Seiken Densetsu DS: Children of Mana

Originally Posted by Review

Way back in 1993, the Super NES action RPG Secret of Mana became one of then-Squaresoft's most beloved 16-bit titles. But then the series fell into inexplicable decline. The next Mana game never made it to the States, and subsequent entries released by the current incarnation of Square-Enix have never quite captured the same lighthearted hack-and-slash magic of the original on the SNES. Luckily, the Mana series (known chiefly as Seiken Densetsu in Japan) has yet another chance to shine with Children of Mana, a new DS game with the same aesthetic sensibilities and, hopefully, the same sort of action that made Secret of Mana such a winner back in the day.

The story here seems to be classic Mana and it is, of course, fully in Japanese. You start out by selecting from four characters, whose attributes in categories like strength and magic are fully displayed. We opted for Flick, the token well-rounded guy who's got reasonable skill in all categories. The other available characters naturally tend toward one extreme or the other. Once we selected our character, we were tossed into a whimsical forest village where not only the human residents dwelled, but also the eight classic spirits--such as Luna, Dryad, Salamander, and Gnome--who have defined the Mana series' magic system (and who will be quite familiar to series fans).

After speaking with the village authorities and experiencing a minor earthquake, we learned that something was amiss at a tower near the village, and of course it was up to our character to investigate the problem and bring back the village girl who was trapped there. At this point, you'll hit the game's world map, which really is just a map. It doesn't look like you'll be exploring any overworld-style areas in between towns and dungeons, since the starting town and our target tower were represented by icons on this map, and we could visit either one just by moving our character to the appropriate icon.

Once we got inside the tower, we found our long-dormant Mana skills being called immediately back into action. In other words, the core combat here feels a lot like the traditional overhead Mana games, like the original Secret of Mana or the more-recent Sword of Mana on the Game Boy Advance. You start out with just a basic sword, which you can use to pull off a rudimentary combo system, and you'll hack your way through floor after floor of familiar-looking enemies as you try to reach the top. Interestingly, you'll knock enemies around as you attack them, and they can bounce off of each other, so hitting one enemy into a group behind them can have some chaotic results.

The format of this first dungeon was quite straightforward, as you won't have to explore any mazes to find your way from floor to floor. Rather, you'll have to find a small brown egg of sorts on each floor and deliver it to a glowing portal, which will then teleport you to the next floor instantly. After we made it to the top and fought a giant phoenix, we were introduced to some of the combat abilities we'll have access to throughout the game, such as the ability to use not only the sword, but also a chain weapon, which can be swung around in a circle or charged up and shot in a straight line.

There seems to be a decent amount of RPG-like depth aside from the basic combat, too. You'll gain experience and level up as you kill enemies, of course, and we managed to pick up some new equipment, like a sword and new piece of armor, with specific level requirements for use. The game also has a gem-equipping system, whereby you'll collect gems of power during battle. You can then equip multiple gems onto your character to receive various stat boosts. Lastly, there's the magic. Before we headed off to the tower, we were able to pick one of the spirits to accompany us, and after we returned, we were able to swap to another spirit at will. Hopefully, later in the game you'll be allowed to carry multiple spirits at once, since commanding all of them is part of what made Secret of Mana a lot of fun.

Children of Mana is instantly recognizable as a Mana game, what with its cheerfully colored, hand-rendered backgrounds and traditional sprite-based characters. The art style is also consistent with past games in the series. From the friendly magical spirits to the classic enemies we encountered, it seems there will be plenty of elements that smack of the Mana franchise. There's also a surprising amount of full-motion anime-style video (not just during the lengthy intro movie, but also scattered throughout the storyline), which was created by legendary animation house Production IG.

So far, Children of Mana looks like a simplistic but faithful new entry in the Mana series that's heavy on traditional combat and storyline. It's also rather heavy on the Japanese text, so unless you just can't wait to check out the next installment in the series, you'd probably be better off waiting for the (presumably) eventual North American release. When that will happen is anybody's guess, but we'll bring you the first word when we get it. In the meantime, check out some new gameplay videos of Children of Mana in action.

Footage: 1 2 3 4 / Commercial

This game looks amazing. The box art is the one of the best I've ever seen, it's small on japanese, and it's big on adventure. Seiken Densetsu DS is a dungeon crawler, much like Azure Dreams or Chocobo's Dungeon. Battles are live, not turn or grid based. The interaction with the touchscreen is for potions and attacks, but I'm pretty sure that you're going to be using your finger instead of the stylus.

I have this on import, and play-asia's price is low at the moment. Even though there's some japanese in there, and japanese RPGs are difficult, this sounds quite promising. GameFAQs is slowly getting guides, and translations feel as if they're on their way. There's no official release date for an english release of this game, but it's one of those games which just appears as if it'll be internationalized.

