Heroes of Mana DS

[oblivion_6]

Just started this today and its a mixed bag to be honest.

Im gutted that it doest seem to follow the original playing method of Secret of Mana but I guess that just doesnt seem to be Squares way anymore.

Its more a Tactical RPG, think Final Fantasy Tactics but with the characters you all know and love from the Mana series.

Graphics wise its pretty decent with some superb manga-esque movies and also the 3d battles are pretty decent given the DS power.

Music is always great in Mana games and this is no exception, so far the tunes have been really decent, and when your going to be listening to them in repeat for probs 50-60 hours to complete this then thats a good thing.

I'll post more once I get further in but so far its not too bad, just dissapointed that they cant bring out a Mana game which sticks to the originals genius.

[MrBungle]

It is very strange that Square seem determined to screw around with a formula that had people falling in love with Secret of Mana. Why they can't just follow that template and give us something similar I'll never know. But I have to say this game does look sweet. Mana crossed with Final Fantasy Tactics should be a winner!

[Greg Moss]

Picked this up earlier in the week to keep me going until Luminous Arc and Zelda arrive. It's alot more RTS rather than S-RPG. I like it although it's a bit of a mixed bag to be honest, the music is fantastic, I love the art style and personally I think it's gorge to look at, really bright and colourful. 3 hours in and the story looks like it could be interesting, if not spectacular.

It's not a traditional RTS in the sense that you don't constuct buildings and stratigically place them on the map. Instead you have a base, which so far at least, has been a ship/plane type thingy, you click the ship to go inside it, where you constuct and produce units which then gather underneath. This does stop the small screen from being clutered with too many buildings, but it does mean if you leave too many units producing it can get quite hectic and hard to find units as they all group together. The main problem I have with the game, is that the map seems to be divided into lots of squares which can only be occupied by one unit at a time, so if you send 2 off to the same place, you'll often see them take different routes, the problem here is that one of your chaps/chapettes will often end up taking the scenic route and strolling into enemy territory to a less than warm welcome. Having said that though, the touch screen controls are wonderful, pretty much everything is done with the stylus, save for rotating the map (L/R) and scrolling, thats on the d-pad, although there is a button to flip the screens so that can also be done with the stylus if you so wish. Selecting and moving units is as simple as tapping them and then where you wish to go, and just tap the multiple char button and draw around units to select more than one at a time.

This could have been superb if they had sorted out the AI, but personally as an RTS fan, I think it's a charming way to pass the time until FFXII:RW comes out, hopefully that will be a little more solid than this.