Dawn of Mana

Dawn of Mana
When a game's reviews are so poor that it nearly killed the Mana franchies, you know it's a bad game.
Protagonist(s): Keldric Genre(s): Action-adventure Rating(s): T Platform(s): PlayStation 2 Country: Japan Series: Mana Predecessor: Trials of Mana Successor: Visions of Mana

Dawn of Mana is an action-adventure role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix, and was released in 2006 on the PlayStation 2. It serves as the sequel to Trials of Mana on the SNES, is the fourth main game in the Mana series, the third game in the World of Mana series and is overall the eighth game in the Mana series. This game is noticeable for being the very first 3D game in the Mana series, and was the last main game in the Mana series for eighteen years until Visions of Mana came out in 2024 (not counting the remakes of Final Fantasy Adventure, Secret and Trials).

Plot

Dawn of Mana opens on the fictional island of Illusia, a place where the giant Mana Tree lies dormant. Much of the story takes place on Fa'Diel, a continent composed of the five nations of Jadd, Topple, Ishe, Wendell, and Lorimar. At the start of the game Ritzia, a Maiden in charge of tending to the Tree, and Keldric, her knight and the player-controlled character, have left their village to find Ritzia's missing pet. While they are out, Illusia is attacked by King Stroud of Lorimar. The pair rush to the Tree of Mana, thinking that Stroud intends to attack the legendary beast that lies sleeping underneath its roots. While searching for the beast, Keldric finds a seed of the Tree, which attaches to his arm and can transform into a slingshot, a whip, or a sword. They also find Faye, a spirit child, who can cast magic and joins them. When they reach the center of the labyrinth of roots, Stroud's men catch up to them; they had been searching for Ritzia, not the beast. Stroud intends to open a portal to Mavolia, a land of darkness sealed away for centuries, and believes Ritzia is part of the key as a Maiden had been a part of opening the portal before. Stroud leaves with Ritzia to find the rest of the key, and Keldric and Faye chase after them.

Keldric and Faye, with the help of the great beast, Flammie, force the Lorimarian army to leave the village. They chase after Stroud, catching up to him at the coast. There they free Ritzia, only to be attacked by Stroud, wielding the other part of the key—the Sword of Mana. Keldric is thrown off of Stroud's airship, and the Lorimarians invade Illusia again. Stroud opens the portal, and a wave of dark energy is released, transforming the Tree, turning the people of Illusia into monsters called Grimlies, and releasing dark monsters from Mavolia. Keldric and Faye flee, and head for Fa'Diel.

A year of wandering later, the dark energy has begun to affect other countries in Fa'Diel. Keldric discovers in Jadd that Ritzia plans to release the Mavolian energy to cover the whole world. He and Faye journey back to Illusia, only to discover Ritzia seemingly possessed and saying that it is their destiny to rule the world. After she runs away, Keldric meets a masked stranger who tells him that he was the one to close the portal centuries ago, sealing up the Maiden who had opened it, Anise, inside. He also reveals that Stroud is Keldric's older brother. When Keldric and Faye reach the portal, they find Stroud and Ritzia fighting. Stroud is trying to prevent Ritzia, possessed by Anise, from destroying the world, but is being mutated by the dark energy. Keldric defeats the mutated Stroud, and then fights Ritzia. Realizing that the only way to close the portal is to defeat Anise, he is forced to kill Ritzia along with her. The spirits of Ritzia and Faye then merge with the Tree of Mana, the portal is sealed, and Illusia is restored.

Why This Game Has No Mana

1. First half, the game is noticable a huge downgrade from previous Mana games.
2. Awkward controls that are very clunky: when jumping, Keldric is locked in place and can not change mid-jump until he lands, which is somewhat unacceptable in a 2006 game.
3. Unlike the previous games, Dawn of Mana has platforming segments, which is not only out-of-place in an action-RPG game franchise, but is also very annoying. Sure, Kingdom Hearts 1 and Dream Drop Distance had platforming emphasis as well, but they were handled much better in those games and didn't stray too far from the usual action RPG gameplay.
4. Poorly made and odd story, with a random and out-of-nowhere twist when it's revealed that King Stroud is actually Keldric's older brother.
5. Leveling up in this game is extremely flawed: In order to gain levels, you have to put enemies in a "Panic State" by using the whip to either grab an object and throw it at an enemy, or by grabbing the enemy and throwing them at that enemy, when in a "Panic State"(which is indicated by numbers over their heads), they will give you medals as you hit them, which you need to increases your states such as Damage(Red Medals), Health(Green Medals) and Magic(Blue Medals). This concept, while not at all a bad idea and interesting, is poorly-made.
   • What makes this even worse is that Dawn of Mana takes a particular infamous gameplay mechanic from Digimon World 4, in that whenever you finish up a chapter and are about to do that chapter... it resets your level all the way back to your default level and reduces your stats to level 1, which is very unfair and downright awful.
6. Poor level designs that are hard to navigate, with too many close spaces.
7. Some gameplay mechanics rip off the Kingdom Hearts franchise, even the enemies' and bosses' health bar is almost identical to the healthbars seen in the Kingdom Hearts games.
8. Navigation in this game is very poor, as it's very easy for Player(s) to get lost in a certain Chapter as the game never gives out a hint on what the Plaer(s) need to do and will most lickly not know what to do to progress in that chapter unless you look in a guide.
9. Bosses in Dawn of Mana are very annoying to fight, as unlike the previous four games, they have certain strategies that must be done in order to make them vulnerable to damage.
10. The camera is very clunky to handle.
11. Dawn of Mana had received such poor reception that it nearly killed the Mana franchise for nearly eighteen years. The only games released after this were remakes of Final Fantasy Adventure, Secret and Trials of Mana until Visions of Mana came out in 2024.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The graphics look fantastic and is quite repressive for a 2006 title.
2. Although the story is poorly-made, the characters are still likable.
3. The soundtrack is fantastic.

Reception

Dawn of Mana sold over 229,000 copies in Japan by the end of 2006, ten days after release, and was the top-selling PlayStation 2 title in Japan during its release week. As of November 2008 it had sold over 340,000 copies in Japan. The game sold 70,000 copies in North America by November 2007.

Upon its release, Dawn of Mana received generally poor reviews over a wide range, with numerical scores that range from 30 to 80 out of 100. Reviewers praised Dawn of Mana's graphics and character design, but the gameplay and story were criticized.

On Metacritic, it had a score of 57/100.

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