Discuss.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Nice, you are getting imported? Once you get it tell me how it goes.

EDIT: Urg, I hope this game reachs internationaly if not I am going to kill Square.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Yep. Play-asia has it for $25, and last week it was only $20.

$20 for a japanese RPG Mana DS title? Yes please. Though it'll probably pay if I waited for an english release so I wouldn't need to use guides, I'm very impatient. The game looks fantastic from the footage I've seen, I could definitely see myself playing this title in japanese.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

20$? Holy crap, I will get my friend to use his CC to buy it and repay...

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

(taken from my journal)

This is extremely import friendly. I haven't spent much time with this game either, only 42 minutes of gameplay, but I haven't come to a bump to the point where I'm stuck.

The basis of this game is, you start by choosing a character. There's the boy with long, red hair, the girl with the bow, the fat cat "wanderer" which I chose, and another which I can't remember at the moment.

After you talk around town, and when you're talking with someone in the far northern east building, someone comes in with a gem. He puts it on the table and everybody inspects it. Then there's a noise, someone else comes in, and alerts you of what's going on.

It's difficult to explain it since it's all in japanese, but yeah. You go outside, and at the top of the town is the Mana tree. There's a sign on the tree, which breaks into pieces. From then you're set to find out what's going on. You take the gem and leave.

Just before you exit the town, a bunch of summons (I really don't know what to call them, but they're in my signature) appear. You get to choose one to take with you. I chose the leprechaun which is in my avatar at the moment, and then the world map popped up. Moved, entered a dungeon, then the guardian gives you a slight tutorial of the buttons.

The buttons are really simple. Y uses any candy/healing potions, A is your main attack. X is another attack slot, but at the moment it's empty. There's gems at the bottom right of the screen, and after you've killed enough enemies, it'll be full. Pressing select unleashes this "Fever" mode that makes your attacks faster, stronger, etc. The L trigger allows you to designate what the Y button does, for HP or MP rejuvination.

The B button uses magic, and summons your guardian. I haven't figured out how to use it, but it basically appears, and vanishes, depending on when you release the button.

In each dungeon there's this orb/egg thing, which you pick up, and then there's this glowing panel which transports you to another level. All of this reminds me a lot of Azure Dreams. Pressing start brings up a menu with an option to escape from the dungeon. If you do, a rope appears, and your character climbs up it.

The start menu brings up six different options while you're in town. Off the top of my head, I can remember that the top right one is the status menu. The one below that is the inventory screen, where you can equip swords and items. I've already found a couple of swords, but they have a little "Lv. 5" to the right of them, and I'm only level 3, so that makes sense. The middle left option is the gem creation menu, which I know nothing of yet. The top right one is where you're able to save your game, and I can't remember what the button ones were at the moment.

Overall, Seiken Densetsu is very import friendly. I wouldn't say I'm playing it for the story, but the graphics are beautiful. Imagine a combination of Saga Frontier 2's artistic 2D graphics, in a Mana world. It's much like that, and the videos (I've seen all of them, trust me) don't really give this game justice. The graphics are really something. Speaking of justice, that's something that this small impression doesn't give Seiken Densetsu either.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I want this game, but I'm waiting for the English version to come out (whenever that is). I just couldn't import a game like this, no matter how bad I wanted it. The only games I would import are games with minimal reading required (i.e. fighting games, music games, etc.) that are guaranteed not to come out here.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

There really isn't much of a story to Children of Mana, you're just exploring dungeons and killing the boss and moving on. You can be either Flick (I guess the one who would be the "main person" if you had to pick out of them all), Tumble (The only girl), Pop (the little boy) , or Wanderer (reminds me of Nikita ~). Whoever you pick will only really change who they speak to in the beginning of the game, and some of their dialogues during the story otherwise it's all the same business.

The spirits stop you before you leave to the first dungeon and you get to choose which one you want to take with you. You can change them anytime you are back in the village by talking to Tiss (she's the girl who is by the broken mana tree tablet). Your choices of mana spirits (from top to bottom, left to right) are Salamander, Gnome, Dryad, Wisp, Undine, Jinn, Luna, Shade. You hold B until you get engulfed in their aura then release it and they will be summoned (Lv 1 costs 5 MP, 2 is 10, 3 is 15. Their levels will be increased by gems you can synthesize later) and you can either push B again and they will charge offscreen until they do their attack, or you can walk into them to get their power (Salamander gives you Flame Saber which lets you deal fire damage and put monsters on fire, Undine is Ice Saber, Gnome is Diamond Saber, Jinn is Thunder Saber, Dryad is Aura Wave (Invulnurable to status effects), Luna is Life Boost (HP Regen for as long as it lasts), Wisp is Heal Light, and Shade is Invisible (you turn invisble, nothing really special just most monsters can't see you), or you can just let them sit there and they will blink and then unleash their spell.

