It's as if the gods were smiling upon RPG fans around Japan. The land of the rising sun has seen a deluge of great RPG titles over the past couple of months, starting with Kingdom Hearts II, and then Monolith Soft's Baten Kaitos II. Debuting a mere two weeks before Square Enix's Final Fantasy XII, DS owners finally get the five star treatment with an RPG that continues the legacy of the Mana series, entitled Seiken Densetsu: Children of Mana. Spearheaded by Kouichi Ishii of the previous Mana games, and Masato Kato (Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, and Xenogears) as the scenario designer, Children of Mana is an action RPG much like its predecessors. This time, the newly born Goddess of Mana and the Tree of Mana take center stage in the storyline, along with Flick, the main protagonist in the game.

Like all of the games in the series, Children of Mana's biggest draw are its graphics, which are absolutely stunning, to say the least. Despite the constant push for 3D graphics on the handheld systems, to see these beautifully pieced together pixels animate on the DS will make one believe that there's no need for a third dimension on the platform. Flick and his comrades move about the screen with amazing fluidity, and some of the bosses in the game while huge, still animate well.

Even in the dungeons, the game will throw numerous enemies at you, sometimes even seven or eight of them at a time, and the game won't skip a beat. Even more impressive is the quality of the video cut scenes that are scattered around the game. The opening movie of course is the most impressive video (and even rivals what you'd see on home platforms), but the in-game videos are well-done too. Some movies even utilize both of the DS' screens to give you a much better view.


Despite the visuals, recent Mana games have been criticized for not being enough like the SNES' Secret of Mana, which is still heralded as one of the best action RPGs ever created. Fans of SoM will be slightly disappointed because Children of Mana's story isn't nearly as epic as its SNES ancestor, but the gameplay is solid and intuitive. In Children of Mana, you are given two buttons for a primary and secondary weapon, which you'll receive early in the game. The B button allows you to summon a spirit, which you get to choose in between dungeons. These spirits can do anything from healing you to casting status effects on your enemies, but they take up valuable MP. In fact, they are the only resource that uses it. The Y button is used as a hotkey for an item, which you can change by calling up the item rings with the L or R trigger.

During battle, there's a meter present that builds up as you defeat enemies. Once this meter is full, you can enter fever mode by pressing the select button. Fever mode is a roulette that can help or hinder you by providing you with different status effects. You could get more damage per hit, or invincibility for a few seconds. However, you can also contract poison, or do less damage per attack.