Title Dawn of Mana Date 06.07.2007 Genre RPG Platform PlayStation 2 Developer Square Enix Publisher Square Enix

Seiken Densetsu, otherwise known as Mana, is one of Square's (now Square Enix) longest running series. Many installments have been released, but it seems that the ones from the Super Nintendo days are the most popular. In particular, it appears that every post-Super Nintendo Mana game has been compared to Seiken Densetsu 3.

Long time fans who have played through the newer Mana often have a lot of criticism for the installments. Most of it really comes from the newer Mana games not being similar to the older ones. View the said products not as Mana games and they are still quality standalones. Then comes Dawn of Mana and the same criticism recent Mana games face. Does the "not being similar to older Mana" excuse apply?

To an extent, it does apply but Dawn of Mana really deserves the criticism. The game, as some players insist, is largely incomplete due to the fact that Koichi Ishii, Mana's creator, wasted development by not really trying. As one who has extensively played Dawn of Mana, it is unfortunate to say that Koichi Ishii indeed did not put out his best efforts. Consequently, Dawn of Mana is the worst Mana product in essence and as a standalone quality as well.

Graphics
Dawn of Mana's visual presentation is decent to say the least. Technically, the game sports mediocre graphics and, for a Square Enix product, somewhat outdated. The environments are basic and the textures are bland. The special effects are nothing to be amazed at as well. However, Dawn is able to provide massive environments as a result of the lower graphical quality. The environments are just incredible in size and really make similar games in the genre look tiny as a result. Another strong point for technical prowess is that Dawn of Mana is completely load-free until a scene plays out. This is an impressive achievement, more so than what similar games with load-free times have done.

In regards to art direction, Dawn of Mana stays true to Mana tradition. The transition from 2D to 3D is successful as Mana familiars like Flammies retain aspects of their beautiful artwork. Detail is not sacrificed as well in this regard. As far as character design goes, each character is loaded with plenty of detail and their outfits stand out as distinct and unique. The enemy designs are impressive and detail is clearly shown in each enemy. The only complaint here is that palette-swapped versions of enemies exist. This is normal for most RPGs, but there should be no need for them in today's RPGs.

Plot
Dawn of Mana takes place in the world of Fa'Diel and is the prequel to all Mana games. At the helm of Dawn of Mana's plot are a boy called Keldy and a maiden known as Ritzia. Dawn's plot, being the very first in the Mana timeline, explores backstory elements such as the Mana Tree. The game takes place as an army of soldiers, lead by a knight known as Stroud, attempts to invade the village that Keldy and Ritzia live in. As one can expect, the situation turns out poorly and it is up to Keldy and Faye, a fairy who meets Keldy, to correct it.

Plot progression is rather typical of the average Japanese-type of RPG, which is a bit disappointing. Character development is sidelined in that Keldy and Faye have the most development of this Mana's cast. The main villain, Stroud, hardly gets much development and the minor characters are barely mentioned at all. For Mana fans wondering about certain backstory elements that lacked a clear explanation, Dawn of Mana will likely be more pleasing.

Gameplay
The functional aspects of Dawn of Mana are easily the worst area in the game. Actually, to say the quality is bad is quite the understatement in Dawn of Mana. At first glance, it appears that Dawn of Mana uses the Kingdom Hearts engine along with Havok physics well. This impression changes very quickly upon playing the game for more than a few minutes. While the premise of Dawn is a simplistic action RPG with environmental interaction, the reality is a harsh one. If one needs reasons to believe as to why Koichi Ishii put little to no effort into Dawn of Mana, look no further than the gameplay itself.

In regards to how progression works in Dawn of Mana, the concept is certainly unexpected. The game is structured into chapters and the design style is that of a dungeon crawler. Where does it deviate? The simple fact that Keldy loses everything and he is reset back to level 1. After the completion of a chapter and heading into the next one, Keldy magically loses his fighting experience for reasons unknown. This means of progression is not properly implemented and ends up as a serious design flaw.

Basically, Keldy has to obtain stat boosters from the enemies. To do so, Keldy must defeat enemies inflicted in Panic status. These boosts are minimal and it takes a lot of stat boosters to rise in levels. By having to repeat the process in each dungeon, Dawn of Mana degenerates into what some may call a "grind fest". By this, the player merely fights many enemies to increase in potency and experience. Instead of having an enjoyable experience playing Dawn, the game quickly becomes a boring and tedious chore.

Emblems, which are accessories that can be equipped prior to a chapter, can mitigate some of the trouble of "grinding" to get back levels. They are obtained by meeting certain conditions in the game and buying them at the Shop. This compensation system suffers from some serious problems. The enhancements provided by Emblems are disappointingly small and do little to alleviate issues with progression. Furthermore, Emblems have very difficult requirements to meet and very few are obtainable normally. Lucre, the game's monetary value, is obtained in very small amounts and Emblems are worth quite a fortune. Suffice to say, there are balancing issues with the Emblem system.