The menu screen is pretty simple. Top to bottom left to right again, Save Game, Gem (This is where you swap Gems in and out to gain various benefits), Multiplayer, Status, Equipment, Leave Village / Call Flammie (Changes after you beat first dungeon). In dungeons the menu screen will only appear after every 4 levels, pressing start otherwise will just ask if you want to use your magic rope to leave (infinite uses).

In Fever mode you can unleash Killer Shots with your weapon by holding down it's respective button (A or X) and then letting go once you shine. This of course gets stronger and better as you swap in the gems to increase their levels (more synthesizing to do), the sword is a basic thrust through the enemy, the bow shoots three steel arrows that push back and stun, the flail whirls around twice in a huge arc, and the hammer just spins around eight times or so (probably the best source of damage from a Killer Shot). Also if you have the gem for Fever Slot you test your luck with Fever mode, possible outcomes are: All HP is recovered, All attacks will do critical damage, All damage is nullified, All attacks make Luc (the monetary unit in this game) appear, Fever mode is instantly ended, Random amount of HP recovery, or nothing.

Outside of Fever Mode the weapons also have secondary uses, Sword is Guard which reflects some projectiles back. Flail extends itself to either pull you to an object or pull the object to you. Bow turns into a harp and you unleash a Musical Note that will have most monsters dance in place for you to smack them around, or if it lands on the monster they will get stunned. Hammer just pounds the ground and is used for hitting various switches or knocking things away. You can switch which weapon you want to use by hitting R and then pushing which button you want the weapon to go to.

There's no real challenge since you cannot get a game over, dying merely puts you back in town with everything you had until you died. So you can just march right back in there and fight again. Although sometimes you'll just march right back to your death in some jobs (purchased from the Dugbears in a house on the left) since the enemies are plentiful and harder than in the normal dungeon.

FELIPE NO

From what I've read it has a pretty nice battle system, but unfortunatly most of the game is dungeon crawls (which I mean isn't too out of scope of the mana games )

How ya doing, buddy?

Somebody tell me how the music is.
I just want to know if it's up to par with the synthesized goodness of Seiken Densetsu 2 and 3.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Lacerta, you basically repeated everything I just said.

The music in this game is very relaxing and peaceful, I'd definitely like somebody to rip this if it were possible. I don't think there's an OST available yet (I haven't seen one on play-asia so far) so it would have to be a gamerip.

The battle system is great. Blocking attacks and having enemies ricochet around the dungeons is nice. The Gnome summon which I'm using at the moment is, apparently, an earth creature. It can sometimes give enemies the "no weapon" status, and it's main attack is an earthquake.

I'm playing as Wanderer (the fat cat) who is high on HP, yet low in everything else. I've worked out the gem system as well. On the left there's these slots where you can place gems into, and doing so gives attributes to your character. As you go through all of the dungeons, you'll find more gems which you can use to your advantage. It starts out as four slots, and it grows (it hasn't grown for me yet, but the back of the box shows a large amount of sockets with gems inside.)

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Elixir

Lacerta, you basically repeated everything I just said.

I guess, I didn't notice it until after I posted heh.

Also you can buy, sell, or create new gems in a shop in the house on the left. Some gems only come from sidequests, created by gem synthesis, or can only be found by getting a gold rank in dungeons. Some have negative effects, some only work in multiplayer, etc. Weapons can be bought or sold as well, and you can buy backpack extensions to increase the amount of things you can carry (maximum is 24, costs 30000 Luc).

Kind of lame that multiplay becomes a huge lagfest depending on the dungeon you go to.

Most amazing jew boots

It's a shame that the game won't release in the states for a while..

Still, the videos did keep me interested.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Neogin

It's a shame that the game won't release in the states for a while..

And who told you this?

I've heard nothing of Square Enix even thinking of taking this game outside of japan.

Most amazing jew boots

It's a shame they decided to take this game the route of Legend of Mana instead of sticking to the genius of Secret. Legend was mindless combat with little interest. This game seems to play out the same way. Walk into a dungeon, slay some creatures then slay a tougher creature. Wash, rinse, repeat. Little in the way of story. God I miss Secret of Mana.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Well if you think about it, SoM was just as much about constant combat as LoM.

The quality linear story of SoM was the thing that brings it above LoM (although I personaly loved the side stories of LoM).

