Children of Mana is a 2006 action role-playing game made by Square Enix and Nex Entertainment. It was released for the Nintendo DS by Square Enix and Nintendo. The game is part of the Mana series and begins a new subseries called the World of Mana. Set in a fantasy world, the story follows one of four young heroes who fight monsters and discover what caused the deaths of their families.

The game includes action elements from earlier Mana games, such as battles that happen in real time. However, Children of Mana is easier to play than older games in the series. It focuses more on exploring randomly created dungeons, where players complete levels to move forward. Both the main story and side quests require defeating monsters and bosses in these dungeons before returning to the central village. Like other games in the series, it allows two players to work together on the same device.

The game was created by Koichi Ishii, the series’ designer, and directed by Yoshiki Ito. Takashi Orikata and Katsuji Aoyama helped produce it. It sold 100,000 copies in its first week and over 280,000 copies in Japan by the end of 2006. Critics said the graphics and music were beautiful and unique, but they found the fighting system simple and the story weak.

Gameplay

The game Children of Mana is similar to other games in the Mana series, as it uses a top-down view where players control characters who move across maps and fight enemies. Each character has stats, such as how much magic damage they can deal, how quickly they can attack, and how much health and mana they have. The game plays the same way no matter which character is chosen, except for a few quests that are only available to one character. Unlike earlier games in the series, the main character usually travels alone, but players can play with up to four others locally over WiFi. However, only the host’s progress is saved during multiplayer.

Unlike previous games, which were action role-playing games, Children of Mana is a dungeon crawler, meaning most of the game takes place in specific locations rather than an open world. Players choose these areas on a world map to access them. The main goal in each location is to clear a dungeon of monsters. Each dungeon has randomly generated floors, and players must find an item called a Gleamdrop and take it to a light pillar called a Gleamwell to move to the next floor. This process repeats until the final floor, where a boss monster is found. Players cannot return to previous floors unless they die or leave the dungeon; if they return, they must restart the dungeon from the beginning. When not exploring dungeons, players stay in Mana Village, where they can buy equipment from shops. Dungeons can be revisited later by accepting quests from townspeople in the Dudbear shop. These quests slightly change the dungeon, such as altering the starting position, number of floors, or types of monsters and bosses. Like main quests, Dudbear quests require clearing monsters, sometimes to collect an item at the dungeon’s end.

The game keeps the real-time battle system from earlier Mana games. Players can choose from four weapons—sword, flail, bow and arrow, and hammer—each with unique abilities. At any time, players can use two weapons, and any character can use any weapon. Players can switch weapons whenever they want. Each weapon has normal attacks, special attacks, and fury attacks, which are the strongest but require a full Fury Gauge to use. The Fury Gauge fills by attacking enemies or taking damage. Different weapons affect the environment in unique ways, such as the hammer breaking pots. In addition to weapons, players can choose from eight Elementals, which provide magical attacks and enhance weapon abilities. Players can switch Elementals in Mana Village. Elemental attacks can be strengthened by equipping Gems, which also improve the player’s stats.

Plot

Children of Mana is set in the world of Fa'diel, which is divided into five continents: Jadd, Topple, Wendell, Ishe, and Lorimar. There is also an island called Illusia. At the center of Illusia stands the Tree of Mana, which is the starting point of the game. Many years ago, a terrible event called the "great disaster" happened near the base of the Tree of Mana, and many people died. During this event, a brave boy and girl used the Sword of Mana to save the world. Now, one of a group of orphans is trying to learn more about the event that caused their families to die.

The four main characters in Children of Mana are Ferrik, Tamber, Poppen, and Wanderer. They all live together in a village near the Tree of Mana called Mana Village.

• Ferrik is a 15-year-old boy who is a knight. He is known for being brave, smart, and happy. He lost his parents and sister during the great disaster. After a knight saved his life, he practiced using a sword, which is his favorite weapon.
• Tamber is a 16-year-old girl who is a dancer. She is fair, just, and acts with maturity. She lost her parents and younger brother during the great disaster. Her favorite weapon is a bow.
• Poppen is a 9-year-old boy who is stubborn and fearless. He lost his mother at birth and his father during the great disaster. His favorite weapon is a flail.
• Wanderer is a traveling merchant who appears in every game. He is part of the Niccolo tribe, a group of people who look like rabbits and cats. He lost his family because of the king of Lorimar during the great disaster. His favorite weapon is a hammer.

One day, a flash of light causes the stone at the base of the Tree of Mana to crack, changing time and space. The hero remembers that their friend Tess, a priestess, went to the Mana Tower to pray and decides to find her. After reaching the tower with an Elemental, the hero finds it filled with monsters. After fighting through the monsters, the hero finds Tess, who is scared but safe. Suddenly, a giant flaming bird appears and attacks them. The hero tries to fight the bird but cannot break its shield. A sword falls from the sky, breaking the shield, and the hero defeats the bird. A mysterious man in black clothing then appears and tries to take the Holy Sword from the ground but is stopped by a barrier. The man disappears, and the hero takes the sword, which is revealed to be the fabled Sword of Mana.

After returning to the Mana Village, the hero sees three pillars of light shining in the lands of Topple, Jadd, and Lorimar. When asked by the village leaders, the hero investigates these places and finds dungeons filled with monsters and a large monster at the end of each. After completing these tasks, the mysterious man returns, introducing himself as the Mana Lord. He steals the Sword of Mana and causes a storm in the land of Wendell. The hero travels to Wendell to stop the storm by fighting the Mana Lord. When the Mana Lord tries to kill the hero, glowing gems appear to protect them. The Mana Lord then kidnaps Tess and disappears.

