Trials of Mana

Genre: Action-RPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Trials of Mana is an Action-RPG originally released on the Super Famicom in 1995 under the game’s Japanese title Seiken Densetsu 3. The game was infamously never released outside of Japan, although over the years it would receive fan translations and gain something of a cult following, with some claiming it to be one of the best games on the console. Western audiences would finally get the chance to play an official release of the game in 2019, when it was released as a part of Collection of Mana series compilation on multiple platforms, including the Nintendo Switch, marking the first time the game would receive its Westernized title. Then in 2020, the game would be released on its own as a full-fledged remake on multiple platforms including the Nintendo Switch, completely redone from the ground-up using modern 3D graphics.

In many ways, this remake of Trials of Mana is an entirely new game. The shift to 3D visuals changes the way the game plays, with the battle system taking inspiration from the original, but otherwise being a new experience. That being said, as remakes go this game is surprisingly faithful to its source material despite how thorough everything has been reworked and modernized. The story hits all the same beats, the maps are roughly comparable, and the character designs all do a fantastic job of re-imagining the classic 16-bit sprites in full, detailed 3D with some subtle cel shading, looking somewhat similar to the sort of style Square Enix used in Dragon Quest XI (though not nearly as ambitious in its scope).

By modern standards, Trials of Mana is a very good-looking game, though the main way it impresses is in how much it advances the visuals beyond the original game. Just taken on its own, the visuals here are still good, but nothing all that spectacular, and on the Nintendo Switch there are even areas where this presentation clearly had to make sacrifices. Most noticeably, compared to the PlayStation 4 version, the Nintendo Switch version has roughly halved the framerate with a target of 30FPS, and there’s a noticeable drop in resolution as well, which comes with some noticeable aliasing. The Nintendo Switch version also has some issues with pop-in and some texture pop-in. The game still looks quite nice, but there’s definitely some rough edges in the port to the Nintendo Switch.

The graphics aren’t the only thing to have received an upgrade over the original version of the game, as this release also brings a remade soundtrack that does a fantastic job taking the already-excellent music from the Super Famicom version and redoing it with a higher quality, although purists will be happy to hear that the option to listen to the game’s original music is here as well.

This version of the game also brings with it voice acting for the game’s story cutscenes, and here the results are a bit mixed. Some of the character voices are decent, with good acting… but some of them are out-of-place (the light elemental Lumina, for example, sounds like someone trying to imitate South Park’s Big Gay Al character), with some being cringe-inducing levels of annoying. Yeah, I’m looking at you, Charlotte, with evewy wine to be pwoduced by youw mouth coming with youw incwedibwy annoying baby-speak.

When it comes to the gameplay, Trials of Mana is a solid Action-RPG with a unique multi-character system that gives the game a lot of replayability for those wanting to see each character’s story or explore how different groupings interact, and I like the changes made to the battle system here. However, in some areas this game doesn’t go far enough to modernize this classic, and in other areas it omits beloved features of the original.

In terms of features that haven’t aged well, players are still expected to select three of the game’s six characters before knowing how each of them play and what sort of synergy they’ll have with each other. Given that this is a choice you’ll be stuck with for the entirety of the game’s 20-30 hour playtime, it’s a bit disappointing that the game doesn’t allow more flexibility with this, or at least give players a preview of how their team will work together, especially since players won’t even have all three characters joining their party until they’re a few hours into the game. Oh, and good luck keeping your sanity if you chose Charlotte as one of your characters.

Another feature that has aged poorly is the game’s day-night cycle, which was novel when the game first released, but by today’s standards feels more frustrating than clever, as the game doesn’t give players an indication of exactly what time it is in the game’s in-game clock, and many time of day-specific events don’t make it clear when players need to be present for them to happen.

As for beloved features of the classic that didn’t make the cut here, gone is the original game’s multiplayer support, which is a real shame, as the co-op play of the SNES-era Mana games was one of their best features. Suffice it to say, players looking to play this game with a friend will have to be satisfied with the old-school version of it found in Collection of Mana.

In the end, despite the areas where this remake of Trials of Mana could have done more to bring the magic of the original game into the present, it’s hard to complain too much when this is still a solid remake of a beloved Action-RPG classic. Fans of the genre should find this to be an excellent addition to their collection.

tl;dr – Trials of Mana is a remake of a 1995 Action-RPG with graphics and gameplay fully redone in 3D, and while some elements haven’t aged well, and this version lacks the original’s multiplayer, this is still an excellent remake of a beloved classic.

Grade: B+

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2020 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Port/Remake, Best Graphics

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