Moving onto the interface mechanics, an abundance of design flaws are found here. For a game to use the Kingdom Hearts engine and adding on the Havok physics engine, Dawn sure doesn't do things properly. First, the control scheme for Keldy is cumbersome and controls do not flow as well as they should. For a simplistic action RPG, the controls are a lot more complex than what they are expected to be. Keldy can do basic actions such as attack, run, guard, and jump. Keldy also gains the use of arrow projectiles and a whip for Mono usage. The complexity lies in the button placements for each action. The end result is a control scheme that feels uncomfortable and not second nature.

The second noticeable design flaw lies in the mechanics of targeting. There are two types of targeting systems: one for Mono and the other for enemies. Targeting works similar to other action RPGs, but Dawn's targeting is rather sloppy and erratic. More often than not, the targeting system will not lock onto the object or enemy you want. Instead, it locks onto objects or enemies much farther than expected. Even at point-blank range, the targeting system will not choose what is directly in front of Keldy.
 
The third design flaw lies in the navigation systems used in each chapter. The radar and map functions operate as the game's navigation but each has their own problems. Radar, which points out enemies and areas of interest, is erratic and unreliable. Often, it will reveal a point of interest that actually leads to dead ends or nests of enemies. The map only has a tracker on Eldy's position, but fails to provide key information on the surroundings. No directional compass, no clear destinations, and no guide markers. As the environments are truly massive in size, the player can be easily lost and confused in finding their way to the end of the dungeons.

The fourth design flaw is the Havok physics engine itself. More specifically, the physics for Keldy. Enemy physics are balanced nicely based on size and enemy type. Keldy's physics are not. While the physics for Keldy are fine against weak hits, it is a different situation for strong ones. A powerful hit will literally send Keldy flying anywhere from 20 to 50 feet away from his position. These strong hits are not exclusive to life-threatening ones; any enemy that hits hard can do this to Keldy. It is as if Keldy has the weight of mere printing paper once this situation, and it is common, occurs.

Furthermore, Keldy has a bad tendency to remain on the ground after powerful hits for at least 3 seconds. Enemies can safely attack a defenseless Keldy and deal significant damage or even kill him before he can recover. What is truly frustrating about this design flaw is that the player has no means to mitigate it. Once Keldy is hit, the player is powerless to correct the situation until Keldy gets off the ground or dies. This potentially leads to unnecessary deaths against enemies or bosses, which likely will happen to the player a lot.

The fifth design flaw pertains to the severe lack of customization. While there is a Shop that Keldy can buy things from, it is accessed outside of the game. Also, the majority of items at the Shop do not pertain to the game and there is no equipment sold. Some items can be used in the game, but they are straightforward in usage and one-time only. Items found in the game are also one-time only and cannot be stocked. Likewise, items in the game are restricted mainly to restorative ones and the various arrows Keldy can use. With the progression system in place, stocking on items would not have much use at all anyways.

The sixth major design flaw is the lack of variety in approaches to clearing the game's chapters. While the incredibly vast and enormous dungeons are impressive in terms of scope, they are plain and devoid of anything interesting. As a result, much of the surroundings in dungeons are wasted and serve no real purpose. Puzzles are extremely basic and require no thinking to accomplish, let alone creative usage of Mono. They are simple "find a key" or "destroy obstacle" affairs. Quite disappointing.

The seventh and final major design flaw pertains to Dawn of Mana's "fame to claim", the Mono system. Essentially environmental interaction at a high degree, the player can manipulate objects or even enemies. While any action is capable of environmental interaction, it is Keldy's whip that does most of the manipulation. This concept is done well and offers a lot of creativity in how to beat enemies or play around with them.

So what exactly is the issue? Over-reliance of Mono to progress in the game. Due to how game and character progression work, the player is forced to depend on Mono excessively. Panic status, which is the only way for enemies to drop stat boosters, is induced by hitting them with Mono objects. Furthermore, close range combat is often risky due to design flaws like the physics or game progression. Likewise, bosses demand Mono usage as they are often nearly impossible to beat without the use of Mono. Instead of being used as a creative means of defeating enemies, Mono essentially degenerates into a must-do task in each chapter for the purpose of survival and strengthening Keldy.

There are other minor flaws, but they all fall under one of the seven major design issues. Individually, each of them are likely tolerable from any player. Unfortunately, the reality is that these flaws play off each other in a domino-like effect and consequently bring down the game's quality tremendously. Another way of saying this is that the gameplay feels seriously lacking and incomplete. These flaws could have been easily mitigated or even corrected if the development team tried to make something out of Dawn. Instead, Koichi Ishii and the development team did not try to make something out of Dawn for reasons unknown.

