Echoes of Mana, a review of a classic in a modern and mobile key

A little late compared to the thirtieth anniversary of the Mana series, finally the new mobile episode with gacha elements has arrived, a practically necessary initiative given the now standard way Japanese broadcasters work. so here we are Echoes of Mana reviewA game that comes after the remasters of Trials of Mana and Legends of Mana to breathe new life into Square Enix’s (then Squaresoft) historical franchise in new RPG format developed specifically for smartphones.

Also in this case, the idea is to write a simple plot that justifies a long series of more or less interconnected quests, with the protagonist intending first of all to collect a real army of characters from various parts of the series. through the main gacha system. As you can easily guess, this mechanism necessarily sets a narrative-level strain, having to add different characters and contexts to a single story, so superficial and worn, as is often the case with mobile RPGs with a gacha setting.

if you think storytelling It should represent the cornerstone of JRPG, especially with regard to a historical series like this one, it’s easy to understand how Mana’s Echos somehow distorted their roots, as with almost all projects of this kind, but the question is now secondary. It’s all about forcing players to progress through the character collection here and keeping them hooked to the progression system through its intricate mechanics, and fans can easily get hung up on this new production from Square Enix, though certainly bases. this particular area is also more interesting.

The game between mission and progress

The hero, who can be chosen between male or female, is summoned by the spirit of the Mana Tree to save the Mana Sword and perhaps give new life to the magical plant threatened by darkness. From here on out, it’s just a matter of taking part in various events. the quest Try to summon new characters that appear on the main screen, expending energy to take part in quests, and make their progress through complex menus and currency and material systems. Nothing new compared to dozens of other games in the genre, with the difference that in this case the characters and settings are taken from the old Mana series so one can count on a certain charisma and above all the strong nostalgia factor.

However, beyond this connection to a historical series, Echoes of Mana offers absolutely nothing new compared to many other similar games: also in this case, it’s just a matter of dividing game time between tasks on the field – which consumes energy. with waits or micro-operations – and character management in complex menus, all focused progress the development of warriors and individual armor and weapon components, each of which requires a certain amount of materials (which can be conquered in the game or, frankly, purchased through microtransactions).

Between Ascension, Unleash and Awakening there is a layered system of different evolutions that increase the level cap, usable abilities and rarity of characters respectively, making the management of warriors and equipment particularly deep, but as a result rather cumbersome and powerful. into in-app purchases.

For the rest, the actual gameplay allows us to explore various environments represented by simple 2D scrolling, coming face to face with various enemies and bosses. battle system almost entirely in real time. We control a single character directly while the rest of the party is led by AI, but we can instantly switch from one to the other using each of their different classes and abilities, also because of (in between) their traits and fighting styles. Categories and items reference for each character) should be well matched and used to face the most advanced threats. In the middle of the action, it is enough to manage simple and special attacks by pressing buttons and pay attention to the usual cooldowns, without a specific strategy, with the possibility of activating the usual autoplay.

Gacha and characterization

The focus of the game lies in the collection and evolution of characters, befitting a good character. gacha, and the historical characterization of the Mana series certainly adds to the growing interest in this mechanism. As far as can be seen, the summon rate is expected at standard levels of the genre with the rarest characters (4 stars) that are very difficult to obtain by standard procedure. Buy it and be sure to get more coveted rewards.

The materials and fruits of the mana tree (allowing access to summons) are obtained with a fair amount of regularity between gameplay and daily rewards, but at a very low amount compared to anything needed to evolve characters and equipment combined with displays of consumable energy. How Echoes of Mana is strongly prone to microtransactions.

There graphic It’s nice in 2D and reminiscent of tradition of the series, bringing characters to life which is a perfect reflection of the original character design, but the use of vector animations makes everything a bit woody and clumsy compared to the accuracy of static drawings. In any case, the design works well to create a large and colorful cast, with really notable attention paid to anime-style animations, even if they appear in somewhat scarce quantities during gameplay.