Children of Mana is a dungeon based game which is alright but there is much better games out there. If you're a fanatic or geek then it's worth playing but not buying.
The graphics are GBA style and by that I mean that it's only 2D and you can kind of see the pixels a little. The graphics are also used over and over, the dungeons are all the same besides the fact that you start in different places. As for the story-line, it's not bad. The fact that you have story > Really long dungeon > story > Really long dungeon > Story, means that you kind of forget how the story goes as it is so jammed with long dungeons between each part of the story.
If you're a fan of the Mana series, this story-line may appeal to you. If not, then it's not as interesting but still good to borrow off a friend or something to play for a bit. If you're thinking about buying a game for a friend or yourself, then this isn't the type of game I'd recommend.
The game play is nice though. The controls are easy and the only truly annoying thing is having to open the weapons menu and item menu whilst under attack at times. In the game the monsters come on a heavy load so it's a good fighting game, just not thought out well. Rather than having battles part of the story like in games like zelda, fights are mandatory.
The only thing they really have to with the story is that the aim is to eliminate all monsters. Still, the fact that you gain levels after defeating them is a plus and makes it more interesting, and although your sprite never changes and a lot of monsters are just edited versions of other monsters, the opening cut scene and hand drawn pictures bring the game to a higher standard.
You have a choice of four characters when you first start playing the game and you can edit them slightly, the downside is if you edit them to different colours, the hand drawn pictures in the game will still be the default colours, making the game feel awkward during cut scenes.
Some good things about the game are the boss battles which are kind of fun, and the large amount of side quests that keep you playing after you finish the game. Overall the game is short but it's drawn out by TOO much fighting.
