A remake that improves the original on the gameplay axis, while going through a bit of trial and error on the story front…
Genre: Action RPG
Release Date (NA): April 24th, 2020
Platforms: PS4, PC, Switch
Total Gameplay Score: +7 Total Story Score: -1
Summary
After years of fans clamoring for a western port of the Japanese only sequel to Secret of Mana, publishers finally listened and released, not only an English localized port of Seiken Densetsu 3, but a full remake of the original titled Trials of Mana. The Secret of Mana remake wasn’t exactly loved by critics, often being called out for its chibi graphics and poor arranged soundtrack, so how does Trials of Mana improve on SE’s recent remake trend?
First off, carrying over what Secret of Mana Remake got right, the gameplay of Trials of Mana is overhauled and polished to a sparkling sheen from the original. Again, hit and hurt boxes are perfected from the spotty original with incredibly tight and responsive hit detection as a result of the redone 3D enemies and environments. The controls are actually more tight and spot-on than the SoM remake with faster turning and more options in combat thanks to the deep and varied class system. The option to choose 3 out of 6 characters means you can mix and match team class setups in interesting ways. And there are quite a few classes in the game to have fun with, with the game sporting 3 starting classes per character, and 3 more for each rank up, (every 18 levels or so). Not only do you get new abilities, both passive and active, and stats, but new outfits and weapons that show in-game. And boy, it’s such a good thing all the cosmetics show during battles because Trials of Mana is a beautiful game to look at with lush colors and solid design. The art of this game is more colorful and cartoony than the original, but it does so in a distinctive ‘Mana’ way. The day/night cycle that is constantly churning throughout your time in the game world emphasizing the bright and distinct color palette through the cotton candy sunsets and aurora borealis nights. The change from a strictly top-down view to full 360 camera control directly behind the character also serve the art direction since you can now see and look in all directions from a more personal lens. Sadly, not everything in the gameplay department was enhanced since co-op multiplayer was scrapped completely for the remake, a decision that has fans of the original everywhere disappointed. The omission of multiplayer isn’t the only backslide this remake has fallen into though..
The voiceover for ToM Remake is perhaps the most strikingly ‘bad’ thing players will notice about this game. I tested all language options, and all seem to be universally poor in quality. The voices are cheesy, poorly directed with bad nuance and emphasis, and just plain deflated in acting throughout. Not every character has bad voice acting, some like the Gourmand had legit good voice performances, but these highlights are so few and far between (and most of the 6 mains were pretty subpar) that it doesn’t salvage the overall voice performance. So, the voice acting tarnishes whatever masterpiece of a story this game could have had, but is it a masterpiece aside from the voicework? Well, not really, mostly due to the spotty script that uses ‘as you know’ dialogue and awkward banter between characters that don’t service the story in a positive light. Thankfully, the script isn’t all bad in its narrative construction, since the plot is quite good in and of itself, if a tad predictable. Perhaps the best thing about the story is the variations that can occur based on what characters you choose. Each character has their own separate backstory that you can play through at the beginning of the game; to add to this, there are story sequences that change depending on your party setup. The endgame dungeon and an important antagonist personal to the protagonist will even change based on who you pick, and these moments are pretty darn good across the board. I especially like the endings of the game, which can vary, since it gives closure and ties all loose threads in a satisfying way.
The music is my favorite aspect of the game overall. Thankfully, the remade soundtrack wasn’t bizarre like Secret of Mana’s was, instead ToM has a masterfully done remade soundtrack that brings new orchestration and embellishes the original with fantastic instrumentation. The soundtrack is pretty much a 1 to 1 remake unlike SoM’s which altered the genre and style of certain tracks. The option to switch between original and redone soundtrack is great, and the ost in general livens up the game and adds to the world of the game substantially. Overall, this remake is a success and improves the original with better controls, class system options, and sheer presentation with its new 3D graphics and music. The voicework and script were lackluster, unfortunately, but if you turn off voices it’s almost like playing the original on SNES, just a little bit better in every other way.
