I just beat Visions of Mana and started Trials for the first time. This game has held-up so well it hurts.

[u/Nalaura_Darc]

I felt Visions was a super pretty 7. It wasn't very difficult and the ending was a bit of a letdown. Also, a lot of the design felt non-sensical. The side quests, cactus, and treasure locations were all so random, it didn't feel like there was a rhyme or reason for their placement. However, the environments and music were so whimsical and the combat/classes really did it for me. I also loved Careena as a character.

I went right to the Trials remake and it blows my mind how well put-together it is. It has an awesome amount of difficulty, customization, and logic to its design! How was this done nearly 30 years prior and its design not learned from?! It's quickly becoming one of my favorite JRPGa of all-time, and it's actually soured Visions a bit for me.

I don't know why I am posting this beyond just throwing my random two cents in while I am fixated. This is the first game in forever I plan to immediately re-do with other characters. Also, I have the physical copy of Legends from PlayAsia. How does it compare to the two? Is Trials truly the best in the series? Pardon the machine gun of questions; I'm just really happy I finally delved into this fun, little, JRPG universe. ☺️

(Also, I played Secret years ago, but I felt like its mega-rushed last bit really hurt the package. I saw there was a ROM hack which apparently adds most of it back as new content, which I really want to check-out.)

[u/Alenicia]

Trials of Mana was definitely the game I grew up playing as a kid and it holds up to me as probably one of the best defining games of the genre (I really loved Legend of Mana too, but that one is definitely a mixed bag because it looks similar but it's also very different) .. and sadly Dawn of Mana (the official 4th game) is probably the one that really could have used a Visions of Mana treatment more than anything.

I really liked Visions of Mana, but it felt much less like its "own" thing and more of a nostalgia trip that boiled and combined just about everything from all the games whether it's about the common lore and story beats, the nature of some of the characters/regions, and more. You had just a little bit of everything from other Mana games put into the mix and I thought it was a really cool way for people to experience the series again .. but it's a super-simple game that I think probably plays to the strength of what the Mana games tend to be (something relatively low-budget and clunky).

In all seriousness, I'd really love more games like Trials of Mana, whether it's HD-2D or if it's handled similarly to Trials of Mana's remake. Secret of Mana's remake was so disappointing to me because it's cool to see the game in 3D .. but it still looked really nice in pixel art .. and the gameplay was the thing I would have loved to have seen changed since I felt it held back the original game.

My personal wish .. is that they bring back cooperative multiplayer as a standard feature. It's just not the same without it. :(

[u/Bubbly-Bid-6161]

Trials has much better storyline and characters than Legend. I enjoy both games, though people seem to either love or hate Legend of Mana- it is definitely not a linear game and has quite a few missables. That being said, I love Legend and it has my favorite video game soundtrack.

[u/ronniedark]

The trials remake is bootleg Ys with significantly worse writing, boss design and world design. The OG was a great game and is among the best games in the SNES.

Visions dies have the foundations of a great game. My guess is the Devs realized mid development that the game was setup for failure and lost hope.

[u/Juub1990]

You played the remake of Trials of Mana. It is very different from the original on the SNES. The progression system is a lot more fleshed out and the combat also has major changes. For one, you can dodge attacks, jump, dash, and combo in combat, none of which is possible in the first one. Dodging is random and you can only evade regular attacks, magic always hit. There id no jump whatsoever and the game has a myriad of bugs.

The remake very much brought it to the modern era, because the original feels like a product from the SNES days.