Children of Mana (Nintendo DS, 2006)

Yet another disappointing title being released in the Mana series. The first Mana title was called Seiken Densetsu. It was released in the U.S. as Final Fantasy for Game Boy. The game was decent for a game boy title. The second title in the series was Seiken Densetsu II in Japan, released in the U.S. as Secret of Mana for the Super Nintendo. In my humble opinion, Secret of Mana was, and still is, probably the best RPG released for that console. While others may not agree, that is irrelevant. What matters is that the Mana series seemed to be well on its way to achieving status among RPG fans as being right up there with everyone else's favorite RPG series, Final Fantasy. The unfortunate truth is that, EVERY GAME RELEASED IN THE MANA SERIES HAS TURNED OUT TO BE COMPLETELY AWFUL when compared to Secret of Mana (U.S.). I feel that Squaresoft has taken this series in the wrong direction, and that more people should start pushing Squaresoft to bring this series into its maturity.

As for the game itself, you should realize that it's a dungeon crawler. The game isn't very open ended, and quests are extremely repetitive. The main objective of every level, or "zone", is to find a "gleamdrop", carry it to the "gleamwell", and hit "A". But wait, there's more, You do this about 300-400 times throughout the course of the game.

Then you go back to town. Same old town every time. The storyline is standard.
While the combat system is fun for an RPG type game, it's nothing new. In fact, Secret of Mana for the Super Nintendo was more innovative, and that was almost 15 years ago.

This game is just as my rating says, "Average".