Trials of Mana demo may be coming soon.

[Wolf Kanno]

Japan just confirmed that they'll be receiving a demo for the remake of Trials of Mana on March 18th 2020 (https://www.siliconera.com/get-a-taste-of-the-trials-of-mana-3-demo-on-march-18-2020/), but it looks like it may be a worldwide release as well. The demo will basically let you play the first hour and a half of the game, up to the first real boss fight in the game. You'll be able to choose any of the six characters for your party and see all of their personal story openings, and your save data can be saved for the final game where you can pick up where you left off.

Along with that, we got the final Japanese trailer for the game.

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Personally, I'm excited to see this since it looks like they put in way more effort for this remake than they did for poor Secret of Mana. I really need to get back to my old playthrough...

[Depression Moon]

I'm playing it right now. My first two thoughts were "Man, I do not like this art style and damn, this voice acting is bad". It was so bad I skipped every voiced scene so far. I hope there's a no voice option. I'm I just arrived at the first town. I know I'm just at the beginning of this demo, but I don't see myself ever buying this game. The aesthetics put me off too much.

Was this originally an Enix game or a Square game?

[Fynn]

Square

[Wolf Kanno]

Yep, it was a Square property and its always been known for its distinct aesthetics.

Here's what the original game looked like on the Super Famicom:

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Honestly, I've always loved Mana's aesthetics just because you don't see many series like it. Made even more amusing by the fact the series cutesy nature hides the fact the franchise is traditionally very dark in themes and story. Of anything, Trials of Mana is probably the most upfront about the darker nature of the series.

I'm currently downloading the demo to check it out. My biggest hope for the remake is that they fixed the awful Main Menu UI and maybe make the process of using party magic more user friendly with something like shortcuts that can be mapped to the controls. This has reminded me that I really need to get back to my playthrough of this game (http://home.eyesonff.com/showthread.php/171617-The-Mana-Series)....

[WarZidane]

Played the demo yesterday and loved it, can't wait for the full game. It looks about as good as you can expect from a relatively low-budget endeavor like this (aka it's no FF7 remake with massive budget), I actually like the remastered music and I like the gameplay. English voices were meh, but Japanese voices were fine, plus i think there's a voice volume slider that you could just drop down to 0 if you really hate both.

[Wolf Kanno]

Checked out the demo tonight and color me impressed. I was worried this effort would only be a slight step up from SoM's remake but they actually put a lot more effort into this one.

To get the bad out of the way:


The English VA work could be better. Some of the choices for the characters feel a bit off, especially annoying when I can hear some more talented and familiar VA are doing background voices. I mean I'm playing Duran's story again, and I freaking hear Bob Buchholz as a background character, and I'm thinking to myself, "you have the VA for Gene Starwind in this game, and you're not letting him play a major character?" course I did the same thing in Type-0 when I heard Crispin Freeman in that one as well.
Coinciding with the above. There are certainly a few cutscenes where the English VA work does not match the characters movement. There are some noticeable mouth flap issues, but more alarming is scenes like Duran getting fed up with the fortune teller and his body language is incredibly aggressive, but his voice only sound like he's mildly annoyed. There are a few more sequences like this scattered through out the demo. I may play again with Japanese audio to see if they fix the issue.
The game is significantly easier than the original. Part of this is due to a new feature where you'll encounter jars filled with HP or MP restoring orbs that are just scattered everywhere on the maps. But other issues are do to some faulty re-calibrating when they transitioned to 3D. The first boss of the game is actually a serious beef gate in the original because he's a stationary boss with some powerful attacks you have little room to dodge. In the remake, you can actually walk around him as he moves around more and his arena is huge. So it's easy to avoid damage since most of his attacks are still based on their old versions. Another weird thing the game does is completely telegraph enemy attacks. Like when the goblin enemy gets ready to throw their axe at you, a red line will appear before they do it, practically telling you to move out of the way. So avoiding damage is super easy in this game.
Finally, I'm on the fence about how much the game holds your hand here. I don't like how enemy attacks are telegraphed, but I'm not too bothered by the game giving you clear directions where to go sometimes because the original game could be incredibly vague on what to do next, especially when it came to things like staying at an inn until nightfall in a certain town, after talking to a certain NPC, so you can finally trigger the next story sequence. But I also feel like I was able to manage without the game telegraphing everything I need to do. Thankfully, you can turn this function off in the menu.


With that out of the way, let's talk about all the good stuff here:


The game is gorgeous and they did a good job translating the Mana aesthetic into 3D. It is a little less ornamental than the original, but the Unreal Engine makes this game shine.
Likewise, the new OST Arrangements are really good. I feel Mana has always had an underrated OST among Square's works but it really shines in this game.
Combat feels way more fluid, and it doesn't have the weird hit detection of the original. There is weight to attacks that help make the combat feel good. Though I didn't have much time with magic, it looks like the A.I. is actually programmed to use it this time and it has a pretty simple slider to arrange how often your party members use items, abilities, or super attacks. Switching between party members is seamless and fast as well.
The Main Menu is way more user friendly. While the original game gets points for creativity and visual flair, it was a pain in the ass to navigate. The remakes menu is basic and simple, but it makes getting equipment changed out, leveling, and setting up the party A.I. so much easier.
I really like the new skill system. Give you the ability to equip some useful support skills, get stat bonuses, and new abilities. What was even more interesting was Shared Skills, which can be used by any party member, but only one can use it at a time. What's interesting about these skills is that it looks like some unlock through story event not to dissimilar from Kingdom Hearts. In the demo you unlock one that gives a party member +30 HP, which was great for me since I had a squishy mage on the team. Others can be unlocked through a characters personal skill system, which is clever since it means you may want to pour points into a stat a character normally wouldn't need to unlock a skill another character could find useful.
I smurfing love the vertical design of the dungeons and towns. I've always been a bit disappointed in 2D to 3D remakes of RPGs because they are usually lazy and keep the 2D perspective instead of going for broke and making full use of the 3D environments. A large part of why I feel the game captures the Mana aesthetic is due to how the environments are layered and explorable. It was really fun using the jump command to climb up some hills or even skip around a few places to make a beeline for the countless treasure lying around. The towns feel a more interesting because they're not flat anymore and actually feel like places in a 3D environment. Of anything, my only real disappointment here is after playing this demo, I finally had a taste of what the SoM remake should have been.
Say what you will about the VA work, but thank god the translation and localization is better. I appreciate the fan translation so I could play it, but the remake shows off what a professional can do. The plot and character arcs have more weight to them. Like Duran is still an ass with a really bad reason to go on his journey, but he comes across way more sympathetic in this translation.


Overall: I'm probably going to pick this up and play it while the rest of the forum is busy playing the VII Remake. Course, now I'm getting motivated to actually try and finish my original playthrough... :wcanoe:

[Scotty_ffgamer]

I played a tiny bit, but I was constantly seeing textures popping in and out, and the cutscenes seemed to be stuttering for me a bit. That was kind of distracting.

Also wasn’t in the mood for that kind of gameplay I think, so I just shut it off and figured I’d try again another time. I may just decide to play the original though.