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Chrissy Snow I started playing video games, and now I play them for YOU!! Tell us what games we need guides for!! View all articles | Contact author

Damn it, Square-Enix, what were you thinking when you designed Dawn of Mana? Yes, you got a lot of things right. The visuals? Awesome. The in-game audio? Spectacular. But then you absolutely blow it with one critical design mistake: you reset all of my stats in between each chapter!

Yes, you heard me. Look, half the fun of any RPG is watching your character(s) level up as the game progresses, but this level-wipe 'feature' basically renders my actions meaningless. What's the point of arduously hacking my way through the levels if all of my efforts are erased at the end of every chapter?

Dawn of Mana tries hard to eliminate the hack-and-slash nature of many action-adventure games. Almost every button on the controller has a different function, from camera manipulation, to targeting, to spell selecting and casting, to employing each of main protagonist Keldy's three weapons (sword, vine whip and slingshot).