This is the sequel Mana fans were hoping for over 15 years ago. The art style and vibe of it feels like a genuine next step in the series. That being said, here's a tldr list of all the pros and cons from my first playthrough (which took me 2 sittings lmao) Pros: -Really satisfying combat -Charming artstyle consistent and faithful to the original games -Good music, though I can't really say it has STELLAR music that will live rent-free in my head in the same way previous titles had -Interesting customization options through the Elemental Plot, making it fun to experiment with various team compositions Cons: -Inconsistent voice acting quality. Some of them do a fantastic job, but the not-so-good ones are impossible to ignore and are damn near immersion breaking -Without spoiling anything, the overall high level story is a bit shoddy, and I can't say I was invested after certain reveals were shown to us -Very apparent power imbalance between characters and Elemental Plot options. The most glaring abuser is Morley's Light option, which just hands him 70% Crit Chance and 45% Crit Damage outright, making him the most potent character to put in the player's hands by a mile. Fully loading him out with damage items, especially ones that give huge amounts of Strength % and even more Crit Dmg trivializes any DPS checks in the game even on Hard mode -Replayability beyond the first completion is super unsatisfying since you continue with the level with which you beat the game, but the enemies do not scale with you so you're one-shotting level 1-20 enemies for the first many hours. The extra Expert difficulty is just making the game hard by having every single enemy no matter how minor be capable of 1-2 shotting you, and they're all damage sponges. Just makes playing the game tedious, rather than satisfying to take the time to overcome.
agree with a lot of what you said! I'm not quite done but I'm loving it. I have gripes for sure, my biggest being a few UI-related things that have probably led to me not having the best ability seeds on my characters as I get aggravated trying to change them lol, and also the way the main characters approach being alms sorta bothers me though there are definitely exceptions, but it is a gorgeous game that feels really fun to play. I LOVE exploration in this game and the areas are absolutely gorgeous and varied. boss fights are some of the best I've played in any game. yeah I am just really liking it! also I don't know why they give you Morley's moon class immediately. I think it's the best class in the game and not that close lol
I really enjoyed it. I might go back through and play on a harder difficulty. It’s probably going to be a comfort game for me that I look back fondly on.
Awesome review! I agree with a lot of your points. The story feels cliche until the end but is worth it, and it def took the combat a while to get going but once it did, the game really was a blast.
Square-Enix contracted with NetEase to make this game. NetEase created the Ouka Studio to develop this game, delivered it, then shut it down. Pretty common in movie industry too where the contractor creates a company to make single movie and opts the company out right after.
What destroys this when going 3rd person in 3d like the remakes. They made the character more wimpy appearing and girlified them. Made them more girlie. Also the animation sucks. They was more tough appearing on the snes games. The one thing they did was give them those nice woman parts that are about the best grabbing size. That much cleavage on snes on the U.S would have been censored away back then or the game couldn't have been E for everyone. Or even T for teen back then. While today esrb gives the original games an E for everyone there was no esrb on boxes then or st least that box. Also the game appealed more to teens and older people over younger children not yet teenagers. This is why most heros in games made by Japan are teenagers. Because it appeals to teenagers that a teenager can be the hero. So this is why most rpg games have teenage heros and are focused on teenage characters. The same with anime. Still upset they turned them into the girly boy old ladies like rather than the tough guy like in original snes games. For example zelda in n64 and older games looks less girlie boy then today in zelda games he is sissified and a girly boy. So not much of the hero anymore. A girlie boy doesn't come off as a hero they appear weak and often are. Not just physically but in the mind. Even a woman is stronger. In real life they will shy away or not act and be tough when needed. More manly people will walk right over them and have power over them. The way attacks spells and everything appears weaker than in the snes days where you had a sense of power. Missing the atmosphere. Missing the effects and sound to make it sound epic and like your attacks really dished out power. So i was a teenager in the days of the snes from 93 on. At least in final fantasy vii remake you don't have that girlie boy to you like how they destroyed all the later games. And why they are not as popular as they could be. The people making the games messed up. To similar to the horrible animation style in kingdom hearts also. I can't like it for that reason. Kingdom hearts is Disney and the only game where the edge of a sword is a foot think and more likely to be no better than a baseball bat in real world. The graphics are bad for every console this is on. Visually not great and animations and sounds effects just aren't there. Done bad including walking animations. Most other games on each platform looks better and bas better animations. Removed the appeal for us guys. Appeals more to females then guys. I may play it but i cringe at the animation and atmosphere and graphics. The spells and attacks are not as snappy quit and powerful appearing in animation. Gives me no sense of powerful or strong. Proper sound effects timed correctly with the animation gives a sense of power and strength of the attack. Chrono trigger snes. You just appeared powerful. Secret of Mana and the sequel you did too. Then they made bad changes. I will really have to wait for a fan game before i can play a new awesome game with the right feel based on the original snes games.
I’m enjoying it so far but I wish more classes unlocked earlier on but my biggest issue is character eyes. They are so beyond creepy to me I can’t help but skip the cringe dialogue
Great review! I felt the same way about the game. It definitely has its ups and downs but by the end I was hooked in and came away loving it.
The artstyle for this game is so charming, the gameplay is very fun too
Can't wait to pick this up! It looks so good!
