When I've finally gathered one of my last party members in Visions of Mana and set off for the eponymous tree, I make for the great causeway connecting the largest islands of the fantastical archipelago my characters call home. A cutscene triggers, they say their goodbyes to their friends in the capital city full of squirrel people, and then I appear on the other end of a bridge across the sea.
But what a view. A new vista is before me of a land perpetually in harvest. Rolling fields of amber grain and tiny farmhouses dot the land. A waypoint is on the horizon, the next stop en route to the tree. I summon my mount – a large wolf this guy I met a couple of hours ago gave me for some reason – and set out across the land. It takes a few seconds to summon, and to dismount, and the animation stutters whenever I do, so I'm committed to riding all the way over in the minute or two it will take to reach the horizon; that gorgeous view, a beautifully sculpted 3D world that feels so, so empty.
