Trials of Mana

 PC
User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 64 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 42 out of 64
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 64
  3. Negative: 8 out of 64

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  1. Juniialex
    Apr 25, 2020
    10
    It's a most play game, it's entertaining and has amazing design and beautiful music along with lots of hours of replay
  2. skohl
    Apr 27, 2020
    8
    This is a faithful remake of Seiken Densetsu 3, the SNES sequel to Secret of Mana that was never released outside of Japan. Everything good about that game is here, they didn't mess anything up, while also expanding the late-game content a little bit. It's impressive how successfully they adapted the visual style of the 2D game to 3D, which is the best reason for a remake to exist IMO, andThis is a faithful remake of Seiken Densetsu 3, the SNES sequel to Secret of Mana that was never released outside of Japan. Everything good about that game is here, they didn't mess anything up, while also expanding the late-game content a little bit. It's impressive how successfully they adapted the visual style of the 2D game to 3D, which is the best reason for a remake to exist IMO, and which they could have easily messed up like they did with the Secret of Mana remake from a couple years back.

    So let me tell you about this game. It's extremely simple, easy and linear. You might expect it to be boring, so why is it so fun? Why have you heard people recommend the original?
    Because of the class system. Upon beginning this game you choose three party members from a choice of six, and each party member gets to change classes twice during the game. The options for forming a party and choosing classes for each of them is extremely engaging, and makes this comfy little game that should be boring into something infinitely replayable. It's one of the most replayable JRPGs ever.

    The bad:
    -some of the English voice acting is repulsive, thankfully it's also funny and charming most of the time
    -no co-op play
    -party AI is dumb, and could be more customizable than it is
    -bosses are too easy later on, they need more HP or something
    -the price is a little steep
    -options to disable the minimap, making exploration more rewarding, but no option to disable the objective marker (in the original, you could actually get lost despite the game's linearity)

    The characters in this game look nice. It's fun and relaxing to run around the comfy environments, fighting monsters and enjoying the music.    … Expand
  3. death12123
    Jul 2, 2020
    8
    Trials of Mana is a solid game overall and from what I hear a game from overseas built from the ground up. I like this game and want more. I like many of the characters outside of Charlotte and the story feels somewhat basic but at the same time likable. Easy and linear but the gameplay is where it's at for sure. Depending on who you pick as your team you can determine how you will buildTrials of Mana is a solid game overall and from what I hear a game from overseas built from the ground up. I like this game and want more. I like many of the characters outside of Charlotte and the story feels somewhat basic but at the same time likable. Easy and linear but the gameplay is where it's at for sure. Depending on who you pick as your team you can determine how you will build their skills around which is pretty cool with the customization.

    A few things I would work on though:
    - I play in English. Fix Charlotte. My god she's annoying as heck. Mostly fine but could be better though it's pretty funny as well.
    - I would make the AI better. Sometimes they're outright useless
    - Difficulty. Make it overall more difficult
    - More options. I had to go outside to my DPI settings to make mouse movements playable at much faster speeds. It feels to slow in regular options. (2400DPI to 7200DPI)

    I get mostly close to 120FPS when playing on max settings and the game looks pretty good. With mod support too this game looks gorgeous and adds more customization from outfits to difficulty and overall enjoyment.

    Definitely worth a pickup if you're into Action JRPGs or JRPGs in general.    … Expand
  4. somedude14
    Mar 26, 2021
    9
    Overall, it's a nice SNES RPG with modern graphics. Music is pretty good, art style is really nice. Bosses are item-spammy (unless I'm doing something wrong, but I dodge a lot of attacks and still need to item-spam bosses). Always make sure to have plenty of medicinal herbs on hand for when you get status effects. Gameplay loop is essentially cutscene -> grinding -> cutscene -> boss ->Overall, it's a nice SNES RPG with modern graphics. Music is pretty good, art style is really nice. Bosses are item-spammy (unless I'm doing something wrong, but I dodge a lot of attacks and still need to item-spam bosses). Always make sure to have plenty of medicinal herbs on hand for when you get status effects. Gameplay loop is essentially cutscene -> grinding -> cutscene -> boss -> cutscene -> exploration -> repeat. Level ups don't feel very powerful one-by-one, takes several to notice a difference, which makes it difficult to overpower the game (good or bad thing depending on your take). The party AI is pretty good for the most part, but they seem to go braindead sometimes when special attacks are being used, which can open them up for a decent amount of damage in boss fights.

