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 About the Game Trials of Mana was an action RPG released in 1995 on the Super Nintendo by Square. Surprisingly, despite its popularity and the popularity of its predecessor, Secret of Mana, Trials, titled Seiken Densetsu 3, never saw release in the West. It did, however, gain a cult following. Translated by fans shortly after its release, Trials gained high praise owing to its solid gameplay and unique features. A co-op mode, a rarity in most RPGs ensured that friends could enjoy the story together and a set of 6 characters, with varying storylines allowed for a level of replayability rarely seen in other RPGs of the day. I was one of those fans, playing the game more times than I could count to see all the different plot variations and gameplay elements that had been lovingly woven into Square’s story. I even went as far as to seek out romhacks for the game and chose Trials for my first ever Let’s Play, as I tackled Sin of Mana a Hardtype mod of the game. And with that most fans were content, the game was great and a Western release, whilst pleasant, never seemed realistic. However, almost 25 years after its release, Trials finally saw a true Western release and translation, with the announcement that the game would be released on Switch and PS4 in 2019. That was not the only treat however as Square unveiled a full 3D remake of the game. Trials of Mana (2020) was announced to release on the game’s 25th anniversary, to the delight of many fans and the tremendous excitement of your truly. About The LP This will be a solo video LP. Owing to the global situation with coronavirus, my erstwhile colleague and best friend Yorkshire Tea can’t come and record with me, so I’ll be going it alone this time, which perhaps is appropriate given that Trials of Mana’s remake is single player only. I’ll be running through the game on its “Hard” difficulty. I think I should be able to handle it with my knowledge from prior games, but we’ll soon see and I can turn it down if need be. Spoiler policy is that you can mention things inside spoiler tags, but try to keep it at a minimum, the game has a neat story that I wouldn't like to see new people spoiled on. Art is handled by the wonderful Bifauxnen. Prologue In case you want to know more about the characters I’ve created a series of Prologue videos so that you can get to grips with them. Episode 0 is a quick run through, but in each of Prologue 1-6 I pick a character and run through their introduction so you can get an idea of what they’re like. The videos are around 20 minutes in length, which hopefully is enough that you can get to know who you’re voting for.  A quick introduction to all the characters!  Duran, Swordsman from Valsena. Specialises in physical attacks and defense.  Angela, Magician from Altena. Specialises in magical and elemental attacks.  Kevin, Beastman from Ferolia. Specialises in all out physical attacking and can transform at night!  Charlotte, Priestess from Wendel. Specialises in healing and buffing allies.  Hawkeye, Thief from Navarl. Specialises in fast attacks and debuffs.  Riesz, Amazon from Laurent. Specialises in long range attacks and support spells. Episodes                                               
Natural 20 fucked around with this message at 11:57 on Jul 8, 2020 |
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Apr 22, 2020 22:54
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 02:13 |
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 Halfway through the polls and everything to play for. Angela has taken a command lead at the top with Riesz in a comfortable second, but Kevin, Hawkeye and Charlotte are in a near dead heat for that coveted third spot. Duran unfortunately is lagging in last place. Coolguye posted:While I understand why they didn't make this game co-op, it's still a goddamn travesty. I had *desperately* hoped that this would have 3 player co-op so I could have had you as a special guest on the Yorkshire Tea and Nat20 train. Sadly that was not to be.
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Apr 24, 2020 00:09
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Tyberius posted:I'm voting for a waifu party setup. I plan to do the same, just not sure on which direction to take with their light/dark choices. Ah the, "explode the unbelievers with ludicrous amounts of magic damage" party.
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Apr 24, 2020 00:27
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 Voting closes at Midnight BST, 7PM EST If Angela/Riesz/Hawk wins, it will precipitate another (short) vote where I ask if we want Angela or Riesz as main character. This is because Riesz and Hawk on their own path would lead to a more coherent story than both of them on Angela's path.
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Apr 24, 2020 20:20
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 Angela has claimed her place at the top of the polls. Riesz is in second. And, so we repeat the party from the previous LP, Hawkeye has nudged Kevin into fourth place, 62 votes to 60. I'm honestly a little stunned by the number of people who voted on this! So thanks everyone. This does however mean we have a run-off poll. Angela has won and is set to be our main character. However, without Duran she won't see the full story behind her realised. Riesz and Hawkeye share a story path, so there will be additional dialogue and exposition if we play with both of them on their story. So I'm going to put it to you. Do you want Angela to lead or Riesz? https://www.strawpoll.me/19862615 This will be a shorter poll that I'll keep open until I start recording on Saturday. I'd love to hear the cases either way!
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Apr 25, 2020 00:04
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Junpei posted:Why are you not letting Hawkeye be the lead, out of curiosity? Because he came third and I already feel a little cheaty saying that Angela doesn't immediately win.
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Apr 25, 2020 00:47
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  A double bill to start us off! If you've seen the Riesz intro episode then feel free to skip to Episode 2 to dodge ground that I've already covered! Otherwise we begin our amazing quest at the Castle of Laurent.
