Patreon button  Steam curated reviews  Discord button  Facebook button  Twitter button 
3DS | PC | PS4 | PS5 | SWITCH | VITA | XB1 | XSX | All

Children of Mana (DS) artwork

Children of Mana (DS) review


"So, I just finished my first of two imports for my DS. The name of the game, as you should know, is Children of Mana. I'm not one for introductions most of the time, so let's just cut to the actual review. "

So, I just finished my first of two imports for my DS. The name of the game, as you should know, is Children of Mana. I'm not one for introductions most of the time, so let's just cut to the actual review.

Controls:

The control structure of this game is adequate. You have two forms of attack, one with A and one with X. You assign one of four different weapons to these buttons, which are the chain, the hammer, the sword, and the bow. It allows for something different, instead of just a hack and slash limited to one weapon at a time. All 4 weapons have have three different kinds of attack: The default attack, a special attack, and a fever attack. The default attack is a button press. The special attack requires you to charge your weapon, and the fever attack requires you to be in Fever mode and charging your weapon. It does pretty decent damage. A bit about the Fever mode: When you kill enemies, your Fever gauge rises. Once it's maxed, you can hit select to be able to use your fever attacks, which kill enemies quickly.

The menus are easy to navigate. You can use the touch screen for this, but I found that throughout the game, it just isn't worth using the touch screen, when the directional pad moves much faster. Your standard game menu allows you to save, equip items, equip gems, check your status, exit a dungeon. There's a 6th option, it was never selectable for me, I assume it's for multiplayer support (Trading items, etc. I don't really know though).

As for talking to people, usually you have two options, whatever the character is used for, like a shopkeeper, and then the option to talk to them. Primary options include shopping, changing your elemental, and training.

Sound:

I found that this game has a good soundtrack. It's decent at times, the boss themes aren't too bad, and I only found one track to be annoying in a dungeon, primarily because it was calm and tranquil as opposed to the environment, where you're killing things.

Gameplay:

You're going to run around and kill things. This is the premise of the game. Kill enemies, defeat the boss, go back to town, buy and equip new items and gems, talk to everyone, head to the next dungeon. At this point, you're wondering why anyone would want to play this game. Well, it's fun. The dungeons are all varied, and based on a theme. The environments, to an extent, can be destroyed and interacted with. Enemies can be knocked back into each other (This can get fun with the hammer, causing chain reactions). There's a magic system, I don't recommend using it much, because it's worthless. I used three elementals throughout the whole game: Salamander, Shade, and Wisp. However, they had cool effects. Salamander dealt fire damage, Shade could deal damage or turn you invisible, and Wisp could heal you for 30 HP (This gets worthless later on) or deal damage. Side quests exist too. There's an agency in the mall that hires you out for money and items to do different objectives, which mainly consist of head to dungeon and kill all enemies, or get to a certain floor. You get paid, gain a level hopefully, it's not too bad. There's other side quests with characters too, which net you special items, but I didn't do any of these. The actual dungeon levels consist of bringing a mana egg to a mana portal. There are four ways to obtain it: Destroy parts of the environment, open treasure chests, kill a certain enemy, or kill all enemies. The portals usually have to be found by destroying something with the hammer. Every four levels, with the exception of the final dungeon, which ended up being every five, has a respite. It brings up a menu where you can choose to change equipment, change gems, save, or leave. It's useful and convenient. This game hass multiplayer. I believe all players involved must have a copy of the game, and there is no WiFi with other players across the world, but it's a fun little romp together.

Graphics:

The graphics in this game most resemble Sword of Mana and Legend of Mana. They're great and full of life. The levels are all themed to their specific element, which changes it up a bit. I believe the world we're going for to describe the graphics is vibrant. The character and monster sprites all fit in, and a good portion of the Manaverse monsters make a return, however, no rabites until the third dungeon.

Conclusion: 8/10

I found this game to be a worthy import title. It comes out in English at the end of this month, so, pick it up if you want all the details on the story, or if you prefer your games in English. This game does warrant a $30 purchase, and try to get a few of your friends to pick it up too so that you can enjoy the multiplayer fun that should come with it.



rabix's avatar
Community review by rabix (October 08, 2006)

A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.

More Reviews by rabix [+]
ActRaiser (SNES) artwork
ActRaiser (SNES)

Are you there Master? It's me, Tanzra. See, I've got this problem. I want to destroy all of civilization and plunge the world into chaos, but you're the only thing that stands in my way. So, I think I'll just seal away your powers for awhile...

Feedback

If you enjoyed this Children of Mana review, you're encouraged to discuss it with the author and with other members of the site's community. If you don't already have an HonestGamers account, you can sign up for one in a snap. Thank you for reading!

You must be signed into an HonestGamers user account to leave feedback on this review.

User Help | Contact | Ethics | Sponsor Guide | Links

eXTReMe Tracker
© 1998 - 2024 HonestGamers
None of the material contained within this site may be reproduced in any conceivable fashion without permission from the author(s) of said material. This site is not sponsored or endorsed by Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Microsoft, or any other such party. Children of Mana is a registered trademark of its copyright holder. This site makes no claim to Children of Mana, its characters, screenshots, artwork, music, or any intellectual property contained within. Opinions expressed on this site do not necessarily represent the opinion of site staff or sponsors. Staff and freelance reviews are typically written based on time spent with a retail review copy or review key for the game that is provided by its publisher.