Trials of Mana isn't without its share of sorrow.
- The introduction of the game itself, explaining the backstory of the world, the Mana Goddess, and the threat of the Benevodons followed by several Faeries leaving the Mana Sanctuary to try and fly to Wendel. One-by-one, all of the Faeries except the last fall while "Where Angels Fear to Tread" plays a reprise of the Secret of Mana title theme. It's both sad and nostalgic at the same time.
- The introduction phase for each protagonist.
- Duran sees his fellow soldiers defeated by a powerful magician, and then gets defeated himself, leaving him the only survivor of the attack. To add insult to his injury, that magician even insults the king in front of him. After his humiliation, he spends most of his time at a bar for a short while.
- Angela was chosen by her mother to be sacrificed due to her lack of prowess, seeing her as a failure of a magician.
- Kevin was attacked by his best friend and pup Karl, and his werewolf blood caused him to kill Karl. Then he learns that it was all a setup by the Beast King, to force him to awaken as a beastman.
- Charlotte left the safety of her home because she wanted to look after Heath, only to find him being kidnapped by Goremand. Even worse, he exposed himself and went down protecting her, so she feels responsible.
- Hawkeye had to fight his brainwashed friend Eagle, who was then killed by Belladonna. He was framed for Eagle's death and the Thieves Guild wants him dead. And Belladonna tells him that he cannot reveal the truth to anyone, lest he wanted Jessica to die.
- Riesz sees her kingdom being infiltrated by the Nevarl Thieves Guild, has to watch her father die, and is forced to flee. She also learns that her younger brother was kidnapped. If you go back to look for Elliot, Riesz realizes all too late that in her rush to save her father, she left her brother behind and let him get captured by Bil and Ben. In her effort to rescue one member of her family, she lost both, and her Kingdom. While the other protagonists like Duran and Angela have some moping before picking themselves up and hurrying on their way, Riesz walks with the slump of a woman completely defeated.
- Even Fairy's backstory. Realizing the Mana Tree is withering, she and her sisters race to the surface world in a desperate bid to get help. However, because there's so little mana left to sustain them, Fairy's sisters literally drop dead one by one, barely able to get out even a single sentence before they fall. Fairy only survives because your main character finds her dying after collapsing in a field. It really hammers home just how dire the mana shortage has become.
- Going through Dragonsmaw when Duran is chosen as the main protagonist or if he's in the party, there's a scene at Pedda where the party meets what appears to be the Golden Knight Loki and the then Prince Richard about to go and fight the Dragon Lord. Since Duran knows that his father died during this fight, he tries to convince him to not go, but he won't listen. Loki tells Duran that he hopes his son will 'turn out to be a fine, young man like you'.
- Having lost Heath, Charlotte spends the entire game tracking him down. If she's the lead or support to Kevin, the reunion will not be a pleasant one, with Heath having been corrupted by the Masked Mage's magic in the interim. After two instances where she can only watch him do Goremand's bidding without question, she begins to wonder if he's gone for good. Try listening to her in the remake and see what that does to your heart.
- And once you defeat him in a boss fight, complete with Sad Battle Music, you learn the truth: the Heath you see throughout the game was Dead to Begin With, making Charlotte's quest to save him All for Nothing.
- It’s not any better if Kevin is the protagonist and Charlotte is not in the party. He tries to get Heath to wake up and remind him of the Priest of Light, and Charlotte who is trying to find him. Once the fight begins, Kevin could only apologize with a heavy heart to Charlotte wherever she may be as he had no choice but to stop Heath by force.
- Upon arriving at the Mana Sanctuary, you're greeted with a field of corpses of Altenish mages, Beastmen and Nerval thieves. The battle between the three villains over the Sword might be Evil Versus Evil, but through manipulation and brainwashing they dragged in likely hundreds of ordinary people. The mages think this is all for the good of their country, the Beastmen just want a world where they're no longer oppressed, and the Nerval thieves just want a better life for themselves. All three sides slaughter eachother, unaware they've all been manipulated. The poignant music makes it worse. And you have to fight the remnants.
