Legend And Trials Of Mana Show Two Great But Different Ways To Remake A Classic
Blasts from the past.
The SNES and PlayStation eras were packed with excellent RPGs, many coming from the same developer — Square (now Square Enix, after its 2003 merger with its one-time rival). The Final Fantasy series of course chief deserves a mention. But another, more action-oriented RPG series from around the same period has also stood the test of time — it’s still getting remakes, remasters, and new entries to this day.
Legend of Mana and Trials of Mana both mark the end of their respective consoles’ life cycles. The two games continue the series that began with Final Fantasy Adventure in 1991, before breaking away from the Final Fantasy name with 1993’s Secret of Mana. That game remains one of the most fondly remembered SNES releases, and its sequels have formed an excellent, somewhat underrated series in the years since its release. Now Legend of Mana and Trials of Mana are joining Xbox Game Pass.
Legend of Mana retains all of its old-school charm with a new look.
The version of Legend of Mana that’s coming to Game Pass is closer to the original. Both Legend and Trials of Mana were first released as top-down 2D games, in the style of The Legend of Zelda, which is how the series began. Legend of Mana retains that presentation for its remaster, while Trials takes a much different approach. That makes the version of Legend of Mana available now feel much more like an old-school RPG with all of its perks and flaws. Compared to modern RPGs, Legend of Mana does very little to guide you through, so expect to do a lot of meandering and very likely lock yourself out of some quests if you go in without a walkthrough.
That’s partly due to the game’s episodic structure, which opens different paths depending on your actions in the game. It goes as far as to let players build their own world map, meaning you have some control over what you’ll face at any point in the game, and each playthrough will be a bit different if you choose to revisit it. In another odd note, Legend of Mana features an almost Pokémon-like element of monster nurturing, where you can find pets on your journey, raise them at a farm, and later bring them into battle.
Trials of Mana is a 3D reimagining of the 2D original.
Legend of Mana is an odd game from start to finish, which helps it stand out from both modern and retro RPGs. The remaster wisely leaves most of its quirks intact, while replacing outdated elements of the user interface and updating the game’s graphics to look good on modern systems while maintaining the colorful, expressive style that made them pop on the original PlayStation.
Trials of Mana, on the other hand, is a huge change from the original. Rather than the top-down perspective the SNES release used, the 2020 remake (which only came to Xbox in 2024), switches to a 3D perspective, not unlike Final Fantasy VII Remake. But where Square Enix’s big-name remake totally changes up the story of Final Fantasy VII, the remake of Trials of Mana is a faithful recreation of the original’s story. Like other Mana games, that story isn’t really the focus here. Instead, the focus is on its fast-paced, which emphasizes party tactics and spectacular effects to wonderful ends, even if the basic hacking and slashing doesn’t do much to stand out.
A flexible class system is the most original part of Trials of Mana.
Where Trials does still feel original is in its flexible character class system. As you make your way through the game, you’ll be able to upgrade each of your party members to advanced classes twice throughout the adventure, giving you a lot of freedom over how your final team performs.
The two Mana games now on Game Pass represent two different ways to approach a new release of a classic RPG. Trials of Mana is a full reimagining, while Legends of Mana is a look at a game from decades ago that needs little more than a fresh coat of paint to be worth playing again today.
