Narrative Project - Game Review II: Children of Mana.

The storyline plays a huge part in adding structure to Children of Mana. In it, the protagonist (whom you can choose from four different ones) has to defeat a resurgence of evil that was quelled 10 years ago by a goddess. Of course, because you can choose from four different protagonists, there a four different motivations within the story; Ferrik wants to be a hero like his deceased father, Tamber seeks truth and justice due to her family dying in the Great Disaster (like Ferrik’s family did), though Poppen and Wanderer don’t have strong motivations. Poppen’s could be said to be a want to talk to his mother who died in the Great Disaster, but Wanderer is the character you find more about as the story progresses. Whilst each character motivation doesn’t change the plot of the main storyline, it does add to the game in general. As with books, a good game can’t be made just with a good plotline. The story could be the most unique in the world, but without fully-developed, well-rounded characters that people can relate to and find likable, the game will fail to grip and immerse players.

Children of Mana is full of likeable characters with backstories that help to fill out the plot,
move the story forwards and give players something to invest their time in.

But the basic storyline is fighting off an old foe to save the world. To do this, the protagonist must travel around a lot to complete various tasks, defeating monsters and bosses in lots of different dungeons and taking side quests to grow in strength. This means the game falls into two of Booker’s defined storylines. 

One: Overcoming A Force That Threatens. This gives players a challenging goal to reach and a main objective to the story. Without it, players would just be running around dungeons, killing monsters and there would be no satisfying end to it. A game with an objective like this, no matter how cliche, immerses the player in the game. They have to get to the end of this dungeon, they have to defeat this next boss, they have to catch up to the evil mastermind who keeps appearing just to show them what they’re up against. If they don’t, they let a whole world down and it’ll be the end of humanity. And let’s not forget that just because ‘defeating the baddie’ is a cliche, doesn’t mean it’s not interesting (though there are exceptions I will get to later). Cliches become cliches because people like them and find them engaging. 

Despite being a cliche, having an evil villain gives the game's story a solid direction. This means
players aren't wandering through the game wondering why they're spending their time fighting little monsters. It gives players a true challenge to overcome, therefore making for a more immersive game.

The second of Booker’s storylines that Children of Mana falls into is The Journey. Due to monsters appearing in dungeons all over the world, the protagonist must travel to them in order to advance in the story by clearing each dungeon. By adding this element into the game, the developers expanded the play time, and made it much more interesting (who wants to play in the same area for hours on end?). It also provides a change of pace to the game, because yes, constant dungeon crawling does get a little dull. The change in scenery is a welcome change and gives the player new problems to think about, like how to avoid that spiky area of floor blocking the way and how to get to the other side of the room when it’s covered in slippery ice. Despite the changing scenery having players look at something new every quest, the game does get a little boring. Even though you’re trying to defeat this villain, you spend so much time in dungeons it becomes monotonous. You want to be outside fighting monsters for once, why can’t they appear in a field instead? And yes, how the player interacts with the story is more engaging than Naruto (previous review) because you talk to other characters and have more of a personal interaction with them, it can still get boring just listening to the talk, then reading your pre-set dialogue, listening some more etc. Overall I think the way Children of Mana’s story is presented is much better than Naruto’s is, but it could still do with a little bit of variety.

Dungeons,

Oh look!
Another dungeon.

Dungeons...