The announcement of the remake of Trials of Mana (western title of Seiken Densetsu 3) was a godsend for lovers of classic action RPGs from the heyday of the SNES. Both because the western market has been waiting for this pearl of the 90s for more than twenty years, which in any case has arrived in an original version adapted on Nintendo Switch in the Collection of mana (of which you can find our review online), and because from the first trailer released it looks much better than the Secret of Mana Remake released last year.
All projects Gamescom 2019 we got to play a demo version of the title Square Enix, and we can confirm that such impressions seem to be correct.
The development team seems to have listened to the feedback of the players and the notes of the critics, since this time it will make a remake less anchored to the original, starting with the shot that will no longer be a bird's eye but in the third person, although in some cases the position will be locked.
The remake of Trials of Mana enjoys the use of Unreal Engine 4 for the graphics, and the step forward compared to the previous Secret of Mana is noticeable. The game environments are well made with bright colors and a good number of details, while the polygonal models of the characters are fairly detailed and certainly more expressive, despite being a bit "plastic" to behold. At glance it seems to be in front of a Dragon Quest not designed by Akira Toriyama, and after all it seems an appropriate evolution, given that the two sagas have lived together for several years on SNES.
In the demo we impersonated the warrior Duran in a mission that starts from the city, here we practiced with the controls and above all with the possibility of jumping that allows us a certain freedom of exploration, finding hidden objects on the roofs of the houses etc. Leaving the city we went into the Rabite forest where we collided with the first monsters of the game, with blows and various techniques.
The fighting dynamics are those of a fairly standard Hack and Slash and reveal the classic origin of the title. Some of the opponents can fly, so there was a need to attack them by jumping to make them fall and land them.
After going through the forest we finally arrived at the gates of a cave, where we met Charlotte and Riesz who joined the party. Together with them we faced other enemies in the cave and we finally faced the boss Full Metal Haggar (the huge crab). The AI of the other two characters seemed better to us than in the past, at least judging by their behavior against the boss.
We already know that, unlike the original title, there will be no co-op mode, since the developers have stated that they want to focus on the single player component; it also has to be considered that it would have been cumbersome and inefficient to play in multiple players with a third person view.
The new version of Trials of Mana certainly seems a much more complete and ambitious operation than the remake of Secret of Mana. The new gameplay appearance seemed fun in its simplicity, and the renewed graphics will certainly make it more attractive for users who are not with the conversion of the original in the Collection of Mana.
We just have to wait for the final version to find out if we are facing a possible relaunch title of the series in the future.
► Trials Of Mana is an Action-Adventure-JRPG game developed and published by Square Enix for PC, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 24/04/2020
