JRPG Journey 2021: Trials of Mana [“Seiken Densetsu 3”] (March)
Winter bonus game: Final Fantasy III
Spring bonus game: Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past
Trials of Mana, released in 1995, is the third game in the Mana series and either a sequel or prequel to the previous games, depending on how you interpret the story. It was a Japanese exclusive for decades, and only got an official Western release in 2019, as part of Collection of Mana, which contains the first three Mana games. Fans of the series resorted to using an emulator and fan-translated ROM to play what was known here as Seiken Densetsu 3 until the aforementioned Collection, which shows the dedication and love for the series many had after Secret of Mana’s success in the West.
I’ve reviewed both previous installments for this series, and my fondness for the first game, Final Fantasy Adventure, has only grown, while I’ve remained somewhat neutral on Secret of Mana. It’s fun, but its flaws prevent me from seeing it as the masterpiece that some do. (Check out my review for more about that.) Trials of Mana is difficult to review, as its flaws are more significant than Secret’s, while its highs are even higher than Adventure’s.
You get to choose your party this time around, a first for the series, and there are six unique characters to pick from, each with different weapon sets and abilities. Characters aren’t the only differentiating factor here, either. There are three separate stories depending on which character you choose first, and while all stories traverse mostly the same parts of the world map, there are major differences in how and where the stories begin, a few dungeons, and the set of bosses you’ll face, including the primary antagonist and final boss. This adds tremendous replay value, especially since the combat has been further expanded from Secret of Mana, with each character having special abilities and attacks, almost all of which are useful. Furthermore, each character gets the opportunity to change their class twice, with two options to choose from each time, resulting in a ton of variety for future playthroughs.
It helps that every character feels viable. I chose Riesz the Amazon, Hawkeye the thief, and Charlotte the elven cleric, purely because they looked the coolest, and I wasn’t disappointed. After a class change, Riesz can provide useful buffs to the party, Hawkeye is an offensive beast with many special attacks, and Charlotte is a strong healer who can also dish out damage when needed. All in all, the game was on the easy side with this party, but the frantic style of action required constant attention and, in my case, healing, to survive. I imagine it may be tougher without a dedicated healer, however, but that’s not my style.
Unlike in Secret of Mana, offensive magic is no longer broken here; in fact, unless you chose Angela, the mage, or Charlotte as one of your party members, you won’t get to use much of it until at least the first class change. This is a nice improvement that makes the game feel closer to Final Fantasy Adventure in terms of difficulty, but unfortunately, bugs and severe lag damage the experience to an almost irredeemable degree. I qualify this with “almost” carefully, as while the technical problems with Trials of Mana remain noticeable throughout the game, I did eventually acclimate to them and enjoyed the game in spite of them. These problems include severe lag in the menus, to the point where the game feels broken until you get used to waiting for what feels like a second or more to open your items menu, transition between screens on the main menu, or even move the cursor or make a selection.
Thankfully, there’s no lag in the radial selection wheels during combat, but it’s also not quite as snappy as in Secret of Mana. And combat has its own set of bugs. Sometimes your character will do an extra attack when they’re not supposed to. There’s a charge time between attacks, but sometimes it simply doesn’t work. However, it’s shorter than in either of the previous two games and doesn’t change throughout the adventure, giving a nice rhythm to combat that’s even more satisfying than Secret of Mana’s—when you don’t randomly attack twice in a row, that is. Other times, seemingly at random, you won’t attack when you press the button to do so, even when your weapon has charged, and, while not a bug, movement is very slow in combat and took me awhile to adjust to. All of these concerns are major issues and likely the reason the game never saw a Western release. Frankly, this amount of bugs is unacceptable for a SNES game, and I’m surprised it even got a release in Japan.
I managed to fight through these qualms, however, since the rest of the game was so enjoyable. The art is stunning, the music is perhaps the best in the series, and the variety of locales, beautiful character design and animations, and kept me interested for the duration of my adventure, and I’m eager to play the 2020 remake sometime soon, though I won’t be covering it for this series. Instead, next month I’ll be taking a look at Final Fantasy XIII. Oh boy, based on what I’ve heard, this one will be a doozy.
