Trials Of Mana's Brutal New Difficulty Setting Will Reward You With Adorable Slippers

A challenging game to complete, Trials of Mana is about to become even tougher to finish if you're up to the task. The version 1.1.0 update will add the "No Future" difficulty setting, which increases the challenge by adding a time limit to boss battles, blocks certain abilities from being used in combat, and only allows three items to be used while battling.

This mode can only be used from the New Game+ setting and will force players to start back up from level 1 again. If you can beat the game on this deadly new setting, you'll earn Rabite Slippers for your hard work. They're like regular slippers but cuter.

Other big changes to Trials of Mana include two new chain abilities. Guidance of the Sacred Sword will save party members not in your control by giving them a single hit point digit when they become unable to fight, while Guidance of the Sacred Sword II will recover all party members' health by 100% when a battle has been won.

Quality-of-life improvements such as being able to skip class change cutscenes and the end credits will also be in the patch, along with new Goddess statues being added to the map and various other bug fixes. You can view the full patch notes below:

New difficulty setting "No Future" added

• An extremely difficult to clear difficulty in which enemies are stronger, especially bosses.
• It can only be selected for New Game+ and returns the player to Level 1.
• Some abilities cannot be equipped.
• Up to three items can be used in battle.
• Boss battles have a time limit.
• The display of enemy attack range has been shortened for some boss battles.
• Rainbow item seeds may produce high-performance equipment of the same name.

Two Chain Abilities added

• Guidance of the Sacred Sword – Party members not in your control that become unable to fight will have 1 HP remaining.
• Guidance of the Sacred Sword II – When you win a battle, all party members’ HP will recover 100 percent.

Other New Feature Additions

• New difficulty setting "Very Hard" added. It can only be selected for New Game+.
• You can now skip class change cutscenes and the end credits.
• Fix: Costumes that have been class changed once can now be carried over after a class reset and in New Game+.
• This only applies to costumes that have been class changed after this update. Costumes can be changed after the first class change.
• When selecting New Game+, you can choose to return to Level 1.
• New Goddess Statues added to the map.
• Other Bug Fixes

If all that sounds interesting to you, Trials of Mana can be found currently on PS4 and Nintendo Switch.

"Trials of Mana stands on the strength of its combat, and the fact that it's how you spend the vast majority of your time," editor Steve Watts wrote in his review of the game. "That easy recommendation comes qualified with several elements that don't work nearly as well, from dull and hodge-podge storytelling to bewildering progression systems. Seeing a historical curiosity through the lens of a mostly modernized action-RPG was enough to pull me through the experience despite my quibbles, though, so there's certainly still life in the world of Mana."