[ indie navi ] rise of mana

Posted 17:58 EST on 07MAR2014 by: tim walker in hands-on » android, iOS, rise of mana, secret of mana, seiken densetsu, square enix

Seiken Densetsu: Rise of Mana was just released yesterday in Japan for iOS (coming later for Android), and I’ve been able to spend a few hours playing around with it. Though a little rough around the edges, it’s a pretty enjoyable game that tips its hat to Mana games of old while firmly embracing many of the modern-day conventions of mobile games like Puzzle & Dragons.

The game begins with you selecting the names and genders for your characters: One member of the Lasta tribe (angels), and one member of the Darka tribe (demons). Once this has been completed, things are kicked off in dramatic fashion with your two leads fighting to end each other in heaven. Unfortunately, the apparently-mystical Mana Waterfall has other plans for them, knocking both down to the human world. Neither tribe can survive long here without perishing, so a deal is hastily struck between the two to merge into a single body, giving them the chance to survive.

Once this is complete, you’ll take control of the merged beings, and are able to switch between your angel and demon forms at will. The main advantage to this during the action sequences of the game is that the swapped-in character starts off with a fuller lifebar, allowing your better half time to regenerate in the void. This ability also becomes useful in the city of Miste (the game’s central hub), where swapping forms can allow you to read the thoughts of certain villagers for more information.

Before taking you into town, the game gives you a quick tutorial on the basics of combat. Like many of its predecessors, Mana is action-based at its core. Unfortunately, unlike past titles, the action controls are all touched-based, a mixed bag to be sure (to be fair, the game supports physical game pads for later versions of the iPhone as well, but we only had a chance to test it with touch controls). The default setup allows you to move your character both by dragging your finger around the screen and by tapping a fixed point for them to walk to. Whenever combat begins, your character locks on to the nearest enemy automatically, and tapping the screen will cause them to strike. Tapping a different enemy will allow your character to switch targets, and sliding your finger across the screen in the middle of battle allows them to dodge.

In theory, this setup should work well, but I definitely encountered input confusion while playing. Tap too excitedly during combat to strike, and your device will often misinterpret your motions as swipes instead of taps. In non-combat situations, while you can guide your character to a set point, they’ll rarely stop there, instead continuing on in the general direction that you tapped or else walking in place forever. There is a virtual pad option as well, but since it’s completely invisible (an in-game guide explains roughly where it’s located), it can be frustrating to use. (as an added bit of frustration, it’s impossible to swap between the two setups while you’re in the middle of a quest) Hopefully these issues will be corrected in a future update.

During combat, you have a few other options available to you. You can perform special attacks with the weapon you’re currently using by tapping an icon in the lower-right corner of the screen. You have a limited number of these per combat session, and there is a cooling off period of a few seconds between uses. After the tutorial, the Familiar (a fairy, essentially) will inhabit the body of a doll found on the road, creating an ally to assist you in combat (she’s effectively the first “monster” in your party, and can later be replaced with others). Another player’s character can also be selected prior to starting a quest to beef up your team.

During the tutorial, your character wields a sword, but you’ll also gain access to a bow and a spear once you’ve moved onto the main game. You’ll find more variants on these three weapons as you play, and you can use your spares to strengthen other weapons in the same manner you would with monsters in Puzzle & Dragons. You can upgrade your pet monsters (allies) in a similar manner. One odd trapping of Mana is that upgrading and even swapping are not done from a pull-down menu: Not only must both actions be done in town, each must be done at a specific, separate location in town. The absence of the ability to swap from the pre-quest menu is a particularly odd game design decision.

The town of Miste is pretty small, but there are a few other things that can be done here. As noted earlier, you can speak to villagers and read their thoughts, which often allows you to gain access to new quests, MMO-style. Maybe I’m just anti-spoiled by the lack of substance in modern FtP games, but Mana seems to have a lot more dialogue and character development going on here than the typical FtP titles out there. I appreciate the fact that Square Enix actually put these elements into a game that they’re giving away.

Before you leave town, Nikita (known as Niccolo in Western releases of past Mana titles) shows up to let you take part in the requisite lottery for a shot at a rare monster. There’s also a vendor selling jewels for real-world money that have different effects, such as refilling your Stamina (Rise of Mana is FtP, so naturally quests “cost” in-game currency to take part in).

The typical quest you go on lasts around 3-5 minutes. It normally consists of you leading your party down a path to the next combat encounter, taking out the monsters that get in your way, and moving on. The action aspect keeps things fun, but I would have preferred a bit less linearity in the setup (most “alternate routes” are blocked by hulking monsters that cannot be attacked). I’m just getting started though, so hopefully the layouts will improve as I get further into the game.

That should wrap it up for my initial thoughts on the game. While I wish that the touch controls worked a little better, I’m still having a lot of fun playing Reign of Mana, enough to forgive it for its flaws. Check out the gallery below for more screen captures (we took quite a few). I may revisit this title with some further impressions soon, so be sure to check back with us!

(Seiken Densetsu: Rise of Mana is available on Japanese App Store for iOS devices)