Visions of Mana

Visions of Mana was provided by Square Enix for review. Thank you!

Square Enix took their sweet time, but finally, we have a new entry in the Mana series! Following the Trials of Mana remake, we now have a brand new game to enjoy, and for the most part, I did. Visions of Mana feels like the game fulfills exactly what it needs to without doing anything explicitly new or groundbreaking, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. There are a couple of nuisances sprinkled throughout, which can be a drain in the beginning, but it will be worth holding out as the game will get significantly better as it introduces more mechanics to really flesh it out.

The story begins in the fire village Tianeea, where Val and Hinna are chosen as the Soul Guard and Alm of Fire, respectively. In this world, a person representing one of the elements, an Alm, is selected and must go on a journey to the Mana tree to sacrifice themselves to keep the world's mana balanced. If they don't, their hometown will be completely obliterated. The Soul Guard is meant to protect the Alms and guide them on their journey to the tree. Starting from Tianeea, Val and Hinna will travel across the world to gather up all of the Alms and journey to the tree to protect their homes from destruction.

Just from my understanding of the story, I expected the game to be a bit on the darker side since they are dealing with sacrificing themselves for the greater good, but it was a bit different than that. Visions of Mana's story is more lighthearted overall. The characters all want to do good and help people and tend to be more cheery or optimistic overall. There were a couple of deeper moments that did hit me right in the feelings in there, and there were some moments of inter-party friction, but these didn't last long.

I wouldn't say the story was incredible, but I also wouldn't say it was bad either. It was solid, and it intrigued me enough to carry me along until the end. The characters helped a lot with that, as each one had a certain charm to them that I ended up getting invested in, but don't expect it to blow your mind. It may not have been the story I was expecting, but I ended up loving it regardless.

I was initially a bit let down by the actual combat and gameplay. It started feeling much too basic and easy, but I soon learned it would become much deeper as I played. You have two basic attack buttons and the ability to dodge and jump. You also have abilities you can get and attach to your limited ring wheel or shortcuts to use, as well as equipable bonuses, but it all feels basic and repetitive initially. But it's worth pushing through.

It starts to get significantly more in-depth once you can start getting new elements. You essentially get ahold of the spirits of eight different elements, and each one can be assigned to a character, changing their class, focus, weapons, and armor. They all have a small skill tree as well, which, while small, unlocks more magic and moves you can use. Magic can be used with any class, while specific weapon abilities can be used as long as you are using the same weapon.

The combat can get quite deep with each playable character having their own skill trees and different classes. I wasn't expecting this level of customizability, but the way elements, classes, and abilities all work together to not only expand your moveset but supply it across different combinations of builds is really nice. As you grow and get enough elements to cover your entire team, combat becomes significantly more enjoyable, and I am glad I didn't write it off early on.

Outside of combat, you will be traveling around the open areas of the world and visiting towns to further the story and get new equipment and items. While there are different armor and weapons for each class, I didn't feel like I was hurting for money as long as I was fighting, grinding, and doing some side quests. You can find most of these side quests in these towns, and while some were worthwhile, the bulk of them didn't feel that meaningful and like a waste of time. This was more of an issue earlier on when combat wasn't as complex, so grinding and fighting felt more like a chore, but I still preferred to just grind on my own and find monsters while progressing the main questline.

Visually, Visions of Mana is stunning. There were so many picture-perfect moments I could find going around the different biomes in the world, and there was always something to see. This was exemplified on the Steam Deck OLED screen, which just made everything look much more vibrant. It has just the right amount of detail to make everything pop while also keeping the cartoony aesthetic, and I think it works really well. I would say running around the world is half the joy of the game, and there were many moments I could just sit back and take in the sights and enjoy the beautiful tunes that were being played.

One thing that I did appreciate is the small details. The grassy lands are mystifying thanks to the fields surrounding them; houses and farms will be placed appropriately and look great, and even towns will feel more lively in general with the NPCs and placement of buildings. Personally, my favorite little detail is the snow. As you move around in the snow, you will leave a trail, and it will stay there! It isn't physics-based or anything like that, but it's a nice addition that I found amusing.

