A short, repetitive, but damn fun dungeon crawler for the DS. What CoM lacks in length, it makes up for in content.
Children of Mana's story takes place 10 years after the upcoming Dawn of Mana for the PS2. During the hellish events of Dawn of Mana, many lives were lost, including the families of Ferrick, Tamber, Poppen, and the Wanderer. Of course, it's said that children are resilient, and they continue to live out their lives in the Mana Village on Illusia Ilse. Naturally, this life of peace can't last too long, and the village's maiden of the Mana Tree, Tess, is trapped inside of the Mana Tower when a mysterious earthquake occurs. Your character goes off to save her but encounters a flaming firebird monster at the top of the tower. Things really heat out when the holy sword of Mana falls out of the sky and right at your character's feet. Once the monster is defeated, a mysterious man (later calling himself the "Mana Lord") demands for the sword. Though he doesn't get it, he immediately starts causing a ruckus in the world by creating mana columns that trap people in their towns and could cause a series problem to the existence of the world. Hopping on Flammie's back and possessing the Sword of Mana, your chaarcter goes off to different parts of the world in order to make things right again.
The story of CoM starts off pretty basic and almost similar to Secret of Mana. You're living a simple life in a simple village when suddenly the weight of the world and the sword of mana are dropped on your shoulders. But this is only a farce. CoM's story quickly picks up about halfway through the adventure, and begins to give some important insight on the Mana universe as a whole, including the nature of the Sword of Mana, how the sanctuary of mana ended up the way that it is in other Mana games, and just who exactly the Mana Lord is. I'm not going to spoil any of it, but if you're a fan of the series, this should be pretty interesting considering that Children of Mana is the first game in the series that seriously attempts to connect the games in one single universe.
Now, to the most important part of the game: gameplay. Anyone familair with the Mana series knows that you usually assemble a band of warriors and massacre monsters throughout the world in realtime. The same is pretty much true for Children of Mana, with a few notable differences. First of all, you pick one of the four characters at the start of the game. They only alter in appearance and stats. For example, Ferrick is the all around fighter. Tamber is tailored more towards speed. Poppen is the mage while Wander is the brute. You act alone without AI partners, though other characters can join in through multiplayer. You no longer wander the world in search of your next destination. Children of Mana is a dungeon crawler, so the Mana Village acts as the "hub" where all the important characters are, where you buy items, equipment, gems, change spirits, and even get advice on where to go next. Once you set out from the village, you can pick a destination on the world map to fly to with Flammie, and you'll immediately enter the multi-tiered dungeon. The lack of exploration cuts time from the game, but unless you're an anal purist, this shouldn't bother you too much. Its still about killing, like every other game in the series. As you'd expect, your main form of killing is beating enemies to death with one of four weapons: Sword, Flail, Bow, and Hammer. That may not sound like a lot, but some weapons have double purposes, such as the flail which acts as a combination of the flail and sickle from FFA/Sword of Mana. And Nex Entertainment, who Square Enix outsourced the game to, drew inspiration from Secret of Mana and the original Seiken Densetsu, so your weapons tend to double as tools. You break down pots and plants with the sword, pull things over to you or pull yourself over obstacles with the flail, and pound objects and switches into oblivion with the hammer. You also have access to magic, and can take any one of the 8 elemental spirits with you from the mana village. Holding B and releasing it summons the spirit, which will unleash a magic attack if left alone. If touched, they will give you some type of temporary benefit. For example, Wisp (Light) heals you, Undine (Water) lets you freeze enemies with each hit, and Shade (Dark) will make you invisible. This, along with the traps that vary from dungeon to dungeon, mean that you're doing just a bit more than bashing things to death all the time. It adds spice, as do the sidequests.
The sidequests aren't necessary. You can breeze through the 8 dungeons if you want, but you're missing half of the game if you do. The dudbear in the village runs a quest service, where you can take up quests in return for a reward, such as money or gems. While you have different "objectives" with each quest, what you do is still the same: you enter a dungeon you've been to before, make your way to the last floor, solve the problem, through a cutscene, and return to the mana village to collect your reward. Of course, the dungeons are rearranged with randomly generated floors that hold new tricks, traps, and stronger enemies to give you an entirely new experience re-entering what you thought was familiar territory. There is also a second category of quests, which you are assigned by talking specifically to certain villagers or spirits at certain points in the game. These quests are usually harder, but get you rare items or bonues you couldn't get anywhere else.
Character customization has been featured in every game in the series to date, and Children of Mana is no different. You don't class change or determine the stats that raise this time around. The customization comes in the form of Gems, which come in several different color categorizations. For example, Red gems pertain to weapons and attack, blue gems to magic, etc. There are also black, unstable gems which give you special bonuses but usually in return for a negative effect, like lowered stats or vulnerability to ailments. Gems can determien what kind of character you have. Tehre are gems that improve weapon abilities, like adding a shock wave to the end of the sword combo, or stealing items from enemies when hooking them wit hthe flail. There are gems that raise spirit levels and make their magic more effect. Heck, there's even a gem that raises EXP aquisition by 50%. Of course, the game doesn't just let you make yourself a powerhouse. You have to set these gems into a gem frame, with a limited amount of space. You'll often find yourself picking a choosing, especially since the more effective gems are larger, taking up more space in the gem frame. Thankfully, there are ways to expand the gem frame's size.
The Graphics are amazing, bright, and beautiful. Some of the enemy sprite and animations were carried over from Sword of Mana, while some tiles were reused from Seiken Densetsu 3. Regardless, the game is still a visual treat, and the animated intro and cutscenes are some of the best I've seen on the DS. The characters, while not as animated as they could have been, have that distinctive mana style, and each dungeon has beautiful artwork renderings before you enter the actual level.
Now, for the music. I felt Children of Mana unfortunately had the weakest soundtrack in the series to date. Series veteran Kenji Ito is back, and is assisted this time by Masaharu Iwata and Takayuki Aihira. The soundtrack is really half and half for me. I like half of the songs, but the other half are either rarely played or forgettable. I tend to like Ito's soundtracks, so I theorize that Aihira and Iwata filled in for most (if not all) of the soundtrack while Ito pooled all of his work and inspiration into Dawn of Mana's soundtrack. Ito has a distinctive style, and it's rarely heard here.
If there's one thing people harp on the game for, then it would be for simplicity and contrast. Why people think the game needs to be complicated is beyond me. It's a handhled game where you go into dungeons and beat monsters to death. Why should that be complicated? Contrast is the more controversial issue. Like Legend of Mana, Children of Mana is often shunned for not being exactly liek the first few titles in the Seiken Densetsu series. While CoM pretty much has all the fundamentals of a Mana game, the lack of an overworld, AI party members, and its dungeon crawler aspects is enough reason not to give it a chance for the most anal of fanboys that think they know what a "true mana" game is.
Overall, Children of Mana is a game that looks good, feels good, and sounds okay. If you're looking for a fun time on the DS that's easy to pick up and doesn't need much commitment for an Action RPG, then there should be nothing stopping you from trying it out. If you're looking for something to play with friends, then the 4 player multiplayer should be all the reason you could need.