Sound
Without a doubt, the aural presentation is the strongest asset that Dawn of Mana has going for it. The quartet of composers, Kenji Ito, Tsuyoshi Sekito, Junya Nakano, Masayoshi Soken, make for a powerful soundtrack that is worth listening to. Each composition is placed beautifully, even if it may not be obvious at first. The soundtrack shows a lot of diversity, from the Latin-rooted "A Fool's Dance" to the triple fusion of techno/orchestra/rock seen in "Burning Spirits". Even better, for longtime Mana fans, are the inclusion of remixes of past Mana tracks. Tracks such as "Meridian Worship" or "Endless Battlefield" are remixed and the majority of them sound as good as the original.

In terms of sound effects, Dawn is rather typical and straightforward for an action RPG. Some of the effects used seems like it came directly from Kingdom Hearts, though this is neither a good nor bad thing. The VAs heard in the game are impressive for a Japanese-developed game. Each character's VA feels just right and not out of place. Overall, the aural presentation of this Mana is very strong and the OST is worth a buy.

Difficulty
Reasonably, Dawn of Mana is not too difficult for an action RPG. That would be the case, however, if two conditions were not present. The first being the abundance of design flaws and the second being the method of progression. As a result, progressing in Dawn is much harder than what it should be. The cumbersome control scheme and targeting systems make it difficult to land attacks as well as avoid them. The constantly zooming in and rotating camera angles add to the frustration of mounting a good offense or defense. The sloppy Havok physics can quickly turn the tide against Keldy's favor and lead to quick deaths often. Add in the rest of the problems and it is easy to see where this is going.

All of this is made worse by the pointless method of progression. Grinding back to a reasonable level is tolerable in the early chapters, but it is hell on towards the end. Even on the Easy difficulty setting, surviving until Keldy regains his strength is a big struggle. Emblems do not help out much in Keldy's fighting chances by the end as well. Even more frustrating is the reduction in Mono objects and enemies having a high resistance to Mono hits in the final chapters. This forces the player to enter close-range combat to try and get stat boosters, which is very risky and the chance of death is high.

Add the fact that Keldy's only healing spell comes at a high magic level, as well as items being single-use only, and you have horribly balanced difficulty. Many of the bosses can easily drain Keldy of his life and there are no restorative items in the environments the bosses are fought in. The player therefore needs to be wary of their magic usage as there is no way to recover it during the fights. One boss, towards the end, is nearly impossible to beat as they will completely exhaust Keldy's magic from fast damage dealing capabilities.

These issues could have been mitigated with properly developed countermeasures and an actual working interface system. Instead, it would seem that the development team did not care about providing safety nets even for newcomers to the genre. Yet another reason to believe that Koichi Ishii and his fellow developers put no real effort into creating Dawn of Mana.

Fun Factor
Quite honestly, it is very hard to find any reason to play Dawn of Mana over and over. One play-through is already painful enough with the vast amount of design flaws in the way, not to mention the difficulty. The Challenge Arena, which is the only true optional feature of Dawn, provides little fun. Essentially, it is a speed run to defeat a select group of enemies and fighting alongside Pets, which can be found in the main game. The only satisfaction Challenge Arena provides is combat more similar to Kingdom Hearts in regards to allies and trying to get more Emblems.

Speaking of Emblems, many require going through the Hard and Ultimate difficulty settings. Obtaining them not only requires accomplishing very difficult conditions but also an insane amount of Lucre. This is yet another example of how Ishii and his team did not try, particularly in the area of creating worthwhile incentives for playing a game multiple times.

Overall
In conclusion, Dawn of Mana is a classic example of wasted potential at its finest. Apart from the reasonably impressive presentation, the functional portions of the game clearly feel incomplete and lacking. It is baffling as to how and why Koichi Ishii and his team butchered this product. Dawn has so much potential and could have truly shined under the guidance of a dedicated development team and a director to ensure it happens. The game is worth a rental at least if only to check out the presentation values. Otherwise, Dawn of Mana is both a failure in Mana essence and as a quality standalone product.

Perhaps this is why it is unsurprising to learn that the Japanese no longer seem to have an interest in Mana's future. The recent colossal sales disaster with Heroes of Mana seems to indicate this train of thought. Indeed, Ishii's serious lack of effort in Dawn may be the reason if Square Enix decides to cut off Mana's lifeline in the future. It is truly a disappointment for such a unique installment's development goes to waste and possibly bring an end to the Mana series.

Game Score

C

Reviewed By: Angelo Pineda