Trials Of Mana is an action role-playing game originally developed and published by Square for the Super Famicom. It was known as Seiken Densetsu until the year 2019. However, this is actually not the first game in the series. Instead, it’s the third one. Don’t let that scare you though as they are all stand-alone games.

Story

You play with 6 characters. Each one has his or her own personal story. They try their best to pull on your heartstring. Not going to lie, it worked! However, there is way more to this game then meets the eye. Despite this game being a remake, I still don’t want to spoil anything story related. But I can say this: Be prepared to cry or just come close to crying. You will also hate lots and lots of characters.

Music

The music is great; there is not just one song but many different melodies. Furthermore, each one of these songs are either joyful, sad, or just really catchy.

Gameplay

Kevin is one of the main characters you can play with. He uses his claws as a way of dealing damage to his enemies. At night he can turn into a Beastman and during combat he gets a power boost thus dealing quite a lot of damage to his enemies. I have tried every character in the demo. As of right now, my favorite is Hawkeye because not only does he hit fast, he also uses two daggers thus he hits more often. In the beginning, you can choose 3 out of the 6 characters to play with. Each character plays differently. However, their combos stay the same for the most part. Everyone has 2 combos: x1 square x1 triangle for a knockback. And, 2x square 1x triangle for an Area of Effect (or AoE) damage.

Class Strike is an ability that every character can use. Each one of them uses a different one. You unluck more of them the further you are in the story. In order to be able to use Class Strike: you need to defeat lots and lots of monsters. Each time you defeat one you automatically collect CS particles. Once the meter reaches 100 percent you can then unleash your attack. Kevin can then unleash a special attack on command that deals hefty damage. If you position yourself right, you can hit it as an AOE attack. Training points are earned each time you level up. By spending them you can learn passive or active abilities that will help you during the battles. There is also a day and night cycle. During the day enemies are weaker but give you less XP. While at night you gain more XP but enemies are more aggressive or they are asleep. Also fighting at night is a good thing for Kevin because of his Beastmode ability.

Verdict

Play this game! However, if you’re still having doubts, then play the demo. It’s on the  Playstation 4, the Switch, and PC via Steam.

Trials Of Mana launches on April 24, 2020. For more information, stay tuned for the review here on The Inner Circle.