I also enjoyed how the areas were designed. It's very clear which way to go and the path to take, but there are secrets to find if you are willing to explore. A lot of these are already marked on the mini-map in blue circles, which I actually liked, but there are some you need to come back to with corresponding elements to activate and get the items. This, combined with the beautiful world, just made exploration so satisfying overall.

However, I have a lot of little issues with the game. None of these are game-breaking, but they do feel like small things that could be fixed with a patch. To name a few: You can't run around or double jump in towns, which I found annoying when I had to go back and forth into these areas for quests, you can't track multiple quests at a time, and you can't change which quest is active when traveling in the sky or on water. I also found an issue where I couldn't use an item in battle if I was actively moving around, and I had to stop moving to make sure I used it. This wasn't explained as a mechanic, so I assume this could be a bug.

Regardless of these issues though, Visions of Mana is just a blast to play, and even with some shortcomings, it is a joy on the Steam Deck.

Visions of Mana - Steam Deck Performance

I can't say this enough, but I loved playing Visions of Mana on the Steam Deck. It feels like the best way to really enjoy any JRPG, and this one is definitely included. For the most part, it runs like a charm and feels great, but there are a couple of issues that stop it from being a wonderful experience, and it's definitely something to keep note of.

There aren't any advanced graphical settings for the game, only a quality preset and FSR 2 selector. Because of this, we can't go in and fine-tune the settings. This made configuring settings even more difficult because the game automatically turned down anti-aliasing when the quality setting was below high. Combined with FSR 2, this means it will start to look extremely pixelated and somewhat flash or sparkle. Even without FSR 2 on, which is not recommended since performance can really dip, it looks extremely sharp. Changing these settings individually would have been better and allowed us to get a better framerate without making the visuals pixelated and shiny.

This makes getting recommended settings both easier and a bit harder, but either way, it isn't perfect. Most of the areas you are playing in will hit a stable 30 FPS, with some going even higher, but there are some areas and boss fights, as well as cutscenes, that will dip. It's a bit weird overall since the larger areas where you run around work wonderfully and drain at around 13W while keeping 30 FPS, but some of the smaller areas for boss fights can drop.

This was unavoidable unless we really brought down settings and made it look terrible, so in the end, I would recommend just powering through it.

To keep the game looking good and save as much performance as possible, we are going to force the game to run at 1024x640 through the game's Steam preferences, use SteamOS FSR at Sharpness of 3-5, FSR 2 at Performance, and Quality Settings at High. This combined will keep the game looking fresh for the most part while also saving on the battery to mitigate some of these tougher spots. It will still drop, but general gameplay should be okay. I would recommend no TDP limit as well, since those harder areas will need the boost.

There are some popups and menus that have small text, but I never found anything unreadable.

Accessibility

In the settings, you can change language and difficulty, subtitles, text speed, the mini map and mission displays, button style, auto running, vibrations, some battle animations, rebind controls, change audio sliders, and move the camera up or down to be faster, further away, or inverted.

The game supports 16:10 resolutions, so there are no black bars, and it has full controller and cloud save support. However, there are no HDR settings.

Conclusion

Visions of Mana is not trying to innovate or be something it isn't, which makes me appreciate it more. It has a solid story with likable characters, packed with a great combat system, and one of the most beautiful worlds I have seen in a JRPG. It started off a bit too easy for my liking, but powering through feels rewarding once you can clearly see the depth in the gameplay mechanics. The side quests are a bit bland, though more exploration and combat later on is never unwelcome, and there are little nuisances here and there. It doesn't change how great the game is, and I loved it.

I wish Visions of Mana performed a bit better on the Steam Deck since it has some minor issues and framerate drops in some areas and cutscenes, but it is playable. The text size is a little small at times, but I wouldn't say it is so bad that you can't read it at all. Even so, it is hard not to recommend the game, and I think it's a fantastic addition to the Steam Deck library! Square Enix crushed it with the next Mana game, and I can't wait to see how they will move forward from here.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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