Dawn of Mana

Generally speaking, if you like exploration, platforming, physics-based action and a good puzzle, this is as fresh an action-adventure as you're going to find, and the character designs are nothing short of perfection. [June 2007, p.79]

This all goes to show that eye candy and excellent music mean nothing if everything else is weak.

Best in small doses, Dawn of Mana continues the downward trend in what really should be a flagship series after the strong start it received back in the SNES era.

Dawn of Mana is an interesting action role-playing game that suffers from the same problems that Square Enix's Brave Fencer Musashi for the PS2 had - an unruly camera that is counter-productive to what the player is trying to accomplish.

Infuriating controls and frustrating platforming sections are among Dawn of Mana's many shortcomings.

On top of losing everything at the beginning of a chapter, the music in most places of the game sounds like really bad shopping music.

Nostalgic music and consistent art direction can't save a game from crippled controls, a mulish camera, and painfully tiresome reptition. Dawn of Mana is ultimately remarkable only for being such a bitter disappointment.

The games' main gimmick (I believe) is the destructible environment. That is what hooked 10-year old me into the game, but I remember being stuck at the boss at chapter 2, and that was what made me put the controller down. After finishing this game 9 years later, here's what I have to say: The story is good, about what you would expect from Square Enix. The soundtrack is amazing, also what you would expect from Square Enix, but that's about it in terms of pros. I've always felt mildly infuriated playing this game. The tight controls, the bouncy physics, the stiff jumping, the awfully bad camera, there was always something I was complaining about, and all of the bad elements of this game are greatly expressed in the final chapter. I was frustrated enough to where I wanted to put down the controller and stop playing, but the story always made me want to know what happens next, and I was ultimately determined to finish this game, and when I did finish the game, I felt so relieved that it was finally over. So basically, gameplay is alright, but I'll be listening to that soundtrack a lot.

The problems with this game are the terrible controls, and the awful camera, the graphics are ok, the sound effects are ok, but the voice acting is terrible, and the story is crappy, and to top it all off it has a flawed leveling up system which can make this a pain, this is one I would recommend avoiding.