When I previewed a couple of weeks ago 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:after playing 🎐several hours of the RPG, I found the story unimpressive, the script subpar, and the u♚n🍰necessarily massive open world areas devoid of personality.

Despite these negatives, however, the combat was compelling, the customization systems engaging, a🍎nd the visuals outstanding. An uneve⛦n experience on the whole, but one I hoped would only improve as it progressed.

For the most part, it did.

The fantasy world that Visions of Mana takes place in is governed by the protective rituals of eight elemental spirits: fire, water, wind, earth, wood, moon, light, and dark. Every four years, eight mortals are chosen from across the globe to become “Alms” - each representing one of these elements - as well as a Soul Guard, whose duty is to defend this destined ♐group on their pilgrimage to the Mana Tree.

Upon their arrival, the Soul Guard watches on as the Alms give their lives to maintain elemental equilibrium. Without the🐲ir noble sacrifice, fires will rage, storms will rampage, earthquakes will run rough𒆙shod on the land, so on, so forth.

Not that the notion of a self-sacrificial, societally-mandated pilgrimage is unique to Final Fantasy 10 and Tales of Symphonia, but for longti🐈me JRPG fans, there are some obvious parallels that will undoubtedly linger throughout the adventure. Even so, Visions of Mana offers a surprisingly unique vibe; everyone, including Soul Guard protagonist Val, is completely🌱 on-board with the Alms’ inevitable deaths. It’s baked into everyone’s worldview and will take something very significant to shake that societal brainwashing. But as is par for the course for games like, things will change along the way

Of course, the cast does e♓ventually question the ‘wisdom’ of it all; it would be pretty bleak if they didn’t.

I was on-the-fence about the ensemble cast initially, save for the one-winged wond🔴er Careena🌊, whose personification of the young tsundere rebel archetype immediately clicked with me. Not only does Careena get even better further on, but in due time, most of the party improves by leaps and bounds.

Val’✱s easygoing heroism evolves into something more conflicted. The beastfolk ranger Morley’s stoicism gradually unravels toward a warmer, gentler, nature. Queen Palamena’s blunt regality reveals layers of intellectualism and unexpected comedy. Val’s childhood friend, Hinna, never really escapes her crushing blandness, but proves pivotal in her own way.

There’s also Julei, a forest-dwelling sproutling whose debut is notably later than the rest of the gang. His childliﷺke appearance worried me; Trials of Mana’s own Carley is a uniquely insufferable child character, after all. Almost immediately, my fears were extinguished. This little guy’s tell-it-like-it-is charm and odd knack for deploying real-world terminology makes him a winner. I’ve seldom seen a game’s writing improve quite so dramatically after its first few hours, especially a somewhat cutesy RPG like this one.

The eight elements in Visions of Mana form more than the framework for its narrative and lore. They’re brewed into the gameplay as well. As the story continues, you’ll steadily obtain vessels for each of the eight elements. Not only does their acquisition unlock new job classes for every party member, but interactive features in the field as well; the wind vessel creates gusts which can propel you toward higher elevations, the wood vessel extends vines across otherwise-uncros🍌sable 🦩gaps, the water vessel produces bubbles which can carry you to new locations.

My ༒favorite is the fire vessel, which s♑traps you into a makeshift rocket and sends you on a journey to some distant area.

Visions of Mana manages to make most job classes worthy of consideration, which is no small feat when every party member has eight unique elementally-based classes. The moon vessel, for example, allows Val to become a defensively-focused Aegis,, Morley to become a knife-wielding Nightblade, Careena to become a mystic Moon Charterer🥂, Palamena to become a boot-stomping Majesty (step on me queen, indeed), and Julei ꦓto become a stat-altering Occultist.

There are a handful that bewildered me, but I don’t doubt that someone, somewhere, will make them work. While the passive skiꦦlls each class provides cannot be transferred to other classes, the special abilities (offensive and defensive spells, bu🍨ffs and debuffs, etc.) can be.

It’s a solid system, and blends neatly with the hundreds of Ability Seeds you’ll acquire along the way, which can be equipped to provide spells and passives alike. There’s sufficient depth here to make up for one unfortunate shortcoming of the game’s ac🐎tion-oriented combat: at its core, it never really evolves.

Within a few hours, you’ve essentially seen every twist on the f▨ormula that will ever be thrown at you. No major new mechanics are introduced, only minor iterations. I hesitate to say that battles get stale when there’s this much customization involved, and when several great late-game boss fights really steal the show, but by the end of its roughly 50-hour runtime, I was getting a little tired of it all.

Such mild tiredness is nothing next to the complete and utter exhaustion I felt from Visions of 🍎Mana’s side quests however. There ar🌜e over 130 to complete and the overwhelming majority of them are among the worst I’ve ever experienced.

There are so many tasks involving the acquisition of monster parts that the game literally doubles down on several - I had to grab needlebeak feathers twice. Monsters never drop these until you’re told the items exist, of course. And I was sent back to dungeons and fields (which are still pointless🐎ly large) more times than I am willing to count. I was also asked to find key items on doz♊ens of occasions, and they’re always marked within circular segments of the environment; trust me, you’ve seen this all before and will hate them just like I did.

The saving gra💛ce in side-questing is how g♈orgeous Visions of Mana is to witness. It’s a graphically sublime feast for the eyes, boasting a colorful anime art style that achieves everything it sets out to do. Breathtaking sunsets, delightful rainbows, fields of golden wheat and lavender, underwater ruins that are every bit as mystical to behold as the cast makes them out to be. This is the first legitimately new entry in the series for years, and it’s one I’ll fondly remember for its visual prowess.

Unfortunately, perf🌼ormance on PlayStation 5 is a mixed bag, and frame rate hiccups are commonplace. If you’re on PS5, swap to performance mode immediately. There’s just far too much chugging in the field and in battle to justify what amounts to a fairly minor uptick in splendor.

Mana series veterans will find plenty of callbacks to fall in love with. Without giving too much away, there’s a consistent feeling 🐈that Visions is enmeshed in the broader universe. I’ve been playing these games since as far back as the SNES, and there is a singular sense of wonder in beholding a Mana game with cutting-edge technology that isn’t afraid to push things forward at every turn.

While much of Visions of Mana’s bloated side content misses the ma𝕴rk, its gripping storyline, likable cast, ample mechanical tweaking, and engaging combat combine to forge a very good game, if not quite a great one.I wasn’t at all confident that we would ever get another big swing at the series, so for all my caveats, I’m damn glad this game exists.