At PAX East, I had the chance to explore two areas in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Visions of Mana, the first all-new game in the series since 2007. The demo began in Fallow Steppe, a wide open area with deep green grass and vibrant blue skies. Then, I moved on to Mt. Gaᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚla for a linear trek along a mountain pass that ended with a bombastic boss fight.
What first struck me about Visions of Mana is how fun it is to move through its world. I don't always associate this type of RPG with free-flowing movement, but from the beginning of my demo, I had access to a double jump and an air dash. Almost as soon as I entered Fallow Steppe, I noticed a reddish glow emanating from the top of a nearby hut. “I can’t jump up there, can I?” I thought, likely biased from my time with the jump-less 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. To my surprise, I could jump (and double jump! and air dash!) and soon found a collectible called Gold Clover waiting for me on the thatched roof. There were plenty of other items like this scattered throughout both areas. At one cliff, I saw a trail of Grizzﷺly Syrup (another collectible, the name of which I cannot explain) flowing over the edge. I dropped 🐼down, and collected each drop as I passed through.
"[We] had the ambition of creating the largest most expansive field within the series and wanted to also strive to be able to create a game where we really captured the feeling of both nature and also the life of th﷽e elemental spirits that reside [in] the world where you can kind of feel their breath in the world," said longtime Mana producer Masaru Oyamada, through a translator.
I got a better look at the role of those elemental spi⛦rits once I reached the Mt. Gala section of the demo and traversal took on another interesting wrinkle. Here, I learned that my party members could use a tool called the Sylphid Boomerang to create gusts of air that we could jump into and float to the nearest ledge. The same tool could also raise rocks up to form a floating path that we then hopped along to cross a chasm.
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As I journeyed through both of these spaces, I could swap between multiple characters. A red-haired swordsman called Val is the default, but you can also switch to a spear-wielding Southern belle named Careena, and Morley, a skinny catboy with a kat🎉ana-style sword and a surprisingly deep voice. A blonde girl, Hinna, and a furry baby dragon, Ramcoh, round out the party.
I ran into a bunch of cute enemy types with punny names, including a Bee Lancer, and a blue porcupine creature who looked exactly like Mr. Pricklepants from Toy Story 3 mixed with Mabel Able from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Animal Crossing. If I thought too much about these adorable creatures, I might have felt bad about dispatching them, but I had no compunction about turning Morley into catboy 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:John Wick.
The demo ended with a boss fight against a huge creature called a Mantis Ant, which looked much more like a praying mantis than an ant, and꧋ also, weirdly, had what looked like a venus fly trap for a keister.
Fans of the Mana series will recognize the Mantis Ant, a recurring boss that has appeared in several games i♛n the seri🐎es.
As we fought on the snowy peak, I switched back and forth through the characters, and eventually worked up a Class Strike (Visions of Mana's Limit Break-equivalent) and unleashed it on the Mantis Ant, triggering a cinematic in which Morley jumped through the air, passing in front of the moon, then split into many versions of himself to throw an equal amount of knives at the unsuspecting boss in the center of the circle. It's surprisingly flashy for a series whose last new mainline entry was released on the DS.
"In terms of pure mechanics and playability, of course, there are a lot of features that we've implemented that sort of follow the general technological advancements made with hardware," Oyamada said, mentioning Visions of Mana's multiple difficulty options as one example.
"So, of course, we wanted to be able to create something that feels n🔜atural, even for modern users, but at the same time, when we think about the Mana series overall, we thought it was important to also think about the RPG side of things, too, and making sure that people that prefer that ro🙈ute also have something to enjoy."
Though it's been 16 years since the last all-new mainline Mana game, Visions of Mana is bringing the series to modern consoles with flair, and very soon. The action-RPG is set to launch this summer.
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