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Trials of Mana (SNES and Switch)
Apr. 10th, 2025 11:51 amTrials of Mana, known for some time by the Japanese name Seiken Densetsu 3, is the sequel to Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy Adventure. The original SNES game wasn’t released in the US until Collection of Mana, but it was originally fan-translated 25 years ago in the early days of emulation. I was inspired by the Talking Time Mana games thread to go back and replay Trials for the first time in forever...and I was reminded of why I keep replaying Secret (and FFA) but not Trials. For the record, I played the SNES rom that had the new translation patched on, on my Trimui Smart Pro because I wanted access to cheats; but I’m led to believe that it’s basically identical to the Collection version.
The game has some really clever ideas! There are six characters with interwoven storylines, and you choose a party of three, so you only see pieces of the other plots (and your main character gets a unique prologue). The game sets up three different groups of antagonists, and the one specific to your main character eventually triumphs over the other two in their race to take Mana power and conquer the world. Which means that there are three unique final dungeons and final bosses, depending on your character choice.
( Read more... )
So then I broke out the copy of the 3D remake of Trials of Mana that’s been sitting on my backlog. It’s significantly better in a number of major respects! Honestly, it’s like they read my review and addressed each of my complaints.
( Read more... )
Overall: The 3D remake of the game is a big improvement over the original, which I feel like is not something you usually hear me say about SNES classics.
The game has some really clever ideas! There are six characters with interwoven storylines, and you choose a party of three, so you only see pieces of the other plots (and your main character gets a unique prologue). The game sets up three different groups of antagonists, and the one specific to your main character eventually triumphs over the other two in their race to take Mana power and conquer the world. Which means that there are three unique final dungeons and final bosses, depending on your character choice.
( Read more... )
So then I broke out the copy of the 3D remake of Trials of Mana that’s been sitting on my backlog. It’s significantly better in a number of major respects! Honestly, it’s like they read my review and addressed each of my complaints.
( Read more... )
Overall: The 3D remake of the game is a big improvement over the original, which I feel like is not something you usually hear me say about SNES classics.
