Trials of Mana: Finally, This Series Looks Promising Again

By Chris Reed

The Mana series has been in a rough spot lately, at least in the US. It hasn’t gotten a notable new entry since 2007, and last year’s Secret of Mana remake is generally regarded as a disappointment. If you’re worried about the upcoming remake of its sequel, Trials of Mana, I have some good news for you: Trials looks a lot better. It seems less tethered to the source material, freeing it up to be its own thing — which could be exactly what it needs.

Mana fans in the West have been waiting a long time to play this game. Originally released on Super Famicom in 1995 under the name Seiken Densetsu 3, Trials of Mana didn’t make its way to the US until the just-released Collection of Mana.

As they say: when it rains, it pours. Early next year, Trials of Mana is getting a remake that gives the game a complete 3D overhaul. I sat in on a hands-off demo at E3 2019, and the game looks to be shaping up nicely.

Like all Mana games, it tells a stand-alone story, so you don’t need to be familiar with the first two to jump into Trials of Mana. At the start, you choose one of six heroes as your main character, and two others as companions. Each hero has unique skills: there’s a brawler, a ranged attacker, a healer, a magic user, and even one who turns into a beast at night.

You can take control of either of your companions at any time on the battlefield, and the other two will continue to fight alongside you automatically. That said, your initial party of three is locked once you make your choices, and you won’t be able to play as the other three heroes without starting a new game. The producers say this adds replayability.

The demo I saw didn’t get into the story and instead focused on the combat. Typical for the series, battles play out in real time as you hack, slash, and dash around the field to eliminate enemies. Combat seems deeper here than in Secret of Mana, in that you have heavy and light attacks you can combine to make combos that knock back enemies or deliver area-of-attack damage. You can also lock the camera onto enemies and circle around them, looking for an opening. Fight long enough, and you’ll fill up a bar at the bottom of the screen that lets you unleash a special attack.

Unlike the fixed camera in the 2018 Secret of Mana remake, you have full control over your view of the action in Trials of Mana. The towns, wilderness, and overall presentation reminded me of Dragon Quest XI, which is a good thing for anyone who was disappointed by the stiff presentation in the Secret of Mana remake.

The short demo ended with a boss battle against Fullmetal Hugger, a giant crab you can see in the Trial of Mana trailer. (And for fun, you can check out the Collection of Mana trailer to see what it looked like in the Super Famicom version). The crab’s eyes are its weak point, and once you deal enough damage to one of them, it vanishes. Then you have to attack the other until the beast falls.

The demo did what it was supposed to do and left me eager to play the finished game. Even though the series hasn’t made a big impression in the West in recent years, Mana might have life left in it yet.

Chris Reed is IGN’s shopping and commerce editor, who played Secret of Mana many, many, many moons ago. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed.