Heroes of Mana? More like Boredom of Mana! Ha ha ha. Just kidding.
Heroes of Mana
Aka Seiken Densetsu DS: Heroes of Mana
2007
Nintendo DS
What’s the story?
On a happy little world with a bunch of happy little kingdoms, the happy country of Pedda decides to start takin’ over the whole globe. Our heroes are a group of Pedda soldiers that catch wind of this aggression, and vow to tour the planet to recruit every other country to war against their former home.
Who are the baddies?
After a goodly amount of warrin’, it is discovered that the leadership of Pedda (and a few conquered continents) is being possessed by the anti-goddess Anise, and it is time to put down the chaos witch from Dawn of Mana again. Note that we have another weird familial bond this time, as the Mirage Bishop that is causing all sorts of mischief is actually Roget the Hero’s twin brother. Shock and all that.
What is the Mana Sword?
There are 27 chapters to this game, and the Mana Sword pops up in Chapter 25. It is more of a deus ex machina than ever: Roget and the spirits get trapped in a dark mirror by Anise, and the Mana Goddess straight up sends a messenger with the sword to get the plot going again. Naturally, Roget then uses this sword to slay Anise, and sticks that pointy thing back at the tree for the next generation to fight over it.
How does it play?
As of 2025, Heroes of Mana is the greatest deviation from the traditional Mana gameplay. This is a straight-up real-time strategy game, and you are expected to spend a healthy chunk of every level mining resources, building troops, and then directing them all over a battle map. I personally have never been a big fan of the genre, so I do not feel I can speak from a place of authority if this take on the concept is any good. That said, it ain’t no Starcraft, and I’ve never seen anyone anxiously defend the gameplay of Heroes of Mana. I am going to go ahead and assume this is a bad game for bad people.
Is it pretty?
It’s pretty pretty. This is a DS game that was optimized for having many moving units on the battlefield at any moment, so things are vaguely small and “retro” for a game released in the age of polygons. But the art of characters and events is up to Mana snuff, and an art book of Heroes of Mana graphics would be a cute coffee table addition.
What is Magic?
The elemental spirits provide unit upgrades and options (like Gnome granting control over molebears). More interestingly, the Benevodons, the elemental world-destroyers sealed in crystals across the world, are afraid of the wicked witch, so they provide “summon magic” for screen-clearing attacks. Please use these destruction gods responsibly.
What’s Watts?
He is technically chilling in the mines somewhere in this world, but he does not appear on-screen. Watts was entitled to one game off, and he picked a good one to skip.
Are there Duck Soldiers?
Duck Soldiers are available as controllable monster unit “allies” for the first time since Legend of Mana. Please enjoy these missile units with their increased aquatic mobility. Note once again that any time the director of a Mana game makes a duck water-based, they did not understand the assignment.
What makes it good?
There are 27 missions, an additional hard mode, a “free battle” mode, and bonus maps you can complete for equipment and other rewards. If you like what is on this plate, there are large portions available.
What makes it bad?
Some of the most fun Square Enix games are titles where the gameplay deviated from their prequels (I will take Final Fantasy 10-2 over Final Fantasy 10, or Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII over Final Fantasy 13), but Heroes of Mana is not one of them. This is a series that has always been predominantly action focused, and waiting for a rabite to carry rocks back and forth is about as exciting as watching Mana Grass grow. It also doesn’t help that every moment between missions is just static character portraits talking at each other.
Anything else?
Heroes of Mana takes place on the same world as Trials of Mana, and officially occurs nineteen years before that plot gets going. A significant plot beat of Trials of Mana is that some previous generation had a war that depleted the world’s Mana reserves and exploited the destructive power of the Benevodons. And those are the sins you commit reflexively in every level as the “heroes” of this adventure. So good job breaking the world, dummies!
Even Worse Streams Presents The Mana Franchise
Night 8
Heroes of Mana
November 19, 2024
Random Notes:
- I am playing this beast, and, as a special bonus to fight off the relative monotony of this quest, I have also prepared a playthrough of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. That should keep BEAT, Chromes, Cassandralyn, fanboymaster, and Caithness happy.
Discussion on various Zelda adventures quickly drifts to Dragon Quest 3 and BEAT’s team of fightin’ playboy centerfolds.- We finally hit gameplay in Heroes of Mana as Link escapes Hyrule Castle with Zelda. The Mana franchise occasionally has issues with actually getting to the game.
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask: The Good Kind of Unnerving.
- “Please label this stream as ‘The Bob Between Worlds’.”
- Ample Vigour joins as we proceed through the second Mana chapter/The Eastern Palace is conquered.
- “Dennis Hopper is a cyberpunk.”
- “I only slapped one bug! I didn’t think it would die!”
- Hellraiser 3: Not all that great. Later Hellraisers? Not even worth mentioning.
- Caliscrub joins part way through my quarterly assessment. Gaze in amazement as we all attempt to time out ten minutes.
- “A chinchilla is a dog?” “I don’t know man. Whatever.”
- “Goku is a gadabout!”
Chromes catches us up on the latest Powerup Comics arc with Gamer Dilbert as I fight my way out of the desert/Dark Palace. Note that A Link to the Past has already passed its climatic world switch, and Heroes of Mana has still barely started.- BEAT has concerns about Wicked. I mean, we all have concerns about Wicked, but BEAT is very vocal about his opinions.
- As we wrap for the night, BEAT challenges fanboymaster on his song knowledge. Get ready to hear the names of a bunch of songs you don’t know!
Next time on Manapiece Theatre: Friends of the dead.