There were two Nintendo DS Mana titles, and they were both… let’s charitably say… enigmatic. Here is the first one!
Children of Mana
Aka Seiken Densetsu DS: Children of Mana
2006
Nintendo DS
What’s the story?
Following up on the climax of a game that was released later, Mankind is living in relative harmony with Mana in the Mana Land (Illusia Island) and the Mana Tree. But then a big surge of Mana erupts from the ground, and some Mana Orphans are going to have to use the Mana Sword to beat fused Mana Beasts and save the world from the mysterious Mana Lord. Mana.
Who are the baddies?
The backstory is that when the Goddess of Mana first ascended to Goddess-hood (again, see a different game), she was inexperienced and terrible at her job. As such, she created a pair of Children of Mana (ah-ha!) that were supposed to promote Mana through pamphlets or something. Naturally, they immediately went rogue AI and determined humanity should be wiped out for Mana. The most obvious naughty child is the Mana Lord (see the parallels with “Dark Lord” from Final Fantasy Adventure? Eh? Eh? It’s clever!), who is actively causing trouble from the beginning. Eventually, The Lord of the Mana reveals the final boss/baddie to be his brother, the Scion of Mana. At least the Mana Goddess provided a decent thesaurus to her children.
What is the Mana Sword?
This game starts with narration that this was the only time in history that the Mana Sword fought against Mana. So we are ignoring that that exact thing also happened two games back in Trials of Mana. And it damn well will happen again! Anyway, the Mana Sword is mostly on the side of the angels, as your protagonist repeatedly uses the sword to banish boss monsters. Like in Trials of Mana, the Mana Lord then nabs it for his own nefarious ends, and you get it back at the finale to stab his brother into oblivion.
How does it play?
Children of Mana is best described as a dungeon-crawler. All action takes place in seemingly randomly generated dungeons that are filled with monsters. While some areas have puzzle solutions like “break the right pot” or “open the right treasure chest”, the overall gist is that you must mop the floors of monsters. So it is basically a beat ‘em up. Luckily, the action gameplay is 10,000% more straightforward than anything that ever happened in previous Mana games. See monster, keep hitting monster. Maybe stand still and shield for reflect damage. Don’t worry about gauges.
Is it pretty?
Not dramatically so, no. The character portraits are works of art, but all the dungeons (where you spend most of your time) feel like compressed SNES graphics. Considering this was the same system that could easily host N64 games, it is disappointing we do not have something that rivals an ancient SNES title.
What is Magic?
You have access to all eight elemental spirits from the get-go, and you are allowed to bring one spirit buddy per dungeon raid. Like in Sword of Mana, each element gets one offensive spell, and one support spell. And spells work like Zelda-items, with easy button taps to shoot lasers all over the place. So they might be limited, but they do not slow everything down. Upgrade options are available!
What’s Watts?
Watts is a supporting character that is there from the beginning, and he has a few moments across the game where he notes his unwavering belief that Mana is always good (in the face of a dude that is using Mana for genocide). As is traditional, he has a distinct interest in gems and mines.
Are there Duck Soldiers?
Ducks start running amuck as early as the second, vaguely water-based dungeon. It is weird they were not saved for the following dungeon, the friggen’ desert. That is their natural habitat!
What makes it good?
This is another Mana title where the novelty lies in having accessible multiplayer. If you had a buddy with another DS and cartridge, you could raid dungeons with your respective characters all day long. That was probably fun! Nowadays, that is (practically) impossible/pointless, though. And it was 2006! You could have been playing Sonic the Hedgehog!
What makes it bad?
On your own, this gameplay gets extremely repetitive, extremely quickly. Swapping between your four main weapons seems to be the only source of variety across multiple dungeons, and even having four different “character classes” is little more than the difference between characters in Gauntlet. Red Poppen needs variety badly.
Anything else?
In a weird way, this feels like a midpoint between Final Fantasy Adventure and Secret of Mana. And that is inexplicable for a game that came out 13 years after Secret of Mana! It is as if all the edges of Mana gameplay were deliberately sanded off for the benefit of portable multiplayer hijinks. So basically they smoothed down the Rusty Sword expecting to wind up with the Mana Sword… but they whittled the poor thing into a toothpick.
Even Worse Streams Presents The Mana Franchise
Night 6
Children of Mana
October 22, 2024
Random Notes:
- I am a disloyal cur and you know it. BEAT, Caithness, Cassandralyn, Chromes, and fanboymaster (who is not late) are all in attendance to occasionally glance at what is happening in Children of Mana.
- Our chosen protagonist is Poppen the wizard kid with a red hat/ensemble. We will not be renaming this child. Poppen is keeping it fresh.
- “I need to look up every song that has ever been recorded in Simlish.”
I am told I am the person who writes these summaries, so I can include the lore no one lets me say during the actual stream. So here’s lore! That fire bird boss, Xangar, is a combination of two bosses from Trials of Mana, Xan Bie and Dangaard. In fact, the first four bosses in Children of Mana are all “combined forms” of Benevolodons from Trials of Mana. There is an explanation for this, but I already have confirmation no one wants to hear any further Mana Lore.- BEAT played through The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. Naturally, he has opinions on Link.
- Incidentally, this stream involves a lot of singing. Never synchronous singing, though.
- As we venture through Dungeon #2, hear the tale of my cool crime of stealing Sonic the Hedgehog 2006.
- “Have I ever told you the worst thing I ever did to a cat?”
- As we enter the first dungeon again (this is a very repetitive game), we examine the track list of Gameboy Advance American Idol.
- The world needs more midis.
- Caliscrub joins and I may or may not admit this game is pretty boring.
- And then this totally legitimate and not-laden-with-cheat-codes version of Children of Mana glitches out and needs to be reset. At least we have discussion of the Wachowskis to keep us busy.
- We make it back to the desert! And Chromes’ cat is deadly.
Ample Vigour joins just as we are examining the creators of Batman and how one is a superstitious and cowardly thief.- Ladder Tournaments: Professional Wrestling or Mortal Kombat?
- As we lament the fall of arcade sports games, we beat a three-headed beast… And the game shuts itself down. So we’re done now!
Next time on Manapiece Theatre: The Dawn of the end of the World.