Though boasting a few neat ideas, Dawn of Mana falls short of it's pedigree.
The game is about a boy named Keldric, living of the Isle of Illusia with a clan of people who watch over and protect the Mana Tree. All hell breaks loose when the Lomarian Empire attacks the island, trying to make it to the great tree. Keldric and his friend Ritzia try to enter the caverns of the Mana Tree to stop the invaders, but, as always, things don't turn out so well. Ritzia gets herself captured and Keldric gets a weird seed implanted in his hand that allows him to shoot vines to grab enemies and objects and, most importantly, create a sword from the vines wrapped around his arm.
He finds a fairy spirit, named Faye, who accompanies him on his way and, with sword in hand, he's off to save the world. It's actually a very interesting story with interesting characters. Expect this game to painfully sap around 20 hours of your life.
The gameplay is what makes this game terrible. The first thing you notice when you first start playing, it has VERY clunky control scheme. You press the triangle button to fire your vines at whatever the game wants to shoot it at, you press the square button to swing your sword, the cross button jumps in a very floaty manner, and the circle button fires your slingshot. You can lock-on to enemies and objects but, while this makes fighting a single enemy easier, it is a rather broken system when there are tonnes of enemies around you.
At some points in the game, it will force you to do a little platforming. This process feels a little like the original Kingdom Hearts except that this is almost unbearable. While platforming, you will be forced to dodge stuff like boulders and enemies. It isn't always smart to attack enemies on a small platform since each swing will move you forward and, ultimately, make you fall off forcing you to repeat the process.
The last aspect of the gameplay is the medal system which acts as the RPG-elements. When you toss something at an enemy, then go into a panic and cause them to run around aimlessly, making them vulnerable. When they are hit in this state, they give off medals. These medals boost your HP, MP, and strength. When you get enough strength medals, Keldric levels up and adds one more hit to your originally three-hit combo, when you get enough MP medals, Faye levels up and allows you to cast different spells.
This system is an interesting way to progress, but it quickly becomes annoying since, every chapter, your always put back to level one with default HP and MP. Some enemies can only be killed by causing them to panic and when there is nothing to throw at them around, you're screwed. Shortly after you get your sword, you find elemental seeds and cause a variety of effects that all end with a panicked foe, the best being Earth, but even these don't work on some enemies.
The audio for the game is good. The voice acting is good and the music is fitting. The biggest problem with the audio is that there sometimes isn't any music and the cries from the enemies and Keldric just start to wear on you.
The presentation has to be the best thing about this game. The environments are colorful and pretty and the character models look great. The game uses the Havok Physics engine and that can lead to some rather amusing displays when you send a structure down on top of a group of enemies. The downsides are that during gameplay, the dialogue is just played during, rather that being in a cutscene, even though it only happens a the same place each time you play that chapter and the environments start to look the same and it gets really boring visually..
Overall, this game really isn't worth it. The only bad thing is the gameplay, but that's the most important part of any game. Square-Enix should've focused on making it fun rather than showing off the Havok Physics engine.
Story: 8/10
Gameplay: 3.5/10
Audio: 7/10
Presentation: 8.5/10