After over a decade Square-Enix Mana saga returns to home consoles with Dawn of Man for the Playstation 2.
Game play – Dawn of Mana plays very different from its Super Nintendo upbringings in Secret of Mana. The game swaps out the free roaming world found in the original and handheld versions for a level based system broken up into chapters of the game story. The problem with this is each new chapter in the game restarts the heroes experience back to level one. This makes the first 15-20 minutes of a chapter almost insanely hard to complete because you’ll be left with no way to heal until you have enough experience to reach the next level. The combat in Dawn of Mana has also taken a turn for the worse. Shortly into the game the hero gets the ability to grapple enemies and toss them into one another. However, while the game will let you target the original foe there is no targeting system for where to toss him next. The game does have somewhat of a auto target system where if you’re standing still it will toss the grappled foe at the next nearest foe or object, but this still leads to the original target being swung around and knocked into a target you may not be looking to do battle with at the moment. Grappling does have its playoffs however by gaining you experience to level up the hero. Once a foe has been tossed into an object or another enemy a timer will start to tick down, and as long as that timer is ticking you will gain ability points towards the next level. The timer can be increased by continually tossing a foe into others, but without a way to tell the grappled foe where to go it can be frustrating to get the experience and level needed to beat the chapter just to start all over again in the next. Thankfully, there is a somewhat forgiving checkpoint system that never really sends you back very far when you do die in battle.
Graphics – While not the most technically advance game on the Playstation 2 artistically it’s a joy to look at. The game does support progressive scan and that’s about it from the tech standpoint of things. The effects you get from the magic in the game are also quite simple. The game does make use of the Havok physics engine for grappling and when everything is working tossing a foe into a wall and seeing it crash down is enjoyable. The Mana saga has always had a wonderful world with bright colors and characters, and Dawn of Mana does a great job bring them into 3d. From the smallest rabbite to the lead the art style just works. There are also some good looking CG cinematic movies, but they are not up to Square-Enix Final Fantasy standard.
Sound – Dawn of Mana has a great musical soundtrack, and the voice acting is solid in most of the roles. The game is narrated from chapter to chapter by some of the magical helpers you get in the game. In game cinematic are also voice over and surprisingly the team will also have voiced conversions while in dungeons or moving from some areas to the next. This does a great job of developing the characters without stopping the game play in a textbox.
Value – While the story mode to dawn of Mana is not that long there is replay value in going back. After completing a level a ranking system gives the overall stats, scoring high enough will earn you emblems that can raise your level at the start of a new chapter. There are also multiple difficulty modes to go back and beat for more powerful emblems. The game also has a area mode which is more of a way to test your emblems out, but you can earn gold and other rewards towards more emblems and items. There are quite a few missions in the area to keep those who want everything busy with the game for quite some time. The game also has a tacked on multiplayer, but it’s nothing more than the 2nd player swapping magic for you. While this can be very helpful in some battles, it’s nothing compared to the multiplayer found in Secret of Mana.
Tilt – While Dawn of Mana does not live up to the Super Nintendo Mana saga its short comings are really only in the targeting system. The boss battles are still just as epic, and the story is something fans of the series should enjoy.