The Therapist Gamer

Adventures of Mana is pretty much a screen-for-screen 3D remake of the 1991 Game Boy game Final Fantasy Adventure.  It was a good game then and it's a good game now. The basic gameplay is pretty similar to the original Legend of Zelda game, but there are some RPG elements such as leveling up to improve your stats. I believe this game was originally remade for smartphones with no physical controls, but I imagine it's substantially better with the control system on the Vita.

 

Perhaps it's due to the limited resources of the game boy, but the game moves at a satisfyingly fast pace.  You'll explore one area for a little while and before long there is a boss, a new item, and access to a new part of the map. Some RPG games like this add a lot of padding but this game doesn't really have much.

 

The basic gameplay consists of exploring the world from a top-down view and fighting monsters in real-time (rather than turn-based). You can use a variety of weapons, with the most standard one being a sword.  Each weapon has it's advantages and disadvantages; for example, a morning star does heavy damage but is slow and has an odd attack range. You can get weapons and items by defeating bosses and by purchasing them from stores in town. Many of the weapons have exploration abilities, such as the flail being able to attach to a post from a distance or an axe being able to chop down trees.

 

There are some annoying elements to the UI that are probably relics of the game being developed for phones.  For example, you will likely get multiple items that you will end up selling, but there isn't a way to quickly sell all of them.  Rather, you need to initiate a sale for each and every item and go through a bit of menu for each transaction.  It's tedious.  But all in all the game holds up well and it's fun to play, which is the most important part!