Heroes of Mana

[Sambob]

After having my apetite wet be Hoshigami, ruining blue earth I thought id take the gamble and see if my interest in RTS keeps up. Its £19.99 delivered here movietyme which is coolio.

My impressions of it are awesome, its tons better than Hoshigami. Its got a good story, and its similar to warcraft in that you have a base, which is a flying ship and can move, and you build up your troops to take on the various enemies. Ive only played a few levels so far but theres already variation in the scenario as opposed to 'the enemy is on the furthest away point of the map, go an kill them while they shoot you'. Theres been ambushes, rescues, and the story is good too, all fitting into the world of mana setting.

Hopefully a few more people have got this and more impressions will follow.

[Centy]

Well to be fair Hoshigami is a TRPG and turnbased and also shite Heroes is a RTS game sort of so it will play faster. Im waiting till ive got Luminous Arc out of the Way which i reckon is a game you should check out or wait for my review upon completion.

[Sambob]

You just love luminous arch with reckless abandon.... back in your luminous cage.

Okay after a few more plays i will have to pick out the one or two bits which im not liking so far. The characters - that act as heroes, although varied and, similar to advance wars having special powers like making your base fly faster, or speeding up troop creation, - can occasionaly be a bit faggoty and you never really get enough kit to armour them up. Even if you embed them in a unit of heavy troops they get picked out and killed, or sent back to base to heal quickly...which defeats the point of having them really.

The units themselves move very slowly, and their AI, if im being brutally honest is appaling. You could try to explain this by saying that they are creatures and not intelligent, but only if you were a fag. Sometimes they will take ridiculous routes to get to where you are trying to send them, once or twice through enemy territory, although thanks to them moving quite slowly this is never a massive problem as you can usually stop them, but thats not the point.

The maps arent massive, but I dont mind that because its annoying enough as it is to explore a huge map and then get bummed by the enemy only to restart the entire massive map, so its kind of broken down into smaller chunks. This doesnt automatically mean that its easier, but i like to think its less frustrating.

Coming back to the point about the heroes, your main character, who is automatically chosen to take part in any scenario, will usually be the strongest of your troops. The catch here being that if he dies he cant be brought back to life, and his death means end of current scenario, so you will probably not want to send him directly into combat....again tricky as he is the strongest.

Theres no levelling up system here so the only way to improve your heroes stats is by equiping them with particular items, and occasionally a spirit. This is hindered by there not being an awful lot of items to equip your characters with, the best of which will go to your main man to make sure he doesnt die, but you cant send him to lay the smacketh down because he will get surrounded.

Thats the main extent of the things i dont like about the game. The story is pretty good, perhaps borrowed from place to place. Its currently getting more and more glum and im expecting there to be a really redeaming factor in a short while so that i can win!!! but then again this is part of the Mana series.

[illdog]

I had high hopes for Heroes of Mana. I was hoping it would change my opinion of RTS's for the better but all it has done it confirm my dislike for the genre.

I was reading Sams impressions and I definately agree with speed issues, everybody dribbles along at wheelchair pace.

Its all presented very nicely and the story is good, as are the heroes but the more I play the less I feel inclined too. I turned the DS on to play during a lengthy session on the throne, only to turn it off once the opening credits were done.

It doesnt excite me, I dont have a want to play any further than the 2 hours ive put in cos i just dont like sending this unit here and that bunch of idiots there.

Saying all that, i will try again, cant judge it really on 2 hours but not impressed so far.

[Hendo]

Kinda off-topic, but is Secret of Mana the only good Mana game? I know everyone says how brilliant it is and always disappointed by the sequels.

[illdog]

Hendo wrote:

Kinda off-topic, but is Secret of Mana the only good Mana game? I know everyone says how brilliant it is and always disappointed by the sequels.

Hells yea, Secret of Mana is the best one ive ever played. In my top 3 of all time - trufax. I actually own the Jap only sequel with a guide ready to play on my unused Super Famicom [/plug] but its time baby.

I was gonna say you could probably get Secret + a SNES for the same price as Heroes now but I only ever see Secret going for £40 to £60 in Gamestation.