Many generations ago, the spirits of Mana battled against the dark witch Anise and sealed her away, before the whole thing faded into legend. Now, however, the forces of good and evil are about to do battle again, thanks to the actions of a bored king and his ambitious general. It all begins one night when a Peddan soldier named Roget and the crew of the airship Nightswan are sent to scout behind enemy lines, but when they learn that their own superiors are plotting to start a war with all the nations of the world, Roget and his allies follow their hearts and resolve to use the power of Mana to combat the encroaching evil.

With previous games in the series being skewed more towards the RPG end of the gaming spectrum, I was somewhat surprised on starting Heroes of Mana to discover that it was more of an RTS game, but that it was a rare RTS for the Nintendo DS. Once the familiarisation phase was over, however, I settled down to actually play the game- only to discover that this was the one RTS game that would actually be at about my level.

Playing the game

Heroes of Mana is spread across twenty-seven chapters, all of which, apart from the first, feature a single battle mission sandwiched in between cut scenes (chapter one is all cut scenes). Overall, the main game should only take about fifteen hours or so to finish, but there’s more to it than that- as you complete chapters 2-26, you will unlock bonus battles that play out on the same maps, but with different objectives. Since there’s no levelling up for the characters in the game, you can’t use these bonus battles to improve your innate stats, but you might be able to find rare items, as well as experience that warm sense of completion for each bonus stage you clear. And for really hardcore fans, saving clear game data after you defeat the final boss will let you replay the game in Hard Mode for added ‘enjoyment’.

Between battles and cut scenes, you occasionally get the illusion of being in control of the Nightswan on the world map; what this actually means is that you get the chance to go to menu to save, change equipment and look in the game’s reference section before tapping a button marked ‘Go!’ that automatically sends the ship to its next destination. Don’t worry, though, this isn’t the only time you can save- pressing Start during battle lets you save in one of the game’s three slots at any time.

Battle

Once you’ve waded your way through the appropriate amount of cut scenes, you’ll finally be ready for the meat of the chapter- the actual mission. Of course, before it starts, you’ll be able to pick the named characters you want to use (up to five for most missions) and set up their equipment. Characters can’t change their weapons, but they can equip one each of three different types of accessory to enhance their HP, attack power, movement speed and attack range, although it’ll be up to you to decide on the right balance for each character. Once you start acquiring Mana spirits, you can also assign them to characters, which lets a character use a particular spell in battle.

Once you’re ready, your selected named characters and the Nightswan will be sent out to the battlefield, and here the fun begins. Unlike other RTS games where you build your headquarters in one location and work outwards from there, in Heroes of Mana, the Nightswan is your base; you build facilities and summon units from within it, and then move it about the battlefield as you wish. There is, of course, a catch- only when the Nightswan is attached to an anchored hook can you summon units and gather resources, but this leaves the hook vulnerable to attack from enemy ground-based units. When the Nightswan is freely floating, however, it is equally vulnerable to missile and flying units- and if your ship goes down, it’s game over.

Although you begin the level in command of your named troops, you’re going to need more than that to cut through the enemy hordes, and so in true RTS fashion you’re going to need to gather resources, build facilities and summon up to 25 units (except, of course, for those inevitable levels where you can’t use the Nightswan and have to rely on whatever forces you’re given at the start). The first order of business is to create a gatherer unit base and summon the all-important gatherer units to collect up the two types of resource in the game- Gaia’s Stones and Treant’s Berries. Stones are needed for building facilities, whilst berries are instrumental for summoning units- and of course, each Gaia and Treant will only offer a limited amount of resources, so you must spend them wisely.

With your resources at hand, you can start building other facilities within the Nightswan- in the first level you’ll only have a ground unit base, but as the game progresses you’ll unlock progressively more facilities and stronger units to summon. The bulk of your forces will be divided into four types- ground units, heavy units, flying units and missile units, which exist in a rock-paper-scissors type hierarchy in which heavy beats ground, flying beats heavy, missile beats flying and ground beats missile (where the superior unit does double damage against and takes half damage from the inferior one). To be honest, though, up until the last few missiles where class becomes important, it is possible to just brute force your way through a level by summoning lots of heavy units- their high HP and attack makes them tanks.

