Trials of Mana/Part 1: The Hero of Mana

It's time to start the adventure. You have before you six characters. All of them are ordinary people who, with training and experience, will become the saviors of Mana. Pretty cool, huh? Read up on information for each of them before choosing, because the difficulty of the game changes dramatically depending on you choice.

Easy Difficulty

 * Carlie
 * Carlie may also be known as Charlotte. Half-human, half-elf, Carlie is not the strongest fighter. She is, however, a natural healer, and the only character in the game qualified to fill in as a White Mage. Carlie is an excellent support character. If she is anywhere in your team, you should expect gameplay to be much quicker and easier due to her healing abilities. Carlie's main stat is Spirit.


 * Kevin
 * Half-human and half-beastman, Kevin is a very strong fighter. He relies almost completely on his physical abilities to defeat enemies quickly. He also tends to have very high HP, and has the potential, with certain Classes, to become a healer. At night, Kevin becomes a werewolf. His strength increases dramatically, although none of his other stats change. Kevin's main stat is Vitality.

Medium Difficulty

 * Angela
 * Angela is the stereotypical Black Mage, although Black Sorceress might be more appropriate. Out of all of the characters, she is the only one guaranteed to fill all twelve of her Magic slots with Magic abilities. All of her Magic is destructive, covering six different elements. With only a few exceptions, she will bring most boss fights to a quick close by exploiting their elemental weaknesses. However, her physical attacks tend to be weak. Angela's main stat is Intelligence.


 * Duran
 * The brave swordsman, Duran could be considered the Fighter. He is easily the strongest character in the game, although he is a bit lacking in Agility. His Magic is Saber Magic, which essentially means that he is capable of attacking and inflicting elemental damage with physical attacks. His presence can make boss fights very short indeed, but he can be a liability at times due to his lower evade rate. Depending on his Class, he may or may not be able to equip Shields, which raise his evasion and may offer other forms of protection as well. Duran's main stat is Strength.

Hard Difficulty

 * Hawk
 * Hawk may also be known as Hawkeye. Hawk is a ninja. He is easily the fastest character in the game. He holds double weapons, which mean that he can deal two hits with every attack, allowing him to unleash Techs at a very fast rate. He also has very diverse Classes, giving him some of the most unique and useful Magic in the game, and allowing him to be very powerful all-around. Hawk's stat is Agility.


 * Lise
 * Lise may also be known as Rise or Rieze. Lise is Princess of the Amazons. She is arguably the best all-around character in the game, with strong physical attacks and also useful stat-altering Magic. Her Classes also have Summon Magic, allowing her to deal good amounts of damage with Magic. Lise can be a harder character to master for beginning players, but she is a welcome addition to any team. Lise does not have an emphasized stat.

The Rest of Your Team
When selecting your full team, keep in mind strengths and weaknesses that your party might face as a whole. For example, any party without Carlie will have to rely mainly on items for healing, and will face a much slower, much more difficult game. For this reason, I highly recommend placing Carlie somewhere in your party if this is your first time playing.

However, after you play through the game at least once, you might consider replacing Carlie with either Kevin or Duran. Both of these characters have the ability to learn multi-target Heal Light if they become the right class (Warrior Monk for Kevin, Lord for Duran). Therefore, at the end of the game they will be able to heal almost as effectively as Carlie. In addition, they can deal damage more quickly than Carlie can so you will be able to defeat monsters more easily. Of course, the downside to this strategy is that you will need to rely on healing items at the beginning of the game.

The beginning of the game is different for all six players. Below are the individual walkthroughs for each character.


 * /Angela/
 * /Carlie/
 * /Duran/
 * /Hawk/
 * /Kevin/
 * /Lise/