Collection of Mana, heck even just Trials of Mana in the West, is a dream come true for me. If you decide to pick this up, you're getting three wonderful games that you can play anywhere. Some extra features, like a museum with the series' artwork, or a history lesson on the entire franchise, wouldn't have gone amiss, but we got something we never thought we'd get. If $40 for three excellent games isn't too much to ask, then do yourself a favour and pick this up if you're an RPG fan.
Siempre quise hincar el diente al secret of mana una vez mas, y a las demás entregas poderlas jugarlas, y las versión original sale muy cara, se merece mi 10.
For fans of the nostalgic SNES classic favorites by Squaresoft (before they were Square Enix), you should give it a purchase. That includes the long-awaited Trials of Mana (originally Seiken Densetsu 3, a Japan-only game) that we waited almost 25 years for a English release!
Collection of Mana is one of the greatest classic RPG assortments out there now. It’s easily worth picking up for Trials of Mana alone, but Final Fantasy Adventure and Secret of Mana are wonderful to have along for the ride as the trio that started the franchise. Anyone who has never tried these titles before is now given the opportunity in easily the best way possible, and despite the remakes these titles have or are soon going to see, it’s well worth playing each one from where they began. Collection of Mana is a title every fan of JRPGs should have whether they’ve played them or not, as they are tried and true classics that stand the test of time by still being simply outstanding well over twenty years later.
Trials of Mana is amazing and, by itself, makes this compilation essential for all of those who have poured tears and hopes on the photos of the game during that torrid summer of 1995.
It may seem a little pricey, but, considering that Trials of Mana has never been available outside of Japan before, Collection of Mana is a must-have for Switch owning JRPG fans.
This is a fantastic franchise, and now you can discover or rediscover it with this collection. Also, Spanish players can enjoy Trials of Mana for the first time in the West –in Spanish!
Collection of Mana est une compilation regroupant les 3 premiers jeux de la saga Seiken Densetsu de Squaresoft. Elle a été annoncé en Occident lors du Nintendo Direct spécial E3 2019 et rendu disponible le même jour sur l’Eshop de la Switch.
Compilation de rêve regroupant un jeu GameBoy et deux jeux Super Nintendo devenus cultes et légendaires dans l’histoire des action RPG et des jeux vidéo en général, il est intéressant de se replonger dedans pour se rendre compte à quel point la proposition est intemporel.
(Please note: I haven't completed the first game in the trilogy, so won't be commenting on it)
SECRET OF MANA: The best-known, and probably the best, of the series, still looks and sounds great today. The bright pastel tones and the gorgeous music give a huge boost to the simple yet effective gameplay, which has you beat up a series of fantastical creatures and bosses with weapons and magic. The only drawbacks are a pretty basic story and a lack of puzzles, though this is offset by pure atmosphere and creepy set-pieces (like the hypnotized temple villagers). Some of the boss battles near the end also get a little tiresome, especially when they're re-skins of earlier ones. But a solid 8/10 game.
TRIALS OF MANA: Everyone seems to say this is a better game than its predecessor, but I disagree. The game definitely delivers 'more': Six characters instead of three, branching story paths, class changes for each character at two different points in the game, tons of collectibles, and beautiful visuals. But sometimes, more is less. The story is convoluted and confusing and the huge array of sub-plots means they're often rushed and resolved in unsatisfactory ways. The character selection can give you a totally different (and in some cases worse) gaming experience. The basic gameplay is somehow less fluid than Secret of Mana and even has a button you can hold to make everyone auto-fight (perhaps an admission of defeat from the developers). And the GRINDING... I almost gave up out of frustration when I found out that to upgrade your class a second time you had to collect loot-box-type seeds, which are rare drops, and which give you a random class you may not even want. 'Trials of Mana' is right...Maybe even 'Chores of Mana' would be more accurate. Maybe just me but not a fan. 6/10
I'm being a bit unfair by rating a product I did not try, but I have spent hundreds of hours playing Mana games, I still own my copy of Secret of Mana, as well as the SFC cartridge of Trials of Mana, aka Seiken Densetsu 3. My japanese is pretty poor, but I used the SFC cartridge as an "excuse" to play the fan translated ROM. Many times.
I love Secret of Mana, but there may be a big nostalgia factor going on here. I love the look and music, but I probably enjoy the gameplay more than I should. It's kind of a wonky system, when you think about it. Level-charging attacks is slow and boring, going into the menu to activate spells grinds the action to a halt, waiting for the attack gauge to get up to 100% just to do a normal attack is also a strange design choice. It's possible to cheeze bosses by linking attack spells... I could probably go on and on. But I still like it all, which is probably indication I'm seeing things with rose-tinted nostalgia goggles.
The dialog is pretty terrible however. In case you're one of the 5 people who don't know why, memory constraints was an issue during translation and tons of stuff was cut out.
Anywho, what everyone else is getting all teary-eyed about is Trials of Mana being "finally available" in the west. Well, as someone who has played it to completion once - and tried and stopped more times than I care to remember - it's not nearly as good as people make it out to be. The game has some glaring flaws that people seem to gloss over. Obviously it has some extremely strong points as well.
The game looks amazing. I can't stress this enough, It's probably the best looking SNES/SFC game ever made. Boss designs in particular are incredible. The music is top notch, just like Secret of Mana. The story is quite a bit better this time around, and offers 6 main characters and 3 main story paths. The world is even larger this time, and the amount of content is quite impressive.
Sadly, I find the action terrible. Characters often move by themselves between attacks. It's never really clear how long you may need to wait after an attack to attack again, sometimes it's instant, sometimes it takes forever. Hit detection is average at best (to be fair, this was also an issue in Secret of Mana). Enemies and characters don't stagger very often when hit, so there's always of mess of sprites going at it with numbers flying everywhere in a small pile on screen. However, for the majority of the game, all this is pretty tolerable.
Once you get near end-game, that's when the feces really hits the propeller. Remember when in Secret of Mana you would occasionally get a special visual effect for maximum level spells? And everything would stop for effect? And your mind just exploded? Trials of Mana does this.
For every. Single. Skill.
In boss battles in particular, lots of spells get cast, all at the same time. If you make the mistake of using a charge attack with a special animation, your character will stand there until all the previous skill animations have been played through to actually go through with the attack.
Just standing there. Unable to move. Getting pummeled. Waiting.
Other frustrations include getting items for class change - because the drop rates for the good ones are super rare, enemies having access to level 3 techs as soon as you enter a screen and blowing you to smithereens before you even see them, the menu being terribly slow to navigate (it sounds absurd, I know), often obscure goals, difficulty spikes, slow walking and running speed... I suppose that's probably enough for now.
I'm honestly looking forward to the 3D remake, because the game and story have so much potential, so much amazing content, and a full remake has the opportunity to rid the game of the mostly mechanical issues I have with it.
Oh, and Final Fantasy Adventure? Meh.
I wish I could give -5 . This is the worst games ever. Especially Secret of Mana. Everything is horrible. The balance is horrendous. No modernization , no consideration for the gamer. Enemies have huge HP and you have little , to none. No mercy, everything is a punishment. Everything is bad, everything. Don’t buy this switch dump of poo. I hate this game with all my heart.
SummaryThe long-awaited "Trials of Mana" is now available outside of Japan. Play all three games in the original Mana series. Quintessential JRPG series "Collection of Mana" is now on Nintendo Switch! Fall in love with the Mana series all over again, including the first-ever release of the action-packed third game in the trilogy: "Trials of Man...