So happy to see the Mana series return, as it was one of the first game that I had a kid. I was always disappointed that the Mana series kinda got relegated to after thought releases and then forgotten about until now. Glad to see a new entry. Yes, I know Trials of Mana wasn't too long ago, but that was a remake and finally ported over properly to western audiences, not a whole new entry. As someone who played this on the PS5, the controls are much better making combat flow smoothly. I didn't check to see if the PC port allows controller, because if so, I think it would alleviate the controls issue you had.
One of my best experiences gamingwise on a snes console was playing secret of mana couch coop with my two cousins when we were all younger then 10 years of age. It was the first rpg we could play together 3 people at the same time.
Secret of Mana was a childhood favorite of mine. It was the only RPG that both had multiplayer, and I was able to get my sister to play it with me. I have a lot of fond memories of it on the SNES. I hope your son likes it so he can form those kind of fond memories.
Excited to see this after just playing Trials of Mana! Fun action game with beautiful artstyle and you can choose from a roster of a few characters to suit your preferred playstyle. I found the story to be mildly engaging and entertaining as well which is rare for me. Didn’t love the english voice acting so I played it in japanese. I’m excited to compare the combat mechanics of that game and this game
You're spot on about it appealing to kids. I downloaded this to check out, having never played Secret of Mana as a kid. I played it with my 7 y/o daughter and she was instantly hooked on the art style and exploration. Plus it's inoffensive to my wife (i.e. it's not gory and the dialog is family friendly). Really looking forward to this release. P.S. you're spot on about the lack of a tutorial and it being confusing being drop in media res.
I remember when Gameinformer was showing screenshots of a new Mana game for the PS2, which ended up being cancelled. Really nice to see the game finally get a comeback. Thanks to the remakes doing well, the series is back and looking great!
My lifelong love for RPGs began with JRPGs on the NES, Genesis, and SNES. In addition to the Mana series, Dragon Quest is a good one, especially as a 'starter' and/or for kids. DQXI has a solid PC port, has basic RPG elements and turn-based combat too.
I played the Trials of Mana remake a couple of years ago. It was right after I'd been profoundly disappointed by a certain big name, well-loved JRPG. Unlike that other game, Trials was a joyful, unpretentious romp and I loved it. Hopefully Visions will continue that trend.
Been a fan of the Mana series since Secret of Mana on SNES. I can’t wait for Visions. Though I’ll probably still be playing Black Myth Wukong but I’m definitely playing Visions immediately after.
I finished playing the demo yesterday and it was solid, not perfect all things considered. With release being another 4 weeks from now, I hope they can iron out some of the gripes we all had. Also, really want you to review this dude keep the RPG reviews coming. I really liked your SandLand & Eiyuden Chronicles HH reviews.
It's interesting to me that you mention the low difficulty, I actually thought this demo was WAY harder than even the hard mode in trials of mana. I had at least two occasions where one of my party members just got almost one shot by a group of enemies in a random encounter. It's obviously not fromsoft but if this games normal mode is about as difficult as expert mode in trials I think there will be plenty of challenge later on. I had a bigger gripe with enemies feeling very spongy and with this game's combat being much slower and clunkier than trials made me want to avoid combat as much as possible.
I never played a Mana game before, I loved Granblue Fantasy Relink so I gave this demo a shot, combat is not as good unfortunately but the rest is very cool and I love the art design of the environment, can’t wait for the release!
I'm in the same position. The combat seems really poor after Granblue Fantasy: Relink to be honest. Let's hope the final release is a much better experience.
Looks like an improvement from secret of mana. Main problem I had with that game was, just had to heal spam at spots because you couldn’t dodge a lot of spells in that game. It wasn’t overly difficult though, but definitely one of my favorites when I was you younger.
Oh wow, I thought it was turn-based only. AND you can transverse through the elevated terrain not needing to loop around, which is unironically huge for a JRPG.
A shame the PC port is so lackluster and some things like the movement are so janky. Was hoping this would be higher budget than it's looking like at this point
Thank god my niece is still all in with exploring and goofing around, in coop mode with me, in Goat Simulator 3. So I don't have to consider this title at all. I must have developed cavities in my teeth just by looking at the game-play in the video: this one feels and looks like it was completely sugar glazed, way way too high in my personal cutsie-level tolerance scale. Thanks for your videos!
Thanks for providing this overview. I am normally not a fan of JPRG games having celebrated by seventy first year back in January of this year, my game genre are more along the line of The Elder Scrolls, Horizon: Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, the Dragon Age Series, The Witcher Series, Forspoken and yes games like Enshrouded, Eranoth Renaissance, Robin Hood - Sherwood Builder, Last Epoch and King Arthur - A Knight's Tale. Having said that this one looks like there is potential and I do like the art style and the bending in towards RPG type elements. I do agree with your assessment based on what I saw during your video of hope that the developer are listening to people like you that provide a fair and more well rounded assessments of games then do some of the other reviewers out there. I watch and appreciate many of your videos. I have even purchased and enjoyed some of the games you recommended as being worth a look at so thank you.
Regarding Visons of mana, damn' it's outstanding. YOU HAVE TO TEST IT, Mortis, not to review it on TH-cam but you have to give it a go for yourself and afterwards, for your little one (I have 2 kids, 12 daughter and 16 son, I know the feeling). Put the game in hard mode, follow the so naive and predictable story yet so, so cutely brought along with the beautiful environments and musics that the whole setting wonderfully works. Address rewarding side challenges that you 'll more than once, postpone as they were too hard. I never made XP grinding here. The game is as fluid in progression and in difficulty as are its run, double jumps, bubbles, winds, etc. a full pleasure. I finished the game and I thus unlocked the last plots of the classes (light spoiler). At that time you also get a game-breaking new custom class system. Class customization only comes after the final boss. Even by turning me and my mates into an OP-gods team after that, 2 of the 3 "tower" challenges I postponed since dozens hours were still incredibly hard, still looking impossible. It was so rewarding to beat them, Yes! Only remains for me now, the brand new post-game chapter 10, the game having 9 chapters. I'm so impatient to unfold the post-game story, dungeon and bosses of this chapter, story addition being a very rare thing in such games. Sorry for this long comment. I didn't expect to have such a great time. I only thought it would only be a good polished but tasteless game. Was wrong. I needed to share.
Thanks for this one! I'm old as hell, so I've been playing this series since FF Adventure. I thought Trials of Mana was a really nice rerelease (although challenging, it was not), and looking forward to seeing how this turns out.
I have some nephs that are really into Wobbly Life. It's like GTA for kids. It's the main game they want to play on my PC. Humblebundle has a Lego bundle up right now that's good value.
The frame-rate is a bit choppy in quite a few cases as I was playing the demo on PC and it seems that cutscenes are locked at 30 FPS. Hopefully that get’s raised to 60 on release at least. Combat doesn’t feel as fluid as I would like it to be, as you’re stuck in recovery frames for quite some time after performing certain attacks, even if you’re dashing to cancel out of them Hopefully the release version addresses these issues.
I didn't expect this game here, but I'm happy to see it. If you are looking for other jrpgs I would reccomebd SaGa Emerald Beyond, it's a strange game but has enough in common with crpgs that you might appreciate it.
I guess this could be fun, but there's certainly nothing new on offer. I fought that kraken in Dragon Quest 11, and the Zelda vibes are pretty heavy, imo.
Ahh.. loved Secret of Mana.. sadly.. can't remember much but this art style fits the old game. Remember it being harder then other RPG's of that time.. since it wasn't turned based.
Honestly surprised they haven't changed it up more over the years. Personally, this art style isn't the reason why I liked the SNES games, though I wouldn't mind a 2d/3d multiplayer iteration like Octopath. Maybe a slightly more mature iteration? But I'm not Japanese.
Already played the demo. Just downloaded all the earlier Mana games on my PS5 for free from the PS Plus collection. Combat will take awhile to get used too in this game though. Overall my biggest problem with the demo is that the UI text is incredibly small. I play games while sitting on the couch away from the tv so some options for UI text size would be greatly appreciated. On a separate note I feel like this art style would almost perfect for an FF9 Remake.
