## 2025-08-03 Playing this again for whatever reason. It was cheap on the Switch and runs at 60FPS on the Switch 2, which probably helped. The nice thing about **Trials of Mana** is that there are three separate campaigns depending on the first character you pick, with extra dialogue if you pick one of the pairs (Angela & Duran, Kevin & Charlotte, and Hawkeye and Riesz). Last time I did Kevin’s campaign, so this time I’m doing Duran & Angela’s. The original **Trials of Mana** would be heralded in the same breath as **Chrono Trigger**, [[Final Fantasy VI Thoughts|Final Fantasy VI]] and the other [[Super Nintendo|SNES]] greats if it wasn’t held back by the lack of an official translation. In 2019 — and further still in 2025 — I’d consider its remake to be “highly competent” at best. It does nothing to amaze you with its basic Action-RPG combat, and you can feel it strain against its budget with every wooden animation. But it delivers for me because of how nostalgic it is after playing it on an emulator decades ago. Plus, sometimes simplicity is just nice! Sometimes I don’t want to think and do as I’m told, lmfao. It’s nothing mind-blowing, but trashing the cute little mobs feels quick and snappy, the music is great, and despite being 3D, it captures the feel of the original **Mana** series perfectly with its bright colors and stylized models. Pretty much the only complaint I have is that I wish the first class change came a little sooner. I didn’t notice it the first time I played because of how hype I was to just be playing the game again, but the first few hours drag before you get more options to play with and spice the combat up.