FGC #694 Trials of Mana 3D

The Benevodons are the elemental god beasts of the Mana franchise. And they had a good run! They were introduced in Trials of Mana in 1995, and were last seen in… Trials of Mana. But the 2020 version! Four years later, we got Visions of Mana, and, for the first time, the Benevodons were replaced with new, different models. But before retirement, they were the stars of Trials of Mana, were referenced in Sword of Mana, and were again featured in Children of Mana and Heroes of Mana (and never mind any occasions where they were collectible cards in mobile games). So since we somehow spent months with the Mana franchise, but have not examined the Benevodons in any greater detail, this “review” of Trials of Mana will be dedicated to our favorite Mana menaces.

Let’s rank the Benevodons on completely arbitrary criteria!

Fiegmund, the Benevodon of Water

Dear Fiegmund, you are the worst. First of all, we have the recurring issue with the Mana series that “water” is the named element, but all of the “water” magic out there has ice and freezing effects. That is not water magic! That is temperature magic! Second, Fiegmund has absolutely no rizz. This is a giant lizard, with the only feature separating this weirdo from a mundane reptile being a pair of prominent tusks. What is that about? Is Fiegmund the reason we no longer have those walrus monsters from Final Fantasy Adventure? Oh, and during the debut battle with Fiegmund, this dork hangs out on the opposite side of an ice flow for half the fight. What am I supposed to do with that? Another Mana fight where I have to rely on magic? Which sucks? There is nothing to like about Fiegmund, and I am confident at sticking this wannabe dragon at the bottom of the list.

Oh, and he’s named “Fiegmund”. Nothing redeemable about that.

Lightgazer, the Benevodon of Light

Lightgazer outranks Fiegmund because this big ball has their own digs, and the Shimmering Ruins are a pretty cool place to fight a light-monster. Many videogames have a “light monster” opponent, and the impulse there seems to be to make it “holy”-themed. But, given I have slain about 70 different gods across various RPGs, some perversion of the divine was trite before we got out of the 16-bit era. Both Secret of Mana and Trials of Mana associate the light elemental with shimmering gold, and that makes for a much more interesting set piece than faux theology.

But other than that? What sees light? An eyeball. And what is Lightgazer? An eyeball. Just a big, ol’ eyeball that floats around and shoots off laser beams. Maybe looks like an artichoke? That’s it. Just an eyeball.

Lightgazer, you’re better than the lizard, but not by much…

Xan Bie, the Benevodon of Fire

This fire bird is getting the business because they lied to me.

Going back to the Atari, abstraction was always a part of gaming. That square running around isn’t meant to be a random cube, that is a hero with a sword and shield and hopes and dreams. By about the Playstation era on, polygons meant that we no longer had to imagine the beard of Ramuh or curves of Shiva. But back on Trials of Mana’s original hardware, we either had the choice of a static image, or something that was abstract but movable. Xan Bie in the original Seiken Densetsu 3 seemed to be an abstraction: it was a detailed bird head surrounded by rapidly rotating and morphing flames. The implication seemed to be obvious: the head stayed solid and corporeal, but the rest of the body was super-hot fire that could travel literally anywhere within the general vicinity of the head. On future hardware, this would be less speculative, but on the Super Famicom, it was the best we could do with a being of fluid lava.

And then every future Mana title, including here on the Playstation 4, they’re just a head. No “morphing” body, just a head and fire.

An improvement over “just an eyeball”, but a big disappointment all the same.

Dangaard, the Benevodon of Wind

On one hand, this is another mishmash like Fiegmund. That was a lizard with dusks, this is a gryphon with a pair of heads. And a gryphon was already a jumble of critters! Maybe the bat wings give it the tiniest bit of charm, but it still looks too much like an AI monster that was the product of keying in “generic flying bad guy”.

But while Dangaard’s design is garbage, they get more points for setting. Every single benevodon hangs out in their lair and just waits for heroes to show up and slay them. Except Dangaard! This benevodon stretches their wings, and decides to take to the skies for a few laps around the world. Lightgazer can fly, but he stays in one stupid room for the rest of forever. Dangaard knows what’s up! And, since Dangaard would be invincible if they were unreachable, our heroes must summon Flammie to fight the baddy on the back of their own beast. And that is an incredible rarity for the Mana franchise as whole! Flammie is a kitted-out dragon with teeth the size of small children, but she rarely gets involved in a fight. Even as a mobile platform, the fact that Flammie gets to participate at all in this battle is iconic and entertaining.

But Dangaard still looks like a jobber, so they’re in the bottom half.

Zable Fahr, the Benevodon of Darkness

Zable Fahr gets bonus points for being the only Benevodon to dodge Heroes of Mana, and the only one to not be replaced in Visions of Mana. Zable Fahr is also unique in being the strongest of the Benevodons, as they draw their power from Malvolia, and the only element in Malvolia is Darkness. They have eaten well over the years. And ZF is always the last Benevodon fought in Trials of Mana, as their Mana Stone was shunted into another dimension a few centuries back, and now is materializing in one of three variable locations. That’s neat! Zable Fahr has a lot going on inside and out of Trials of Mana.

But this three-headed demon has an issue: the main head looks like Rita Repulsa from Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers.

And a Season 1 villain who cannot beat a group of teenagers with attitude is about as intimidating as a coughing baby, so moving on…

Land Umber, the Benevodon of Earth

This is what I’m talking about.

