Trials of Mana is a 3D remake of the 1995 Japanese title, Seiken Densetsu 3, published and produced by Square Enix. This game is an Action RPG set in a fantasy world and follows the adventure of six heroes, with three main storylines to follow depending on who you choose as your main character, allowing two others to join the party along the way. Each character has their own backstory and if you have a party member that has the same main story as your main character it will give you even more dialogue and interactions. The main premise of the game is to unlock the Mana Stones that are scattered around the world to gain access to a portal that takes you to the mighty Mana Tree. This is where the Sword of Mana is waiting for a new hero to take possession of its immense power and restore the Mana in the world.

Your characters travel from their respective homelands, with each character leaving for different reasons. With the guidance of the Priest of Light and information provided by Faeries you will soon discover that the Mana Tree is dying and that the Mana in the world is disappearing as a result. If the Mana was to disappear, ancient evils (the Benevodons) could be unleashed on the world. The hardest part of this game for me was deciding who would be my main character and who would be my two companions out of the six characters available. If you want the two characters that have the same main story, then here is a little help; Duran and Angela, Hawkeye and Riesz, Kevin and Charlotte, it definitely makes for a more coherent experience. You don’t need to have them paired however, and is only necessary if you want a little bit of extra dialogue.

Trials of Mana use the top-down camera style and a real time fight system rather than a turn base system. Each character has a single weapon they can use along with some magic, with the option to change your class at level eighteen using the different Mana Stones with two options to choose from. Along with your quick attacks and combos, there is also the heavy attack and combos involving both types of attacks. You also have access to two radial wheels that pauses gameplay, one for using abilities, the other for items. They have included a day and night system as well as weekdays, this affects the kinds of monsters to fight and access to a black-market night-time shop and an ability of Kevin’s. Each day is named from an elemental spirit which boost the power of that element for that day, great to use in well planned combat.

Trials of Mana has been updated from its original 16 bit to its now 3D animation, which while looking cartoonish, does it well. Everything seems to have a more colourful cuteness to it, quite fitting for a fantasy game. It does over shadows some of the dark themes that this game actually has, so much so that I am only now realising it. Even the monsters you fight look somewhat cutesy and some are just downright adorable. Now, this may sound off putting since you must kill them, but it kind of is, don’t get me wrong I did it but I always felt a little bad about it.

The world looks bright and beautiful due to the cartoonish look, but it’s a nice change, uplifting even. It helps get you sucked in and makes you want to explore every nook and cranny of the world. The artistic design is complemented with a pretty decent fantasy soundtrack and each area has its own kind of music and each character a theme, nothing exceptional though, just your standard fantasy style sounds.

The script dialogue was sometimes a little weird but that’s expected from Japanese games that are translated to English, but I have to say they did a decent job of it, better than most other games I’ve seen. The English voice acting is also good but what impressed me more was the fact that for some of the voice actors this was their first real gig. Only two of the voice actors in this game had an impressive list of games and anime under their belt as veterans of the trade, so it was a commendable effort from them all.

The one main thing I didn’t like was the fact I could only choose three characters in my party; I wish I could have them all in my squad. That would technically defeat the purpose of the game and the reason I find this game unique, but still I would like to have the whole gang involved. The controls are easy to use with a decent explanation of the mechanics, there is not a lot I can fault this game for, at no point did I find something that crossed my gaming line to annoy me. One thing I will say just as a little extra hint, look around everywhere. Items are found all over and even hidden in corners behind objects and talking to everyone may just land you something special if you talk to the right person.

Overall, Trials of Mana is a really fun game and quite enjoyable to play even with some surprisingly darker and more adult themes wrapped up in bubbly cartoonish skin. It was definitely something I wasn’t expecting from this top down, real time fighter but added it more depth to the characters making for a solid experience.

Written by: Adam Brasher