As well as these staple units, you’ll also have your named characters, who count as ‘Leader Units’- not only are they outside of the hierarchy, but they’ll even strengthen any generic units they surround with their unique abilities (for example, bow user Yurchael strengthens all missile units around him). Naturally, however, they aren’t invincible- so putting them in the line of fire could lead to some casualties, with the death of Roget (and occasionally other, usually weak, characters on certain levels) resulting in game over.

The final unit type that you can take command of are special units; generic units that exist outside of the normal hierarchy and usually have unique skills- everything from moles that burrow underground to spy on the enemy to giant eyeballs that shoot out lasers falls into this category. Enemy special units can be a pain, but it is entirely possible to get through the entire game without ever using up resources on them yourself.

As well as bases for your various units, there are a few other useful facilities that will be added to your repertoire. First off is the Healing House, which slowly regenerates the HP of nearby units (provided they’re standing still), and later on you’ll get the Resurrection House, which lets you bring back any deceased named characters. Also on offer are elemental shrines, based on the Mana spirits you’ve collected. Although they’re massively expensive, these shrines let you perform powerful summons which deal significant damage to all enemies on the field- it may sound a bit of a cheap move, but given that you’ll rarely have enough resources to use it, it doesn’t actually make that much of a difference to the game as a whole.

Once your units are on the field, you can select either all units of the same type or draw around a group with the stylus to select them- you can then point to where you want them to go on the map. Of course, there will be a fog of war hiding resources and enemies in any place you haven’t explored, but you’ll still be able to see the geographical layout of the area, with the top screen displaying an overall map that can be temporarily switched to the touch screen for faster scrolling.

Unfortunately, it is here that the flaws of the game begin to assert themselves, thanks to the simple fact that unit AI is so shoddy. Asking a group of units to move from A to B may sound simple enough, but their path-finding ability is so awful that what you’ll find is that by the time they get to where they’re going, your regimented troops will have become spread out all over the map, letting the enemy pick them off at leisure. Worse yet, some of the slower units seem to delight in taking the longest route possible, usually resulting in them taking a stroll right through the middle of the enemy encampment. Meanwhile, despite his status as the one unit you absolutely must keep alive, Roget’s stupidity has to be seen to be believed- once you see his HP getting low, your natural response will be to command him to run away to safety, but the idiot blithely wanders back into the thick of battle every chance he gets- usually resulting in an impromptu game over.

Although this is probably the biggest irritation of the game, it has to be admitted that it isn’t the only one. Not only is the touch screen interface so packed with icons and units to select that it’s easy to make a mistake, but the method of either drawing round a group or selecting all units of one type still isn’t enough. Say for example that you want to summon six gatherers and have half go to Gaia and the other half to Treant- obviously you’ll have to draw round groups of three, but with them all clustering round your ship when first gathered, it’ll be hard to pick them out. And since ally units can’t move through each other, build-ups and logjams in the vicinity of your ship occur all too often.

Still, where with a little perseverance in selection you can at least see the status of your units, when it comes to the enemy, all you get is a simple bar indicating their HP- fair enough, you might think, except that how are you supposed to use the unit type hierarchy if you don’t even know what you’re up against? Yes, there is a bestiary in the game, but since you can only look at it outside of battle, it’s hardly the most helpful of reference materials.

Given that all these problems can hinder game play somewhat, it’s probably a relief to learn that Heroes of Mana is largely rather easy- in fact, if the AI hadn’t been so poorly programmed, it would be a cakewalk. As it stands, the increasing complexity of maps and difficulty of getting your units to listen to you does introduce a steady learning curve into the game, with early missions being so easy that at times you can let your characters defeat all the enemies off screen without even looking at them and later ones requiring much more in the way of thought. For the truly dedicated, however, you can unlock Hard Mode by clearing the game once; or use the DS Wi-Fi connection to go online, download missions and compare your ranking with other players.

Story

As far as story goes, Heroes of Mana is one of those games that seems to have been written by committee, with each member contributing their own idea- resulting in an aggressive country that somehow takes over the entire world before withdrawing, an evil general with a tragic past, a bored king and various other plot twists thrown in here and there. The early chapters all follow a depressingly standard pattern in which you complete the mission, only for enemy reinforcements to show up, forcing some deus ex machina to save you. Just as this becomes hilariously predictable, however, the story starts throw in so many half-baked twists that you almost long for the old days.

