Visions of Mana, a worthy return to form for the series which for a long time only had spin-offs or remakes to satiate their core fans. Visions of Mana was developed by Ouka Studios who surprisingly announced the closure of their offices following the release of the game. It is available for all platforms except the switch and it is unclear whether there will be a release for a switch version.
Visions Of Gorgeous Graphics And Artstyle
Lets start of with the unique colors and artstyle of the characters, everyone character we meet or play as have their own distinct style and colors on them, Val our main protagonist has a fire red costume, Careena with her bright red hair and distinct horns to indicate her dragonfolk origins, Palamena with her silver-white dress and whip-like weapon and so on.
The environments are varied and feel entirely too detailed, towns at the end of valleys, lush greenery, deep jungles, deserts and cold regions all have such a colorful uniqueness to them that exploring them feel all the more rewarding,
However what hurts the rewarding experience is the traversal mechanics, too many times there are invisible walls blocking the path forward, this is enough to be immersion breaking, there is no point in giving the characters access to double jumps and dashes if only to limit where they can go and where they can’t. This coupled with the fact that the characters are limited to a single jump when in towns thus hindering the exploration of the town for no clear reason.
Visions of Lacking Character Development
Following in the footsteps of the previous Mana titles, this game’s story takes place in a different universe but still following the same core tropes that the preceding games did, there are multiple races living in the world together along with intelligent beasts that represent elements of the world.
In this game, the lives of all these different races are in danger as any of them may turn into stone at some point while those around them watch helplessly, to combat this epidemic every 4 years 7 souls are chosen to be sacrificed to the Mana tree, which is considered an honor by every kind populace.
The problem essentially lies here, none of the main cast of characters we come across share any differing opinions or feelings, none of them shed tears or show rage at the fact they have been chosen to be sacrificed. It seems like either they haven’t thought about what will happen to them or choose not to, giving off a “oh we’ll see what happens” vibe to it all.
It is sort of expected at this point to try to find a solution to this norm of sacrificing individuals to the Mana Tree but it just never rears its head, our band of warriors just go through this journey without any twists and accept their fate.
There were too many points in the story where any of the individual characters could have taken a more aggressive or thoughtful direction so as to find something, some clue to subvert this dreadful fate and make their own path but alas it all feels forced and the lack of effort in giving these characters their own personalities show.
Visions Of Black Friday Sales
No game is perfect, there are some notable failings in the game and maybe that is enough for some people but on the whole it cannot be denied what this game delivers on, enjoyable fun combat, beautiful vistas and environments while the story doesn’t try introduce narrative twists, players are sure to lose themselves in the rich lore and world building the game presents. If it doesn’t seem worth the full price it should certainly be bought when it comes on sale later on.
What is sad is the closure of the studio that made this game, Ouka studios which was NetEase’s investment in the japanese market, decided to recede this foothold thus closing Ouka, this may mean that we may not get another Mana game for a while or at least not a sequel.
This closure has been met with surprise and shock as the game did produce profitable results and outraged the public on this seemingly brash decision thus again proving that the games industry is fickle in all regions, not just the US.
