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Children Of Mana is the
evolution of a title commonly thought-of as one of the best RPG’s
ever made. Although a few sequels have arrived in the
western-hemisphere since, none have captured gamers as Secret
Of Mana for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System managed to,
and none have seen as much commercial or critical success.
The Mana series is set to
explode over the next few years. SquareEnix have big plans to put
the titles back on the RPG map and, with the recent expansion of
their retail and distribution networks in Europe, we can expect big
things.
Children Of Mana purposefully
avoids relations with the PlayStation’s rather poor World Of Mana
and the Game Boy Advance’s mediocre Sword Of Mana – directly
relating itself to the SNES’s title; right down to using revisited
images of items such as Treasure Chests and returning traditional
enemies into the fray. Fears that the title will remove the story
element in favour of Multi-Player action are unjustified, as even in
the incredibly limited E3 demo it was apparent that, while Wi-Fi
play results in little more than a Hack-N’-Slash, the Single-Player
progresses through as you would expect.
The Elemental Sprites, which offer magic abilities, are now granted
individually and controlled by holding the B Button to perform their
solitary attack. The Triple-Hit Combo System returns, but the Level
Gauge remained distinctly absent from the E3 Code. The Item Rings
also return, pausing the game to allow the player to select Weapons
on the L Trigger and Items on R. A new deflective shield has been
added is executed by holding the A Button, which also acts as the
main attack button. Each character can now sport two weapons, with
the second attached to the X Button.
While the title’s graphics may be
deemed fairly simplistic when compared to the likes of Metroid
Prime: Hunters and New Super Mario Bros., there’s little
need for the 2D sprites to be presented any better, and
special-effects through magic use add depth. The Touch Screen is
used in a rather generic fashion – displaying the Map, your area and
Level; and the Experience required to progress to the next – but the
title still remains a tour-de-force of RPG know-how, and will most
likely become the NintendoDS’s essential Third-Party release late
this year. |
