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Square Enix delivers a new dungeon crawler on the Nintendo DS. The game doesn’t deviate far from the formula Square Enix established on the other Mana games. You’re still going from dungeon to dungeon defeating plenty of enemies, rinse and repeat. While it’s not the deepest game, the battle mechanics are fine and the presentation is as great as you expect from Square Enix.
Children of Mana is a direct sequel to Sword of Mana. The world at Illusia depends on you to help it survive and you heed the call of duty. Some of the story is told through animated sequences which look great thanks to the game’s stylish art style. The game lets you pick four characters at the start of the game. You can be a male hero, who is about average at everything, a female dancer, who is great at magic, a fighter, who has strong melee attacks and high defense, and a magic user who is even better at magic.
As I mentioned above, a bulk of the gameplay is to go to different dungeons, defeat enemies, advance to the next floor of the dungeon, and go to another. Each floor (called zone in the game) tasks you with finding a key (gleamdrop) and a door (gleamwell) to get to the next zone. While you’re free to leave the dungeon, doing so is discouraged because you’ll have to go through all of the zones again. The same applies if you die. It’s more than a little annoying to play through four or five zones, die, and have to do everything all over again. The game has a few other annoyances. You can’t save the game or change inventory at any time but only at select checkpoints which you’ll find after a few zones.
Given the emphasis on combat, it helps that the underlying battle engine is solid. The game has four main weapons (each of which with a secondary function) for you to use. The bow, for instance, can be used as a long-ranged weapon but also to charm enemies. The flair is a stronger semi long-range weapon that can also be used as a grappling hook to get far items. The hammer is a strong melee weapon that can also be used to have enemies thrown around the map. The sword is a quick melee weapon that can also be used to block attacks. You can carry two weapons at one time. As you fight, you’ll fill a fury gauge which lets you attack faster and execute special moves. Aside from the weapons the game includes a magic system via mana creatures, of which there are several. These creatures will help you take out enemies as well as heal you, etc. You can also use gems to increase your characters’ stats although you’re limited on the number of gems you can use.
One of Children of Mana’s best features is that it supports coop for up to four players. Dungeon crawlers are always more fun with more people (if only because the enemies get defeated quicker) and it works well here. The game also has a competitive mode where you and your friends are going through the dungeons trying to collect more money than the other people. It’s enjoyable and good to waste some time. Each player needs a copy of the game to play multiplayer, but it increases the replay value from the 10-12 hours it’ll take to beat single-player.
Although fine technically, Children of Mana is one of the most stylish games on the Nintendo DS. The game’s characters have that familiar Square Enix, anime look and look great on the screens. The bosses are huge and really make you feel like you’re nothing next to them. The backgrounds are very colorful and very detailed. It’s obvious that a lot of work was put into making this an aesthetically pleasing game.
The audio in the game is very good. The background music is catchy and fits the game very well. Although it looks quite a bit I wouldn’t describe the music as repetitive since it fits the game so well. The other sound effects are pretty good too but not as impressive as the music.
Children of Mana is a good dungeon crawler. The game does have some annoyances and you can argue that the gameplay isn’t deep but fans of the genre will be satisfied. The stylish presentation and multiplayer mode really help round out the package. -- Adam Nunez, PGNx Media
---- Nov 16, 2006
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