Sadly, the problems continue on the most basic levels. Even equipping items and saving your game prove to be annoying. You typically only have the opportunity to save your game and change your equipment after every four stages of a dungeon. Playing on the go and need to save your game in mid-dungeon? Sorry, no can do. You'll just have to put the DS in sleep mode and hope you don't run out of juice before you can reach a power outlet. If you find an item while questing, you won't be able to use it until you've cleared that fourth floor of the area. Making this even more troublesome, items can only be equipped at certain character levels. Generally, the treasures you'll find will be completely unusable for a few hours of playtime later -- if your character is able to use them at all.

There are other issues with the base gameplay (killing a horde of tough enemies only to have them immediately respawn and surround you is just loads of fun, believe me), but I think you understand things by now. If the designers had implemented some of the gameplay systems and concepts a little bit differently, or spent a bit more time fine-tuning certain elements, Children of Mana would be a much more enjoyable experience.


The Meaning of Friendship

Children of Mana offers an Ad Hoc wireless multiplayer mode that supports up to four players at once. One player starts up their game as the party lead, and three other characters can join them as supporting party members. Multiplayer mode is considerably more fun than single-player, if only because it introduces interesting new elements of both cooperation and competition to the game. Players can work together in clearing the floor of enemies or searching for the exit to the next level, or they can compete to see who can grab the most kills and items. In some cases, players might find they can get past a barrier or obstacle another player can't, or they can team up to send one player into a tough-to-reach area, allowing them to get into places and retrieve treasures one wouldn't be able to in single-player mode.

Unfortunately, even multiplayer has its issues. There's no wireless play, everyone needs their own cartridge, and you can't simply play through the game as a team. The places the party goes to are decided on by the leader alone, and only the player hosting the session can move forward in the story. If you can accept this, there's still a huge flaw in multiplayer: Players can't give or trade items they collect to others. If you get a rare item you have no use for but another party member would benefit from, there's no way they can get it from you! This huge oversight detracts considerably from what is otherwise a pretty good multiplayer experience.

The Kids Aren't All Right

With its weak story, dull combat, and host of annoyances, Children of Mana just isn't very much fun to play. Multiplayer can be enjoyable, but most of the time players will be going solo, and will be quite bored doing so. The game as a whole just feels pointless -- you don't connect with the world and its characters, and you never feel like you're really accomplishing anything beyond hacking up enemies and collecting items of varying usefulness. In the end, Children of Mana is another nail in the coffin of Square Enix's once-revered Mana franchise. One can only hope that the upcoming Dawn of Mana will be able to restore this series to its former glory, but when faced with weak efforts like this, it's hard to be optimistic. Children, see me after class.