As far as characters go, pretty much everyone who joins your party is a one-dimensional personality, and whilst some like Valda and Falcon at least join Roget in being important to the story, others like Gemière and D’Kelli are pretty much relegated to expressing themselves via one-liners in cut scenes. Series enthusiasts will, however, be interested to learn that this game is a prequel to Seiken Densetsu 3.

Audiovisual

Visually, Heroes of Mana opts for the tried-and-true method of 2D sprites on an isometric background, resulting in an attractive and pleasing look by handheld standards. Character designs are handled by Ryoma Ito of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance fame, and whilst they aren’t the most complex or aesthetically pleasing pieces to come out of the Square Enix stable, they are still solid and technically sound. The same can be said of the background music, which overall does the job and is decent enough, but isn’t something that will stick in your head or encourage you to acquire the soundtrack.

Final Thoughts

A largely enjoyable and diverting RTS title for DS, Heroes of Mana is let down by its one major flaw- the element of challenge comes less from actual intended difficulty than from a simple case of shoddy AI programming. It won’t satisfy the appetite of hardcore RTS fans, but if you’re the sort of person who wanted to get into the genre and found the more popular titles a bit too challenging, then this is the game for you.

Four hundred years after Claude and Rena saved the universe in Star Ocean 2, the time has come for a new bunch of heroes to rise and protect reality as we know it. As far as college student Fayt Leingod is concerned, however, all he’s up for is a holiday with his family- complete with plenty of time spent in the battle simulator. When their holiday is interrupted by an attack from the alien Vendeeni, however, it catapults Fayt into an adventure that will see him visit new planets and meet new allies on a quest to protect the galaxy he calls home.

Even though I started Star Ocean 3 several years ago, it wasn’t until I played and completed SO2 that I felt compelled to go back to it, in the hopes that my enhanced knowledge of the real time battle system would help me master the game. Unfortunately, even with these new skills, the game was to be a bit of a slog, for whilst it undoubtedly had glimmers of greatness, even this Director’s Cut edition just wasn’t as slick, focused and enjoyable as it could have been.

In an advanced, futuristic universe…you get stuck on a primitive planet

On the back cover of the game, Star Ocean 3 promises that you will get to explore an advanced futuristic universe- what it doesn’t tell is that you will actually spend a good portion of the game stuck on the backwater planet of Elicoor II. As we shall see, however, disappointments like this crop up throughout the game, all detracting a little from the usual enjoyable Star Ocean experience.

Taking a step backwards from its predecessor, Star Ocean 3 does away with the world map, instead presenting an adventure where you have to run across the world with little options regarding teleportation even late in the game (for example, when I realised that I was lacking in items for the final boss, I had to make my way back through several dungeons just to find a shop and a place to heal). As you might imagine, then, backtracking is often the order of the day as you force Fayt and his companions to trek across the world- a situation made even worse if you can’t remember exactly how to get to a particular town or city because it’s been so long since your last visit.

As if to add insult to injury, the game also attempts to make you care about map completion by offering up a prize every time you explore 100% of a particular area. What this means is that you have to explore every little nook and cranny, no matter how monster-infested and seemingly inaccessible, just for the satisfaction of seeing a map properly completed. Worse yet, for some maps you’ll have to wait until you have a Hammer or Ring of Disintegration to enable you to blast away any rocks or stones that block your way. Here again, however, there is a caveat, for if the rocks hit you as they blow apart (or indeed if any kind of rolling rock hits you), you’ll be sent back to the beginning of the map. And just to add extra fun to the proceedings, there’s also a part where you have to run around some sand dunes without running out of water.

As well as all the usual out of battle options such as shops, inns, cut scenes and the like, Star Ocean 3 also offers its own take on item synthesis, in the form of workshops scattered across the world. Instead of having special abilities such as Music and Cooking in the menu as one did in SO2, the characters must now visit a workshop, pay to have it upgraded and then get to work on creating an item. In order to do this, you’ll have to select a particular type of invention (Writing, Smithery, Cooking and so forth) and then spend copious amounts of money trying to come up with a good invention. The more skilled your characters are in a particular department, the more quickly they’ll succeed at creating a higher quality item, but it’s up to you to recognise when they’ve stumbled on something and hit the X button before they spend more fruitless hours working. And don’t worry too much if none of your playable characters seemed particularly gifted in an area- you can also recruit NPC inventors across the world with money and items, at which point they will work on product development for you.