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Denicalis

It's a shame they decided to take this game the route of Legend of Mana instead of sticking to the genius of Secret. Legend was mindless combat with little interest. This game seems to play out the same way. Walk into a dungeon, slay some creatures then slay a tougher creature. Wash, rinse, repeat. Little in the way of story. God I miss Secret of Mana.

And how far have you played through Seiken Densetsu: Children of Mana yourself to come to this conclusion? That's right, don't judge.

Dungeon crawler. D-u-n-g-e-o-n c-r-a-w-l-e-r, spanky, can you say it? Chocobo's Dungeon and Azure Dreams are much alike this game, but I don't think that's at all a bad thing. Chocobo's Dungeon was awesome, and while I never did get to play Azure Dreams (lack of incentive at the time, or something) it still wasn't a bad game. The only negative thing about Azure Dreams I heard was that there wasn't actually over 100 levels, but something like 68, or 78.

I've recently beaten the eyeball boss, which is the second boss in the game. I've worked out the gem system, too. There's a gem translation at GameFAQs, which actually helped me in buying a red gem which allows me to attack with a "wave" of energy after the third strike.

Wanderer is pretty much the powerhouse character. High in hp, not very good for int/bow. I'm going to focus on strength, and defense. The menu where you can add gems to your little backpack scroll thingy (middle left selection on the start menu) also tells you the gem name and what it does, which can be matched with the gem translation guide so you know what the gems you've picked up actually do.

The status menu I've also figured out. On the right, it follows downwards like this: Intelligence, Magic Defense, Defense, Skill. That's under the "MP" in blue. I still like Wanderer, and I think my strategy of sticking with non-elemental and a bruteforce attack character will pan out pretty well. All I need now is levels.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

It's like they tried to combine aspects from both SoM and LoM. The only problem is they messed up with the story.

Sure there's a lot of originality in it, but there's not much there to even want to pull you into it.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

http://www.gamekult.com/tout/actus/a...000047990.html

Looks like this game, along with Final Fantasy III's remake and a few other games are going to come outside of japan. This only means I'll be buying Seiken Densetsu: Children of Mana over again, but it's worth it. I'm really enjoying this game and I'd definitely play it again. So far I'm little over five hours in.

Although the english version isn't going to be much different, when you think about it. The box art will probably be different, and the only real benefit will be that you'll be able to understand what the gems do without a translation. If there's little story, which there appears to be, then an english version doesn't really matter.

By the way, anyone know what the people located top right in the middle left house do? I've recently figured out that the third option in the middle left house, top, is to increase your amount of items you've carried/personal upgrades. I still don't know what the boxes in the equip menu do (the last items, in the bottom, below the rings).

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Elixir

By the way, anyone know what the people located top right in the middle left house do? I've recently figured out that the third option in the middle left house, top, is to increase your amount of items you've carried/personal upgrades. I still don't know what the boxes in the equip menu do (the last items, in the bottom, below the rings).

Like I mentioned earlier those little Dudbear things let you buy jobs, which serve no real purpose other than to have you crawl through the dungeons more (sometimes up to 2x the original dungeon's length) and get something out of it, usually Luc or a Gem.

The boxes are nothing more than "key items" , which have no use outside of the story or in certain events.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Elixir

And how far have you played through Seiken Densetsu: Children of Mana yourself to come to this conclusion? That's right, don't judge.

Originally Posted by Elixir

while I never did get to play Azure Dreams (lack of incentive at the time, or something) it still wasn't a bad game. The only negative thing about Azure Dreams I heard was that there wasn't actually over 100 levels, but something like 68, or 78.

Thoughts on if this guy ever actually reads his own posts?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Quote:

Well if you think about it, SoM was just as much about constant combat as LoM.

The quality linear story of SoM was the thing that brings it above LoM (although I personaly loved the side stories of LoM).

I think the MAIN thing wrong with LoM was not its story but rather with its terrible and easy battle system. It was so choppy and easy and well, too slashy. I think the same can be said for Sword of Mana. They just had awful fighting. I dont understand why they just don't rerelease Secret of Mana along with the 3rd entry in the series that never made it over to the States.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Before:



After:



Way to butcher the box art. It could be worse, but the original is obviously better.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Elixir

Way to butcher the box art. It could be worse, but the original is obviously better.

I wouldn't say they butchered anything, since they're still using original character art. It's obviously inferior to the Japanese cover, but I'd still say that's still a pretty good cover, especially when comparing to most JPN-US transformations. Or worse, most US-Europe ones.

I love how they're using the Mana tree from the Seiken Densetsu 2 poster/cover there in the background



How ya doing, buddy?

Shit, is that Flammie on the Jap cover? I might finally have a reason to buy a DS. =o

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

*claps like a spoiled child* I can smell it getting closer. JOY.

Jam it back in, in the dark.