Visions of Mana review

Visions of Mana is the cutest game to do just about everything I love in an RPG. When I approached a giant monkey boss with floppy rabbit ears and a massive club, I thought about how I'd hug the goofy-looking thing if it was a plush toy. Unfortunately his club was not as cuddly as the rest of him: I slipped up and died in a single hit, a little too cocky that I'd be able to read his telegraphed wind-ups and the bright red AoE markers littering the ground before attacks. Visions of Mana may be cute, but playing on hard it has enough bite to knock my ego down several pegs.

What is it? A colorful adventure that evenly balances its action and RPG elements
Expect to pay: $60 / £50
Developer: Ouka Studios
Publisher: Square Enix
Reviewed on: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070, 32 GB RAM
Multiplayer? No
Steam Deck: Playable
Link: Steam

Were this strictly an action game, I'm sure I would throw myself up against that monkey-bunny boss until I memorized his attacks and managed to squeak through without taking a hit. But Visions of Mana is an RPG, and a damn good one at that. After reassessing my squad of fairy tale heroes and the many character classes they could equip, I tried a different strategy. Val, the generically energetic protagonist that he is, had mostly led my party as a damage-dealer with his greatsword. Yet if I changed him into a tank class I could assign his battle AI to focus on survival while he drew the boss's attacks. Even if my entire party got caught in a grand slam swing, a high-defense character could endure the damage and revive my weaker companions afterwards. Meanwhile, the dagger-wielding Morley wasn't as strong as Val, but if I equipped him with items that increased his critical hit damage, he might make up the difference.

These were the kinds of decisions that led me to victory throughout Visions of Mana, from its opening hours all the way into its postgame. It's not that these RPG systems are especially deep; I could explain all the skills in the