Dawn Of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 4)

[Avarice-ness]

God, you people dissapoint me. My mana fan girl-ness almost surpasses my FFVI fan girl-ness, and by the lack of this thread, I feel that no one else shares my passion for the mana series.

Okay, point of this thread is if anyones played//playing Dawn of Mana.

Granted we all know how awesome that Seiken Densetsu (Gameboy's Final Fantasy Adventure (STFU IT ROCKED)) Seiken Densetsu 2 (Secret of Mana) and Seiken Densetsu 3 (AKA same name) were created from the pure awesomeness from the pool of win, but Seiken Densetsu 4 (Dawn of Mana) seems to have fallen into the pool of fail.. Or so I'm told.

In background, the stories lore is suppose to be that of the lore that was brought into the Mana game in SD, making it the sequel to the entire series and what not. So if you are like me and you could write a book on Seiken Densetsu lore, please tell me if the lore to this game stays faithful to the rest of the games.

Now I could care less if this game is the worst ever, because I still plan on playing atleast once, I've never let a bad game get in the way of my love for a series, I'm just hearing less than spectacular things about this game. Personally I blame Squeenix, but I believe that the "Squeenix fails all" excuse is running dry.

Give me your thoughts, good, bad, maybe? I don't care, just talk about the game, or hell even the whole Seiken Densetsu series at that!

[EDIT: I don't need notes on the graphics or music, I know the graphics or to die for and listening to the music on the DoM official page makes me love life. SD SONGS FOREVER!]

[sephirothishere]

Oh dear, it appears I am the first to comment :o

Yes, having played roughly three hours of Seiken densetsu 3, I agree with you that it was wonderful~! It isn't particularly unique in terms of storyline and such, though the various character's backgrounds and stories were interesting, it was similar to lots of SNES games at that time.

[Ramza Beoulve]

I have played all the Mana games but Swords, I love them, specially Legend of Mana. but I'm not really sure about Dawn of Mana. I'll tell you in a week.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

I've never let a bad game get in the way of my love for a series

This kind of attitude will only encourage companies like Square Enix to put minimal effort into their games as long they carry the right brand name in their titles. Regardless of how much you may love the other games in the series, no one should pay money for a product as awful as Dawn of Mana, especially knowing how lackluster it is beforehand.

Although, I suppose it won't make any difference at this point. The poor quality (and corresponding sales figures) of the World of Mana games have most likely killed off the franchise for the near future, if not permanently.

[escobert]

I like Legend of Mana and Children of Mana. I'm a HUGE fan of the Saga games and many people seem to not like them.

[Rostum]

I love the Mana games. My favourites being Secret of Mana, Seiken densetsu 3 and Legend of Mana.

Dawn of Mana is currently in my download list. So I should get to play it soon.

[Karellen]

I played Children of Mana. It was the worst JRPG I had played in a really long time. I then went back and played Secret of Mana for a while but got bored really quickly. I'll probably go back to it when I run out of better games to play.

[Rostum]

Try Seiken densetsu 3, it is probably the best one.

[Angi-Kaiser]

Dawn was pretty disappointing. IT lost pretty much all of the good old elements. Only three weapons, only 4 levels which you loose after every chapter (and yes, it's split into chapters, which drives me crazy). The emphasis is on action, not story. And the only problem with this action emphasis is the fact that the camera is less than cooperative, making ti difficult to play.

[Avarice-ness]

Try Seiken densetsu 3, it is probably the best one.

Already done.

And yeah, not that great. Still company wise or not, It won't really affect them when I sell the game back.
It's not as much about the game itself as it is the Lore that's following the game.

And honestly, SD3 is my favorite and FFAD (Seiken Densetsu) is my like guilty best Gameboy game ever.

@Whoeversaidsomethingaboutswords: It's just a FFAD remake done badly. They remade it for mobile that wasn't released in english which is basically how they made the transition from FF1 NES to like FF1 Wonderswan or FF1 GBA, The exact same game (thank god) just amped graphics. If it wasn't in Japanese I'd have it.

@ThechildrenofManaperson: I know what you mean, Storyline wise I can't really connect it with the lore that's in SD, SD2, SD3, SD4 and hell even the lore that created most of the world of mana series from Sword of Mana. I'm about to beat the game, mostly because I like to hit buttons and watch things fly off. Really I think that is the only thing keeping my attention in this game. =[

@Angi: I'm not sure why they thought the chapters thing OR the three weapons thing would work. I guess they didn't want to spend to much time finding the spirits (since in NORMAL Mana games they just arn't like "OMG HI I'M FRIEND LET'S DO STUFF") or having to find new Weapons, but that's one thing that keeps the progression things in Mana games going. I know that Wisp is the first spirit and after Salamander I get Undine or something, Don't remember perfectly but the point is, I'm so stoked to get Undine I play like a fool because I love Undine. In this Undine was like "You already know what I'm doing" and really just like blah.

With the weapons, I guess it would have been to complicated to make more weapons so they went with the Slash, Bash, and Jab basics. That concept was more so created in the FFAD (SD) remake, Sword of Mana, and like I said before ALOT of the elements in the World of Mana series is based off of Sword of Mana, i.e. Stroud (Dark Lord), The Slash, Bash, and Jab basics, Malvolia being like THE ULTIMATE VAMPIRE DESTRUCTION. In Seiken Densetsu, Malvolia was never spoke of, the closest thing it linked to it was the Dime Tower but it was just a link to "another world" You do meet up with Vampire's but their existance isn't one that had such an impact of the world as it is now due to the remake. Stroud is in Dawn of Mana and Sword of Mana and in Children of Mana the "Mana Lord" looks alot like Stroud, who in Seiken Densetsu was reffered too as Dark Lord.

Anyways.. Moral is, Alot of the World of Mana series is more so based off the gameplay and Lore of the REMAKE of the first game of the Seiken Densetsu series. The ties between SD, SD2, SD3, are not as strong as the ties that hold, SwM, SD4,and the Worold of Mana series. So yeah, Squeenix has ruined the series when they decided to base the lore off a bad remake of a game that started a wonderful series. The game didn't sell well, but it didn't stop them from going and making many more games based off things only dominate in Sword of Mana.

..Uh.. the end. ?

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

FFAD

What's the "D" for?

[Avarice-ness]

FFAD

What's the "D" for?

I always abreviated FFAdventure with AD. Since they were the first two letters of Adventure. More so a bad habbit since I've done it for years now.

[scrumpleberry]

I've played the first three and love them, although I found Adventure pretty tedious (shields self!), but I don't have a PS2.

I'd love to try it. The rest of the series is wonderful, especially SD3.

[chionos]

Square, poor square. It's hard for me to understand how quickly they've gone downhill. I'm one of those idiot fanboys who blindly adored Square for years, ignoring the fact that they were nosediving into mediocrity. I wanted to believe that they still had a few SD2s or VSs or FFVIs hidden away to unveil at just the right time, before they fell too far. Then they acquired Enix, and I was actually one of the fools who thought it might be a match made in hell, but it was a marriage straight out of corporation hell. Enix's fluffiness destroyed Square, and Enix fared no better. SD could have been one of the greatest franchises of all time, yet for all the many attempts since, still only SD2&3 are worth playing. Maybe if we didn't worship SE so blindly, buying every piece-of-crap they produce, they'd have to return to the quality they once aspired to.

[Tama2]

I've always enjoyed the entire series but I am a LoM fanboy.

Also, Bert I'm a SaGa fan too