I booted up Visions of Mana on my PS5 to see how the series had grown since the days when I played it on a tiny Game Boy screen. Back then a “forest” was just a few green dots; now every tree trunk and leaf pops in crisp 4 K on my TV—even though the game itself renders at a lower resolution and is then up-scaled. When I spun the camera around the heroine, Val, the image stayed razor-sharp instead of smearing. Cut-scenes flow straight into gameplay, and if a boss knocks me out the fight reloads in seconds. That speed comes from the console’s ultra-fast solid-state drive, and it turns wandering around the world from a stop-and-start crawl into a smooth, uninterrupted adventure. You can purchase Visions of Mana on the Official PlayStation Store for PS5.
A quick look under the hood
I spent some time researching why the game felt so steady. Sony built the PS5 on three pillars:
- Eight Zen 2 CPU cores for AI and physics
- A 10.3-teraflop RDNA 2 GPU for foliage and effects
- The tempest engine for positional sound
In play, the trio worked together.
Performance mode aimed for 60 fps; most fights held that mark, with only the busiest spell storms dipping briefly.
Leaves stayed sharp, sparks bright, and the GPU never stalled.
When a mana crystal burst, I heard shards drift left to right in my headset.
Those specs might read as numbers on paper, yet in play, they were instrumental in preserving clarity and pace.
Pixel-crafted visuals on Unreal Engine 4
The game runs on Unreal Engine 4, but the art team steals the show. Hand-painted textures flood the world with colour and avoid the plastic “tiling” you sometimes see in big engines. Calm water picks up a gentle shimmer from screen-space reflections, and shadows slide across the ground as the sun moves, so characters stay easy to read even at dusk.
Graphics presets:
- Performance – 1080p internal, upscaled to 4K, targeting 60 fps
- Quality – 1440p internal, upscaled to 4K, frame rate floating around 40-60 fps; VRR smoothed the swing
I swapped between the two modes often.
Quality mode is perfect for sightseeing: distant forests sharpen up, and valley fog gains extra depth. Performance mode cuts input lag, so parries register the instant I tap the button, and class-swap animations feel snappy.
Crucially, rain, spell flashes, and waving grass look almost identical in both modes. For me, this is proof that careful optimisation matters more than chasing the latest engine buzzword.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXTsvZ1d67U
Feeling the story through DualSense
Pulling Val’s bow tightens the right trigger just enough to mimic a real bow string. Throughout the adventure, I felt three main rumble patterns:
- light taps for footsteps
- a firm kick when a class-specific strike connects
- a deep growl whenever a boss roars
You can’t tune these separately, but lowering the PS5’s master vibration slider softens everything if you prefer. The controller stays quiet during story cut-scenes and wakes up again when combat resumes. Swapping from a sword to a staff even changes the trigger resistance. These touches don’t replace health bars, yet they help you read the rhythm of the fight without constantly checking the HUD.
Soundtrack that fills the space
Series veteran Hiroki Kikuta joins Tsuyoshi Sekito and Ryo Yamazaki for a score that layers bright flutes over deep drums. On PS5, you can push the audio out in 5.1, 7.1, or Sony’s 3D mode, and even ordinary headphones give a clear sense of where sounds originate.
The Audio menu is simple: separate sliders for voices, music, and effects, plus an option to switch to classic SNES-style tracks once you unlock the BGM bundle. I bumped the music one notch so overworld themes stayed lively; reverb inside caves disappears the instant you step back into open fields.
Choosing a visual mode
The Graphics menu spells things out.
Performance mode renders at 1080 p, up-scales to 4 K, and locks the frame-rate at 60 fps; rare dips during colossal spell effects pass in a heartbeat.
Quality mode ups the internal resolution to 1440 p and removes the frame-rate cap, which on my TV hovered around 50 fps.
If your display supports Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), the swings are barely noticeable.
I spent the opening chapters in Quality mode to admire waterfalls, then switched to Performance for the tighter controls and stayed there through the finale.
Closing thoughts
Visions of Mana is on several platforms, but the PS5 version feels tailor-made for a nostalgia trip. The SSD hides loads, the RDNA 2 GPU keeps particle-heavy spells running smoothly, and the DualSense adds a tactile heartbeat to every clash.
Square Enix never hyped these touches as exclusives; they simply stack up during play. If you already own a PS5, this is the most seamless path from prologue to credits.
