Visions of Mana director took “embarrassing” videos of himself wielding a water bottle to make sure the RPG’s animations looked just right 

Visions of Mana co-director Ryusuke Yoshida recently revealed some behind-the-scenes snapshots of the process behind coming up with the RPGs whimsical animations. Posting on X, Yoshida explained that he personally acted out what he wanted an Elemental Vessel animation to look like in-game.  

Elemental Vessels are mysterious artifacts that contain the power of a particular element and are a cornerstone of Visions of Mana’s gameplay. They can be equipped to characters in your party to change their class, which allows you to unlock different skills and stats, as well as unleash element-specific attacks. Your characters can also harness the power of their equipped element in the field to explore the world and find hidden areas. 

Visions of Mana has lots of animations associated with this important in-game item, including transformation cutscenes for when you equip an Elemental Vessel to a character. There are also many unique animations when you use Elemental Vessels against enemies in battle.  

It takes time and effort to animate a specific movement. By using a large water bottle as a prop, it seems Yoshida was able to try out different actions in real life and then give the video to the animators as a reference for how such movements should look in-game. The stills that Yoshida shared on X show his passion for creating the vibrant world of Visions of Mana. 

Visions of Mana is out now on PS4/PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC (Steam).