don’t like it, that’s on you. But don’t “review” it so terribly because you can’t grasp the game style.

[ThrashCommander]

I disagree strongly but still enjoyed the video, sorry about that.

[tyg-zwnn]

I understand where you are coming from. I think you should up the difficulty to "Very Hard" and see if your opinion changes or not. Normal is for sure too easy.