Our Review: Adventures of Mana for the PSVita

Adventures are grand, especially if they are done by Square. In my opinion, remastered adventures of old classics are even better. That is what Square-Enix with Adventures of Mana which recently released on the Playstation Vita. Adventures of Mana is a remaster of the Gameboy Classic Final Fantasy Adventures which released in 1991 for the GameBoy Advance. It is also a remaster/remake of the 2003 game Sword of Mana. Renamed and Remastered, I am here to tell you about this adventure on the Playstation Vita.

Adventures of Mana

Developer: Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Producer: Masaru Oyamada
Composer: Kenji Ito
Series: Mana & Final Fantasy
Platforms: Android, iOS, PlayStation Vita (Reviewed)
Release dates: Android & iOS  – February 4, 2016 World Wide; PlayStation Vita:  February 4, 2016 Japan & June 28, 2016 for North America/Europe
Genre: Action role-playing

Story:

The story begins as you being a prisoner/gladiator of sorts for the Dark Lord’s entertainment. You eventually learn that The Princess is in trouble as well as the entire world. At the first opportunity moment, you escape and encounter the Dark Lord on your escape. You are attacked and believed to be dead. However, you survived and now begin your adventure that will spawn you across the entire world to save the world and the princess.  There are twists and turns throughout the story, but that is the base story of the game. I rather not spoil the adventure as you go on. It is a typical save the princess & save the world type story, but there is nothing really wrong with that.

Gameplay:

The game is laid out in the top-down view. You see all your actions above you. You can either control the entire game touch base (as see in the screenshot above) or use the gamepad/stick and button combos. It controls very responsive no matter what control scheme you want to use. However, as you play you can tell this seems very dated. Very basic things like item stacking, inventory space, and lack of more shortcut options for items are lacking. At times I found myself constantly switching back and forth from the menu (or ring) quite a bit. It does become cumbersome and tedious at times. However, it does not take away from the overall experience.

Visual and Audio:

Visually, the game does look pretty good. It isn’t the best looking out game out there, but considering this went from an old 1991 GameBoy game to a mobile game, finally to a Playstation Vita game it is impressive for what it is. For comparison sake, below is a screenshot from the GameBoy game, GameBoy Advance, and PS Vita of roughly the same area.

Black and white is GameBoy, the one below it is the GBA version, finally the Vita version is on the end. For being a remaster/port that occurred 3 times, it has come a long way and it has improved with each one. It is understandable that it is not the best looking game out there, but seeing how things developed over the years with each version, it is impressive.

For audio, you get the choice of the retro music from the GameBoy days or the new remastered version. Personally, I prefer the remastered soundtrack. It is very nice. Personally, my favorite is the overworld theme (will be below) which you will get used to hearing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8jHkgzQbEc

 

It is pretty awesome that Square-Enix took this extra step to make sure things are worked out properly for this version.

Fun Factor:

The game took me about 13 hours to complete, it does not offer anything in terms of replayability. I saw no New game plus option or anything else. However, the game itself holds up well for being a remake of an old game. You can replay the game if you want. As for fun factor, it is pretty fun, however, you can get lost quickly. Also, you can get overpowered or underpowered as you level up which provides a challenge.

Overall:

If you compare Adventures of Mana to some of the other adventure RPGs in the market today, this game does not hold up that well. However, if you look at from a classic remastered (a faithful 1 to 1 remaster) it has come a long way. In the end, though, it is the same game that was out in 1991 with some of the same issues that it had back then. Regardless of that, it is a fun time, and should be given a try. This type of adventure RPG is hardly made in this current day and age, so it is in a department that is sorely lacking. I hope Square-Enix begins to remaster the classics they had back in the day. There is a nice market out there for it, I hope it is continued to be expanded on.

Until next review, Mgs2master2 out!