Felt like a true successor to the series. Will definitely be replaying Secret of Mana when I'm done.

This can be fun to play, but man does it love to waste your time a lot of the time. Here's a quick breakdown:
Pros:
* Beautiful colorful scenery
* Fun but simple combat
* Interesting story elements, but...

♥♥♥♥:
* Really bad execution on those story elements
- further note, biggest gripe. Some bigger ideas really dealt with using kiddy gloves/conclusions
* Horrendous writing - I started skipping cutscenes because I didn't want to hear character belabor a point over and over
- further note, some bad/annoying voice acting, I think due to direction not talent
* Incredibly tedious side content... and main content

I didn't enjoy it. I have no idea why I spent so much time on it, something is wrong with me.

Bought the game on sale after reading the reviews carefully, so for those looking to buy: The reviews are ACCURATE!

YES, the game has incredible combat. A massive step up from the Trials of Mana reboot, and arguably my favorite style of combat I've seen in a Mana game. So much customization, albeit slightly gated by story progression, but it made the end-game/boss rush part of the game SO much fun.
NO, the story is not as great as one would think. While there is a ton of promise throughout the first two-thirds of game (as in, the story was immaculate for the majority of Visions of Mana), it does fall flat towards the end, as though there wasn't enough production time to properly flesh everything out. I don't think it's a dealbreaker for purchasing the game -- but might be worth waiting for it to be on sale.

All in all, fun game! I definitely recommend it, and will most likely find myself circling back around to continue more end-game content as well as attempt another playthrough at a higher difficulty.