Remake of ManaRoughly a year ago, I highlighted the official English localization of Seiken Densetsu

Remake of ManaRoughly a year ago, I highlighted the official English localization of Seiken Densetsu 3, AKA Trials of Mana, AKA a game that meant a lot to me growing up as an introduction to the incredible efforts of the fan translation, ROM hacking, and import JRPG communities. It took us 24 years to finally get a sanctioned translation, but now, within the relatively short span of 2019 to 2020, we not only have a localized original at our disposal but a fully-fledged remake with three dimensional environments, voices, a revised combat system and several extra goodies to satiate Seiken faithful. Playing this game during the coronavirus lockdown, and furthermore during a nice two week vacation period where I was between jobs, was very much a reminder of the period of my life where I had a lot of time to play video games and was most touched by Japanese roleplaying experiences. I’m talking about that middle/early high school teenage era of 12 to 16, where I plowed through oodles of these colorful stories about teenagers leveling up to inevitably save the world (or kill god) via the power of friendship. The Trials of Mana remake is very much comfort food that brings back all memories of that period. The gang that you remember - Duran, Kevin, Hawkeye, Angela, Riesz and Charlotte - are all back and instantly recognizable, and aside from the inclusion of some post-game content revolving around a character from Dawn of Mana for the PS2 (a game that got shite reviews when it came out, but I sorta wanna play now), all the scenes in Trials of Mana 2020 play out the same way that they did in the original, just fancier and with more dimensions. Riesz still unfurls her hairband and stands dramatically on a bridge as she pledges to take down the assassins who killed her father. Charlotte still escapes from Wendel via jumping atop a bouncy little monster called a Springstepper. Booskaboo the giant turtle (sorry, I mean Vuscav, since they insist on using the name established in Heroes of Mana) still shows up randomly to save the squad from an exploding volcano, looking cuddly and ridiculous as ever with his goggles and lil’ shell flag. While the plot might be the same, this remake nicely updates much in the gameplay department. The combat is arguably a lot more engaging than in Seiken Densetsu 3, with the ability to jump adding verticality, and there are many solid boss battles that reminded me of an MMORPG at times, with colorful, telegraphed moves and stuff dropping around the battlefield that you need to destroy in order to weaken the boss’ ultimate attack. (DPS checks, in other words - I image that some of the devs are players of Final Fantasy XIV.) Kevin’s damage output, which produced insane numbers in the original game due to a bug, have been fixed, and you no longer have to grind endlessly for the required items to transition to class 3. (I only found myself grinding for about twenty minutes in one section, which is pretty good considering the two hours I had to grind when I recently replayed the original last year.) Speaking of classes, there’s a new class 4 that turns almost all of the party members into strippers, and Lil Cactus from Legend of Mana shows up to bestow bonuses on players who search every inch of the world’s sizable new maps. My only real issue with Trials of Mana 2020, then, is that the game does feel like a budget production at times. The voice acting is reminiscent of an inconsistent anime dub and has generated a noticeable amount of criticism online, with most people targeting Charlotte’s UwU speech as grating on their nerves like nails on chalkboard. Personally, I like Charlotte’s Brooklyn accent, and consider her performance to be one of the most consistent. (Lumina the light elemental, who talks in a fabulous gay voice, is another such inspired choice.) Regarding graphics, the game’s outward style, based on the work of new series artist HACCAN, definitely grew on me over the course of 30-some hours…but there’s a fair amount of model clipping on display and half of the environments have these really low texture mountains in the background that stand out the more you look at them. When you compare these looks to the original Seiken Densetsu 3 - one of the most advanced, gorgeous Super Famicom projects ever, with sprites rivaling similar RPGs for the Playstation and Saturn - the low budget that Trials of Mana got becomes evident, especially compared to all of the money that Square dumped into the Final Fantasy VII remake, which came out the same month.But at the end of the day, this is a loving and especially faithful revision of an old game, and I think players have noticed and appreciate that. Conversely, the Final Fantasy VII Remake (which I haven’t played yet as I’m awaiting the PC version) has gotten noticeable flak for an unfamiliar ending that spins things into left field. Both approaches towards remaking a classic are probably valid at the end of the day, but Trials of Mana 2020 is, once again, a comforting, unpretentious new wrapper around a classic 16-bit RPG, and for a series that often flies under the radar, fans couldn’t ask for much better than that. Fingers crossed that Square remakes Legend of Mana next - now that’s an underrated masterpiece that deserves a new audience in this day and age.  -- source link

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