Gameplay Pluses and Minuses
+ Convenience features such as option to turn battle animations on or off (if only FF VIII had this option!), partial recovery and full recovery shortcuts/toggles. Shortcuts for items and moves. The ring menu is snappy and easy to get in and out of.
+ Plus for music being really memorable and enjoyable in its own right, while helping dress the right atmosphere for the bright and cartoony fantasy world. The soundtrack excells in keeping that classic ‘Mana’ sound that enriches the world and makes the experience more enriching than it otherwise would be for me. Some outstanding tracks include ‘Another Winter’, ‘Evening Star’, and ‘Swivel’. These tracks exemplify what I love about this soundtrack: memorable and catchy melodies, deceptively simple-yet ever changing harmony, and layered rhythms.
+ The option to switch between the original and remake soundtrack is a feature every remake needs to have. It helps with Trials since the remade soundtrack itself is excellent and much better than the Secret of Mana remake soundtrack, enriching some songs with rich instrumentation and in some cases better overall timbre and tone.
+ Movement outside and inside of battle is fluid, responsive, and feels natural to control. Gone are the 4 to 8 direction movement axis from the original Mana games on SNES, and in are full axis movement and jumping in all directions. Turning the character has instantaneous response time and you can easily cancel out of attacks. The lack of loading or hiccups going in and out of battle, and even escaping battles, is great and adds to the seamless nature of the gameplay, exemplified in the ability ring and general movement axis. The remake fixes character leashing that often happened with party members in the original SNES Mana games, and fixes the often broken and skewed hit and hurt boxes in the original games. The Remake is smooth as butter in all these gameplay regards and probably deserves 2 positives for sheer fluidity of movement and improvement of the original, but since the original would deserve a negative or two for the problems it had, a single plus is more deserving here.
+ The art style in this one surprised me as I didn’t think any remake could beat the amazing spritework of the original SNES version. It also surprised me the more I got into the game because the starting area of Duran’s story featured very bland looking mountains with bad textures. When I started exploring the fields and forests, I realized how much I loved the colors and presentation of the world for the remake. The art of the remake remains true to the Mana ‘look’, with colorful, playful hues and tones. The day/night cycle remains intact from the original, and the shading and passing of time through the sun and moon and the light they give off look phenomenal in the cartoon presentation this game has. The dark blue of the night and the cotton candy of sunsets really stick out and make the world pop. Going through each area at different times in the day make backtracking and/or grinding rewarding because the aesthetic is varied depending on time. The perspective you see the character from has also been altered from the top-down view of the original. This time everything you see has an up close and personal feel to it as you’re viewing your character from third person directly behind them. This perspective shift makes the world pop with color and feel more intimate while also making the gameplay feel more punchy and visceral. The texture problems with the mountains are few and far between and don’t hinder the great art direction throughout the game.
+ Boss battles are generally fun and layered throughout the game. The proximity markers that indicate where an attack is going to happen from the boss is cleanly displayed on screen and allows strategy and planning from the player without the action getting too chaotic on screen. The bosses tend to have unique move sets and patterns throughout, without the typical three phase fight that tends to get repetitive in games. The wall boss and ninja brothers fights in particular demanded strategy, concentration regarding movement and resource management, and quick reflexes.
++ The 6 main characters each have unique attacks, animations, weapons (that even show in the gameplay), and list of abilities that all contribute to making each feel distinct and different from each other. Each character also has 2 distinct classes to select from at their first class level up, which appears at level 18. These classes are all different from each other and come with their own unique abilities. There are numerous different class ranks (level ups) throughout the game that evolve into completely unique classes for each of the 6 characters. These classes can fulfil a specific role in combat such as the knight (tank) or ranged thief (ranger). You can even reset classes and skill point usage as you see fit by visiting the mana stones. This level of variety and flexibility in characters, abilities, and classes deserves 2 pluses for the option to reset and freedom to choose what you like, and also for the sheer amount of options and them being meaningful in gameplay (like weapons and class armor showing in game, and through abilities/stats).
