Dawn Of Mana

First Impressions by Tanx - Video Game Reviews by a Very Busy Math Teacher



Do cute, cuddly little Japanese critters kind of annoy you sometimes? You know the type: furry little things with big watery eyes, ineffectual mittens for hands, bedecked in hearts and sugarplums and roses? If you find the thick sweetness and cuddle factor of such things unbearable, this might just be the game for you.

In this game you play a vaguely effeminate halfling-elf man-child who runs around the magical forest… terrorizing and beating small woodland critters to death! You might think I’m kidding, but I’m being completely serious. There are plenty of Japanese action games where you wander around smacking monsters with a sword. The real innovations in this game are the exceeding cuteness of the enemies, and the need to send the furry little guys into a histrionic panic before you wallop them with your beat-stick.

You accomplish this by kicking or slinging heavy objects at them… barrels, logs, boulders, whatever is available. For some reason the sight of a broken pumpkin flying by is absolutely terrifying to even the largest cutsie monsters in this game. If you did it right, a little countdown appears over their head as they begin to sweat and run around in hapless circles of panic. It is only if you smack them repeatedly while panicked that you reap a reward… they toss you all their red and green poker chips, at once revealing the hidden gambling obsession that all the critters in this world posses, and giving you small increases to your fighting prowess, magic and health.

I cannot stress enough how unbearably cute the opponents are as well! Take the first antagonist of the game, little forest mushrooms with tiny duck feet and a patterned heart motif. These little guys are minding their own business, hanging in the forest, until suddenly you arrive tromping around the place. Who can blame them for getting a little upset? Since these poor brave shrooms don’t really have arms or hands to speak of, they muster up their courage to conduct their one big attack. Like a major league baseball star sliding into home, they launch themselves into a ridiculously cute little feet-forward slide in a desperate attempt to, well, hurt your shoes I suppose. The saddest thing is, once a shroom does this attack, he just sits there looking up at you, as if waiting for congratulations or approval. Clearly, the perfect time to smack him upside the head.

As the game progresses, strange little adorable faerie gods that have bizarre European accents will award your character with elemental pellets that give you totally new ways to spread terror and destruction. Soon you find yourself able to light things on fire, poison with a venomous mist, fling things in the air with a mini-tornado, freeze things in a block of ice, and other fearful tricks. I have to admit it is a ton of fun to drop a fireball amongst a group of little ferret people and watch them go running around panicked with their heads on fire.

Maybe you are saying to yourself, “sheesh! I don’t harbor the kind of animosity necessary to enjoy this game!” Well, don’t worry… the game developers thought of everything. They included many annoying aspects to this game, including a camera that acts like you have two uncoordinated lazy eyes, save points that are farther and farther apart, obtuse controls, imprecise jumping and an incredibly grating Ryuichi Sakamoto musical score. Just playing the game makes you angry enough that you’ll want to take out your aggression on the beasties, if only as stand-in targets for anyone responsible for programming the user-interface.

While bullying and beating up too-cute-for-Pokemon Hello Kitty rejects might sound like reward enough in itself, the game offers many hidden unlockables and other prizes for what it considers good performance. After each level you earn grades based on how fast you ran the level, how many critters you spooked or beat into submission, and other metrics. You gain money that can be used to purchase new items, and you can also open up missions in the optional arena mode.

The packaging for this game is gorgeous, both in terms of the box and manual and the presentation of menus and encapsulating story devices during play. While the narrative is typically nonsensical and inscrutable, the detail to the chapter headings and story segments is almost enough to keep you playing by itself.