Dawn of Mana – Consumer Guide

According to ESRB, this game contains: Fantasy Violence

Parents have little to worry about with Dawn of Mana. There's no swearing, no nudity, and the violence, while maybe a little intense, isn't gory at all. Players whack monsters with swords, shoot them with pebbles and elemental magic, and throw them into objects or each other. Young teenagers should be fine.

Fans of the Secret of Mana/Seiken Densetsu series should know that Dawn of Mana isn't an action RPG like its forebears. While earlier installments have been compared to open-ended adventure games with RPG elements like The Legend of Zelda, this game is closer in spirit to combo-collecting action games like Devil May Cry and God of War.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing gamers should have no problems. All relevant speech is subtitled, and all other important sounds have corresponding visual cues. For instance, some of the monsters make noise when approached, but they aren't well-hidden and most have animations when they spawn.

Author
Recent Posts

Tera Kirk

Tera Kirk grew up in a small Nebraska town called Papillion. Although she has a nonverbal learning disability that affects her visual-spatial skills (among other things), she's always loved video games. Her first game system was a Commodore Vic-20, which her mom bought at a garage sale for $20. With this little computer Tera learned to write Mad Libs in BASIC, to play chess and to steal gold from Fort Knox.

But then a friend introduced her to the seedy underworld of the Mario brothers and she spent her saved-up birthday and Christmas money to buy a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Her mom didn't like the Nintendo at first, but The Legend of Zelda changed her mind. (When Tera got Zelda II: The Adventure of Link one Christmas, she suspected it was as much for her mother as for her).

Though she graduated from Agnes Scott College in 2002 and recently learned how to find the movie theater restroom by herself, Tera still loves video games. Far from being a brain-rotting waste of time, they've helped her practice spatial skills and discover new passions. Her love of games like Kid Icarus and The Battle of Olympus led to a degree in Classical Languages and Literatures. She thinks games have a place in discussions on disability and other cultural issues, and is excited to work with the like-minded staff at GameCritics.com.

Dawn of Mana – Consumer Guide

Recent Comments

Twitter