    Also do yourself a favor and turn on Auto dash in the settings. And once you get your first class change, be sure to use your new WeakWeakWeakStrong combo, it does a ton of damage in the end! There's another hidden combo that unlocks when you get your third class, which is mashing light attack a bunch and then hitting strong attack as the fourth attack, it's a different combo from the previously mentioned one and does even more damage on that final hit.

    Had one crash, I killed the megaboss and the game crashed on me. Still got the achievement, but if I want the in-game reward I'm going to have to do it again.

    Timestamp is how long it takes to 100% the game on one playthrough, so not doing NG+ to see the other three character stories. Coop would've made this a 10 for me.    … Expand
  5. Striker850
    Jun 29, 2020
    10
    This is an incredible game, im being serious. Animations are pretty fluid, the art style is colorful and the music is really catchy and cute. The character design, the class system and the outfit design are on spot.

    The equipment / item / ability management is straight forward with no useless complexity. The story is really good for this type of games. You should expect 40 hours of    This is an incredible game, im being serious. Animations are pretty fluid, the art style is colorful and the music is really catchy and cute. The character design, the class system and the outfit design are on spot.

    The equipment / item / ability management is straight forward with no useless complexity. The story is really good for this type of games. You should expect 40 hours of mostly non repetitive and interesting gameplay to begin with, you have also a wide selection of mods available on the internet and some post end game content to have fun with.

    Although the story is mostly linear, you can choose your characters and get some dialog variations and small differences depending on the composition of your party. Really nice experience overall, you get to empathize with characters and you get engaged with the story.

    If you like difficult games with fast pased combat this is not for you. If you hate cutscenes or anime style graphics this is not for you. However, if you like remakes of retro games with beautiful music, a good story and some fun abilities to play with, this is definitely the best game you should be playing for hours, even if you arent into the genre and you dont know the mechanics.

    This is a nice drug, easy to get into, hard to stop playing and that may make you dream and cry like a child if you still have a soul in this grey world.

    Have fun with Trials of Mana. I have already completed the game and Im off to a fresh start.

    May the Mana Godess be with you    … Expand
  6. GerardCS
    Jul 19, 2020
    8
    Un juego bonito, colorido y lleno de fantasia. Gran remake de un gran juego, si jugaste al original debes jugar este, si no pudiste jugar al original pero te gusta el rpg debes jugar este. Actualizacion de un clasico hecha con cariño y respetando la obra original. Unos de los pocos puntos en contra son el nivel de dificultad claramente suavizado y no poder desactivar los puntos deUn juego bonito, colorido y lleno de fantasia. Gran remake de un gran juego, si jugaste al original debes jugar este, si no pudiste jugar al original pero te gusta el rpg debes jugar este. Actualizacion de un clasico hecha con cariño y respetando la obra original. Unos de los pocos puntos en contra son el nivel de dificultad claramente suavizado y no poder desactivar los puntos de señalizacion de objetivo en pantalla, te dicen en todo momento donde ir, con quien hablar, que cojer... destrozando toda sensacion de exploracion.… Expand
  7. LastResource
    Jan 14, 2023
    10
    worth it and glad to play this game again. so much memories and nostalgia within this spin off game in the series.
  8. MikComposer
    Jan 13, 2023
    9
    I really loved the original game ( emulated with fan translation ), and this is a dream come true for me. While playing I was feeling that this game was made for me, someone who played and completed all main action adventure games on snes, and many other action adventure games on pc and consoles. Graphics is not amazing, but feels like the original game in 3d which is fine by me. Music gotI really loved the original game ( emulated with fan translation ), and this is a dream come true for me. While playing I was feeling that this game was made for me, someone who played and completed all main action adventure games on snes, and many other action adventure games on pc and consoles. Graphics is not amazing, but feels like the original game in 3d which is fine by me. Music got updated arrangements and is just as lovely as it was on snes. Combat is same or similar to snes original, simple but involving. Much more fun then many modern takes on the formula.… Expand
  9. Sunkada
    Apr 27, 2020
    9
    I think they did a really good job.
    While not technically super impressive, it's colorful and vibrant, full of charm.
    The gameplay is fun, the world is pretty large, visiting all the unique areas has been a pleasure, the story is extremely basic but does its job, the soundtrack is incredible. What I liked the most was the wide array of customization for your party and their movesets.    I think they did a really good job.
    While not technically super impressive, it's colorful and vibrant, full of charm.
    The gameplay is fun, the world is pretty large, visiting all the unique areas has been a pleasure, the story is extremely basic but does its job, the soundtrack is incredible.
    What I liked the most was the wide array of customization for your party and their movesets.
    While not everything is perfect, I've had a great time with this. A big step up from Secret of Mana R.    … Expand
  10. VendonJura
    May 10, 2023
    10
    Finally a good RPG. It doesn't come close to Secret of Everemore, but it's a mana game and that's what's good.

