Visions Of Mana, the first Something Of Mana game in 15 years, will be exciting for some of you. Transfer all that anticipation to your mouse-clicking finger, because developers Square Enix have put a playable demo of the brilliant JRPG on Steam. I’m not sure how much the demo offers, as we’re told it only includes “part of the story, combat, and exploration.” But it’s better than nothing, and with a full month until release, you’ve got plenty of time to check it out.
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Playing the demo will also net you some fancy weapons when it’s time to play the full game, as Square Enix notes in an accompanying post . The Gladius, Falx, and Horn Lance will all unlock at certain points in the full release, provided you have the data from the demo on your PC. However, from what we’ve been told, actual progress from the demo won’t carry over to the full game. That’s the only thing that keeps me from playing the demos — the fear of having to repeat something I’ve already done. It’s an absolutely bone-crushing weakness to have when you’re a games journalist. No big deal.
In Visions Of Mana, you play Val, a young boy from the local “Fire Village” who travels to the Mana Tree with his friends, exploring “semi-open” environments and defeating enemy monsters in party-based real-time combat. So far, it looks pretty colorful and cheerful, if a little conventional. It's still one of our most anticipated 75 games of the year. Our Jeremy, for one, has fond memories of Mana and is curious to see what Squeenix will do with the first original game in the series since 2007 (not counting all the remakes). He's excited to see Flammie, the series' Falcor-inspired mascot, appear as a party member in this entry. You can see the furry little dragon guy fighting alongside our heroes in the trailers.
The full game will be released on August 29th. We may have more thoughts on it then. You should always come back when we have more thoughts. You have no idea how many thoughts we have here. Listen, keep us open in a tab for the rest of the month and hit refresh every day. The thoughts never end.