What The...?

So apparently the vocal trance artist Cascada thinks she's Kylie Manogue or something... That doesn't really sit right with me for some reason.

I've been playing the new DS RPG Children Of Mana, and I have to admit, it's intrigued me enough to stay my ravenous rampaged attempts to finely finish Kingdom Hearts 2 and be done with it. The design seems simple, in that there are a set number of dungeons and a home town. You do several quests (both story advancing and seemingly limitless jobs for rewards) in what I would call a randomly generated level structure, if not for the fact that the levels remain the same, but the order in which they are tackled seems to be the variable.

Anime cut scenes are a definite bonus, even if a little short, but the art style and the musical compositions are absolutely stunning. This can however be detracted from by the 500th time you've killed that same Zombie, or when you start repeating the same rooms over and over.

The control's are simple, but they fit nicely, making the magic system easily accessible, while still complex enough to give a touch of strategy to it's usage. The weapons system however, isn't quite so voluptuous. Each weapon has 3 ability's. Attack, support & fury (fury being a special technique usable once you've fought enough to fill the fury bar).

Despite everything else, it is a dungeon crawler at heart, but a fun one with an interesting story, especially if you've played any of the previous Mana games (which I'm guessing most of you won't have).

I'm hoping to obtain a video camera for my birthday (21st for those not in the know), and if I manage to pull off such a robust gift, then you'll be seeing an awful lot more videos on here, as I'll be toying with it endlessly.

CYOTFS
-Mav