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Apr 27, 2020 23:24
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Apr 28, 2020 22:56
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Apr 29, 2020 23:43
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Apr 30, 2020 23:04
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May 1, 2020 23:22
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May 5, 2020 00:34
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https://www.strawpoll.me/19956095
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May 5, 2020 23:04
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Hi everyone! We’re fast approaching the class change. As any good Trials of Mana player I’m tremendously excited about this and about what you’re all going to choose for me. Let’s go through character by character in case you skipped the summary at the end of the video. Riesz Light – Valkyrie Riesz’s light class change is the Valkyrie, if this game follows the original then Valkyrie will focus around stat buffs, allowing Lise to improve the power and defenses of her party members. It trends slightly physically stronger than Rune Maiden. Typically this makes her stronger against normal enemies than Rune Maiden because buffing an individual party member is easier than debuffing all enemies for the same increase. The Valkyrie develops further on with her second class change into either a tremendous physical attacker or a supreme support character. Dark – Rune Maiden Riesz’s dark class change is the Rune Maiden. If we’re following the original game, the Rune Maiden will have stat debuffs, allowing her to cripple her enemies. This typically compares well to Valkyrie on boss fights where a single debuff will match the power of a buff on each one of your party. The Rune Maiden develops further on with her second class change into a very powerful debuffer or a strong magical caster. Hawkeye Light – Ranger Hawkeye’s light class change is the Ranger. It themes itself around two things the first is physical damage spells such as arrows and the second is status effects such as poison and sleep. It’s a little odd, in the original a lot of these didn’t compare well to the damage output from attacking normally. Additionally his status effects, while powerful, didn’t usually work on anything worth casting them on but this could well have changed with the remake. The Ranger develops further on with his second class change into either a class focused around some of the wackiest and weirdest buffs and debuffs in the game or into a pseudo caster, focused around different kinds of direct damage spells. Dark – Ninja Hawkeye’s dark class change is the Ninja. It bases itself around magical spells that debuff opponents when cast. It’s also a little stronger than the Ranger from a physical perspective. Largely it works best against bosses, with the debuffs it provides giving a significant advantage. The Ninja develops further on with his second class change into either a class that is focused around debuffing everything nearby and area damage or into a very powerful physical attacker with more unique debuffs with less area damage functionality. Angela Light – Sorceress Angela’s light class change is the Sorceress. She focuses on elemental damage spells, gaining access to a plethora of powerful options to take advantages of weaknesses. She compares well to the Delvar with her variety of magic, taking advantage of weaknesses in many of the elemental themed dungeons. In the original her subsequent class changes are relatively interchangeable, so the second choice will likely be less interesting, both focusing around elemental superiority. Dark – Delvar Angela’s dark class change is the Delvar. She focuses more strongly on pure magical attack with less elemental variety. She compares well to the Sorceress in neutral dungeons where the Sorceress can’t easily hit weaknesses as well as in situations where they both access spells a boss is weak to. In the original her subsequent class changes either gave her extremely focused magic that had very special effects or supreme magical attacking power at the cost of magical variety. The strawpoll is open until Friday here: https://www.strawpoll.me/19956095
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May 5, 2020 23:07
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So a few interesting party combinations: The Traditional The most traditional party combination is Light Riesz, Dark Hawk, Light Angela. The reason for this is that Light Riesz gives you full buff coverage, Dark hawk gives you full debuff coverage and then Light Angela is tremendously likely to be able to nail an enemy on their weak point. This largely results in massive amounts of damage either focused around murdering bosses or murdering normal enemies. The Party from Last time A party I like to call "The party from last time" is Light Riesz, Light Hawk, Dark Angela. This is a little weirder, it relies on the synergy between Riesz and some of Light Hawk's strange buffs, resulting in Riesz being able to hurl out very powerful attacks very frequently. Angela here goes Dark to take advantage of her status effects. The Casters This party focuses around attacking spells, Dark Lise, Light Hawk, Dark Angela. Lise throws out debuffs on enemies as Hawk and Angela land alpha strikes to kill the enemies before they have a chance to react. With the removal of agility from the game, perhaps Hawkeye's magic power is dictated by his intelligence now?
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May 6, 2020 00:27
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I was looking at it from the perspective of buff magic and whether you could double up on Light Hawk and Angela with a single int buff.
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May 6, 2020 12:54
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May 6, 2020 23:37
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 With a day to go, voting looks like this. Leading is the party of Light Riesz, Dark Hawkeye and Light Angela, thought to be the strongest party in the game. The most hotly contested of these is the Sorceress, Light Angela against her Dark Counterpart, the Delvar. As ever, I'm happy to play anything so give me the standard or something off the beaten trail and I'll be delighted to see it.
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May 7, 2020 00:02
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There's a really good reason that I LP alongside Yorkshire Tea! In all seriousness, talking whilst you're playing takes a fair bit of concentration so it can be easy, especially if you're thinking about what you're going to say to just not really observe things. If the cactus 100% reward is spectacular then I'll go and get them all offscreen.
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May 7, 2020 13:35
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Episode 10 - Speciesist Art will be up shortly.
