Metareview: Heroes of Mana

Opinions on the actual game Heroes of Mana are as varied as thoughts on the idea of taking the franchise in RTS direction. Review scores cover an enormous range, and in the end, we can only recommend that you find a reviewer you trust, or simply go with your own gut on this one.

GameBrink - 81%: "Heroes of Mana is a fun new experience in the Mana series but sadly, bad AI and pathfinding really drags down the gameplay ... Nevertheless, the excellent presentation helps make up for its flaws."

IGN - 80%: "The presentation is great, the fully-animated sequences are simply beautiful, the music is captivating ... and for the most part the gameplay is intuitive and downright fun. For anyone willing to put up with a few annoyances Heroes of Mana delivers a great pocket RTS experience plain and simple, and with a deep story, diverse cast of characters, and a pretty remarkable amount of depth it's a no-brainer for strategy fanatics. It isn't the franchise you remember from over a decade ago, but Heroes of Mana proves one very important element of Koichi Ishii's philosophy: The gameplay may change, but the soul remains."

Games Radar - 60%: "Heroes of Mana is incredibly rife with potential. Its new style of gameplay takes excellent advantage of the Nintendo DS' dual screens, the graphics are charming, the story is decent, and there's plenty of Mana flavor to satisfy longtime fans. The RTS gameplay is pretty well balanced and engaging to boot. Unfortunately, the game feels like it could have used a few more months of refinement to reach its full potential."

Game Informer - 50%: "...these ideas flounder so completely in execution that any resemblance to a real strategy title is lost. The most important component to hit the chopping block is your control over the units. The only command you can issue is attack-move, so if a specific enemy changes location while your guys are in transit, they'll reach their destination and stand there like gits. That's assuming that they even arrive, since the pathfinding is so laughably terrible. It's frustrating and baffling to tell your group of heroes to move straight ahead, and instead they spread out every which way like they're looking for some kind of morons-only shortcut ... Even if you consider yourself a fan of the series, don't waste your time here. There was a time when the Mana name meant something, but this is a disappointing entry that drags the franchise through the mud."