Upon its release, "Heroes of Mana" received generally poor to middling reviews over a wide range, with numerical scores that range from 35 to 85 out of 100. Reviewers praised Heroes of Mana's graphics and visual style; IGN's Bozon praised the "classic character art" and "hand-painted backdrops", GameSpot's Kevin VanOrd noted the colorful graphics and "overflowing" animations, and Eurogamer's Simon Parkin said that the "fantastic presentation and artwork" "sugar-coated" the game. Patrick Gann of RPGFan, on the other hand, said that besides the cinematics and character portraits the graphics were not impressive, with poor sprites and animation. The plot was not as highly received; while Bozon called it a "pretty involving piece of "Mana" mythos", VanOrd said only that it was not "particularly engaging, but it's pleasant enough", while Parkin called the story "lingering intrusions" and Gann found it well written, but too linear and clichéd. The reviewer for "GamePro" said that "the overall story doesn't grip players" and that there were too many characters to get attached to any of them. Gann called out the music as beautiful, though it was not mentioned by other reviewers.