Children of Nada

I picked up Children of Mana for the DS recently.



And I wish I hadn't. I didn't think that Square-Enix could completely screw up a good premise for such a good franchise, but hey, they did create FFX-2 and Drakengard.
The plot seems structurally sound, with a damsel in distress and underlying lore -- though it is not as involved as Seiken Densetsu 3. The atrocious part, however, is in the gameplay factor. The randomly created dungeons with waves of mindless AI enemies, and a character who starts out and stays fairly weak and ineffectual throughout the game, since enemies scale with your character to make him/her/it feel even more inadequate. You only get one Elemental Spirit, which means only a few different spells, and since only 2 of them can do anything remotely resembling healing, you're usually stuck relying on the light or lunar spirit. It's definitely a dungeon crawler, but I played many with much better, more interesting dungeons and exceptionally more interesting fights. Progression through areas of a dungeon probably seemed like a good idea in theory, but finding the Gleamdrop (the key to go to the next part of the dungeon) quickly becomes a tedious chore.
The one saving grace of this might be the mission system, which at least rewards you for returning to previously completed dungeons and trudging through the same puzzles that exist in every other map of every other game. The other moderately refreshing thing is the use of different weapon types (sword, flail, bow, and hammer). However, the upgrades to these come far more frequently than your wallet can usually buy, which forces you to inevitably do more town missions.
One of the more interesting effects is the uses of the spirits; releasing the elemental spirit with you will have it float nearby. If you leave it alone, it will unleash a damaging spell, with areas of effect being different for each one. The casting time is so long and the effect fairly weak, however, and more often than not it is just far more efficient to rely on your own weapon. If you touch it, you activate another spell/effect, usually healing or enchanting your weapon with the spirit's element. The spirits themselves can be raised to higher levels and attain stronger magic with the equipping of Gems, which players find in dungeons or buy from town. Again, however, your wallet and needs will limit what gems you can or should use, and many good ones seem to come with detrimental effects as well.
All in all, the game turned out to be a really boring hack-and-slash dungeon crawler. It's a poor excuse for a Mana game, especially when compared to the original Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3, and Legend of Mana. I would really have much rather seen a translated port of SD3 than this atrocity.