Visions of Mana is one of the cutest RPGs Square Enix has ever created, but it houses some fascinating secrets underneath its cheerful surface. I’m not talking about its story, though you will see some dark turns before your journey in Fa’diel ends. Instead I mean that underneath the bright and casual facade of Visions of Mana lies a deceptively deep RPG. I was amazed at how immersed I was in the game’s class system and team building, and I didn’t expect I’d spend so much time just exploring and uncovering secrets.
That said, to get the most out of Visions of Mana, you do have to kind of play by its rules. For example, if you don’t engage with the game’s RPG systems and try to brute force every battle with your action game sensibilities, you’re straight-up going to have a bad time. To get right to the crunchy center of what makes this trip to the Mana Tree so good, check out these ten tips that will make your journey sing.
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If you’ve followed Visions of Mana at all, you probably know that it’s the fifth mainline entry in Square Enix’s Mana series (also known as Seiken Densetsu). Fortunately, you won’t miss anything by skipping right to Visions of Mana. Each game in the series typically takes place in its own world, so you aren’t missing any context that would help you understand this one better.
The main point of confusion is that, much like how Legend of Zelda take place across different iterations of Hyrule, Mana games all feature different incarnations of the same world of Fa’Diel. Bosses, locations, and characters will reappear in each game, but they have no connection to their appearances in past games. Similarly, “Sacrifice” tends to be a recurring theme in Mana games, which might make the premise of Visions of Mana make more sense as you’re starting out.
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The 2020 remake of Trials of Mana is an infamously easy game. It’s not a total cakewalk, but you definitely need to play it on Hard mode to experience any friction in the combat. By comparison, Visions of Mana is more balanced. Hard mode actually feels tough, so you may prefer Normal mode after coming off of a Trials of Mana playthrough.
Fortunately, difficulty settings can be changed at any time, so you can decide to dial up or down the challenge as you progress.
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Having said all that, I really recommend a Hard mode playthrough for anyone who wants to have a crunchy RPG experience. It doesn’t feel great in the early game, since enemies inflict major damage and can soak a ton of hits before they’re defeated. At the same time, Hard mode really forces you to optimize your defenses and offenses equally. You know, the kind of stuff that RPG fans enjoy strategizing around. Once you get into some of the game’s deadly DPS builds, those enemy lifebars aren’t going to feel big at all.
This is how I experienced Visions of Mana, and I recommend it for anyone else who wants to dive into everything that the game’s class system offers.
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At the end of chapter 1, you’ll eventually board a boat in Rhata Harbor to continue the main story. This isn’t a point of no return, but it does lock you out of returning to that first continent for now. Fast travel at Meridians can’t cross bodies of water, but rest assured that you’ll unlock other ways to travel the world as you advance the main story.
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Visions of Mana has a lot of quests. In fact, if you attempt to complete all the optional content in the game, you can add about 20 extra hours to your run time. Some of these are part of larger side quest chains, such as Niccolo’s requests or the woman who asks you to find locations depicted in paintings. Otherwise, most quests exist as an excuse for you to grind. These won’t affect your playthrough if they remain unfinished.
You can see what a side quest will award you right in the Side Quests tab of your main menu. Quests that give equipment or ability seeds are worth prioritizing, but you can typically save quests that only give money for later. If you’re not in the mood to kill five monsters or find a trinket in a field, don’t force yourself.
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As an RPG that equally caters to children and stressed-out adults, Visions of Mana spells out where virtually every chest is located as soon as you enter an area. However, a fledgling level one Val will not have the ability to 100 percent complete each area he sees. Some chests are hidden inside ruins that house endgame monsters. Others require Elemental Vessels that you don’t have yet. Either way, you’ll need to return later to collect every reward.
As a fun tip, Visions of Mana will always add new markers on old maps showing you where you can use new Elemental Vessels. There’s no need to take notes if you encounter something you can’t interact with!
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Elemental Aeries are optional battle arenas that you’ll find all throughout your journey. These typically make you fight two waves of powerful enemies, and you’ll only have a couple minutes to pull it off. Fortunately, most character’s class strike skills are very good at totally clearing entire groups of enemies, so these challenges will feel way easier if you begin with a fully charged gauge. The timer won’t even run as the flashy animation plays!
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You will unlock a lot of character classes in Visions of Mana. To upgrade them, you’ll need to advance the Elemental Plots found in your main menu. Each character only has so many points to invest in each track found here, so you unfortunately can’t invest in every skill you see.
That said, even if you don’t use a certain class, any spells or moves learned via Elemental Plots will stick with the character no matter how they’re built. This means characters like Val can natively equip almost every elemental imbuement in the game, while Careena can use debuffs even if you’re using her as a Monk. Characters can only bring so many spells into battle, though, so make sure you set their ring menus after unlocking skills!
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As deep as the class system is in Visions of Mana, it does have some limitations. You can’t respec your characters until very late in the game, and the way you approach boss battles will differ from the way you approach Elemental Aeries. Fortunately, you’ll unlock five characters before your journey ends, and building all of them will let you adapt to different situations as you encounter them. For example, you can build Palamena to inflict massive damage on bosses, while Careena can specialize in Class Strike damage that absolutely destroys huge waves of common enemies.
All characters earn equal EXP, even if you don’t use them in battle. Specialize all your characters in a way that compliments the team—you’ll be happy to have those extra options on standby as you progress.
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I weally would have wiked this fweature in Twials of Mana
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