Couch co-op, like Secret of Mana? Can't think of any. I wouldn't mind playing one with someone. CRPGs, we have Baldurs Gate 3. ARPGs like Diablo 3 and 4. If you mean online, I recommend Remnant 2, but that's pushing the definition.
played the demo yesterday, look amazing BUT (always a but) i din´t find that charisma of secret of mana on it , it's not necesary a bad thing , the open field felt empty.
It’s a PC channel and controllers are native PC peripherals. We’re not in 2009, most players have controllers with their PCs, especially players of JRPGs. Your fixation with mouse and kb for games that works better with a controller is my only gripe with your channel.
Show me any data at all on your 'most players' claim for starters, second, you'll live. A game should work well with the default control method of the device it launches on. I have yet to see a game tell you to grab KBM when you're on console, it's nonsense.
it's £75 for the deluxe edition! i'm def going to pass on this one when i got far more better value in like a dragon infinite wealth for £25, the demo is not promising either, the difficulty curve is very steep for my liking
Low budgets, uncaring publishers and scrapped together teams desperate to keep beloved but unpopular series alive. Which describes most JRPGs outside of FF and Persona
@@beezusHrist I think there's a difference between not choosing to follow Trends and not updating with the times. I need to see UI that doesn't harken back to the PS2, I need sleeker and more intuitive control and input, I need the models on yakuza to make more than 1 expression. Use the modern techniques in a japanese fashion, don't change to be more western.
@@beezusHristyea totally, a market where all the top selling games on PS5 are all Western developed or games made in Japan with a Western game development influence.
I watch so many Mortismal videos at this point that I can say safely: Mort, hope you get over your cold soon
😂😂😂 I was thinking the same thing
Just a little sore throat, I'm alright
Are you saying you 100% percent Mortimals youtube channel?
So happy to see the Mana series return, as it was one of the first game that I had a kid. I was always disappointed that the Mana series kinda got relegated to after thought releases and then forgotten about until now. Glad to see a new entry. Yes, I know Trials of Mana wasn't too long ago, but that was a remake and finally ported over properly to western audiences, not a whole new entry.
As someone who played this on the PS5, the controls are much better making combat flow smoothly. I didn't check to see if the PC port allows controller, because if so, I think it would alleviate the controls issue you had.
The mana series is such a classic. Super hyped to see how this one goes!
Never played a Mana game before. The artstyle and giant kraken boss fight look great! Definitely keeping an eye on this
One of my best experiences gamingwise on a snes console was playing secret of mana couch coop with my two cousins when we were all younger then 10 years of age. It was the first rpg we could play together 3 people at the same time.
Secret of Mana was a childhood favorite of mine. It was the only RPG that both had multiplayer, and I was able to get my sister to play it with me. I have a lot of fond memories of it on the SNES. I hope your son likes it so he can form those kind of fond memories.
I played Secret of Mana and Legend of mana to death back in the day. I am hyped for this in ways i can't express without sounding like a lunatic.
The last mana game was really good. Totally getting this.
Thanks for the video. It's always nice to see you explore JRPGs. Onward to 400k. All glory to the algorithm.
Does certainly look a bit like the Trials of Mana Remake, which was quite good (unlike the Secret of Mana Remake...).
i actually enjoyed and completed that 100% this not so much unfortunately
Excited to see this after just playing Trials of Mana! Fun action game with beautiful artstyle and you can choose from a roster of a few characters to suit your preferred playstyle. I found the story to be mildly engaging and entertaining as well which is rare for me. Didn’t love the english voice acting so I played it in japanese. I’m excited to compare the combat mechanics of that game and this game
enjoyed the movement, and interested in seeing how the class system pans out.
If it's like Trials of Mana it will have a hard mode. That game was actually quite challenging, especially the end game.
Secrets of mana blew my little mind back in the day as an awesome action-JRPG when all competition was turn-based.
Love the Mana series since as a kid !
I like the mounts, wasn’t expecting that
Absolute underrated gem of a game. On chapter 3 now and the class system is really good.
