Демо-впечатления Visions of Mana – волшебное путешествие ждет

Visions of Mana proudly walks in series tradition with both its story and visuals. On the story side of things, longstanding series motifs are on display. The theming may be familiar, but the cutscenes and incidental dialogue paint a more lush picture than prior games. Cutscenes present the game’s story and characters excellently with significantly more details than ever before with more dialogue and highly expressive animations. Characters emote and show off their charms constantly in and out of story moments. The constant characterization is destined to make this possibly the strongest cast in the series. This makes wandering through the stunning open environments lively in both style and substance. 

 

One of the major ways the game tells its story and fleshes out its setting is through its graphics. Even secondary scenes use high-quality animations and dynamic shots. The big story cutscenes also feature a lot more cinematic elements with great action and character moments. Close-up shots really show off the top-notch character designs. Camera pans and great cuts give you a sense of scale. Even combat has robust and energetic animations. Everything on the presentation front just fires on all cylinders. Apart from the story, the actual world itself is breathtaking. Each area is brimming with detail and gushing with color. This game truly captures the charms and majesty of HACCAN’s artwork.

The Mana series has offered methodical, slower-paced action combat since its inception, and Visions of Mana is no different. You aren’t getting a high-speed hack-and-slash game here. Visions of Mana uses series fundamentals but adds layers of depth by forcing the player to take several factors into account. Thus, creating a thoughtful, multi-layered combat system. Prior games in the series typically focused on positioning and utilizing your tools to the best of your capability to take down foes. That strong core is still here with some additions. Positioning is still imperative, as you must avoid enemy attacks while zoning to set up your retaliation. This time, you also have much more verticality in the combat which makes battles even more dynamic. Elements have an even larger role in combat because the party has access to useful new trinkets that grant them access to even more combat tools than ever before. I’m excited to see how the full game utilizes these new mechanics. Unfortunately, the demo doesn’t offer much in terms of variety, making some fights a tad on the bland side.

 

Exploration in Visions of Mana is unabashedly more modern than the rest of the series. It uses an open field design with loading gates breaking up maps. Each map also has points of interest that can lead you to treasure, unique battles, and secrets. There are also environmental interactions, ranging from utilizing the party’s abilities to progress to light platforming. I will say, I do wish the jump carried a bit more of the player’s momentum. You cover very little horizontal distance, which is useful for pursuing aerial enemies, but leaves exploration feeling slightly clunky. Trailers do showcase various other abilities not found in the demo, so I’ll hold hope. Although, your characters do automatically vault over obstacles when sprinting. So, this complaint is null. Especially since the platforming challenges and collectibles are designed around this deliberate movement. The areas in general seem well designed. POIs lead you through the maps, making each worth exploring. The landscapes on display are astonishingly gorgeous, as mentioned previously. I find joy in just LOOKING at this game. Reveling in the vistas, exploring areas to discover loot, staving off monsters, and journeying from place to place. It’s enjoyable through and through. 

Visions of Mana supports both a Performance mode and an Image Quality mode. The main difference between the modes is resolution. Both modes also use a 30fps cap on cutscenes but utilize a 60fps cap for gameplay.  The results are favorable in my opinion. Cutscenes stay around their 30fps target and gameplay gives you a variable framerate that usually sticks around 45-55 fps in Quality mode and  Performance mode practically locks its framerates besides very occasional few frame dips. This makes selecting a mode purely a preference thing. Do you want a higher res with fewer frames or do you want to stay as close to 60fps during gameplay as possible? Personally, I prefer the performance mode for smoother gameplay since the visuals aren’t downgraded in any significant way. A weird quirk I noticed is that some UI elements run at a lower refresh rate, making them look kind of stuttery and out of place. So while the performance isn’t perfect in all scenarios across both graphics modes, it is going in the right direction. Here’s hoping some of the kinks are smoothed over in the full release!

 

Visions of Mana is the fresh breath of life that the series needs. It’s not afraid to stick to its roots, but it’s also not afraid to modernize either. Even this taste of what’s to come perfectly demonstrates this. The story uses classic themes and presents them with lively cutscenes and gorgeous visuals. Combat doesn’t stray from series identity, but includes well-considered updates that make the game stand firmly among its genre peers. I was already looking forward to the game, and even despite some nitpicks I have I’d say I’m even more excited to play the full release. Mana is back and it’s delivering RPG fans yet another mystical world to fall in love with.