E3 06: Dawn of Mana Preshow Report

When Dawn of Mana was announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2005, it received plenty of attention from fans of the series, since it's been more than 10 years since a true sequel to the original has been released. The last game in the Secret of Mana series was released in Japan only in 1995, under the name Seiken Densetsu 3 for the Super Famicom. But the Mana universe hasn't been entirely dormant, with decent, if not spectacular, releases in the form of Legend of Mana and Sword of Mana.

Dawn of Mana takes place before all of those games, though, going all the way back to the origins of the Mana Tree and the Mana Sword. While little has been revealed about the story or characters in Dawn of Mana, it appears that the gameplay will follow the action adventure template of the previous games. This time, though, the world will be rendered in full 3D, with plenty of different, but familiar, terrain for you to explore. Apparently, the theme for the game is "touch," although what exactly that means is still unclear. It seems to suggest that you'll be able to interact with a wide variety of objects in the world.

Based on the first screenshots of the game, it looks like Dawn of Mana will have a colorful fantasy style similar to previous Mana games. There's even what appears to be a Rabite in one of the shots, which will recall memories of those little yellow blobs from the previous games. Another enemy shown appears to be a cube-shaped berry of some sort. The characters aren't quite superdeformed, but they certainly have large heads, hands, and feet in proportion to the rest of their bodies.

Dawn of Mana doesn't yet have a release date, but it's going to be a PlayStation 2-exclusive title. We'll bring you more details about the game soon, so be sure to check back often for updates.