I must confess that I'm something of a fan of the Mana series. Final Fantasy Adventure on Game Boy gave me lots of good times on long vacations, and Secret of Mana along with its Japan-only sequel, Seiken Densetsu 3, are among my very favorite SNES games. The more recent Mana installments have failed to live up to the legacy of these titles, however. Legend of Mana was graphically and aurally gorgeous, but often felt pointless and dull. Sword of Mana was a misguided remake that failed to recreate the fun of the original Final Fantasy Adventure. With these two disappointments in memory, I dove into Children of Mana, desperately hoping that perhaps this time I would feel the same sort of magic as when I first plugged Secret of Mana into my SNES. Sadly, it was not to be. The latest in the series is content with being merely mediocre.

Flower Children

You start out the game by picking a character from one of four RPG archetypes: Well-Balanced Fighter, Slow Big Guy Who Hits Hard, Weaker But Speedy Cute Girl, and Magic User Who Sucks at Everything Else. Once you've made your selection and customized your character's colors, you'll dive headfirst into the story. Children of Mana tells the tale about a village on Illusia isle, where some big cataclysm happened ten years ago but now everyone lives in harmony with nature spirits and prays to the Mana Goddess, or some hippie stuff like that. Anyhow, one day an evil guy dressed in black starts making monsters appear and uses his magic power to ravage the land. The Mana Sword, Mana Tree and Mana Goddess are somehow involved in this all, too, and as usual, your hero of choice has got to save the world, blah blah. It's not just that the game's plot is a mash of boring clichés, but the narrative is so haphazardly presented that half the time you'll forget this game even has a story. If the game doesn't bother to tell its story well, why should the player be bothered to care about it? Characterization is even worse, with player characters and NPCs having only the bare minimum of stereotypical personality traits. You're not going to be playing Children of Mana for its plot.


It's hard to find fault with Children of Mana's presentation, though. The graphics and setting design are absolutely gorgeous, and the music is some of the best to come out of the Nintendo DS. Many familiar elements from Mana games past, like certain enemies and the eight elemental spirits, make a return, and they look better than ever before. But graphics and music alone do not a good game make.

Misbehaving Youngsters

Since the poor plot and great presentation kind of balance out, it's up to the gameplay to really define Children of Mana. Sadly, it's not quite up to the task. When it comes right down to it, the game is a pure dungeon crawler. You progress through a dungeon that's arranged in stages, each containing a mostly random selection of enemies, traps and treasures. In order to proceed to the next stage, you need to find a hidden item called a Gleamdrop and take it to the Gleamwell portal. The drop can be hidden in pots, plants, or chests, or it may be in the hands of an enemy you need to defeat. After a certain number of stages, you either accomplish your goal and exit the dungeon, or battle a gigantic boss enemy.