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[Trials of Mana] Now in 3d and in English on the Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PC!
masterthehero
Professional Video Editor & Book AuthorRegistered User regular
Professional Video Editor & Book AuthorRegistered User regular
Greeting!
I searched the forum and found that no thread existed for this awesome game that's coming out on April 24th, 2020.
Trials of Mana is the 3D remake of the hit classic RPG released in 1995 as Seiken Densetsu 3.
This daring tale of overcoming the tests of fate has been given new life! Experience the beloved adventure fully modernized with graphic improvements, character voiceover support, a remastered soundtrack and a new episode which you can experience after the ending, in addition to an ability system and a new class that reconstructs the character levelling system plus more active battles!
This overlapping story of interwoven destinies changes depending on who you choose as your main character and companions! Will these young adventurers be able to use the power of mana to save the world from the brink of destruction?
Receive the Rabite Adornment DLC to gain more EXP after battles up-to level 10! Available until 21st May 2020.
For those of you who don't know the history of Seiken Densetsu 3, it was a sequel to Secret of Mana on the SNES. However, unilke Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3 was only released in Japan and never officially made it state side until the Collection of Mana was released in 2019. A full 24 years, almost a century, went by without an official English release of Secret of Mana 2.
Fast forward to this year, it seems that Square has created a 3d remake of Secret of Mana 2 using the Unreal engine. However, unlike Final Fantasy 7, this remake is 100% faithful to the original source material. All the character models, boss battles, and even the environments themselves will be instantly familiar to anyone who has played Secret of Mana 2. Not only that, but the music has also received an updated remaster that still remains true to the source material but is in high fidelity.
The only downside of this remake is that all of the multiplayer options are gone. You cannot couch co-op or online co-op the game with any of your friends, which is a real shame because I greatly enjoyed multiplayer in the Mana games.
I've created this thread in the hopes that this game won't get overlooked and that Square continues releasing classic games on modern hardware.
THE DEMO IS OUT NOW.
LINKS:
https://trialsofmana.square-enix-games.com/en-us
masterthehero on
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Well, I tried playing SD3 one time, a long time ago, with a, you know, thing; I just didn't play more than a few minutes.
I dunno if I should give the original a go before trying this, or if it even matters, if they're basically the same.
For people who've played it more, with as few spoilers as possible, how does the character choice system effect the story. I'm to understand each character has their own story, but if you pick three characters do you get all of their stories, or do you get primarily your "main" character? Is having different sets of characters different enough to warrant a bunch of playthroughs, or is it mostly the same overall story, with the individual character stuff added into it? I'm just trying to get a grip on how important it is to pick certain characters, if the game needs to be played dozens of times with different combinations to see it all (I've 100%'d LoM, I'm well versed in the absurd requirements it can have to achieve everything, particularly in a single playthrough). Are there certain trio's that are more effective than others?
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
This is a very common question and luckily it has a simple answer.
There are three pairs of characters, which means that 2 characters will share a common antagonist or will have a story that affects the other character.
For instance, and these are not spoilers as it's the intro for each character.
Duran's kingdom is invaded by the Crimson Wizard.
Angela is being targeted by the Crimson Wizard.
These two are a pair because they share a common antagonist.
Ries has her kingdom invaded by Nevarl.
Hawkeye is a thief from Nevarl who is being targeted by the king.
If you pick these pairs as your primary and secondary characters, you will get the most bang for their individual story lines. You also get some additional dialogue between the two characters. For instance, Duran will say to Angela, "Wait... you're friends with the Crimson Wizard?" Where as if he was paired with Charlotte or Kevin, this dialogue won't happen.
Ultimately, all of the stories lead to the mana tree and they will all end the same. The main difference between the character pairs is that their unique storylines will play out differently.
EDIT:
I forgot to mention that the website link I provided shows you the character pairs. If you scroll down you can see which characters pair with who and you can preview their class progression appearance.
So, maybe, you'd suggest (assuming I dig it) to do 3 playthroughs each with a "pair", and whichever 3rd I prefer?
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
However, if you've NEVER played the SNES game, the 3d remake does a lot of things to make the game more accessible. For instance, the combat is a lot faster and much more engaging. In the original game, although it's still fun, the characters do still have to "charge up" their attacks and take turns. It's faster than Secret of Mana SNES but not nearly as fast as the remake.
I like the combat though so i'll probably still get it eventually. I do have the collection to keep me mana-full until then.
Yeah the English acting is awful. The best voice actors so far have been Duran and Angela. But, Charlotte is cringey. In fact, Charlotte's was so bad I was tempted to switch the audio to Japanese.
I actually picked up the Secret of Mana remake on steam recently and really enjoyed it. There are some obvious cost saving issues with lower quality voicing choices and some translations of the controls and positioning causes the occasional hit box detection issues, but otherwise it’s worth the purchase if you can get it on sale or for $20 or so
MWO: Adamski
Considering the script Charlottes VA is working off I think she does an amazing job. Whoever decided that her gimmick in english had to be that silly ought to be fired though.
