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A certain group of long-time videogame fans gets very angry when a game with “Mana” in the title is not an exact replica of Secret of Mana. They are not going to be happy about this game. Heroes of Mana is very different from the 16-bit favorite that got everyone excited about these Mana games in the first place. Instead of a cooperative action-RPG, Heroes of Mana is the missing link between Final Fantasy Tactics and Warcraft.

Open-minded gamers may be disappointed for other reasons, though. Real-time strategy isn’t necessarily such a bad fit for the Nintendo DS – the touch-screen interface is tailor-made for poking units around a 3D battlefield. A good RTS game needs to nail down the basics, though, and Heroes gets one of the most basic of basics completely wrong.

This game might have the worst pathfinding AI of all time. Bad enough, anyway, that there’s no point in quibbling over comparisons. It’s very, very bad. A grid-based battlefield doesn’t help matters, limiting the number of routes a unit can take and almost guaranteeing that groups of units will get in each other’s way. Even so, this is unforgivably poor. It’s a stake through the heart of an otherwise promising strategy game.

Let’s Get Lost

To hammer the point home once more for good measure: the worst pathfinding of all time.

Maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves, though, so let’s start with the basics. Heroes of Mana mixes real-time strategy with the scale and map design of a turn-based game. When it’s not moving, it looks like Final Fantasy Tactics – it has the same kind of 3D battlefield, laid out on a grid but with plenty of variation in terrain. Units move and attack in real time, though, and there’s a basic system of resource-gathering to spawn new troops and other units.

Gatherer units, like the cute little Rabites of Manas past, bring elemental stone and wood resources back to a home base, the heroes’ airship. Inside the ship, you can add on extensions that spawn different unit types or provide support effects like healing units that hang around by the airship. None of those “buildings” take up space on the playfield, though. The airship, which has a touch of mobility to follow behind the battle lines, is where resources go and where new units spawn.

The rest of those units do the bulk of the fighting alongside the main hero characters. The latter are powerful and have useful support skills, but they’re not so durable that they can handle everything on their own. Progressing through the campaign gradually unlocks dozens of different units, from basic foot troops to mobile artillery and other nifty specialized weapons.

That Way! No, That Way!

This is all well and good, but when you try and get those units to do something, the trouble starts. In theory, one should be able to select a unit, select a target, and see the unit follow the shortest route to the target. This should even work with multiple units. Heroes has some smooth mechanics for selecting multiple units – the game briefly pauses while you circle a group with the stylus, or you can use some shorthand icons to select all of a certain type of unit – so it should be equally easy to make those units do what you want.

In practice, what happens goes something like this. First, you select three or four units. Then, you point them towards their target a modest distance away. They promptly mill around a bit, bump into each other, switch course in different directions (often following completely different routes instead of sticking together), and proceed to run laps around the map until they encounter the wrong enemy units. Your awaiting enemy turns them into dog food before the AI of your group is smart enough to register an attack and switch targets accordingly. Most units are slow enough that even if you manage to catch up with them and micro-manage them back in the right direction, they’ll often wind up badly hurt by their poor choice of destination.

As mentioned before, the grid-based battlefield is a big part of the problem. Two units can’t occupy the same grid square, so when their paths cross, they have to go around each other, which waste a lot of time when the detour in question covers four or five grid squares instead of one. The grid’s also a killer when a unit attempts to attack a moving target – it may have to do-si-do for a few squares before the intended victim holds still long enough for them to attack.

Having the right unit attack the right target is absolutely crucial, because each of the four main unit types is strong against one type and weak against another. Flying units, for instance, are strong against heavy units. They deal double damage and take only half but they’re weak against ranged units and vice versa. If the AI somehow runs into a dangerous rival, it’ll be chewed up in less time than it takes to say “bad pathfinding.”

Enough Already

On the plus side, the graphics are excellent. The Mana series never fails to feature solid art direction -- and the story’s fairly interesting. Mana die-hards may be interested in picking up on all the different references to Seiken Densetsu 3, the famous sequel to Secret of Mana that was only released in Japan. Heroes takes place in the same continuity, a couple of decades before.

Nevertheless, the frustration just isn’t worth it. If Brownie Brown can take this game and add some real freedom of movement to it, then they’ll have something worth digging into. Sadly, for now, they’ve just made some more grist for the angry Mana fan’s mill.

Review by: D.F. Smith
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