    ✅ You can play multiple characters ✅ Each hero has his own story ✅ Class change possible ✅ Easy use of skills with controller possible ✅ No lags or anything else ✅ Graphics ✅ Dubbing voices ✅ Atmosphere ✅ Great combat system ❌ Music that is quite annoying and only    Finally a good RPG. It doesn't come close to Secret of Everemore, but it's a mana game and that's what's good.

    ✅ You can play multiple characters
    ✅ Each hero has his own story
    ✅ Class change possible
    ✅ Easy use of skills with controller possible
    ✅ No lags or anything else
    ✅ Graphics
    ✅ Dubbing voices
    ✅ Atmosphere
    ✅ Great combat system

    ❌ Music that is quite annoying and only lasts 5-20 seconds or so and runs in a continuous loop.
    ❌ No forge
    ❌ 99% of the chests, etc. have absolute trash loot. This is the only RPG game I know where opening a chest is absolutely 0 fun for me because 99% of the time you get junk.
    ❌Minor bugs
    ❌ You can't just go to an island and train there. It's just a pipe system where you have to walk straight and you can't just do whatever you want.
    ❌ No arena

    Otherwise, this is a pretty good RPG. So if you like playing RPG games, you should definitely get this game here.    … Expand
  11. vassagoraziel
    Jun 19, 2020
    9
    Very fun gameplay which feels like a Devil May Cry hack'n slash. Soundtrack is very good too. Graphics are good, not top quality but 8 out of 10 I guess. Story is very simple, but also enjoyable.
  12. AegisXI
    May 1, 2020
    9
    I felt like this remake was really fateful to the original. I loved the old action RPG element this game felt and felt a huge nostalgia playing through the game. I played about 80 Hours of the game and enjoyed every second of it. Not only did they have content from the original, but they also ended a post-game dungeon, which was a great addition to the story!
    With the addition with NG+    I felt like this remake was really fateful to the original. I loved the old action RPG element this game felt and felt a huge nostalgia playing through the game. I played about 80 Hours of the game and enjoyed every second of it. Not only did they have content from the original, but they also ended a post-game dungeon, which was a great addition to the story!
    With the addition with NG+ and you can choose different characters to find out whats their story, IMO is the greatest thing they couldve added in any game. This gives a lot of replay-ability and can extend more to your playthrus.
    The remake of the music in this game is incredible as well. They did justice on updating the songs and I always had a nostalgic feeling every time I hear the music! On top of that, there's an option to change to the original sound track! I was pretty hyped and loved this feature.
    I absolutely differ from others opinions on the graphics, but I think this style fits perfectly to the game. IMO it matched up how it should look 3D.

    There were some things I didn't like though:
    The English has a terrible dub. Some of the characters were OK, but most of the time it just sounded bland and with no effort. Like they just slapped in the English for the sake of having English dub in it. No matter though, I usually play in Japanese, but would've been great to have English to listen to when I feel like it.

    Another problem I had was the difficulty of the game. This was what got me pretty bad. It would've been a perfect game for me, but this reason is why I knocked off a point. It took no effort to kill enemies / kill boss / stay alive.

    The story in the game is pretty weak. Although each character has their own story, ultimately it leads up to the same thing. Granted this story was way back in 1995, so this type of thing was normal.

    All-in-all, this remake is amazing!    … Expand
  13. cozkimiyu
    Jul 8, 2020
    9
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A good remake game. The feeling of the original work was well captured.
    But it's a little less fun to repeat.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

99
#99 Best PC Game of 2020

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 7
  3. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. PCMag
    May 15, 2020
    80
    A nostalgic blast from the past, Trials of Mana could easily become the poster child for remakes done right. It has some failings, particularly the removed multiplayer and odd voice work, but it's an engaging action-RPG that's one of the best on PC.
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  2. IGN Japan
    May 7, 2020
    80
    While certain parts of Trials of Mana definitely feel retro, as a whole Square Enix has crafted an extremely well renovated experience. What makes this a great remake is that both gameplay and visual revisions faithfully represent the original experience.
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  3. Ragequit.gr
    May 4, 2020
    80
    Trials of Mana is a qualitative remake of Seiken Densetsu 3, cleverly adapted to the modern era, but at the same time captive to the original game in elements such as the mediocre narration and the minor story character development.
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