Dawn of Mana

"This could be the death of the Mana series"

I really regret spending money on this game. It's not just that the game is terrible Mana game; it's a bad game in and of itself. The series is taken in a new direction, abandoning the Action RPG genre in favor of an action/platformer game. This is all well and good, except that the execution is poor. I weep for the Mana series.

Graphics: The graphics aren't mind blowing, but they fit the game. The different environments feel appropriate for what they're trying to get across. The character models follow a very familiar anime look and the bright and cheery attitude of most of the game comes across nicely. There are much better looking games out there, especially in terms of polygon counts and other technical aspects, but the aesthetic of the world of Mana makes up for the more basic graphics to provide a decent visual experience.

Sound: I really wasn't awed by the sound or annoyed by it. The music was alright and had some decent melodies, but nothing that would really stick with you. The voice acting was pretty good, with voices matching the characters nicely, although the corny lines when you pick up any restorative item get old quickly. Overall, everything auditory was pretty forgettable.

Story: Don't expect anything too grand. The story revolves around Keldric, the latest savior of the Mana Tree, who has to save the world from Stroud and the evil Thanatos. The story is very basic and there is little originality. It's a typical Mana storyline, although with less development because of the game's focus on gameplay. Only Keldric and Faye grow as characters, while everyone else feels like plot devices. There are no towns, just dungeons, so a lot of the small talk found in the previous Mana games is gone. This isn't completely fair, as the game is trying to focus on gameplay, and the story is adequate for a platformer, but the gameplay is bad enough that the weak story can't be hidden.

Gameplay: The averageness of the above categories would be acceptable if the gameplay was good, but it is really pretty bad. The game is split up into 8 chapters made up of several sub-chapters each, with each chapter being one long dungeon leading up to a boss. There are no towns or sidequests other than the battle coliseum. The battle coliseum is very bland, pitting level one Keldy and Faye (as well as some pet monsters) against a myriad of enemies that have to be defeated in a given amount of time. There is nothing special about this mode and nothing that is especially interesting about it.

Keldy is given three different weapons with which to use. First is the standard sword. The sword is pretty much what you would expect, with simple button mashing combos. The sword is the main damage dealer, with the other two weapons do little to no damage. The most interesting weapon is the whip. The whip is used to grab objects and enemies and hurl them at each other. This becomes very important, as collisions often cause panic, which makes the enemies run around like idiots with a countdown above their head, indicating the time their panic has left. Last there is the slingshot, where Keldy either fires from his infinite supply of pebbles or shoots an elemental shot given to him by one of the Mana series' pantheon of spirits. The slingshot is pretty useless when you don't have any elemental shots, as pebbles are extremely weak and don't even faze most enemies. The elemental shots are very useful, helping panic almost every enemy including bosses, providing a nice alternative to the whip.

The game starts to fall apart with the Havok system. This system makes just about everything in the game have ragdoll physics. With Keldy's trusty whip, you can fling boulders, boxes, pillars, and even enemies at each other. It's a very fun system to goof around with, but it still has big problems. First, there are times when you can't tell where you're going to be throwing something. You may think you're throwing a boulder straight at an enemy, only for it to careen off in a different direction. Also, be ready for some serious airtime. When Keldy is hit by an enemy attack, he goes flying, making it easy for him to be caught in the air. There were several times during the game where Keldy was juggled for a good amount of time, which is frustrating. The system is original, and it can be pretty fun to cause so much damage that a temple falls down upon itself. The game should just be much more polished than it is.

The leveling system is ridiculous. There are four levels for both Keldy's physical attacks and Faye's support magic. You gain levels by obtaining medals for defeating foes and for hitting them when they are in a panic, which is caused by hitting them with objects or enemies. This means that if you're in an area with few objects, you're probably not going to level up much, or you're going to have to go off a ways and drag some object back to an enemy. Once you've gone through the half an hour to an hour necessary to reach level four for both of the characters, you're rewarded by a level reset at the end of each chapter. I understand the attempt to keep the game fresh and challenging, but the game becomes tedious when the spells you were using just five minutes ago are no longer available to you, particularly level 2's healing spell. This makes the game artificially hard when you reach chapter eight and start fighting monsters that give you little to no medals. You're faced with the choice of either grinding for hours or trying to beat the boss at a low level.

Dawn of Mana also has one of the worst cameras I have ever seen. The camera has no qualms with showing you the inside of Keldy's head, making combat within close spaces a nightmare. Various jumping puzzles within the game feel nearly impossible because not only do you have to make difficult jumps, you have to make them blind.

Overall: Spending $50 on this game is a mistake. The game has numerous flaws that make the game frustrating and annoying, making the game feel like a budget title, while the overall plan of the game is confusing. Who wants to level up the same 4 levels every time a new chapter begins? It blows my mind. The game is probably worth a rent, because the physics are fun to play with, but the flaws in the game are so plentiful that actually trying to play through the game is a terrible experience.

With this, the Mana series has hit rock bottom. The simple leveling system and fluid battle system are what made the series so amazing. Add in multiplayer and Secret of Mana and Seiken Densetsu 3 are two of the greatest games I've ever played. This game tries to take the series in a new direction, but it replaces the tried and true staples of the Mana series and replaces them with buggy gameplay with a weak story and little exploration. Mana fans should avoid this game like the plague, because the high expectations the previous games have provided you with will let you down.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 05/30/07