Heroes of Mana Brings Real Time Strategy to the DS

The Mana series of games is one of the more celebrated RPG series, stretching back across multiple systems for many years. Made by Final Fantasy creators SquareEnix, it’s a memorable world full of vivid characters that stay in your mind.

The series is taking a bit of a detour on the Nintendo DS, one long-time fans might find surprising. The new Heroes of Mana isn’t an RPG at all but rather a real-time strategy game. That means less epic battles and more focusing on building and organizing an army. It’s a great introduction to the series for strategy game fans and a nice diversion for long-time Mana addicts. It has you gathering vital resources, such as Gaia Stones and Treant Fruit, that allow you to build structures and create battle units. You’ll use these to build a base, attack your enemies, and defend yourself from attacks. You can use the wireless functionality of your DS to play against friends, something that you could never do in an RPG. It might not be the next great RPG from SquareEnix, but for fans of the genre it might just be a nice change of pace.

This entry was posted by Adam on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007 at 3:10 pm