Dawn of Mana

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Originally Posted by blueskied

This game is a pile of soulless trash whipped together just to make a quick buck.

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i don't think it's soulless, it just feels like they took all these great parts, developed them to perfection, then ran out of time and had to throw everything together to make deadline. It looks nice, it has some really great ideas, the stages are generally well thought out and are absolutely huuuuge. i just think they needed another year or so to pull everything together.
The stats resetting thing is pointless to complain about. The game is set up by stages so the enemies in the next stage would just have higher stats anyway. I'd rather be fighting Goblins and Mushbooms than color-swapped Green Goblin, Purple Goblin, Death Goblin, and Green Mushboom, Orange Mushboom, and Ultimate Mushboom.

I can't believe it but I agree with Finch.

Dawn of Mana is an interesting game with a lot of really good ideas and tons of boneheaded flaws. I think the level resetting thing is neither here nor there: this is an action game, not an RPG. There are less RPG elements here than in God of War. The use of physics is really neat. The level design is excellent and the panic system can be a lot of fun when everything clicks. As usual for a Mana game, the art design and music is absolutely amazing.

Unfortunately, it also has the worst camera in recent memory. The targeting system is worse than useless (and why does flicking the right analog stick to the LEFT switch targets to the RIGHT?!) and the camera attempts to control itself often enough to be a pain but not enough to actually be useful. Even the Kingdom Hearts camera was better because the targeting system in that game wasn't completely broken and you could still easily attack enemies despite not being able to see them.

The opening minutes of the game were astonishing. The original SD1 theme, a beautiful forest, rabites hopping around... I nearly had tears in my eyes. Too bad this game is simply a below average but still fun action game, not the Seiken Densetsu 4 that was promised.

And there's one colour swap I'm still hoping to see: a black rabite.

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Originally Posted by MechDeus

HOW DARE THEY!

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Using the title "seiken densetsu 4" was merely to trick consumers into buying a game Square-enix knew was too subpar to sell with any other name. It's like calling an action game "Final Fantasy 4" after three great role-playing adventures with the name "Final Fantasy" were released.

Kind of off topic but I figured I would ask in a mana thread. Is secrets all it's cracked up to be? After I finish chrono trigger (which I'm greatly enjoying) I was going to start on secrets.

@Rem: You mean Secret of Mana? Most people agree the game has not aged well. You'd be better to find the rom of Seiken Densetsu 3 with the English language pack, and play through that. SD3 still holds up today. It's an incredibly brilliant game.

I still love Secret of Mana. Played through it again with a friend last summer. Get someone to play with you Rem and you will love it.

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find the rom of Seiken Densetsu 3 with the English language pack, and play through that. SD3 still holds up today. It's an incredibly brilliant game.

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I'll be sure to do that.

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I still love Secret of Mana. Played through it again with a friend last summer. Get someone to play with you Rem and you will love it.

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I had no idea it was even a multiplayer game.

it's a 3 player game. i've never been able to play with 2 other people but i imagine it's pretty fun. was sd3 3 players as well?

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Originally Posted by rama

it's a 3 player game. i've never been able to play with 2 other people but i imagine it's pretty fun. was sd3 3 players as well?

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The only time I ever finished it was three player and it was so much fun.

Given, it was right after it released, but I'd still imagine it would hold up well (atleast multiplayer) today.

I remember playing 2 player Secret of Mana and finishing the game. That flying white dragon-ish thing was a motherfucker. But it was such a fun game to play with your friends in real-time. If someone put that on XBLA and made the multiplayer co-op functional over XBL I'd buy it.