Binding: Video Game Brand: Nintendo EAN: 0045496737702 ESRB Age Rating: Everyone 10+ Feature: Videogame Handheld Software Nintendo DS Games Label: Nintendo Manufacturer: Nintendo Model: 45496737702 Platform: Nintendo DS Publisher: Nintendo Release Date: October 30, 2006 Sales Rank: 5565 Studio: Nintendo
Product Description: Children Of Mana takes us back to ages past, when an island called Illusia floated at the center of the world. At the heart of the island towered an ancient, enormous tree that stretched up to the very heavens. When a time of darkness comes, chaos and sorrow engulfed the world until at last its salvation appeared - in the form of a boy, a girl, and a holy sword.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Fall of Mana
The Mana Series has always intrigued me, Secret of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 2) was excellent, Seiken Densetsu 3 (Japan 'sequel') was even better. After that the series began it's slow and never ending slump.
Children of Mana was the first non-remake in the Mana series in nearly 6 years. The last Mana title, Legend of Mana was a decent game, but it didn't compete against Seiken Densetsu 2 or 3. Eventually, SquareSoft decided to revive the series, but this was the start of their mistakes.
The newly titled "World of Mana" would release 3 of Square-Enix's trashiest games ever.
Children of Mana was the first, released for Nintendo DS. I picked up this game when I first got my DS, incredibly excited to play it. Pop it in, confused by the plot, random sidequests etc., I start playing. Hey, this is kind of cool... Finish the first tower, next world. Hmm, maybe a bit better lets hope! Exact same gameplay, different level setup.
It's basically Legend of Zelda with random gems that give you insanely good powers, and a flail that kills anything touching you within a 3 square radius.
The games a typical dungeon crawler, you have multiple weapon classes, albeit with a different power/ability/special attack. The games incredibly easy. Each level you get percentage completions based on time it took to complete, treasure chests obtained, etc., The only way to get gold ranking is going through each level way later in the game. Even then, miss 1 treasure chest (some require 'puzzles' to obtain), and you lose.
Magic is supposed to play a role in the game, but it's the worst excuse for magic ever. It's horrible, not even worth using. Items are trashy too, theres not really much control of obtaining items, just buy them when you see them.
The only thing I loved about the game was gem fusion. Each gem has powers, and you can bind with other gems to make better gems. Some give double experience, some improve weapons, some improve 'special attacks', some are so useful that it makes the game virtually impossible to not walk through it.
The further you get into the game the more predictable it gets. The dungeons turn into really long mazes that aren't even a bit fun. So here's my final rating.
Gameplay: 7/10 It's not horrible, it's not good. I was kept busy by it, I'll admit I had fun. But, it left a lot to want back. If I had a better RPG at the time (Like Magical Starsign, Etrian Odyssey, or Phantom Hourglass) I'd have played those instead. Nonetheless, I can't say I overly disliked it.
Graphics: 6/10 They aren't horrible, after Legend of Mana I expected really excellent graphics, which they are in the cities. The second you enter the battlefield it's like they went to a small budget.
Interface: 7/10 Nothing special, nothing bad about it.
Length: 8/10 It'll keep you occupied for 20 hours.
Difficulty: 7/10 Not hard, not horribly easy. I never died in the game, which isnt typical :)
35/50, 70/100.
If you're looking for combat similar to Link to the Past, but easier, heres your game. It's okay, I doubt I'd replay it though.
Rating: - Repetitive & Dull
I originally started playing games in the Mana series with the classic SNES game "Secret of Mana", and picked up this game hoping it would be a similar experience.
Unfortunately this game is insanely repetitive, forcing you to return to the same handful of levels over and over again with slightly different enemies and slightly different goals. In addition there is almost no DS functionality at all in this game, and it feels like it was originally meant to be a Game Boy Advance game that was clumsily ported over to the DS.
If you can find it used or at a discount it's worth a few dollars, but for anyone other than the most hardcore RPG fanatic this game will be boring and frustrating.
Rating: - Easy to like but hard to love
Truth be told, I've never played a single game from the Mana series. Not that I didn't want to or thought it childish but rather store availability was always sketchy and other titles always seemed to be in heavy supply. Finding Children of Mana at the store and despite mixed-but-mostly-negative reviews, I blind bought the game and after awhile I pretty much shared the feeling a lot of people had: what the game could've been sticks in your mind more than what the game is.
Story: The story in the game is super cliche, simplistic and not as deep as others but then again, they all can't be Xenosaga right? Turns out there's a mana surge with huge columns sprouting up in the world and it's up to you to save the world from doom. Yeah, not the most original story but like Lunar, it's sort of a story that makes sense given the graphic style but you kinda wish there was a bit more deepness than this.
Graphics: I've always loved the art style of the Mana series since at times it's very anime-inspired and other times it's got a very colorful storybook feel to it like those kids books you read to your little ones before sleep. While sprites aren't the most detailed, it's certainly a very bright and colorful game and there's a few anime cutscenes interspersed throughout the game as opposed to just an intro/ending duo.
Sound/Music: Very typical of fantasy soundtracks with flutes, pianos and the like supplying the melodies and while I wouldn't call it a "must buy" soundtrack, it's certainly a charming thing to have when you're playing the game. No voice acting to speak of and sound effects in game are usable though not spectacular which was sort of the point.
Gameplay: Where the game severely gets marked down and it's kind of a shame too because this kind of RPG was kind of refreshing. After so many turn-based RPG's, it was nice to pick up a dungeon crawler where you fight enemies that show up on screen and dish out combos. One fun thing was to smack enemies into other enemies which damages them even further. However, the game is unbelievably repetitive since stages consist of several floors of enemies where you have to find an item which, upon taken to a specific spot, will progress you further. This game is sort of for the younger set where they don't mind repetitively doing stuff over and over but for older people, this can wear thin easily.
Another knock is how you handle your items. While I somewhat like the idea that you can't immediately equip a weapon lest you're at a certain level, it's irritating when a sword goes on sale but it's level 21 required when you're at level 11. But when the sword/clothing can be found in-dungeon, you can just level up to the required level and equip right? Wrong, you're only allowed to do one thing when in a dungeon: fight to the end or quit and lose all progress except for exp/items earned, THEN you can equip it. Granted they do allow a checkpoint where you can do it but not being able to do it during the stages themselves is disappointing.
It's hard to fully recommend the game since there's lots to like but like most games, the ball was dropped quite severely.
Rating: - not what i expected it to be
I like the mana series so I got this to play it, but it wasn't what I expected from a mana game.
Rating: - A little tedious
I enjoyed this game for the first 4-5 hours, though I tended to keep replaying some of the dungeons not knowing where to go next or if they were acceptably complete. The graphics are neat and the cute characters and environments are very appealing.
However the game got pretty tedious as I got to the tougher dungeons. Not only are the dungeons long - many stages of enemies and a boss, but you can't save in the dungeons. Furthermore if you die or complete the dungeon without completing the objective you have to replay from the beginning. Very unforgiving, and like I said, the objectives can be unclear.
- Fall of Mana
- Repetitive & Dull