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May 7, 2020 23:19
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May 8, 2020 23:09
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 The final choices are: Riesz as a Valkyrie Hawk as a Ninja And Angela as a tie between Delvar and Sorceress. Goddamnit goons. I'll be making my choice on Angela in the heat of the moment, so look forward to that!
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May 9, 2020 00:01
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May 11, 2020 23:42
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Episode 13 - WHAT? Art will be up shortly.
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May 12, 2020 23:18
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May 14, 2020 00:09
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May 14, 2020 23:02
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May 15, 2020 23:06
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So full disclosure I'm about 10 episodes ahead of the LP now because I love playing this drat game. Spoilers lie ahead for the second half of the game (Level 35+): I'm level 38/39 on my characters after releasing the Benevedons. Does the game expect me to farm ??? seeds now? Or will it be more entertaining if I just play along and wait for them to come to me?
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May 16, 2020 00:38
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May 18, 2020 23:04
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May 19, 2020 23:09
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As a rule I'm going to be far ahead of the thread most of the time unless I'm held up due to voting requirements, because I love playing this game.
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May 19, 2020 23:10
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May 20, 2020 23:16
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The choppiness on episode 19 eluded me because I watched through around 20 minutes of this part with no errors. Very strange. It looks like it was something to do with the encoding though what exactly is beyond me. The Raw footage is fine and I haven't changed my method in years. Natural 20 fucked around with this message at 23:37 on May 21, 2020 |
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May 21, 2020 23:27
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Well I'm really stupid. I saw some lag on the later footage and assumed that was what was being referred to! Nope, it's just that I was encoding another video whilst recording this session and the load on my CPU was too much until I turn the encoding speed down. I've edited out the offending segment rather inexpertly. Hopefully you guys didn't find it too offputting. Natural 20 fucked around with this message at 01:09 on May 22, 2020 |
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May 22, 2020 01:01
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Episode 21 Art will be up shortly!
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May 23, 2020 01:01
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May 25, 2020 23:34
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May 26, 2020 23:16
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Well guys we're finally approaching it! The second class change. Riesz Light Light – Vanadis Riesz’s Light-Light class change is the Vanadis. If this game follows the original then the Vanadis will be a physical powerhouse of a character, with limited buff powers but very powerful damage and techs. Her summon is Freya, which toads all the enemies caught in its blast, rendering them harmless, but in the original, worth less experience. Light Dark - Star Lancer Riesz's Light-Dark class change is the Star Lancer. The Star Lancer is renowned as the supreme mistress of buffs, being able to quickly apply power ups to herself and her allies. She has the powerful summon Marduk which can silence enemies, making her a strong choice against enemies with nasty abilities you want to shut down. Star Lancer and Vanadis primarily differ around their buffs and physical attacks, with Vanadis being the class you want for a Riesz on point and Star Lancer for a support style Riesz. Hawkeye Dark Light – Ninja Master Hawkeye’s Dark Light class change is the Ninja Master. The Ninja master focuses on Hawkeye's elemental diversions allowing him to target multiple enemies with Diversions. This is relatively powerful as it allows Hawkeye to clear trash enemies quickly and efficiently by dropping their defense and magical defense and letting his allies clean up. He'll also be as strong on bosses with adds or other enemies that get in the way going forward. That said, if we go this route, Hawkeye might well need a respec as I've neglected his casting abilities so far. Dark Dark – Nightblade Hawkeye’s Dark Dark class change in the Nightblade. In the original the Nightblade was Hawkeye's all out physical attacking class, with superlative strength and possibly the coolest class strike in the entire game. Additionally the Nightblade carried some of the most unique and devastating spells in the game, able to lower all enemy defenses and reduce the maximum HP of even boss level enemies, generating a huge long term advantage in boss fights. With all that being noted, it is incredibly unclear to me how Nightblade will play out in this version of the game with Hawkeye's ninja class being much more magically inclined than the previous iteration. If there is a major difference between Nightblade and Ninja master it is that the Ninja master is more strongly focused on damaging normal enemies whilst the Nightblade is more strongly focused on ending boss careers. Angela Dark Light – Rune Master Angela’s Dark Light class is the Rune Master. The Rune Master is the only class in the game to gain level 3 spells. These are exceptionally powerful single target spells that carry a status effect. Angela can petrify enemies, freeze them or turn them into harmless things that don't deal damage. She lacks in multi-target capability in this class, but still has her plethora of level 1 spells learnt in her previous class to take advantage of, in particular Dark Force. Dark Dark - Magus Angela's Dark Dark class is the Magus. The Magus is the strongest magic user in the game from a magical power perspective. She gains some extra power on her level 2 spells, like explosion and in particular is able to upgrade Dark Force, which you've seen used to incredible effect. She additionally gets access to Ancient, the single most powerful spell in the game. Rune Master differs to Magus in that it's more strongly focused on battlefield control. Magus is about annihilating foes with as much magic as possible. The strawpoll is open until Friday here: https://www.strawpoll.me/20176363
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May 26, 2020 23:49
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There'll be a Second vote in the next few days about the Benevedons! I'll probably put it up tomorrow so as not to muddy the class discussion too much.
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May 26, 2020 23:51
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 02:13 |
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May 27, 2020 23:10
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