Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Trials of Mana Main Story Finished + Thoughts/Review

Technically, you need to play the game three times in order to see all of the scenarios, as it branches off to different stories depending on your protagonist (two characters share one story), but I think I've seen enough to speak about the game.

Not only is this game localized (since it came out recently, I don't even think I need to mention this though), but you can actually switch both voice and text to different languages.
...I mean, if you want to listen to the dub...?






One playthrough took a bit over 20 minutes. I guess you can say that is a little short...?
Though since there are two more scenarios and a bit of post-game, let's say 40 hours total? I guess that is enough for a full-priced game.

Of course, I chose a full-girl party. Also, Angela is the protagonist.



Overall, I think it is a good game. Or rather, a good remake? I never actually played the original game, but from what I can gather, they kept pretty loyal to the original.
Since I never played the original game, I was pretty surprised that this was an action-based RPG, not a turn-based one. Not a bad thing, fairly unique experience.
Xenoblade can be considered action too, but this one uses hitboxes, so not really the same.
However, since you are stuck with the same party for the entire game, it might feel a little dragged-out and repetitive after a while.

The story is a pretty typical fantasy-type story. Hero gets chosen. Goes through dungeons to gather items. Fights bad guys. Saves the world.
Not in a bad way though. Don't fix what isn't broken, they say.

The music is also good and like a good remake, you can even choose between the remake OST or the original. The fact you need to play the game at least two more times to see the other stories makes those a perfect opportunity to try out both.

 As for the battle and difficulty, I played the game on Hard for the latter half, but it was almost always pretty easy. The main reason for this, it turns out, is because I chose Angela.
Literally, all you have to do is spam AoE spells and every enemy, from normal to bosses, just die. AoE spells cover quite a large area and most enemies will flinch and/or be sent flying, allowing you to safely use spells over and over again safely. In boss battles, your party members can act like decoys, taking most of the hits while you just sit back and spam projectiles.
Of course, at times, you may have to mix in a few normal attacks in order to knock the boss out of their supermove, but you get the idea.

BTW, there is a bit of customization available. You have five stats and every time you level up, you gain points that you can invest into each of the five categories, unlocking stat boosts and skills. And I'm pretty sure you don't get enough points to max out all categories.

Finally, and a quite important one, but the modeling of the game... or rather, Angela (and I guess Charlotte, but that's not the point here) is awesome. Cute and sexy, just the way it should be.
And the thing is, is that if you look, you can clearly tell that they modeled Riesz and Angela differently.
As they say... Angela is thick.
However, if you look at the original illustrations by HACCAN, you can see that the thighs for the two aren't really that different.
But the 3D models? Man, it just feels they tried harder modeling Angela than Riesz.

I mean, both are nice to look at, and they both wear leotards, meaning they both wear pretty revealing outfits.
I even hear that Youtube's AI formula temporarily thought Angela was naked and banned people at first.
...But the cultured know that her current appearance is pretty sexier than if she was just naked.

...Also, I'll be honest.
I stared at Faerie's legs/feet.


1 comment:

  1. Nice to hear that you enjoyed it; I've been watching some streams of the game, and it looks like a pretty enjoyable ride. Shame about the lack of difficulty, but none of the Seiken/Mana games have ever been especially hard anyway. Angela is very sexy from what I've seen; reminds me of the fact that, though Riesz became more well known as far as erotic works are concerned, Angela was always considered to be the more sexually designed of the two.

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