Team Asano meant for it to be based on the Mana series, but to me it is be a lovely mix of Mana and Zelda, leaning pretty hard on Zelda given the story premise and gameplay so far.
The story isn't premier Final Fantasy levels as I already pegged the main antagonist upon their first appearance; the dialogue is rather charming, however. Sometimes that's more than enough so long as the game's fun.
Man, it feels nice to enjoy an action rpg again. Although that might be me preferring action mixed with exploration with puzzles way more than pure fighting. I get bored too easily if the world isn't curated to entice me to look around. Maybe that's why I kept bouncing off the action rpg Final Fantasies - they're more mission-based, boss beat-em-ups, or open worlds with copy-paste optional dungeons than dungeon exploration. Just my personal preference.
Those puzzles in the demo are really easy, mind, but it's better than nothing to chew on mentally while watching attack patterns on monsters. It's also nice to have the peanut gallery comment on what Elliot does too, and apparently you can turn that off if it gets too grating. Princess Heuria is really reminding me of both Zelda and Marin at this point.
The Mana series from I remember had a team who fights together and a weapon cool-down with no changes in fighting save if you changed party members. Then again, there were entries in completely different genres - one was a strategy rpg if I recall correctly.
And oh did I love switching party members here and there to play as a mage or a monk depending on the boss. I don't see that here.
Here, it's just Elliot so far. Elliot and his plethora of weapons that keep reminding me of Link. I swear, it's the bomb-able environment, dungeon layouts, and shrines that keep tripping me up into thinking this is a Zelda-like game.
Not to mention the time travel mechanic that's essentially modifying the same map four times not unlike the light/dark world from A Link to the Past.
And the boomerang. And the small keys and boss keys. This isn't a dig, mind. I love having competition around as it means more games to enjoy.
But the bosses on the other hand - it is a bit closer to the Mana series. At least in terms of graphical animations. Go look up the SNES Trials of Mana bosses for reference. Same with a few Secret of Mana bosses too. If that's the base they're going off of, I'll look forward to what they'll have up their sleeve when I get the time to play it.
