Talking about the best, most broken Trials of Mana classes combo. Trials of Mana is the new Secret of Mana game that’s coming out next year, but actually it came out in the 90s on Super Nintendo in Japan as 聖剣伝説３ or Seiken Densetsu 3, and then finally got translated and brought to the West as Trials of Mana last year.
I’ve played through this game dozens of times. Eh, that’s a little hyperbole. I’ve played through it at least 12 times for sure. Let me tell you what the best, most optimal, most broken combination of characters and classes you can pick for the game is.
If you don’t know, at the start of the game, you choose 3 out of 6 characters for your team, and you keep those characters throughout the game. Then, you upgrade their classes permanently, and each class upgrade is either a light or a dark version. So in total, each character has 4 final classes.
When you start researching what the best characters are, etc., etc., you’re gonna run into a lot of opinions and a lot of bullshit. Let me just tell you the most broken possible thing you can do because I’ve read all the forums and tried all the different combos. People are going to tell you Kevin is the best attacker in the game. Which is true. But he is not a part of this. He could be (I’ll get to that).
Here’s the most broken team you can make:
Duran – Swordmaster
Hawk – Nightblade
Riesz – Star Lancer
Here’s why this is the most broken option — because between Duran’s full party elemental swords, Nightblade’s stat downs and Riesz’s full party stat ups, you absolutely wreck bosses. Sure, you could have Angela and fire off a spell that does 800 damage every couple of seconds, but with all these buffs going you’re going to be hitting for 400-500 per physical hit with 3 of the best physical attackers in the game.
You don’t need a healer. Get that out of your head right away. Carlie is a totally useless character. You can buy an item called Poto Oils in the black market that does a full party heal, totally 100% replaces Carlie. You can also buy items that do stat ups and elemental swords, but it’s one at a time, so you have to cast like 6 spells to fully buff your team instead of two, and you’ll have to constantly restock those items. Also, as far as I know, you can’t get items for the more rare Sabre spells (Moon Sabre, Leaf Sabre, Dark Sabre, Saint Sabre). However, if you committed to having those items you could replace Duran or Riesz with Kevin, but I honestly don’t think it’s worth it.
Angela is mostly useless except to nuke-clear rooms. Carlie is completely useless since she’s fully replaced by an easily obtainable item you buy from a store. Kevin is the strongest character but provides zero utility.
This is the team that takes down every encounter in the game fast. As in, wreck the boss before it moves fast. Give it a whirl. Definitely the best combo of classes in Trials of Mana. The upcoming remake looks like it’s sticking to the original, so this will probably still work fine.
NOTE/UPDATE: NEVERMIND, the Remake changed quite a bit. In the Remake, Duran/Riesz/Kevin is a better physical party. Hawkeye is not as essential because Kevin can apply Defense Down on crit. Also, magic is a lot better in the Remake and Angela is one of the best party members, especially on New Game+. Charlotte (Carlie) is still mostly pretty useless and is easily replaced by a cheap item you get early in the game. I’ll be adding a tier list to the site soon for the Remake, but for now, some quick parties I’d recommend are Duran(Edelfrei)/Kevin(Fatal Fist)/Angela(Grand Diviner/Magus) (overall very strong) and Duran(Paladin/Liege)/Hawkeye(Ninja Master)/Angela(Grand Diviner/Magus) (magic damage focus).
Of course, there are a ton of great class combinations you can make. Click here for even more suggestions. And for the best class for each character in general, check out this post.
Trials of Mana has a remake coming out and if you preorder now, you’ll get the Rabite Adornment DLC, which increases XP after each fight until level 10.
