The Mana series has seen something of a revival recently. Last year, Collection of Mana released, bringing the first three games to the Nintendo Switch. In addition to that, Square Enix announced that Trials of Mana, which had never released in the West until it was included as part of the Collection, would receive a 3D remake.
For years, many fans thought Trials of Mana would never come to the West, so these announcements were a pleasant surprise. Whether you're a Mana fan or just love RPGs, you'll want to take a look at this retro title that was ambitious for its time.
One of the most unique aspects of the original Trials of Mana is that it gave players the opportunity to choose their main character. In a way, it’s like choosing your class, since each has different strengths and play-styles. These characters also have different stories, that'll lead to different paths and dialogue.
For example, the Mage Angela is a Princess of the Magic Kingdom of Altena. She is banished by the power-hungry Queen, kick-starting the main plot. Throughout the game, her motivations are tied to her mother and the direction of the kingdom. Other characters have stories that intertwine with one another, like the Warrior Duran. While Duran is from a different kingdom, he often crosses paths with Angela.
Players are also able to choose two more characters to complete their party. They are encountered along the way, and there's less focus on their backgrounds until much later in the game. There are six characters in total to choose from, giving the game a lot of replay value with the option to try different teams or learn about each character. This was a new concept for the SNES era, and it'll help Trials of Mana fit right in with modern RPGs.
The remake is expanding upon to character relationships by adding new conversations with English and Japanese voiceovers. While in towns, characters won’t stay with the player like they do in the original. Instead, they’ll be off doing their own things, and the player can choose to interact with them.
It doesn’t stop there for characters though. They also have their own classes, and at Levels 18 and 38, players are given the option to change classes and expand on spells and stats. It’s non-linear, and players can choose one of two branches each time: light or dark. This means that a single character has six class change options to choose from with different usages. The Warrior Duran’s light classes, for example, focus on protecting and healing, while his dark classes are about offense with spells that add elemental damage to weapons.
The 3D remake will expand on class and character systems, bring Trials up to modern RPG standards. Major additions include abilities that give bonuses, the ability to perform combos with other characters and new spells. Abilities are gained through leveling or from certain NPCs, and some are even class exclusive. Another change from the original is the option to reset a chosen class. This will relax gameplay by giving players a chance to go back if they aren’t happy with their choices. The original also changed character’s outfits once they class changed, but the remake will include an option to switch to any unlocked class outfit. All of these features deepen the original character systems and add even more replayability to this classic.
Other unique mechanics making their return are weekdays and Magic Pots. Weekdays may seem like an odd thing in an action-RPG, but they have a purpose in Trials of Mana. Each day is governed by a Mana Spirit of a different element, and on each Spirit's day, their element is stronger. So, for instance, when planning to face a fire boss, players should be careful not to fight it on the Fire Spirit Salamando's day. However, fighting the same boss on Undine the Water Spirit’s day will both weaken the boss and make water spells more powerful. This adds an additional layer to strategy, and on Mana Holy Day, Inns are free to stay at.
Magic Pots were also in Secret of Mana. These are used to grow seeds, which will drop items, rare equipment and special class change items. Most enemies can drop seeds, though they tend to be rare. In the remake, Magic Pots will upgrade as players use them more and more, increasing the chance to get rarer drops and increasing the seed drop rate overall. This will be handy since seeds required to get items for the second class change were very rare in the original, and the items dropped are random.
Trials of Mana is scheduled to release April 24 for PC, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch