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The Mana series has never hit the same levels of international fame as other Square Enix series like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, but it has still carved out it's own niche over the decades. Yet despite having existed since 1991, there's not a staggering amount of games in the series.
With 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Visions Of Mana being the first new entry in the series since 2006, it may bring with it some questions. There are plenty of remakes, collections and other spin-offs in the series and you might be wondering if you actually need to play them all. Well, we're here to give you the answer you're looking for.
As an addendum, the ori๊ginal author of this article played Visions of Mana as their first game in the series and thoroughly enjoyed it. Take from that what you will.
Are The Mana Games Connected?
There are some quintessential elements to every Mana game that makes them intrinsically, well, Mana games. The amount in which each game em🐻braces t🍷hese elements varies, though you need at least a few of them for it to be considered a Mana game.
The primary and most obvious of these is the Mana Tree itself. The core of mana energy in the world, the Mana Tree is usually situated at the centre of the world and is an object o🐬f great reverence. This is accompanied by the Mana Sword, typically gifted to the hero who will protect the Mana Tree and save the world.
Another major aspect is the world of Fa'Diel. Every game takes place within a world known as Fa'Diel, though this is typically where the connection ends. The name Fa'Diel is used as a recurring element to connect the games, rather than actually being a shared world in which all the games take place. So while every world uses the name Fa'Diel, they are actually different worlds.
There are two exceptions to this rule - Dawn of Mana and Children of Mana share the same Fa'Diel, as do Trials of Mana and Heroes of Mana.
So outside of the games that explicitly state their connections to others, you can safely assume that the games aren't connected. They may elude to recurring elements, but nothing that is essential to understanding the story or characters.
What Are The Shared Elements Of The Mana Games?
So you're now aware that although the games share some superficial elements, they're not typically connected in any canonical way. You probably want to know what these connections are a bit more, right? It's easier to appreciate those shared aspects when you know what to look out for. Let's dive in for some fun comparison.
Monster Designs
Any good game is defined by the quality of the characters within it, and maybe even more so by its enemies. The Mana series is no exception to that and hosts a whole bevvy of memorable enemies, plenty of which reappear in Visions of Mana. Here's just a few of them that you might recognise.
- Rabites - Little balls of fluff with very pronounced teeth. Very cute.
- Chess Knights - It's really all in the name. A massive chess piece in the shape of a knight. Which in this case is a horse.
- Mad Mallards - Ducks who seem to have seen war. They wear helmets and throw bombs. Likely war criminals.
- Chobin Hoods - These little guys are mice-esque and wear clothes reminiscent of Robin Hood. Adorable but treacherous.
There are of course many more enemies than this shared by the games, but this is just a handful you'll see in Visions of Mana. It'll be like seeing an old friend if you've played any of the older games.
Recurring Characters
Seeing as the games themselves are not connected in more than thematic ways, there's not a massive amount of characters that appear across the many games. There's the obvious ones, like the Mana Tree and the Goddess of Mana, though they're so high level it's almost not worth acknowledging. However, there are some other characters that are a bit more fleshed out that do tend to make multiple appearances.
The biggest of these areಌ the Mana Spirits. They are the representatives of the elemental powers of the world and are usually descended from the Goddess of Mana and tasked with overseein💞g the Benevodons. Their names and Elements are as follows:
- Salamando - Fire
- Sylphid - Wind
- Luna - Moon
- Undine - Water
- Gnome - Earth
- Dryad - Wood
- Lumina - Light
- Shade - Darkness
In some games, there is also a Metal element, 𝄹though there are still never more than eight elements total.
In some games, like Visions of Mana, they are known as Elementals, while in others they are called Mana Spirits. Their role, however, remains the same across the games - preserve the order of the Mana Tree, and keep the Benevodons under lock and key. As such, the Benevodons are als🐻o typical reoccurrences.
In terms of actual characters, we have Niccolo. Or Nikita. Sometimes Neko. Though their names change on a game-by-game basis, who they are and what they do does not. Niccolo (the name they use in Visions) is always an anthropomorphic feline salesman. His personality can also shift, from a mischievous merchant to a genuinely caring soul. And sometimes it will be a combination of the two. We'll let you decide which he is in Visions of Mana.
Other characters exist as well, such as Watts, though you can rest assured that these characters all have their own backstory and personality befitting the game they're currently in, rather than relying on prior awareness.
Gameplay Elements
While it is the last thing you would need to understand what is going on in the world of the game, it is also what is most shared. Gameplay is, as you might expect, one of the defining features of a game's identity, and Visions of Mana carries aspects of earlier games with it in that regard as well.
The most defining of these is the Ring Menu. The Mana games have always featured real-time, seamless combat elements in opposition to the semi-real-time of Final Fantasy and the full-on turned-based of Dragon Quest. The Ring Menu exists as a middle ground to let you pause the game and navigate your spells and items with extra information without actually taking you out of the action. While Visions of Mana has become a🥃 decidedly more action-oriented game.
Otherwise, Visions of Mana takes a more distinct, well, vision for itself. The world is more open while dungeons. It also features a class system that can be changed a while, while earlier games have been more restrictive in that regard. It does still share many older spells and moves as well as the elemental system, and you will likely pick up on the specifics of these with prior knowled🤡ge, though the game does a sufficient job of making you aware of them itself.
Do You Need To Play Previous Games To Understand Visions Of Mana?
With all of the specifics of the series discussed the answer should be clear. While there are absolutely elements of the games that will be clearer to you with prior knowledge, such as the assumed relationship with the Elementals and the concept of Alms, the game will still in time explain these concepts within its own setting.
As the game otherwise presents a combat system that is a departure from earlier styles, the entirety of the combat system is well elaborated on within the game. You wꦕill definitely miss out on some nice allusions to earl꧋ier games, though these do not detract from the experience of Visions of Mana itself. It is a game that firmly stands on its own without needing the previous games to let it shine.
