After the announcement that Trials of Mana was being remade, I had the chance to sit down and see the game in action, sadly it was not a hands-on session, but I did get to see how things are shaping up and they are shaping up quite well.

Starting up the game, the developer selected one of the six available characters as their main, and added two more as companion characters. Choosing characters is not just cosmetic as each of them have their own unique characteristics and playstyles, but more importantly the story will be different, depending on your selection. The demo had selected the character of Duran, who is a sword-based fighter and added the companions of Charlotte and Riesz and with that done, we got to see the cutscene of the prologue for Duran, however there were not character voices present, something that they will have when the game is done.

The story of Duran starts out at a Swordsmanship content, which is taking place in the Kingdom of Valsena and he has made it to the finals. The action that is happening on screen is serving as the games tutorial, which highlights the games focus on action, giving all characters weak and strong attacks. After winning the tournament, another cutscene began to play, but in the interest of time, they skipped over it, the next scene did play out. It showed Duran, in his new role as castle guard, as a strange man entered and began to put the soldiers to sleep, but before he could stop him, he was defeated and using that as inspiration, Duran sets forth on an adventure to get stronger.

The game then moved ahead a little in time, placing Duran inside a small town, complete with inn, store and more. The screen also had more of a HUD than before, including the mini map, which placed stars upon it, to indicate the next objective, for the mission that was active, there were many stars, which required Duran to speak to the citizens of the village. After more information was obtained, Duran and the two companions left the town and headed out into the world, but it was not long before they encountered some monsters to fight.

Again, the fighting in the game is more action focused, so you get freedom to run around and attack enemies as you want, but there is a restriction. The battles don’t warp into another field or such, they take place within the world map you are on, a yellow ring appears around the action, indicating your area of battle. All attacks from magic are contained within that field, but the same happens to you, should you wish to run away though, you must run towards the edge and keep pushing against it, if successful you can break through. The catch is that while you are doing that, you are unable to attack the enemy, leaving you open for them to damage you, it is quite a cool system and I think will elevate combat into something more.

Staying within the battles though, as there are both heavy and light attacks, they can be combined to create combos, letting you dish up more damage than you could previously have. In addition, you can also jump in the air and attack, perfect for taking out enemies that can fly, or that have been launched into the air from a previous attack. As the battles progress, the SP gauge fills up and once that has been topped off, you can unleash a special attack, which again is different for each of the playable characters. With some lightweight enemies taken out, it was time to move onto something a little stronger and for this, the team had to turn off the TV, while they loaded up the boss battle.

The boss fight that we witnessed, was against a creature known as Full Metal Hugger, which is basically a giant, armoured crab. In order to take it down, you need to attack its eyes, which are the weak point of it, but it is also where it attacks from, so getting in close is quite dangerous, but required if you wish to defeat it. When the boss was defeated, some classic JRPG winning music played and the screen faded to black, which ended the demo. 

While I was never a massive Secret of Mana player, the remake of Trials of Mana is ticking all the boxes for me, given the number of endings, it also appears to be offering up a lot of replay value. The game is still a way from release, so things can change, but so far this modern take on a classic Japanese title, is one I am going to keep my eyes on.