Thought it was nice Mana title but not exactly what you may expect of the Mana series.
August 14th of 2007 another Mana title hit the Ds but differently this time around. It was Heroes Of Mana. Mana decided to abandon the hack and slash adventure game play and go tactical... Hmmmmm.... this was an indeed bizarre move for Brownie Brown on the field! The storyline for this Mana title was unlike any other. Very deep and creatively different in an odd sort of way. Five Pedda troops finds themselves dragged in the middle of a nefarious plot on a reconnsiance mission and they must band together to save the world from a horrible evil that is trying to make its return. This game I must say was much better than its predecessor Children Of Mana. I thought it would be an adventure game but it still was in a very different sort of way.
Gameplay: No Hack and slash in this one. Instead you are using the stylus and the touch screen to its fullest. Clicking characters and dragging them to there destinations. The cast of baddies are back but this time they are on your side! That's a big surprise! Fighting is much different also. You are clicking and dragging the Nightswan and company to places on the field. There is also a very large cast of characters in this Mana title. That's what I wanted to see in the next Mana but I did not expect it to be tactical. The missions are all hard and challenging. Protect the Nightswan at all costs! That's your biggest mishap if it starts getting hit!
Graphics: The 3-D environments surprised the hell out of me! Big jump for Mana in this one. The environments are very colorful, well developed, and themed! The only thing that they forgot to do something about was the blackness on the outside of the environment! That just throws everything off to me! You got trees, grass, water, people and then everything outside of it all is black! They could have added a themed "background" outside of the environments to make environments more creative.
Controls: At little frustrating and hard to master at first but you will get the hang of it as you play on! Just remember to keep a very CLOSE eye on your party characters otherwise they will be standing who knows where getting hit by some damn monster! Use the stylus at all costs!
Music: Very nice. 10 times better than Children Of Mana! War is the primary theme in this Mana title so the music must be up to beat.
Value: Heroes Of Mana just seems like some kind of fluke but it definitely should have value with it being the ONLY tactical game in the Mana series. For now.....
Tilt: Overall, Heroes Of Mana I thought would be a dozy but somehow it managed to deliver in a weird way. The graphics are really nice and the storyline is also well prepared! Nice visuals! And the opening trailer knocked my socks OFF! BadASS! There are cartoon cinematic littered all over this game! This game has Wi-fi but it's not exactly what you may expect. The reason I bought the game was because of the box really. Looked dramatic! Five characters on the front then hell in the background! 27 missions of it! I thought there would be 30 of them but maybe Wi-fi plays a factor. Would I recommend this game? Well if you are willing to pay a whooping $39.99 plus tax that'd be $42 something!!! Or if you just want another Mana then you should go ahead and get it. The game ended really cool but it left me with questions to be answered. Why did they fly into that portal? Who was Yarcheal looking at in that vision? And why was that stupid little green head pansy girl on the reconnsiance mission with them???