After returning to the Mana Village, the hero travels to the Path of Life, which is under the roots of the Tree of Mana. At the end of the path, the hero fights the Mana Lord. After defeating him, the Mana Lord reveals he was one of the two children of Mana who saved the world during the great disaster. He explains he was created to bring Mana’s power to the world and says the other child is causing harm and must be stopped. He gives the Sword of Mana to the hero and then jumps off a cliff, causing a rift in the sky. The second child of Mana, called the Scion of Mana, appears through the rift. The hero defeats the Scion, restoring peace to the world.

After the battle, Tess and the Elementals are given the responsibility of caring for Illusia. Everyone else must leave. Moti says Illusia will be protected as a safe place, and humans will not return for many years. The group travels to Jadd to begin a new life in a new world.

Development

In 2003, Square Enix started a plan to create "polymorphic content," a strategy to release well-known games on different platforms so more people could play them. The first project under this plan was the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. Square Enix also planned to make other projects where multiple games in different genres would be developed at the same time. At that time, no project for the Mana series had been announced, but in late 2004, Square Enix said an unnamed Mana game was being made for the Nintendo DS. In early 2005, Square Enix announced a "World of Mana" project, applying the "polymorphic content" idea to the Mana series. This project would include several games across different genres and platforms. These games would not be direct sequels or prequels to each other, even if they seemed to be at first. Instead, they would share similar themes. The first game in this project and the sixth game in the Mana series was announced in September 2005 as Children of Mana for the DS.

Children of Mana was made by Nex Entertainment, a company that had previously created dungeon crawl games in the Shining series, and worked with Square Enix. The game was designed by Koichi Ishii, the creator of the Mana series, and directed by Yoshiki Ito. Takashi Orikata and Katsuji Aoyama produced the game. The game included an opening cinematic made by Production I.G. The game was planned from the start to be a "fun-for-all action type game" that used the DS's features. Ishii wanted to create a cooperative multiplayer game, something he had tried to do since Secret of Mana (1993), the second game in the series. However, he did not use the DS's Wi-Fi feature to encourage players to interact with people nearby instead of playing online. He also designed the multiplayer to create a sense of excitement and teamwork, allowing players to focus on having fun rather than competing. The game's design included action elements, such as attacks that made enemies fly across the screen and controls that used both buttons and the stylus for simplicity. A randomly generated dungeon mechanic was also used to support this style of play. Although Ishii said the games in the series are only connected by themes, he also said in an interview that Children of Mana takes place ten years after the 2007 game Dawn of Mana, which shows the events of a major disaster.

The music for Children of Mana was composed by Kenji Ito, Masaharu Iwata, and Takayuki Aihara. Ito had previously made the music for the first Mana game, Final Fantasy Adventure (1991), and its 2003 remake Sword of Mana, which was the most recent Mana game before Children of Mana. This was the first Mana soundtrack to include work by Iwata and Aihara, though Iwata had worked on other Square Enix games before. The game's music includes styles like rock, jazz, and classical. Chris Greening of Square Enix Music Online said the Nintendo DS hardware limited the realism of the synthesized instruments used in the music. The album Seiken Densetsu DS: Children of Mana Original Soundtrack includes 33 tracks from the game on two discs and is about an hour and a half long. It was released on May 9, 2006, on the Japanese iTunes Store but has not been released as a physical album.

Reception

Children of Mana sold about 103,000 copies in Japan during its first three days—March 2 to March 5, 2006. This number was lower than expected, partly because there were not enough Nintendo DS systems available. By the end of 2006, the game had sold more than 281,000 copies in Japan. Critics gave the game mixed reviews, with scores ranging from 58 to 90 out of 100. Many praised the game’s visuals, such as its graphics and art style. Greg Mueller of GameSpot said the game’s appealing visual style was one of its best parts. Raymond Padilla of GamesRadar called the art style "beautiful and unique," and Jeremy Parish of 1UP.com described the graphics as "almost painfully cute." Critics also praised the music, with Mark Bozon of IGN calling it "very good," Neal Chandran of RPGFan calling it "quite good," and Greg Mueller saying it "fits the tone of the game very well."

Some critics, like Greg Mueller, said the gameplay was repetitive. He noted that players had to repeat the same tasks in dungeons without much variety. Rob Fahey of Eurogamer also called the gameplay uninspiring, and GamePro said the game’s biggest weakness was its repetition. Neal Chandran believed most players would grow tired of the gameplay before finishing half the game. Japanese magazine Shūkan Famitsū gave the game a high score but noted the gameplay was less strong than previous games in the series. Mark Bozon said the multiplayer mode helped make the game more enjoyable, a point Rob Fahey partially agreed with.

Reviewers criticized the combat system. Raymond Padilla said weapon use was the most disappointing part of the game. Both Rob Fahey and Greg Mueller said the combat became boring quickly because it was too simple. Neal Chandran added that magic spells were too slow to be useful in battles, making the gameplay even less complex. Critics also criticized the story, calling it "sparse and slow." Rob Fahey described the story as "a very thin layer" that failed to connect the game’s elements and relied on clichés from other role-playing games. Raymond Padilla concluded that while the game had strong elements, it did not meet the expectations of a Mana series title.