In a strange mirroring of real life, once a product has been created, you can actually file a patent for it, which actually just involves estimating its quality and the amount to put on sale. No matter what the outcome or who invented it, the product will go on sale in due course, although once it runs out of stock you’ll have to wait for it to be invented again; hardly a problem when the item is a “Useless Lump”, but slightly more irritating when it’s a valuable Resurrection Elixir.

On top of all this, there is also a synthesis option to be exploited, where instead of trying to make something from scratch, you improve upon an existing item. With this ability, you can add bonuses and elemental attacks to weapons, for example, boosting your abilities in preparation for some of the tougher bosses ahead.

Making a return appearance are the infamous Private Actions of the Star Ocean series- although this time they are not explicitly labelled as such, they follow the same principle of having your party split up when you enter a town so that Fayt can interact with them and build up a relationship with the other playable characters. As always, this affects the scenes you see in the ending; build up your relationships enough, and various characters will have a scene with Fayt- otherwise he just gets left alone.

Battle: Cutting Edge of Notion, aka “We must run away like cowards”

In case you’re wondering, “Cutting Edge of Notion” is the name of the track played in normal battles, to which I have fitted the lyrics “We must run away like cowards”, for reasons which I will expand upon later.

Instead of random encounters, this time around enemies appear on the map- get too close and they will make a beeline for you. If the enemy attacks you from behind, you’ll find yourself at a disadvantage, but naturally the opposite hold true if you sneak up on your foes.

As is customary for the Star Ocean series, the game throws menu and turn-based combat out of the window for a faster-paced and more engaging real time combat system. In battle you’ll have one player controlled character (switch who you control with L1 and R1) and two AI-controlled allies set out in a formation that can be changed in the menu (there are different formations to facilitate all out attack, rapid escapes, etc), with the object obviously being to run around the battlefield taking the enemy forces down. It’s a system that worked well in Star Ocean 2, but in typical “third game syndrome”, there have been a lot of tweaks and additions that both enhance and complicate game play.

In the old days, it was good enough to spam the buttons for your favourite attacks, but a new governing force in the world of SO3 now makes that impossible- the Fury bar. Fury is the game’s equivalent of stamina, depleting every time you take an action and refilling if you stand still for a second or two. If your Fury is at 0%, you can’t do anything except run around; conversely, if it is at 100%, you are completely protected from weak attacks by a barrier (a strong attack will break it, however). This barrier is known as the “Anti Attack Aura”, and although you’ll start with a standard one that just knocks back the enemy when they strike you, over the course of the game you can learn different AAAs that will protect you from attacks in various directions. Be warned, though- the Fury and AAA system applies to enemies as well, although in all except the hardest difficulty mode you can see the enemy’s fury and tailor your attacks accordingly. Additionally, later in the game your characters will learn the Berserk ability, which decreases Fury at the expense of a character’s defence.

In the old days, characters each had a basic attack and up to two special skills that could be triggered with the shoulder buttons, but again SO3 has chosen to mix things up by introducing the concept of range. Each playable character now has weak and strong attacks for long and short range, as well as the ability to set a special skill for each possibility. Skills are triggered by holding down Circle or X at short or long range, and if you enter the command for one skill whilst performing another, you can activate the “Cancel Bonus” effect, which progressively increases the damage done up to 300% of the norm when you chain attacks together in this way.

In order to use said skills in battle, you’ll not only have to level up enough to learn them, but you’ll also have to set them in the menu (along with up to two support skills that take effect automatically), but here again a caveat comes into play. Each skill costs a certain number of Capacity Points to set, and with a maximum of 15 CP available, it is impossible to just kit out a character with all of their deadliest skills- you must either choose a wide range of weaker skills, or one or two real killers. Bear in mind that unlike most special skills, these abilities won’t just drain your MP in battle- HP and of course Fury can also be expended.