You're spot on about it appealing to kids. I downloaded this to check out, having never played Secret of Mana as a kid. I played it with my 7 y/o daughter and she was instantly hooked on the art style and exploration. Plus it's inoffensive to my wife (i.e. it's not gory and the dialog is family friendly).
Really looking forward to this release.
P.S. you're spot on about the lack of a tutorial and it being confusing being drop in media res.
My wife
I remember when Gameinformer was showing screenshots of a new Mana game for the PS2, which ended up being cancelled. Really nice to see the game finally get a comeback. Thanks to the remakes doing well, the series is back and looking great!
Very excited to play Visions of Mana. I've only played Trials of Mana remake but it was tons of fun.
My lifelong love for RPGs began with JRPGs on the NES, Genesis, and SNES.
In addition to the Mana series, Dragon Quest is a good one, especially as a 'starter' and/or for kids. DQXI has a solid PC port, has basic RPG elements and turn-based combat too.
The elemental vessels mechanic reminds me of the djinn from Golden Sun.
I played the Trials of Mana remake a couple of years ago. It was right after I'd been profoundly disappointed by a certain big name, well-loved JRPG. Unlike that other game, Trials was a joyful, unpretentious romp and I loved it. Hopefully Visions will continue that trend.
What was the big name, well loved game your were disappointed with? I probably haven't played it, so I'm curious.
@@thewal1ofsleep Persona 5.
My supportive "TH-cam-Jazz" =)
Been a fan of the Mana series since Secret of Mana on SNES. I can’t wait for Visions. Though I’ll probably still be playing Black Myth Wukong but I’m definitely playing Visions immediately after.
I finished playing the demo yesterday and it was solid, not perfect all things considered. With release being another 4 weeks from now, I hope they can iron out some of the gripes we all had. Also, really want you to review this dude keep the RPG reviews coming. I really liked your SandLand & Eiyuden Chronicles HH reviews.
It's interesting to me that you mention the low difficulty, I actually thought this demo was WAY harder than even the hard mode in trials of mana. I had at least two occasions where one of my party members just got almost one shot by a group of enemies in a random encounter. It's obviously not fromsoft but if this games normal mode is about as difficult as expert mode in trials I think there will be plenty of challenge later on.
I had a bigger gripe with enemies feeling very spongy and with this game's combat being much slower and clunkier than trials made me want to avoid combat as much as possible.
Some of the telegraphed attacks give you so little time to get out of them they might as well just not be there
the trials on the map were unforgiving, i barely made a dent, noped out of that quick especially with the time limit 😡😡 taking the mick
Don't know why but I'm kinda surprised you did this.
Cool.
Man, i'm still playing the remaster of Legend of Mana on PC probably going to stick to that for nostalgia reasons.
Very excited for this game!
Small mana dragon follows me around is a pretty strong argument, tho.
I never played a Mana game before, I loved Granblue Fantasy Relink so I gave this demo a shot, combat is not as good unfortunately but the rest is very cool and I love the art design of the environment, can’t wait for the release!
I'm in the same position. The combat seems really poor after Granblue Fantasy: Relink to be honest. Let's hope the final release is a much better experience.
Looks like an improvement from secret of mana. Main problem I had with that game was, just had to heal spam at spots because you couldn’t dodge a lot of spells in that game. It wasn’t overly difficult though, but definitely one of my favorites when I was you younger.
Oh wow, I thought it was turn-based only.
AND you can transverse through the elevated terrain not needing to loop around, which is unironically huge for a JRPG.
Why would it be turn based?
@@superizillian957 Steam page had it turn-based before.
Reminded me of Golden Sun , awesome game btw
Seeing one of my favorite reviewers basically agree with points I made in my own review makes me proud of myself lol
A shame the PC port is so lackluster and some things like the movement are so janky. Was hoping this would be higher budget than it's looking like at this point
It Is higher budget compared to trials of mana
@@beezusHrist One would expect a brand new title is higher budget than a remake. It's not saying much, but yes it's something
@TheFawz you just said two contradictory statements. It feels weighter than trials and the visuals are way better as well
Thank god my niece is still all in with exploring and goofing around,
in coop mode with me, in Goat Simulator 3.
So I don't have to consider this title at all.
