3.5/5 ★ – Diluted_Thought's review of Trials of Mana.

My journey into trials of Mana started when I downloaded the Demo toward the end of summer. I was looking for a new experiences to try out when I finally landed on this one. The game let me play its first few hours of and basically let me complete the first half of Chapter one, which was quite a long play through if I'm being honest, but I was sold on it and decided to buy a physical copy. This was the first game that started my Winter gaming slate and I was pretty stoked to start it off with this title and for quite a few reasons. The first thing I noticed is how pretty the game was as it was very vibrant and very Anime inspired. While I never played the original game I was still very much interested in this game world, its quick flashy combat and most of all it's beautiful soundtrack. The dialog was a little hit or miss but it was serviceable. Though I'll admit, Alejandro Saab, the man who voiced Hawkeye did a fantastic job at brining that character to life because he brought a lot of emotion to the table. My three picks for my adventure we're Hawkeye, Riesz and Duran. Picking Riesz did feel like a bit of a mistake since I never cared to play as her during my adventure and usually opted for the other characters. And speaking of characters, Belladonna, one of the main villians of my story was pure eye candy as her introduction started at her chest before slowly climbing to her face which I thought was a bit weird until I remembered "oh yeah, Japanese". I had to laugh but it was definitely a decision. The game has a lot of heart and it initially impressed me so much that I couldn't stop playing this game for days. I was committed to this quest, enjoying the sights, the sounds and the Lil Cactus side quest which was a treat since I hadn't seen that character since Legend of Mana! The bosses in this game are also plentiful and wonderfully varied. It had such a fun cartoony vibe as well which really added to its charm. But after plugging around 50 hours into the game I can tell you there were definitely some disappointment and a few things I didn't care for in my quest to save the world. As I mentioned, I didn't choose a party I really loved as Riesz really couldn't hold her ground in a fight. She was good for buffs but she was always the first to die in a boss battle. Usually I wouldn't ressurect her until I got a boss in the last 10% of its health bar. The AI in this game isn't nearly as good as it should be and I would lose party members because they didn't get out of the way of an attack fast enough. Trying to level up in this game also felt like a chore since I never got the chance to out level any of the enemies in the next area because there is no place to farm experience in this game. You would have to have found Lil Cactus all over the world MANY MANY times before you can get a 3x EXP boost, which could have helped much earlier. So I never felt over powered and never felt like a complete bad ass. During the Benevadon chapter, the main theme for the dungeons was this dark foreboding music that just got really fucking old, but you had to hear it for all 8 of the missions you had to do and it was a frustrating decisions to keep it to one tracks for what seemed like hours. And trust me, it Draaaaaaaagged. But my biggest complaint was the games class switching. Initially I thought switching character classes to enhance a characters build was an awesome notion, but you can only do it twice during your main campaign and you'll have to have reached level 18 and then again at 38 (with the right trinket). This made the experience feel a bit like a slog because every time you get a new character class it also came with a new special move which can get pretty powerful over time. Unfortunately that means you can only unlock 3 special moves throughout your first playthrough. This made normal battles feel stale after hours of using the same specials "Trials of Mana" was still a fun play through and discovering a new part of the map was great fun. I'm currently trying to get this beautiful soundtrack on my collection. Because of its many flaws I had to dock a few points from my review score, but "ToM" promises flashy combat and big monsters to defeat throughout your quest. And trust me when I say those are definitely highlights but I also feel there are people that will find this game incredibly mundane and boring. "Trials" feels like a PS2 era game with PS3 quality graphics released a generation later. In short, it feels dated. But there is fun to be had and if you care to know more about the games world there are 3 stories to follow. This is the most 7 out of 10 RPG i've played in many years.