Nostalgia Disclaimer: I bought this game, knowing it might not be for me, with the other pretense that I did not play the original Seiken Densetsu 3 for the SNES. From what I understand, after watching several videos and reading other forums about these two games, the 2020 Trials of Mana remake is an extremely faithful rendition of the original game. I believed I might as well grab a piece of history and dive into the seemingly unending vault of famous and well received Square games of the 90's and purchased this release.
The problem with playing games from our youth is that it begs a few questions. Firstly, was the game that good when I was younger? And, would it hold up in the current year without substantial changes? The answer (most likely) to the first question with Trials of Mana is; probably. Granted I did not play the game (I may purchase the Switch collection,) so I cannot say for certain, but I think the style of game play, music, and art for the time were pretty good. To answer the second, definitely no. The problem with early JRPG's and their storytelling is the novelty of "chosen one saves the world with the help of their friends to destroy the forces of evil." That's... pretty much this game in a nutshell. Trials of Mana's story, of which I picked the Duran main character arc, was basically non existent and cookie cutter for games of the time. You play resident Good Hero-Man who takes revenge against the Vincent Evil-Guy by retrieving a legendary Sword and picking up the support of the eight Beings of the Land. After previously playing Square games like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI, coming to something like this just feels a bit disingenuous. If there was a legitimate story at all, my involvement and care for the game would have increased tenfold.
My next issue is the absolutely horrible voice acting and character writing throughout the entire game. I picked both Kevin (for his physical DPS) and Charlotte (for her support skils) as my backup party members, and I spent every waking minute of the game regretting that decision. Both of their voice acting was the absolute most poor I've played in a video game, sans maybe Goldman from the House of the Dead series. Kevin's voice acting was boiled down to Kevin from hit tv show The Office in which his mantra was "why say more words when few word do trick," and the novelty of that died almost immediately. Charlotte's voice acting was so hilariously bad, I almost ending up liking it towards the end. You would have to look it up to get the full deal. Also, Matelo's infamous "I'm a GhoOooSt" scene on the Ghost Ship had me audibly yelling "NoOOOOOOO" at my screen for a solid few minutes.
Furthermore, the game was way too dang easy, this is not normally an issue for me as I play some tougher JRPG's on easier difficulties or with game-assists, but for a game that is exclusively built on an action-RPG combat system, I play the recommended normal difficulties. I don't believe this game was easy because of my experience in fast action games (Bayonetta, DMC, MGS:R, NieR, etc...) but moreso because it was so mindnumbingly simple to mash buttons and roll to succeed. Every enemy, every boss was defeated in exactly the same manner.
Map Design and music were also some of the worst that I've experienced. The map zones and cities were some of the least inspired I've ever witnessed. Nothing felt unique and dungeons/boss zones were basically just hallways with enemies every few feet in groups of three. The loop of this game was boiled down to "Walk for ten seconds, fight group of three enemies (who sometimes fly,) collect exp, walk another fifteen feet, door or simple puzzle, repeat. Bosses were frustrating because they repeated the same exact mechanics each fight, with little to no variation, and were plentiful for a game that did not feel gratifying at all to complete said fights. The terrain was befitting of a free to play or mobile game, and enemy design was recycled ad nauseam.
TLDR; Nothing about this game felt good, however this comes from someone who did not experience the beloved SNES original.
The problem with playing games from our youth is that it begs a few questions. Firstly, was the game that good when I was younger? And, would it hold up in the current year without substantial changes? The answer (most likely) to the first question with Trials of Mana is; probably. Granted I did not play the game (I may purchase the Switch collection,) so I cannot say for certain, but I think the style of game play, music, and art for the time were pretty good. To answer the second, definitely no. The problem with early JRPG's and their storytelling is the novelty of "chosen one saves the world with the help of their friends to destroy the forces of evil." That's... pretty much this game in a nutshell. Trials of Mana's story, of which I picked the Duran main character arc, was basically non existent and cookie cutter for games of the time. You play resident Good Hero-Man who takes revenge against the Vincent Evil-Guy by retrieving a legendary Sword and picking up the support of the eight Beings of the Land. After previously playing Square games like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI, coming to something like this just feels a bit disingenuous. If there was a legitimate story at all, my involvement and care for the game would have increased tenfold.
My next issue is the absolutely horrible voice acting and character writing throughout the entire game. I picked both Kevin (for his physical DPS) and Charlotte (for her support skils) as my backup party members, and I spent every waking minute of the game regretting that decision. Both of their voice acting was the absolute most poor I've played in a video game, sans maybe Goldman from the House of the Dead series. Kevin's voice acting was boiled down to Kevin from hit tv show The Office in which his mantra was "why say more words when few word do trick," and the novelty of that died almost immediately. Charlotte's voice acting was so hilariously bad, I almost ending up liking it towards the end. You would have to look it up to get the full deal. Also, Matelo's infamous "I'm a GhoOooSt" scene on the Ghost Ship had me audibly yelling "NoOOOOOOO" at my screen for a solid few minutes.
Furthermore, the game was way too dang easy, this is not normally an issue for me as I play some tougher JRPG's on easier difficulties or with game-assists, but for a game that is exclusively built on an action-RPG combat system, I play the recommended normal difficulties. I don't believe this game was easy because of my experience in fast action games (Bayonetta, DMC, MGS:R, NieR, etc...) but moreso because it was so mindnumbingly simple to mash buttons and roll to succeed. Every enemy, every boss was defeated in exactly the same manner.
Map Design and music were also some of the worst that I've experienced. The map zones and cities were some of the least inspired I've ever witnessed. Nothing felt unique and dungeons/boss zones were basically just hallways with enemies every few feet in groups of three. The loop of this game was boiled down to "Walk for ten seconds, fight group of three enemies (who sometimes fly,) collect exp, walk another fifteen feet, door or simple puzzle, repeat. Bosses were frustrating because they repeated the same exact mechanics each fight, with little to no variation, and were plentiful for a game that did not feel gratifying at all to complete said fights. The terrain was befitting of a free to play or mobile game, and enemy design was recycled ad nauseam.
TLDR; Nothing about this game felt good, however this comes from someone who did not experience the beloved SNES original.