Dawn of Mana
 

Cause I was curious about new creation of famous SquareEnix I decided to dive a little in to the game not completely understanding everything since only Japanese version is out.

From what I can say intro is rather like in some fairy tales... those boring ones, not showing any special effects it's just simple fairy tale start... BORING.

Main menu is simple & clean. Start and Options are only available way to go. Options doesn't contain any interesting stuff so let's just start the game. Easy and Normal as it was in Mana games, probable later Hard and Nightmare are available.

As for the first mission when we have to chase Pikachu kind monster well known from mana games. On our way to goal we will encounter killer mushrooms and birds that will drop candies and weird square shape symbols giving us additional HP or Power. Square is Attack, X is Jump and L1 is Block. That's all we need to finish this level in "no time". Why? We kill same enemies over a 100 times... no other enemies? Ehh it was quite boring but it's where I got my self now. My only weapon is wooden stuck... Let's hope that next few hours will bring some more action.

Graphic is on level of Radiata Stories or Kingdom Hearts 2 (for now) so no special effect explosion like it was with FF XII. Music and sound is awesome like it always was in Square games. Gamemp3's already have the OST ripped so go grab it!

Back to game!

So is Dawn of Mana the newest installment of Mana released in Japan for PS2? I think I went to the gfaqs board and they were complaining about how it still wasn't like a true successor to SoM, and it was again more like Children of Mana. Despite that, I want to go and grab the OST hoping that it will charm me like Legend of Mana's did.

The game was released already? Hah I didnt know that, I never played the older Mana titles so I hope this comes out in North America soon so I can play it.

The game was released in japan. Comes out in March I think?

I just hope it isn't as lackluster as Children of Mana. I like dungeon crawlers myself (Chocobo's Dungeon 2 was one of my favorite PS1 titles), but there's a difference between proper dungeon crawlers and ones which just have the same enemies in a slightly differently-arranged level and calling that a stage (which Children of Mana was guilty of).

So I saw this one uses the HL2 engine, so how exactly does it play? Is it fixed camera or over the shoulder? Is it playing in 3d like BFM or Kingdom Hearts (please no)? Is it kinda like the battles in Star Ocean?

There is not jump between fight and game. You just aper on a new level with weapon already equipped and start cutting everything on your way. Fights are more like KH. Camera is behind character like in most of RPG's but still it feels like KH one. There are not much attacks that we can make... some combinations with Block and Jump, that's all. We can use magic, shoot some seeds on the enemies and push objects like rocks, crates etc. I already got one boss fight but still I cant figure how do I use items or heal my self =P

Anyway I'm getting my X360 in a matter of days so better get back to game =)

From what I've heard about this game from importers who beaten it, is that the game seems to be lackluster in gameplay, but the kicker is there is no 2 player. Untill I see more good points in the game, looks like this is another franchise that has fallen from grace.

Was there any Mana game (released in the U.S.) that didn't completely suck besides Secret of Mana? Why don't they give up on this franchise already!

http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/929140.asp

I haven't really heard much of anything about this game, so I was actually considering buying it. But now that it's out...geez there's so many negative reviews about it.

I guess the series really did end with the SNES.

EGm and almost every magazine gave it a very low rating. I was under the impression that it would kick ass. They say it doesn't play as a Mana game >=/.

I guess Heroes of Mana are our last hope.

Since Heroes is a strategy RPG and completely abandons the usual combat systems used by the rest of the franchise, I wouldn't hold your breath. It's sad too, because some of the screens looked really cool. At least the soundtrack is excellent though.

Isn't there another Mana game for the DS being worked on right now? I could swear I heard a title somewhere. Since Heroes of Mana is a direct prequel to Seiken Densetsu 3 we could always revive that vague, trampled hope that it may be localized some day...

Word is that Heroes is actually a very good game, and possibly the best in several years, but it's an RTS soooo...

They haven't announced any other Mana games. Considering how critically panned Dawn of Mana was in the US and in Japan, and how badly Heroes bombed in Japan (don't think it's even hit 40k), the series might be officially dead.

It's a complete mystery how Square keeps managing to screw up such a simple formula. Story+ring system+several weapons+no one named Dark Lord. That shouldn't be difficult. In fact, it should be easy as hell to follow.

Well, Heroes will have to tide people over until the next one in the series. Which is fine by me, since Heroes of Mana is supposed to kick ass and feel like a Mana game. Just doesn't play like one.

I can put up with a strategy-rpg type of game. As long as the music guides me to play it all the way unlike the most recent rpgs that are out now >.>. That new Shining Force looked awesome at least.

Question though, did the music for Dawn bomb as well?

Children of Mana sucked as well. Guess Mana-games aren't what they used to be.

Perhaps Squeenix does not want to venture back to the magical place Where Angels Fear to Tread? :harhar:

How many good mana games were there? Secret and SD3 (I didn't even like SD3)?

And who here thought after playing SoE that it would be a better game than any of the other ones that followed. :(

Legend of Mana was awesome. I'd like to say it ended from there. Seriously, the OST of that game is legendary.

For some reason Dawn of Mana runs on the Havok engine. Which for some games (like Crackdown), work out good, despite how much lack of depth the story has - you can fucking moon jump everywhere which makes it fun.

But for Dawn of Mana it doesn't really work too good. I think the game looks good, but this game's worth it for 3D Flammie. That's it. It's only about 20 hours long.

I liked SD3, because it was multiplayer. I had quite some fun playing the game with Juanzen and Lacerta through ZSnes.

I thought so...I didn't care for the OST at all. It didn't really have the special feel the previous Mana OST's had (in fact, the best part were the remakes from previous Mana games) and was just..."blah" music. Ito/Sekito don't come close to Kikuta/Shimomura. They barely did anything different from Romancing Saga: Minstrel Song, although Sekito did more original themes (mostly ambient stuff).

Unfortunately, I haven't seen much about this game to get me excited about it (although the background artwork is excessively beautiful).

Agree about the OST too. I deleted just about every track except for the title theme. There were a bunch of rehashes of old songs being tagged as "SK4" or "Hurry Up" versions of songs, which either made them slightly more rocking or faster, but nothing spectacular.

Saw this out finally and I felt no excitement towards it sitting there on the shelf, with all the negative word of mouth. I think that's a bad thing.

The mana series is done. As good as SDII and SDIII were, Legend was ok imo and have not played heroes yet.