Whilst in the menu, you’ll also notice that as well as setting up skills and Anti Attack Auras, you have the option to spend skill points accumulated from levelling up on enhancing your HP, MP, Attack and Defence. It’s important not to neglect this function, as the bonuses it offers are far greater than the minuscule increases gained at level up. Using this system, I was able to grant Cliff, a physical fighter, with a high amount of MP, whilst Sohpia’s lack of HP was entirely remedied- in fact, she ended up with HP in 10,000s (as per usual, the level limit is 255 and the usual 9999/999 HP/MP limits do not apply).

Naturally, it isn’t all about attacking, however- the usual options of magic and items are also on offer here. This time around, magic is known as Symbology, and whilst some characters can learn it automatically as they level up, others need to equip support skills that let them use it. Conveniently enough, you can also switch Symbology skills on and off in the menu, which should prevent AI-controlled characters from wasting all their MP on useless abilities in the heat of battle. Be warned, however, when it comes to actually casting Symbology, it takes time for both ally and enemy to charge their skill, which means that it can be cancelled with a well-placed attack- useful for stopping an enemy unleashing a killer move, but hardly welcome when they interrupt your much-needed healing spell.

When it comes to using items, again you will have to plan things a little more carefully than usual; for whilst items do take effect immediately, you can’t use another item straightaway. This restriction can be annoying when healing your party via items, although given that you can only carry up to 20 of each item, perhaps it’s just as well that you can’t use them up too fast.

Also available in battle are “tactical skills” such as the ability to activate and deactivate Berserk or scan the enemy’s HP, although, like items you have to wait between uses. It is also possible to change the tactics used by AI-controlled characters both in and out of battle, although often enough the AI seems content to have both characters run off to the far side of the field, leaving you to fight alone against the enemy.

As if all this wasn’t enough to take in, there’s one more important thing to not about SO3, and that is that unlike most games, reaching 0 MP means that your character gets KO’ed (don’t worry, you’ll never be allowed to cast a spell that takes either your HP or MP down to zero). This is undoubtedly something that will cause annoyance at first- not only because it limits tendencies to spam the enemy with magic whilst also allowing them to MP kill you, but because of its sheer unfamiliarity. Much as it can be a pain, however, if you learn to employ it correctly, MP killing can be a tool as useful to you as to the enemy- if they have massive HP, try using an MP draining ability to kill them that much faster.

With all this to keep track of, it’s no wonder that the SO3 battle system takes a bit more getting used to than that of SO2- and this time you probably won’t be able to clear the game just by spamming the attack and special skill buttons. This would all be fair enough, but the game will also punish you for not taking advantage of the item creation and synthesis systems properly- if you can’t be bothered to undertake the trouble of making uber-weapons and accessories for your team, even simple battles quickly become too tough to be enjoyable. With an absence of heal points and long dungeons to travel through, battle quickly becomes a lengthy chore, to the point where it is just easier to run away all the time and just focus on boss battles with the occasional bout of levelling up where needed.

At this point, you may be wondering if there’s any sort of reward for putting yourself through all this, and as it turns out, there is. On all but the easiest difficulty level, the game offers you the option to collect Battle Trophies, awards given out for everything from the simplicity of running away a certain number of times to the fiendishly difficult task of defeating practically every boss in the game under one minute and without your controlled character taking damage. The rewards for collecting Battle Trophies include unlocking harder difficulty levels (of dubious merit), alternate skins for playable characters and even a special versus battle mode.

Playable characters

Of the ten playable characters available in the Director’s Cut edition of the game, you can recruit eight in any one play through. Fayt, Sophia, Cliff, Maria, Adray and Mirage will all join automatically during the course of the game, but whilst they are all playable at various points in the story, only two of Roger, Peppita, Nel and Albel can become full-time members of your party.

