The mana series has floundered a bit in recent years, but Square Enix and developer Brownie Brown will attempt to reinvigorate the long-running franchise by taking it in a whole new direction. Heroes of Mana eschews the traditional action-role-playing of its predecessors in favour of real-time strategy. The core of your force is a small party of heroes (each of whom can level up and equip items RPG-style), but the rest of your army consists of monsters that you'll summon on the battlefield. You start by creating little mouselike creatures that can gather resources and bring them back to your airship (which serves as your base of operations). Once you've collected enough materials, you can begin producing units for war. There are numerous kinds of resources, and each one allows for the creation of unique units (so you have to decide which ones to prioritize). The flow of the game is pretty similar to that of your typical RTS, but the distinct Mana flavor certainly helps set it apart.
The touch-screen controls are also a huge boon, and one wonder why we haven't seen more DS entries in this genre. Using the stylus to select your forces and move them around the battlefield is simply a breeze, and you can group units together by simply drawing a circle around them. Additionally, each of your troops has an icon at the bottom of the display that lets you quickly select any off-screen units, as well as monitor their status (the icon's color changes gradually as the unit takes damage).
As expected from a Square Enix title, the presentation in Heroes of Mana is top-notch. The game boasts some gorgeous animated cut-scenes, the in-game visuals mix clean 3-D backgrounds with some nice hand-drawn sprite work, and based on what we've heard thus far; the rousing musical score from Yoko Shimomura (who composed the music for Kingdom Hearts II and Super Mario RPG) may set a new standard for the DS. The game will also offer Wi-Fi support, though Square Enix isn't talking specifics just yet. Here's hoping for some full-fledged online warfare.