This is the sequel Mana fans were hoping for over 15 years ago. The art style and vibe of it feels like a genuine next step in the series. That being said, here's a tldr list of all the pros and cons from my first playthrough (which took me 2 sittings lmao)
Pros:
-Really satisfying combat
-Charming artstyle consistent and faithful to the original games
-Good music, though I can't really say it has STELLAR music that will live rent-free in my head in the same way previous titles had
-Interesting customization options through the Elemental Plot, making it fun to experiment with various team compositions
Cons:
-Inconsistent voice acting quality. Some of them do a fantastic job, but the not-so-good ones are impossible to ignore and are damn near immersion breaking
-Without spoiling anything, the overall high level story is a bit shoddy, and I can't say I was invested after certain reveals were shown to us
-Very apparent power imbalance between characters and Elemental Plot options. The most glaring abuser is Morley's Light option, which just hands him 70% Crit Chance and 45% Crit Damage outright, making him the most potent character to put in the player's hands by a mile. Fully loading him out with damage items, especially ones that give huge amounts of Strength % and even more Crit Dmg trivializes any DPS checks in the game even on Hard mode
-Replayability beyond the first completion is super unsatisfying since you continue with the level with which you beat the game, but the enemies do not scale with you so you're one-shotting level 1-20 enemies for the first many hours. The extra Expert difficulty is just making the game hard by having every single enemy no matter how minor be capable of 1-2 shotting you, and they're all damage sponges. Just makes playing the game tedious, rather than satisfying to take the time to overcome.
Lovely review man! I'm hoping for a Switch 2 version in the future, that would be amazing!
I agree. I feel like this game would do super well on the Switch.
agree with a lot of what you said! I'm not quite done but I'm loving it. I have gripes for sure, my biggest being a few UI-related things that have probably led to me not having the best ability seeds on my characters as I get aggravated trying to change them lol, and also the way the main characters approach being alms sorta bothers me though there are definitely exceptions, but it is a gorgeous game that feels really fun to play. I LOVE exploration in this game and the areas are absolutely gorgeous and varied. boss fights are some of the best I've played in any game. yeah I am just really liking it!
also I don't know why they give you Morley's moon class immediately. I think it's the best class in the game and not that close lol
I really enjoyed it. I might go back through and play on a harder difficulty. It’s probably going to be a comfort game for me that I look back fondly on.
@@slam-zany yeah absolutely. summer is the perfect time for a breezy action JRPG and this is exactly that.
Awesome review! I agree with a lot of your points. The story feels cliche until the end but is worth it, and it def took the combat a while to get going but once it did, the game really was a blast.
Thanks! Yea overall I came away loving the game for sure.
It wouldve been nicer if the ability to mix and match passives is made available mid game
Lol did you sneak a character from Trials of Mana into your cover picture for this video?? 😅
Didn't the studio get shutdown right after the game came put?
Square-Enix contracted with NetEase to make this game. NetEase created the Ouka Studio to develop this game, delivered it, then shut it down. Pretty common in movie industry too where the contractor creates a company to make single movie and opts the company out right after.
What destroys this when going 3rd person in 3d like the remakes. They made the character more wimpy appearing and girlified them. Made them more girlie.
Also the animation sucks. They was more tough appearing on the snes games. The one thing they did was give them those nice woman parts that are about the best grabbing size. That much cleavage on snes on the U.S would have been censored away back then or the game couldn't have been E for everyone. Or even T for teen back then.
While today esrb gives the original games an E for everyone there was no esrb on boxes then or st least that box. Also the game appealed more to teens and older people over younger children not yet teenagers.
This is why most heros in games made by Japan are teenagers. Because it appeals to teenagers that a teenager can be the hero. So this is why most rpg games have teenage heros and are focused on teenage characters. The same with anime. Still upset they turned them into the girly boy old ladies like rather than the tough guy like in original snes games.
For example zelda in n64 and older games looks less girlie boy then today in zelda games he is sissified and a girly boy. So not much of the hero anymore.
A girlie boy doesn't come off as a hero they appear weak and often are. Not just physically but in the mind. Even a woman is stronger. In real life they will shy away or not act and be tough when needed. More manly people will walk right over them and have power over them.
The way attacks spells and everything appears weaker than in the snes days where you had a sense of power.
Missing the atmosphere. Missing the effects and sound to make it sound epic and like your attacks really dished out power. So i was a teenager in the days of the snes from 93 on.
At least in final fantasy vii remake you don't have that girlie boy to you like how they destroyed all the later games. And why they are not as popular as they could be. The people making the games messed up.
To similar to the horrible animation style in kingdom hearts also. I can't like it for that reason. Kingdom hearts is Disney and the only game where the edge of a sword is a foot think and more likely to be no better than a baseball bat in real world.
The graphics are bad for every console this is on. Visually not great and animations and sounds effects just aren't there. Done bad including walking animations. Most other games on each platform looks better and bas better animations.
Removed the appeal for us guys. Appeals more to females then guys. I may play it but i cringe at the animation and atmosphere and graphics. The spells and attacks are not as snappy quit and powerful appearing in animation. Gives me no sense of powerful or strong. Proper sound effects timed correctly with the animation gives a sense of power and strength of the attack.
Chrono trigger snes. You just appeared powerful. Secret of Mana and the sequel you did too. Then they made bad changes. I will really have to wait for a fan game before i can play a new awesome game with the right feel based on the original snes games.
I’m enjoying it so far but I wish more classes unlocked earlier on but my biggest issue is character eyes. They are so beyond creepy to me I can’t help but skip the cringe dialogue