Final Fantasy has a tendency to make its Earth Fiends “death” based. The ground is where a lot of cultures stick their corpses, and, if you are going to fight a monster anyway, it may as well be undead. And that is fine, but (and I cannot believe I am saying this) sometimes skeletons get old. So what else has the Earth got? I don’t know, maybe rocks? Rocks that will crush you and everyone you love? Yeah, that could work for a monster.

Land Umber exudes strength, is tough as nails, and fills the respected videogame hole of being one of those guys with giant, floating hands. He can menace the entire world of Mana or battle Kirby. Either one works! And Trials of Mana 3D even makes him the archetype of “guy you gotta beat his limbs before you can attack the main body” that has worked for approximately 10,000 Final Fantasy bosses. Land Umber, you are an all-star.

However, you would be higher on this list if you were not clearly copying Giga Gaia. But if we chastised every videogame for not being as good as Chrono Trigger, we would never get anywhere…

Mispolm, the Benevodon of Wood

Boys and girls of every age
Wouldn’t you like to see something strange?
Come with us and you will see
This, our town of Halloween

This is Halloween, everybody make a scene
Trick or treat till the neighbors gonna die of fright
It’s our town, everybody scream
In this town of Halloween

Dolan, the Benevodon of the Moon

Dolan is a giant goat-demon-man. It is apparently ten stories tall, and its claws alone are taller than your party members. It is literally impossible for any other Benevodon to beat this monster on the merit of those truths alone, but a few other Dolan facts:

• They are the only Benevodon without an elemental weakness.
• Since they are fought in a tower that permeates an eternal night, they are the only Benevodon to always have their patron celestial body close at hand.
• They are the only boss in Trials of Mana that is fought once and has their own musical theme.
• Someone carved Dolan’s face into the base of Dolan’s tower. No other Benevodon has their own in-game sculptor.
• No one has ever seen Dolan’s legs.

Ladies and gentlemen, Dolan is the uncontested winner of the Benevodons. Sorry you got replaced by a frog a few years later, Dolan, but 25 years of god beast supremacy is something to be celebrated.

FGC #694 Trials of Mana 3D

• System: Now available on your Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, PC, and mobile devices. Xbox X|S even got it in 2024!
• Number of players: We have scaled down to a completely single player experience. Just as well, as following two players in a 3-D action game can get tricky.
• So, is the remake better? I covered this during the Even Worse Streams article, but Trials of Mana 3D is a delight from top to bottom. I would not say it completely replaces the original (OG ToM is very much one of the best games on the SNES, and playing it in the context of Gaming ’95 is meaningful), but this is the rare remake that can be recommended on its own merits.
• Feel the Flow: Experience gains and monster levels are both increased across the adventure. But if you are not running too often, you should stay dead even with the curve of monster strength. And special bonus? The level up requirements for class changes are the same as in the original, but you reach that goal a lot faster. So you should be seeing your first Class Change opportunity just as you hit that echelon, and don’t have to putter around like an idiot for ten levels like in the original. Not that I’m still bitter about that or anything…
• Keep it Simple: Speaking of that level up curve, this game no longer needs weapon upgrades. When you are already leveling in sync with your opponents, and weapon/armor shops start leaving towns and literally camping outside dungeons, what is even the point of buying a new sword? Just have one base weapon, and let it powerup along with your levels. The only place this makes a difference is in the absolutely final dungeon where Rainbow Seeds can randomly drop, and then randomly transform into end-game weapons and armor. But that is practically a gacha, so it will not be identified as “good”.
• Missed Opportunities: A new feature is that you can play through any of your party member’s introductions when they first join the gang. That’s great, as in the original, it would require six separate playthroughs to experience those in their entirety. Unfortunately, the final dungeons and bosses of each story are still 100% character dependent, so you have to complete a 15-20 hour game three separate times to see all of that content. Is it too much to ask for Kevin to have a “fantasy” fight against the Dragon Lord? At least everyone can fight the Black Rabite this time.
• Further Benevodon Facts: It is claimed that the Benevodons must be defeated at release because otherwise they would “combine their powers”. It would be reasonable to assume that this is a reference to them ganging up like a monster army, but it might be literal, as Benevodons do combine into fused pairs in Children of Mana. And could they merge further? Well, the original translation of Secret of Mana identifies that final boss as a “Benevodon”, so maybe their final form is… Evil Flammie? That doesn’t sound right.
• Jump Around: The jumping mechanic is new, and the majority of the “world” doesn’t utilize the extra Z-axis of movement. However, there is one Fiery Gorge and one Woods of Wandara that practically transform the game into a 2-D platformer. You can almost feel how this team was itching to add some more unique areas, but were held back by the original’s flat design.
• Advanced Content: Adding a new, fourth-level class, a “void” dungeon that modifies and reuses areas from earlier in the game, expanding the previous optional boss to epic levels, and adding one more optional boss that recalls lore from the rest of the series all adds up to one thing: The spirit of the Final Fantasy Advance titles is still alive and well somewhere at Square-Enix. Now let’s see if we can get Final Fantasy 8 Advance off the ground.
• Did you know? Malocchio is a pale count that summons bats, sucks your blood, and even commands a spare werewolf during his boss fight. So let’s go ahead and call him a vampire. And, given you will only battle him on Riesz/Hawkeye’s route, that means there is a 66% chance you will miss him entirely. Thus, Trials of Mana is the first Mana title where fighting a vampire is not mandatory to seeing the credits.
• Would I play again: One of these days, I will replay a version of Trials of Mana that gets me to the end of Riesz/Hawkeye’s route. I always choose Angela or Kevin, though! Better hit up that New Game+ and see what I can do…

What’s next? We are rounding out our Mana coverage with Visions of Mana. Did you expect anything less? Please look forward to it!