I must have developed cavities in my teeth just by looking at the game-play in the video:
this one feels and looks like it was completely sugar glazed,
way way too high in my personal cutsie-level tolerance scale.
Thanks for your videos!
This looks agressively cute. I'm getting diabetes just looking at the video
Thanks for providing this overview. I am normally not a fan of JPRG games having celebrated by seventy first year back in January of this year, my game genre are more along the line of The Elder Scrolls, Horizon: Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, the Dragon Age Series, The Witcher Series, Forspoken and yes games like Enshrouded, Eranoth Renaissance, Robin Hood - Sherwood Builder, Last Epoch and King Arthur - A Knight's Tale.
Having said that this one looks like there is potential and I do like the art style and the bending in towards RPG type elements. I do agree with your assessment based on what I saw during your video of hope that the developer are listening to people like you that provide a fair and more well rounded assessments of games then do some of the other reviewers out there. I watch and appreciate many of your videos. I have even purchased and enjoyed some of the games you recommended as being worth a look at so thank you.
Regarding Visons of mana, damn' it's outstanding. YOU HAVE TO TEST IT, Mortis, not to review it on TH-cam but you have to give it a go for yourself and afterwards, for your little one (I have 2 kids, 12 daughter and 16 son, I know the feeling). Put the game in hard mode, follow the so naive and predictable story yet so, so cutely brought along with the beautiful environments and musics that the whole setting wonderfully works. Address rewarding side challenges that you 'll more than once, postpone as they were too hard. I never made XP grinding here. The game is as fluid in progression and in difficulty as are its run, double jumps, bubbles, winds, etc. a full pleasure. I finished the game and I thus unlocked the last plots of the classes (light spoiler). At that time you also get a game-breaking new custom class system. Class customization only comes after the final boss. Even by turning me and my mates into an OP-gods team after that, 2 of the 3 "tower" challenges I postponed since dozens hours were still incredibly hard, still looking impossible. It was so rewarding to beat them, Yes! Only remains for me now, the brand new post-game chapter 10, the game having 9 chapters. I'm so impatient to unfold the post-game story, dungeon and bosses of this chapter, story addition being a very rare thing in such games. Sorry for this long comment. I didn't expect to have such a great time. I only thought it would only be a good polished but tasteless game. Was wrong. I needed to share.
Its on my to do list
Looks great! Adding to my wishlist.
Thanks for this one! I'm old as hell, so I've been playing this series since FF Adventure. I thought Trials of Mana was a really nice rerelease (although challenging, it was not), and looking forward to seeing how this turns out.
Turned it on excited to play, to be disinterested after reading 4-5 screen fulls of text trying to be a tutorial before ever having done anything.
yeah the tutorials were overwhelming in a bad way, after the 4th screen i lost interest in learning anything from it smh
I remember farming wolves in secret of mana when I was a kid.
Child rating helps! Mine turns five tomorrow and I’m always on the lookout for games he could play
I have some nephs that are really into Wobbly Life. It's like GTA for kids. It's the main game they want to play on my PC. Humblebundle has a Lego bundle up right now that's good value.
The frame-rate is a bit choppy in quite a few cases as I was playing the demo on PC and it seems that cutscenes are locked at 30 FPS. Hopefully that get’s raised to 60 on release at least.
Combat doesn’t feel as fluid as I would like it to be, as you’re stuck in recovery frames for quite some time after performing certain attacks, even if you’re dashing to cancel out of them
Hopefully the release version addresses these issues.
I didn't expect this game here, but I'm happy to see it. If you are looking for other jrpgs I would reccomebd SaGa Emerald Beyond, it's a strange game but has enough in common with crpgs that you might appreciate it.
I guess this could be fun, but there's certainly nothing new on offer. I fought that kraken in Dragon Quest 11, and the Zelda vibes are pretty heavy, imo.
used to play co-op on the mana titles back in the day. a shame they abandoned playing couch co-op. seiken densetsu 3 on snes was perfect
This game looks cool!
I'd love to see you play Animal Well Morty
Ahh.. loved Secret of Mana.. sadly.. can't remember much but this art style fits the old game.
Remember it being harder then other RPG's of that time.. since it wasn't turned based.
