What about Children of Mana?

[Cybershadow]

Children of Mana

Platform: Nintendo DS
Genre: action/RPG (dungeon crawler)
ESRB: E10+ (everyone)
Release date: October 30th, 2006
Publisher: Square Enix

As I scanned the aisles of my local videogame store for a new adventure to play through during the summer, my attention was caught by a game that I had read about at the end of 2006 in Nintendo Power, Children of Mana. I knew the game had received high praise in Japan and a rather mediocre score here in America, and after playing the game for over forty hours, I am convinced that both are justified.

Story:

The tale begins with one of four characters, which you must choose and name. A great cataclysm, in the past, has left the children of Illusia island orphans and you are one of these courageous youths. For the sake of simplicity, I will tell the story with Ferrik, a headstrong yet kindly boy, as the main character.

After speaking with his mentor, Moti, Ferrik seeks out his friend Tess, before she leaves for her prayer at the Mana Tower. Unfortunately, she cannot stay long, because the young maiden’s prayers are essential to preserving the world’s peace and the favor of the Mana Goddess. Back at Moti’s house, only a short time after her departure, an earth-rending crash sends Ferrik and the other villagers running to the village square. It is with a feeling of dread that they discover the town’s holy stone shattered, and remember the cataclysm that had previously ravaged their world. Realizing that Tess is still in the Mana Tower, Ferrik rushes off with a spirit companion of his choice to make sure she is safe. Upon his arrival, he discovers the holy sanctum is infested by monsters and he must fight his way through to reach the prayer grounds atop the tower.

When Ferrik finally reaches Tess, he is relieved to find her unharmed, but an evil presence looms over him in the sky. Without warning, a giant flaming bird swoops down from the clouds to face Ferrik. The young man fights courageously against the great beast but his attacks are useless against such a foe. Just when he had given up hope, a dazzling sword falls to his aid from the heavens. Weakened by the holy blade’s magic, the enemy no longer poses a threat. After defeating his foe, Ferrik rejoins Tess, and is preparing to leave when a dark figure appears before them. He delivers to them the message that their world is coming to an end, before the mysterious sword repels him and the stranger disappears.

The two youths return to the village only to discover that mighty beams of light have shot down from the heavens all over the world. After Ferrik relates the events that took place at the Mana Tower, everyone realizes that the peace they had come to enjoy is threatened once again, and thus the adventure begins.

The Verdict:
Story of Children of Mana follows the traditional RPG genre, basically relating the same tale of the epic fight between good and evil. That theme is ever popular and appreciated amongst gamers and the Mana series has its own take on the age-old conflict. However, this game’s characters and events lack depth and leave the RPG lover unsatisfied.

Gameplay & Controls:

Children of Mana offers entertaining gameplay elements that can be mastered by any gamer. The downside? It is too repetitive.
Using the control pad to move through dungeons, the "A" and "X" buttons to attack, the "Y" button to heal yourself and "B" to summon your companion spirit makes for fast paced and immerseful gameplay, but is that enough? I believe it would be, if the game’s numerous quests had but one essential ingredient: originality.

Though you always return to your home town to purchase important items and take on new tasks to be performed in the game’s eight dungeons, most of your time is spent in these worlds, hacking through enemies and obstacles alike to reach the next level. Unfortunately, each quest is different in nature, but plays exactly like all the others. To complete a quest, you have to clear a certain number of levels in one of the game’s locales. These levels are cleared by uncovering the Gleamdrop and Gleamwell hidden in each one. Once these two objects are united, you are teleported to the following level. The game falls seriously short here because the number of different level designs in each area is too small. You come to know each level’s layout by heart and, even worse still, you sometimes have to play through the same level twice in a row, within the same quest. No matter how fun the gameplay is, enough is enough.

In addition to this, each of the game’s eight worlds has only one boss which must be faced once (but can be battled again at will) and a handful of different enemies. Thus, once you have mastered the game’s initial challenges, it is of little interest to the advanced gamer. However, the game can be played wirelessly by up to four players. Perhaps this feature makes Children of Mana a better game for the multiplayer-lover.
The game’s main redeeming features are the introduction of a new type of weapon at certain moments in the game, and the gem system for granting your characters various powers. Children of Mana has a total of four weapon classes: swords, flails, hammers and bows. They are made available to you by the village mayor, Moti, after certain areas are cleared for the first time. They diversify gameplay and make the repetitive levels much easier to bear. As for the gems, they are found in dungeons or bought from the Bomb Brothers R&D, where they can also be fused into larger, more powerful gems. To be used, they are placed in a container called a gem frame. You gain larger and larger frames throughout the game, thus allowing the use of more and more gems at a time. Fusing the stones and customizing your gem frame make the game much more original and entertaining than it would be without this element.

The Verdict:
Children of Mana is captivating but repetitive. Its simple controls make it excellent for beginner gamers. The repetitive gameplay, due largely to unimaginative level design, will render the game uninteresting, after the main story is finished, to a more experienced player.

Graphics:
Children of Mana does rather well here. Objects move smoothly and at a good pace all throughout the game, never presenting any programming flaws apparent in certain, ,ore visually impressive, titles. Contrasting colors , clear images and a bird’s eye view make the environments easy and fun to navigate. Though the in-game graphics show us nothing the Gameboy Advance could not have, the map and instructions displayed on the touch screen make for uninterrupted gameplay, which is always a plus, in my book.
Aside from that, the character illustrations displayed during dialogues are beautifully drawn and each character has a few pictures illustrating various moods. Another nice touch, that shows off the DS’ superior graphics engine, are the few cutscenes in the game as well as the startup animation. These resemble classic Japanese anime in every way and are very nice to look at for lovers of the art genre.

The Verdict:
Children of Mana’s graphics go a long way to making it a better game. A colorful anime style that anyone can appreciate.

Sound:
The music in the game is also good, and accompanies gameplay well. The light tunes of each locale go hand in hand with the area’s theme and are entirely appropriate for Children of Mana’s genre. Dramatic moments in the plot have their own ambiance as well, with classic dramatic videogame sounds. The game presents no addictive tunes, but continues to deliver the music gamers have come to like and expect in their favorite hobby.
As far as sound effects go, this game is more than satisfactory. Since a lot of your time is spend smashing through throngs of monsters, it is only fitting that the sounds of your slashing weapons and of breaking obstacles should be audible. The sounds and music overlap well so that everything can be easily heard.

The Verdict:
While bringing no innovation to the gaming world, children of Mana gives us what we expect of a game in its genre: pleasant music to accompany gameplay, not distract from it.

The Final Verdict:
Children of Mana is not a masterpiece, by far. However, it is a great game for new gamers to start with and experienced players can be entertained by its simple style, if only for a while.

Score:

1-Story: 6/10

2-Gameplay: 7/10

3-Graphics: 8/10

4-Sound: 8/10

5- Overall Score: 7.3/10

Thank you for reading. I tried a new style for this review, comments are appreciated.

Yours truly, Cybershadow.