- The sorrow portrayed by Belladonna on any route that isn't Riesz's or Hawkeye's. When Dark Majesty ends up Deader than Dead, she gives up all plans on taking over the world because she cannot imagine one where he isn't around. She kills Malocchio and then commits suicide. And if Riesz is in the party, she'll confess that she sent Elliot back to Laurent - since after all, she has no reason to harm him.
- This actually becomes even stronger in the remake. Despite the Narmy voice acting, Belladonna's English voice actress does a surprisingly good job giving her Despair Event Horizon speech to the party. She doesn't sound like she's holding back tears but actually comes off as someone who is just... utterly broken.
- The beginning of Charlotte's story has her dreaming about playing in a flower field with her parent's watching only for her parents to start walking away and with her chasing after them only for them to disappear completely leaving her crying for her parents.
- Later in the game, in Dior, Charlotte learns that her parents were Star-Crossed Lovers and how they sacrificed their own lifespans for the sake of their love, making sure to leave Charlotte in the Priest of Light's care. Afterwards, the main character suggests distracting themselves from the sadness of the story by fighting some monsters.
- Duran fights against the Darkshine Knight at Dragon's Maw, who reveals himself to be Loki, his father. There wasn't even boss music for this fight, rather instead played Innocent Sea
. After the fight, Darkshine Knight praises Duran for his skill before vanishing into nothing, causing Duran to collapse in despair that he had to kill his own father out of self-defense. Suddenly, the soul of the real Loki appeared before him, thanking his son for freeing his soul from the Dragon Lord's grasp and tells him never to forget his pride and honor as a swordsman. Loki tells Duran that he's confident that he and his friends can stop the Dragon Lord and that he's proud of him before leaving the mortal coil despite his son begging him not to leave. Duran then strengthened his resolve to make Loki proud and continue his quest to save Mana.- There's a parallel scene where Duran is support for someone other than Angela. The Darkshine Knight points out how screwed he and the Crimson Wizard are with the Dragon Lord and his army slain to the last, but just before he disappears, he bids Duran farewell in a manner that implies he knew exactly who the young swordsman was. Duran demands answers, but the person he wanted them from is gone. More poignant in the remake, where you can briefly hear the anguish in his voice as he is left with questions that will never be answered hence.
- Eagle's recorded Dying Message for Hawkeye when the latter obtains the Loyal Sphere in the remake, asking him to take care of Jessica and help fulfill her wish to restore the Thieves Guild to its noble roots.Hawkeye: ...Idiot! He... he always asked so much of me... You can't just leave me here with this, Eagle... You idiot!
- The Game Over theme, Long Goodbye (remake), just couldn't get any sadder than this. The instruments played in this song embody calm tragedy very similarly to the likes of Innocent Sea, Innocent Water, Fable, and Hope Isolation Pray. And to make it all the more heartbreaking, any time your entire party gets knocked out completely with no HP left isn't the only time this song plays; it also plays in two prologues, once in Angela's prologue when she faints from the cold of Frostbite Fields as if she was freezing to death from hypothermia, and once in Kevin's own when he's grieving over Karl after having been forced to awaken as a beastman and "kill" his own friend. Oh, and the theme itself is also a remix of "Close Your Eyelids", which is also the Game Over theme from Secret of Mana.
- No matter who the Big Bad is, the party will witness In horror as he kills Fairy on the spot. Once the Big Bad wipes out the party, Fairy in a last act of defiance, uses the last of her power to revive the party and give them the means to fight back, pleading for them that they must win and save the world.
- The ending is pretty bittersweet as well. Fairy dies, but reincarnates as the new Goddess of Mana after the Mana Tree got destroyed by the Big Bad. She tells the party that she must remain behind to gradually restore mana to the world, and though she may never see her friends again, she’ll always remember the times they had.
- The Masked Mage/The Dark Lich also had a tragic story. Once a wise and respected leader who is also a powerful healer, his start of darkness came about when a young girl came to heal from a terminal illness and despite all his efforts he couldn't heal her and she would eventually pass away. Him diving into the dark artes came about him attempting to save the girl and eventually hoping to resurrect her after her death, eventually causing him to be exiled and those same dark artes corrupted him.
