Venwyk Plays! Visions of Mana Pt9

VOD from 09/26/24
It's over. It's done. The syrups run dry.
Despite the (frequent) clashing of tones throughout, I really enjoyed Visions of Mana. The combat was frenetic and colorful, the characters were mostly likeable, and I have to applaud the fact that the game never did undo any of the deaths throughout to maintain some gravitas to the situation. That said though, it didn't really try to be adventurous with its narrative and played everything incredibly safe. Even Hinna's death seemed pretty expected to me as a way to drive the plot forward. There were moments throughout where I expected they would deviate from what was otherwise a very typical 'big bad' trope to try to pull the rug out from under us, but it never happened. In the end that's not necessarily a bad thing I guess, I just never really got emotionally invested in the story and kept playing for the joy of running around the world and the punchiness of the combat. Definitely a game worth playing, but I don't think it's going to be anybody's favorite JRPG.
If you enjoy the playthrough, consider checking out my channel on twitch at twitch.tv/venwyk