Honestly surprised they haven't changed it up more over the years. Personally, this art style isn't the reason why I liked the SNES games, though I wouldn't mind a 2d/3d multiplayer iteration like Octopath. Maybe a slightly more mature iteration? But I'm not Japanese.
Already played the demo. Just downloaded all the earlier Mana games on my PS5 for free from the PS Plus collection.
Combat will take awhile to get used too in this game though. Overall my biggest problem with the demo is that the UI text is incredibly small. I play games while sitting on the couch away from the tv so some options for UI text size would be greatly appreciated.
On a separate note I feel like this art style would almost perfect for an FF9 Remake.
And you have already gotten annual value from ps+. Such great games.
@@Exit854I’ve been binging JRPGs on the Playststion Plus for 2 years now. Thats how I played all the Ff games except 1-6 for free pretty much.
Any game that doesn’t have the ability to change text size, at this point, is kinda mindblowing to me. How is that a thing that keeps happening!
Trials of Mana is leaving later this month btw, I think August 20
@@L.K.48 I better finish SMT5V fast then
I wanna buy it on both PlayStation and Xbox to play alongside my loved ones
Unrelated to this video, but have you played Steamworld Heist? It's pretty good TRPG with sequel releasing soon.
Gronk!
I better finish octopath traveler 2 so i can dive into this game next
Twas a fun series
Are there any good coop rpgs besides the Tales of series?
Couch co-op, like Secret of Mana? Can't think of any. I wouldn't mind playing one with someone. CRPGs, we have Baldurs Gate 3. ARPGs like Diablo 3 and 4. If you mean online, I recommend Remnant 2, but that's pushing the definition.
💘
It's criminal that Hinna is the best character design by far but not playable.
played the demo yesterday, look amazing BUT (always a but) i din´t find that charisma of secret of mana on it , it's not necesary a bad thing , the open field felt empty.
Looks like im going to buy tales of arise insted and wait for a steep sale on visions of mana
Dude how are you pumping videos out so fast lol takes me like 6 months to write a script lol
He's hungray
Well I don't write scripts for starters, I just make bullet points
I really like it, but the auto aim sucks because doesnt move the camera properly and for me, it wanst that fluid in PC. I hope they optimize the game.
I was saying to my self damn mort really out here flexing on dismounting at K and stuff. Then ☠
It’s a PC channel and controllers are native PC peripherals. We’re not in 2009, most players have controllers with their PCs, especially players of JRPGs.
Your fixation with mouse and kb for games that works better with a controller is my only gripe with your channel.
Show me any data at all on your 'most players' claim for starters, second, you'll live. A game should work well with the default control method of the device it launches on. I have yet to see a game tell you to grab KBM when you're on console, it's nonsense.
Is it just me or do the graphics look kind of like WoW?
Please make a video on Inazuma Eleven Victory Road
i was eyeing this, but if it comes out this easy, i'm definitely not playing it too ;/
I was not a fan of the combat, which is a shame because the game looks really pretty
free comment.
it's £75 for the deluxe edition! i'm def going to pass on this one when i got far more better value in like a dragon infinite wealth for £25, the demo is not promising either, the difficulty curve is very steep for my liking
Why are japanese games so far behind in terms of creature comforts and quality of life. Why are they still using text wall tutorials
Low budgets, uncaring publishers and scrapped together teams desperate to keep beloved but unpopular series alive. Which describes most JRPGs outside of FF and Persona
Japanese games are the best in the market because they don't chase trends like European or American made games. No ubisoft garbage here.
@@beezusHrist I think there's a difference between not choosing to follow Trends and not updating with the times. I need to see UI that doesn't harken back to the PS2, I need sleeker and more intuitive control and input, I need the models on yakuza to make more than 1 expression. Use the modern techniques in a japanese fashion, don't change to be more western.
@@beezusHristyea totally, a market where all the top selling games on PS5 are all Western developed or games made in Japan with a Western game development influence.
@@ikeagriffin like Elden Ring, and Monster Hunter? Lol
I really didn't enjoy the demo unfortunately 😢
Yeah jrpg demos tend to be rough