Your Cart

Trials of Mana: A 16-bit Revival!

Trials of Mana: A remake of the 1995 JRPG classic with all new visuals, combat, and more. A new game play reveal gives us a closer look.

Trials of Mana: Where it All Began

What do most folks remember about the summer of 1995? Honestly, quite a few of you reading this probably weren’t born yet. As for me, I was salivating at the upcoming release of the Sony PlayStation with my now well entrenched love for JRPGs. I couldn’t wait to see what could be done after playing games like Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 6, and Secret of Mana. I was a Squaresoft junkie at this point. Little did I know, one of my favorite titles from the SNES era, Trials of Mana, released that summer, and I missed out for at least a few years.

Seiken Densetsu 3 released in September of 1995, and I wouldn’t play it until a couple of years later. It wasn’t until I finished Final Fantasy a few times that I came across a fan translated version of Seiken Densetsu 3 for my SNES emulator. We didn’t always quite have the same ready access to the internet back then, so finding out this game existed absolutely blew my mind. There was a sequel to Secret of Mana, a game I loved so much. I absolutely had to play it immediately.

What was Seiken Densetsu 3?

Game Play Performance

The trailers and gameplay reveal the game running smoothly, but we don’t always know how the game will really play until we get our hands on the finished product. Hopefully, we will see a stable frame rate on all platforms in a solid resolution, but that remains to be seen and will differ by platform.

Why the Lack of Multi-Player?

One of the questionable choices made for this title was to omit the multiplayer option for the remake. Much to the disappointment of series fans, Square Enix confirmed no multi-player for Trials of Mana. One of the great things about the original and other Mana games was the drop in drop out multiplayer experience. Choosing to not include a multi-player feature is a big hit to my excitement, but luckily I love the original enough to enjoy a solo experience.

Image

Overall, Trials of Mana is an entirely new experience. Square Enix is aiming to maintain the original experience while offering fans so much more to enjoy. All new graphics and appearance, new stories and character interactions, and an all new combat and class system look to make this a feel-good experience for the fans of the original and new players alike. Take a look at the gameplay trailer and let us know what you think. Does the lack of multi-player hinder your excitement? Is this a great travel game for the switch? Let us know in the comments below.

Launch Date and Platforms

Trials of Mana will launch on April 24th, 2020, on Steam, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch.

Leave a Reply

Latest Reviews