It's awesome that they included an option to switch to the original music (the new versions are generally fine, but a few just don't quite hit the same as the originals), and overall it feels like a labor of love. It's great that the game manages to feel so different with the switch to 3D, while still mirroring the original level designs very closely. The combat changes are fantastic and pretty much needed -- the original version was awesome and unique for its time, but you had two attacks for most characters and pausing to cast spells obviously needed to go away. If anything the combat may be a bit too easy with all of the fancy dodging and stuff, but it feels nice!
I am sad that Square decided to make Charlotte's dialogue extra cringey in their localization, but we knew that from the official english release of the SNES version already. To echo Frozenzen, it seems like her voice actor is actually trying to be not terrible, but when her script is all "Sowweeee I'm Caawwliee" there's not much she can do. But overall I'm excited to keep going, as I'm sure the combat gets even better once you start class changing and unlocking the super awesome stuff.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
To clarify, while the overall story beats are the same, each pair has a unique final dungeon and set of last bosses.
But yeah, the third is just kind of a hanger-on, so long as you don't set them as the primary. ie If your team is Angela, Duran, Kevin (Angel-Duran being the pair), you don't want the primary to be Kevin.
You do generally want someone who's going to be able to flex into at least a little bit of a healer role though. It's not STRICTLY required, but unless they've hugely changed things, it'll make things much easier. Luckily, half the cast can do that. Charlotte starts out as a healer, and both Kevin and Duran can learn healing magic eventually. It's pretty important to have a buffer and/or debuffer too, since those have a huge effect. That's Duran, Riesz, Charlotte, and Hawk (note: Duran can be a healer or buffer, but not both). If you stack them together, the game will cry for mercy.
One thing to be a little aware of if you go by people working off the original's understanding of stuff is that Kevin was hugely glitched and got a big innate invisible stat bonus that he shouldn't have. I'm assuming that they'll fix that. He was basically broken. Angela will hopefully be a bit more usable too. Her spells were basically just lag-generators, and instead of mages getting stronger in the original, her usefulness fell off a cliff when every boss started countering magic with their own screen-filling lag particle effects.
I'm probably running Angela/Duran/Something for my first playthrough. Not sure what to do about the last spot however.
Kevin as a monk/healer probably has the best synergy with them. Send Duran into the dark classes for the elemental sabers to turn him and Kevin into killing machines.
Angela is always hard to work around because she has zero utility in any of her class changes. It's just "Do I want better spells in the midgame, or in the endgame? Okay, now do I want AoE or ST?" I'm hoping (but not optimistic) that they balance out the classes a bit better. Some of them, Charlotte's dark ones especially, are just so bad compared to the alternatives. Then again, just fixing all the bugs is going to have a drastic effect. At least two classes had special/unique skills to them that literally did nothing.
That being said, some characters do still beat them out for sheer utility. I think that if you were angling to have an optimal team, having one of Hawkeye or Reisz is always a good pick. Gotta love stat manipulation.
Charlotte was amazing in SD3? Ridiculously strong multitarget heal, boom, done. She had some nice cures too, but being the best healer in the game pretty automatically made her kind of awesome. The other MT healers are solid, and yeah they can melee better too, but their classes that MT heal'd did it less good and weren't the melee powerhouses that their other branches were. Pick two of Duran/Hawk/Kevin, pick their highest DPS classes, and plug her in as a 3rd and you're going to roll through the game.
I found Angela incredibly effective too. Her biggest flaw to me was just the magic system in SD3 -- you have to pause to cast, and that disrupts the flow a lot. I would never play her in co op because it's annoying as hell for the other player, but as main character for a solo playthrough she was amazing! Mana becomes incredibly easy to handle early on (the items are very cheap), and if you don't like using lots of items you could always leaf saber too.
...but then, the remake doesn’t have co-op. It’s a trade off.
No buffs/debuffs for anybody!
Plot-wise, everyone gets their own opening section, kind of like in Dragon Age: Origins. You could actually try all of those in the demo. I got an option to play through my second characters origin story when I met them (saying no just gives you a flashback summary like in the original game, so I appreciate the addition), so I assume that follows for the third as well.
I'm guessing the overall plot doesn't change much, so you'll be dealing with three primary antagonists, with one ascending to the top based on your main character choice.
Original Trials also had a bonus boss you could only fight if you picked Duran/Angela as your main.
I don't know if that'll continue in the remake, as the combat system is the most different from the old game design, so they may have changed it.
I don't know about endings or 100% requirements, but I'd say you'd get about 90/95% in one playthrough, and 98% if you play twice with two different team makeups.
(Unless you want to try out the different class combinations, in which case you're going to be here for a while)
However, since you can carry over your saves from the demo to the full version. I recommend creating your 3 pairs now, playing through all the introductions and skipping the intros of characters whose stories you've already seen (since there's going to be overlap.) And have your save file prepped for when you want to replay the game and experience the different storylines.