+ Aggregate positive to good difficulty curve throughout the game and the benevodon boss fights. This game executes difficulty curve similar to DQ XI. Like that game, regular battles are entirely skippable, they generally give pretty useful rewards and exp, and mobs are just the right length and difficulty. The boss battle are typically the difficult check throughout the game. If you find a boss battle way out of your league, it’s because you weren’t fighting any enemies in the dungeon on the way, though you will find that fighting every single encounter will be more than enough to get through the game. The game starts off really easy to get you introduced to the mechanics and feel of the game, but spikes up in difficulty around the middle section of the game with the benevodons. The first set of benevodons can be fought in any order, and are each balanced too not be too hard or too easy. The end-game is surprisingly challenging, especially the post-game dungeon, which tests your mastery of combat and job familiarity.
– Remember how Secret of Mana and Seiken Densetsu 3 were well known as the best and most unique co-op RPG experiences on console back in the 90s? Well, this remake doesn’t have co-op, at all. Yep, that’s right. Unlike the original Seiken Densetsu 3, Trials of Mana Remake is exclusively single player, much to the disappointment of fans everywhere. The devs say it’s largely because they wanted to really hone in on the single player experience, which they did well in doing, but it’s probably budget as well. Since many players associate this and SoM with the co-op experiences they supply as much as the single player experience, this lack of such a fundamental feature that the original was known for deserves a negative. Part of the identity of the original game is lacking here. I know people who refuse to play this game simply because they only played Mana games co-op. This lack of feature completely ruins the game for some, while at least removing potential fun and potential of the sheer quality of characters on display in this game compared to SoM.
– Aggregate negative to repeated boss fights, especially those in the final dungeon, which are just copy/pasted from earlier in the game, instances of poor backtracking, and a couple of glitches causing the game to crash several times. I’m not a fan of the boss rush concept ala Mega Man, since the bosses are usually unaltered and it’s repeated content, but here there’s not even a story reason for it. The backtracking isn’t terrible, and it’s mitigated by the day/night cycle changing the look of environments, but several times you’re tasked with fetching an item in locations you’ve already been for awkward reasons that don’t move the plot forward and seem like padding. I encountered a glitch that completely locks a party member frozen in place until I quit and reset the game. This happened around 4 or 5 times near the end of the game. I haven’t heard this happening to too many people, and it might get patched, but it’s worth pointing out.
9 positives 2 negatives
Net Gameplay: +7
Story Pluses and Minuses
+ Each character has their own separate origin story that eventually ties into whichever 3 main protagonist you pick when they all meet up for the rest of the game. While some origin stories are better than others, they are mostly well done and help establish the motivations of each of the characters. The main story itself branches into different variations depending on what 3 out of 6 characters you chose for the game. These story variations occur at the middle part of the game and even at the finale, which has a different end dungeon depending on who the party setup is. This story variation depending on characters is very cool and enhances replayability, as well as gives each character their own personal journey and quest that enriches the chosen character’s progression and story.
+ Endings were generally satisfying and tie all loose threads and resolutions, especially if you played through different characters to see other angles and variations of the story. What is surprising is even if you just played one, you still get good closure and a well-rounded ending. Though, the game doesn’t entirely end at the initial credits since there’s a postlude segment with a new motivation and dungeon and class to unlock.
– I’m not going to beat around the bush, the voice acting is terrible, and not in a charming, endearing way. Nothing else for it, 90% of the voices in the game are grating, poorly directed, and generally under emotive or overly dramatic in a cringe way. While a couple characters had good VAs (like the gourmand), pretty much all of them sounded mediocre and took away from the experience. The good thing is the option to turn voices off and just have text is available, because I found the game much more tolerable and engaging with text only like the SNES version.
– Generally bad scene animations and directing that feels stilted and wooden plenty of the time. The storyboarding is subpar and takes me out of the game, where in the original the sprites had character and charm.
– Dialogue between characters and during exposition scenes is awkward and cheesy a lot of the time with plenty of ‘as you know’ dialogue reiterating plot points unnecessarily. To add to this, there’s some empty text throughout the game that doesn’t serve story or character purposes and is just there to fill space.
2 pluses 3 negatives
Net Story: -1
Overall: +6
Melchiorblade's Game Reviews 