Can 'Visions of Mana' ever catch up to its rivals?

Living in your The shadow of the brothers is cruel, and if Square Enix Visions of Mother was a person, he would probably agree. Its bigger, more famous siblings like the Dragon Quest The series continues to revisit traditional RPG designs from the 90s, while Final Fantasy always evolving and experimenting with what the genre can be.

But the Mother The series has a less defined path forward. You can feel that uncertainty Visions of Mother (from August 29) too. Despite its clever twist on the familiar narrative and a stellar battle system, Visions of Mother he does not feel confident enough to leave behind outdated ideas.

Save the world, lose yourself

Since its release in 1991, the Mother The series has always had an identity crisis. The first game in the series wasn't even released as an original franchise in North America, but was renamed Final Fantasy Adventure (even though it's not a Final Fantasy game). The big moment that set the series apart came with 1993 Mother's secret. It made the action-RPG combat deeper and more complex than its peers offered at the time and turned Mother a big deal for nearly a decade, only to fade into relative obscurity afterward.

Mother's secretIts direct successor was never released outside of Japan and the following game, Legend of the Mother took a more inventive approach to the genre that was a little too creative to catch on at the time. One poorly received Game Boy Advance adventure, shallow DS gameplay, and a mediocre real-time strategy spinoff later, and that was seemingly the end of the one-time streak Mother series until Square Enix began adapting and releasing them in 2018. Now, nearly two decades since the last news Mother game, Square Enix and series producer Koichii Ishii are back together Visions of Motheralthough despite the placement Visions as a modern revival, you'd be forgiven for thinking it's still stuck in a bygone era.

Visions of Mother follows Val, a young warrior from a village blessed by the elemental fire, as he accompanies Mercy – including his childhood friend, Hina – to the Mana Tree. Almsmen are people who choose the elemental spirits in a great ceremony and their task is to restore the flow of energy in their area and ensure prosperity for a few more years. Val's journey takes him across many continents, through dangerous terrains, into big cities until he reaches a climactic ending. It's a very classic role structure, with Mother references as well, including elemental spirits and sacred beasts.

That everything sounds strange, except for Mercy they have to surrender their soul for this energy renewal to happen. If they don't, or if their area is deemed unworthy enough to produce a Bounty, then their world wreaks havoc. It's a big problem.

Visions of MotherIts story begins properly when the main cast finally realizes that sacrificing yourself is bad and tries to change the world. It's not at all subtle about its core idea of ​​fighting against your fate to create a better world for yourself and everyone around you, and while that could easily have been a muddled approach, it's actually one of the more interesting themes. of the game. Visions he knows Alm's sacrifices are messed up, he knows you know that they are confused and uses this knowledge to convey a second central idea that sets it apart from Tales of Symphonia and other games with generally similar narrative threads.

Compliance, obligation, not rocking the boat or questioning your leaders — any of them VisionsThe main characters are a small window into the different kinds of social pressures we face in real life. Competitive fate it can be Visions of MotherIts obvious theme, but just as important is its more subtle message: Living a life of complacency, unquestioning custom, just allows all the rotten systems and people to continue unchallenged, usually to your detriment.

Really, bigger is not better

It's these narrative beats and character moments that carry Visions of Mother. The cast tells him that their world is worth saving, but the sentiment is something you have to assume is true, since Visions of Mother it allows you to live very little of it. Villages and towns have unique cultural traditions and architectural styles based on their patron element, but His visions Mother it simply guides you through them before moving on to the next part of the sacrificial tour. The people you meet have trivial little things to say about their lives or home, and sometimes need help with menial tasks like defeating monsters, as NPCs are used to.

The setting reminds Dragon Quest XIbut Visions of Mother missing personal connections Square Enix's other traditional RPG series is doing so well. Of course, visit Dragon Quest XI'The Italian-coded city and Japanese-style village have all the depth of a 30-minute travel show, but everywhere you go has some emotional significance—the home of a former partner in crime, a refuge from pursuing thugs, a chance encounter with a new friend. A little more attention to these incredible trail encounters would help make them happen Visions of Mana'His world feels alive and could add even more weight to each character's struggles and story.

Visions of Mother it's bolder and more ambitious with its themes than most RPGs, but it's not particularly deep and often feels hampered by sticking so closely to classic design concepts.

Square Enix opted for large, empty zones with a few dozen monsters, easy-to-find collectibles, and little else. The exploration never really gets out of this hole. The continents you visit later in the game have some more interesting platforming challenges and ways to use up items you've collected, but the world itself still feels empty. Nevertheless, Visions of Mother is a beautiful game that makes excellent use of the rich colors, rich lighting, and stylized anime aesthetic to create a unique visual identity that (almost) makes up for what little you can do in each area.

Deep character customization makes combat exciting

Random enemy placement in a very large world can take some of the tension out of combat, but defeating in an adorable killer Mother the monster just feels good. Each character starts with a unique fighting style consisting of a basic attack combo and special move – smashing your flying, dog-like dragon companion into an enemy, for example, or pulling off a stylish counterattack at the right moment. You can use special seeds to teach characters new skills or attract specific stats, and eventually unlock new specialized classes with elemental relationships.

Class abilities are fun, but their most interesting feature is how they change the character's equipment methods. A great example is the Rune Knight, the game's first unlockable class. A character trades his normal sword for a two-handed greatsword, which hits hard, but the slower attack speed leaves him open to enemy counters. Meanwhile, when another equips the wind element instead, she becomes a Dancer, ditching her Dirty Spear for two fans and gaining several new combos that make her equally adept at dealing with ranged and airborne enemies.

You can get through most normal battles without much planning. However, boss battles require a bit more strategy, and each area has a selection of optional challenges with much more powerful enemies and the chance to really dig into the details of your party. It would be nice if some of the simple encounters were a bit more challenging, but you can spot plenty of harder battles if you want them.

Character customization is extensive, flexible, and best of all, forgiving. Aside from a few items that permanently increase a certain stat for a character, you can't screw up a build mid-game and be stuck with some awful, evil party. You can mix seeds that boost stats and grant skills to all your characters, change classes at any time outside of battle, and generally just experiment freely to see what you like best. That said, with so many options, it's disappointing that Square Enix didn't think to add ways to save skill slots. Re-equipping items and assigning abilities when you change class isn't nearly the end of the world, but it's an annoyance that could have easily been avoided.

Visions of Mother it feels less like a triumphant new era for the series and more like a tentative step forward to see what works and even what kind of place Mother it still exists in the modern RPG landscape. This is understandable to an extent, given how long the series has been dormant. Hesitation is of little help Visions of Mother However, he will create a strong and cohesive identity for himself. There is a special little jewel in his heart Visions of Motherbut it still gets lost in the shadow of the greats like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.