Last one for today~

76. Dawn of Mana (PlayStation 2)
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Dawn of Mana is about Keldric and Ritzia as one day they go investigate something and before they know it, there's a small fairy, a mysterious sword, some giant crab, and then oh no Ritzia gets captured and used for her special powers...

Dawn of Mana is a very unique game in terms of gameplay. Each chapter you start back at level 1, and obtain stat boost from defeating enemies and stunning them by throwing or pushing things at them. The levels are very interactive, allowing you to grab items with your weapon or push them or even push enemies in to other enemies. Magic can be used after finding certain spirits.


General impressions:
I got this game when I saw the cute character arc and wanted to give it a try. After I'd bought it, I realized it had terrible reviews and a lot of people kind of hated it. I was worried I would regret my decision to buy it and put off playing it for a while. But eventually my backlog was getting smaller and smaller and it was time. Luckily for me, I was pleasantly surprised! The game is by no means without its glaring faults, but overall I had a lot of fun and I found it to be a very charming and endearing game.

Story:
Definitely the highlight of the game. It's very short, but it still has an impact. The ending made me cry so much and it was so beautifully told, especially accompanied by the wonderful music this game has. Seriously, it's quite possibly my favourite video game soundtrack ever. But the ending was just so touching, after spending the whole game (SPOILER)trying to rescue Ritzia just to have to fight her at the end. It would have been better if the game was longer and more fleshed out, but it still had a big impact and caused some waterworks on my part.


Gameplay:
By far the weak point of this game. While I like some of the ideas in theory, having to pay attention to your surroundings and use your environment, the controls were wonky, the boss battles absurdly hard, and the gameplay overall was just frustrating and unintuitive. It was a lot of work to get it to do what I wanted it to do.


World:
There were some very pretty locations and the best part was how interactive they were (although the concept failed, see above paragraph). It was fun to think that those scenic and pretty pillars could be dropped on an enemy head. I wouldn't say it was anything special, but it wasn't boring either. There was also some beautiful artwork of some areas when introducing the chapters.


Characters:
I found them all very charming and likeable. Not just the main characters, but also the spirits like Undine and Salamander and them. I always got excited when I would see them. The relationship between the main two is just great, one of the best things about the game.

Favourite character: Dryad XPCfTdn.jpg
Honourable mention: Ritzia wZRl8yX.jpg

Dryad was just so cute and charming and sweet! How could I not like her? I didn't use her magic much though. Ritzia was a huge part of why I like this game and as I mentioned I found her story was beautifully told. She was also such a nice sweet girl, which added to the impact of what she'd become.

Overall if you want a short, and touching story and can forgive awful gameplay then this game is worth checking out. However, the gameplay is quite bad and frustrating, but to me it was worth suffering through.