Heroes of Mana is like the stereotypical middle child -- it's not an RPG, and it may not be as responsive or intelligent, AI-wise, as some RTS fans would like. It's not exactly traditional Mana fare, either, so some franchise fans are understandably wary. Toss in a somewhat annoying tutorial, and unfortunately, it seems like Heroes of Mana might be easily missed ... which is a shame, because there's a lot of fun to be had here once things get going.
The Mana series has been around for decades and spawned multiple titles in that time. Here's how each title ranks up.
Alex S. from Link-Cable writes: "My quest to complete my massive backlog has been making some pretty good progress lately as a few weeks ago I wrapped up EarthBound: Beginnings and now another RPG is up with a look at Heroes of Mana from the Nintendo DS. ‘Wait… what is this? It’s not an RPG at all!’ Nope, Heroes of Mana takes the traditionally action-RPG focused series and completely changes it up to deliver a real-time strategy experience that plays more like a cross between Starcraft and Advance Wars with… pretty terrible results. I know it’s sometimes poor form to give away your full impressions of a game in the first few sentences but wow did I not like this game."
Nathan Stiles writes:
"I stated once before that I’d rather play through a train wreck than play something bland, and Heroes of Mana has proven me wrong, or at least proven that I should choose my words more carefully. Then again, Heroes of Mana is less of a train wreck and more of an entire continent sinking into the ocean."
