On May 22, Square Enix releases its long awaited Dawn of Mana for PlayStation 2, the prequel to its beloved Mana franchise. This action RPG covers the origins of the sacred Mana Tree as well as Keldy, a 16-year old boy with extraordinary powers. The 3-D game features plenty of frantic button mashing, as gamers use a whip to strike enemies or toss objects into them. Once hit, foes go into a panic mode, allowing players to repeatedly slash them and acquire special items. Dawn of Mana packs impressive physics, as rocks and other things react as they would in the real world. On top of that, the game looks and sounds beautiful, with rolling green hills, trees, rustling grass and enchanting music. The constant hacking may get old, but thus far, this appears to be a promising adventure.
Are you excited for the forthcoming Visions of Mana? This retrospective of the Mana series will tell you all about the franchise thus far.
The Mana series has been around for decades and spawned multiple titles in that time. Here's how each title ranks up.
Nathan Stiles writes:
"Even though Dawn of Mana is the first 3D game in the series, it will feel very familiar to fans of Square’s other titles. While Legend of Mana feels like a spiritual predecessor to Kingdom Hearts, Dawn of Mana IS Kingdom Hearts; a stripped down, poorly controlled, and artificially flavored version of Kingdom Hearts."
