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We live in a society! As such our innocence has been grinded away with divisive narratives,classism,racism,indoctrination,propaganda,a political divide maintained by unscrupulous opertunistic assholes,and ever growing divorce statistics. Perhaps that's why a game like Trials Of Mana is so precious! It takes you back to a time and a mindset where things were simpler and not every game strived to be dark,shocking, or related to current events thru a skewed one-sided lens just to subvert our expectations.
Put simply Trials Of Mana is a fun action rpg and a somewhat remake of Seiken Denetsu 3. (Which was the game that canonically came after the "original" Secret Of Mana in the west on the snes)
Instead of realism and "high fidelity super resolution" Trials Of Mana is distinctly more like a children's book or anime come to life,complete with bright colors,stylized visuals,and characters that are proud to be nostalgic idealistic fantasy tropes.
There's no attempt to tow the line with political correctness whilst simultaneously there's no attempt to be "edgy". The end result is very much something like George Kamitani's Dragon's Crown only in a fully 3D game with 3D models. (Aka,plenty of sexy eye-candy but minus copious amounts of swearing and copious amounts of gore!)
Regardless, you have 6 heroes to choose from but you can only compose your adventure party out of three of them. The story thereafter caters itself mainly around the three "chosen ones" with the left overs merely appearing in brief cameos. This along with a "game +" encourages multiple play-thrus. My first romp thru to completion was with Angela (A hawt sorceress), Kevin (A werewolf fighting monk), and Hawkeye (The typical suave thief whom later becomes a ninja). I quickly learned additional classes unlocked as I played. The first class change merely requires you to be a certain level but future classes require a special item along with being powerful enough. You get these items thru "rare seeds" you collect from fallen enemies/treasure chests and the more of them you invest into your alchemy chest the higher chances those seeds will turn into rare relics or quality goods.
Beyond that Trials Of Mana is like Diablo's lighthearted little sister who prefers listening to kawaii vocaloids over straight up hardcore Death-Metal! Aka, you freely cast spells and use you special abilities in real time via a selection wheel and there is an item wheel as well. Despite your enemies looking ridiculously "cute" or akin to oddly attractive monster waifus you'd like to breed with, the combat is satisfying,allowing you to easily string together combos and fire off your essential techniques in rapid succession. You could almost say the graceful flow of fights and utilizing every character to their full potential is a bit like a silky smooth beat em up but with the trappings of an rpg in which you obviously "level up" and equip better gear as you push forward. Along the twisting winding paths to your destinations you'll face screen filling bosses that look like they came from various Monstrous Compendiums. (Only with a lovable quirky vibe to them!) Most of them have multiple limbs/areas to attack and as expected there are weaknesses to exploit and "tricks" to master in order to snatch victory from the jaws of adversity.
Certain environments have hazards or traps but beyond that traversal is rather straightforward and each continent has its' own towns and themes. (Be it a winter theme,jungle theme,desert theme,or crystal caverns theme) "Eventually" a large tortoise with a snorkel and a familiar beloved winged mascot of the series (Flammie) will make travel between continents much easier. (Before that you're getting launched out of cannons,also a callback to the other mana games.)
While the overall plot is not "riveting" it still keeps you invested and there are rare moments of accidental earnest sincerity that can truly incite genuine emotions. It's no Tales Of Berseria by any stretch but I would not say the hero stories are as bland or as skippable as certain reviews made them out to be. The same is true of the voice acting and music which has a decent range between "Pretty darned good" as well as "Awkward yet endearing cheese".
Is Trials Of Mana 3 worth the price? I suppose that depends what you're looking for. It certainly is no "Witcher 3" but that is not what it is going for anyway. "If" you still enjoy nostalgic somewhat open-world action J-rpgs like Zelda, Tales Of franchise, and Y's then this is a pretty safe bet! If you want something more grim-dark where every action has a consequence (Why so serious?!) you probably will find TOM to be childish and a bit lacking in certain deeper and more innovative game conventions found in European/Western styled rpgs.