• Fayt Leingod: as the main character, you’ll be seeing a lot of Fayt, and in typical fashion he’s a swordsman and good all-rounder. Easy to play as, Fayt has many useful multi-hit skills such as Side Kick, Dimension Door, Air Raid and Blade of Fury (the latter of which is strong but hard to chain with anything), as well as the MP-reducing Aerial. He can also imbue his blade with various elemental and MP-damaging properties, which, if used wisely, can bring down enemies even more rapidly.
• Sophia Esteed: although she appears right at the start, Sophia does not become properly playable again until Disc 2, whereupon you discover that she is a measly Level One. Nonetheless, it is worth taking the time to level her up, since she is a solid mage and powerful healer.
• Cliff Fittir: A powerhouse attacker, Cliff is a solid physical fighter who will come in handy right from the moment he joins the party. With his powerful fist skills, he can quickly dispatch the enemy, although he does have to get up close to do it.
• Nel Zelpher: Although swifter and weaker than Fayt, Nel makes another good all-rounder for the team, skilled in both fast attack skills and various different types of magic. I relied on her throughout disc one, but thanks to accidentally recruiting Peppita, I couldn’t bring her back on board in disc two.
• Maria Traydor: Although she seemed weak and pointless when she first join, I’ve actually grown to greatly like using Maria, not only because she’s well represented in both short and long range attacks, but because there’s a unique satisfaction in sniping the enemy from afar by chaining Scatter Beam and Aiming Device. If, like me, you managed to mess up getting Nel, then you’ll probably be relying a lot on Maria.
• Albel Nox: The typical HARD GAY anti-hero, Albel is the swift swordsman that everyone wants on their party- until they realise that he’s a weaker choice than Fayt, Cliff or Nel. I do quite like to have him on my party, but when the going gets tough, he tends to get KO’ed.
• Roger S Huxley: The typical juvenile pervert, Roger can be used in disc one even if you choose not to permanently recruit him, but he’s always miles behind the other characters and hardly worth spending time on.
• Adray Lasbard: A warrior who can also use magic, Adray can be temporarily used in disc one but returns permanently in disc two, by which point you’re loathe to bother levelling him up when you’ve already got a decent party.
• Mirage Koas: I have to admit that I’ve never actually used Mirage; she’s a fist fighter like Cliff, but by the time she joined in disc two, it hardly seemed worth bringing her out.
• Peppita Rossetti: I hate Peppita, and it’s not just because of her irritating personality- it’s because my accidental recruiting of her meant that I couldn’t get Nel back in disc two. She also joins the party at Level One, making her perfectly suited for sitting on the bench and never being asked to take part in battle.

Story

Star Ocean 3’s story is one that has sparked no small amount of controversy, laden as it is with a revelation that affects not only this game and its characters, but the entire Star Ocean series. Needless to say, the twist did not sit easy with me either, and indeed, although the creator seemed to consider it the ultimate expression of the Star Ocean universe, overall the story just seems a bit lacking.

Although the universe and its characters certainly seem like an interesting place, the trouble with the story is that never seems to see anything through. What starts as fleeing from the Vendeeni (a largely pointless and undeveloped enemy, it must be said) turns into an extended episode about the conflict on the planet Elicoor II, before going back to space for more Vendeeni woes before they get put aside in favour of the ‘twist’ part of the storyline. Admittedly it’s not as rushed and unfinished as its predecessor, but there’s still the feeling of the writers being unable to settle on one storyline and thus trying to include three.

Audiovisual

Although 3D games are always doomed to be overshadowed by the latest and greatest titles, Star Ocean 3 is at least solid enough when it comes to characters and backgrounds, although it could have done with some kind of world map or at least easier navigation across maps and dungeons. The original character designs range from the attractive to the generic, with Fayt, Sophia, Nel and Maria standing out above the rest.

As far as music goes, SO3 offers a solid selection of themes that complement the game well without ever being the kind of thing that most people would want to listen to its own- as usual, the battle and boss themes are catchy, but the rest is largely forgettable. As far as voice-acting goes, the English dub is a bit cringe-worthy, but as there’s no Japanese alternative, it has to be endured.

Final Thoughts

Despite being given more time and attention in the development phase than Star Ocean 2, SO3 loses a lot of the fun that made its predecessor so memorable; whilst it certainly is a solid game, a lot of the time basic battle becomes so tedious that you just want to get yourself through it as quickly as possible. Those looking for a battle system that’s more complex than the norm will no doubt lap it up, but when it comes to the addictive pick-up and play factor, this instalment in the series is sadly lacking.