Children of Mana: My thumbs scream for mercy

I'm reaching that point where I'm longing to replay the very first games I played after my Second Coming of Gaming. Children of Mana was one of them, and I have very fond memories of playing it, somewhere between Sonic Rush and Dragon Quest IX. So when my gaming instinct compelled me to play it again, I gladly caved in and went for another round of hectic hack'n'slashy, dungeon-crawly action — and with that sentence, the game is pretty much exhaustively described. Some critics back in the days blamed the game for straying too far from the Mana formula, but I beg to differ. Children of Mana harks back to the series' famed 16-bit era by being a pared-down retelling of Seiken Densetsu 3's grindy second half; and sure enough, CoM manages to replicate most of his venerable ancestor's pros and cons in the process.

The 'Yay': 

• Stellar fighting system: as far as retro-ish ARPGs go, you won't find much better than CoM. The physics are top-notch, and punching every living thing into oblivion soon becomes ridiculously addictive and a true guilty pleasure. Now, if you want to have a real blast playing that game, do yourself a favour and pick up Tamber as your character. It's all too easy to dismiss her as your usual frail range weapon user, when she's actually a true melee beast. She hits just as hard as Ferrik and is significantly faster than him, which means that she can wreak havoc on the battlefield while swiftly avoiding enemy fire. Trust me, I tried them both extensively and my seasoned fingers know the better character when they handle them.
• Mana charm by the truckload: The unmistakable graphical style of the series is there, as well as its most famous locales. Bright and shiny colours abound and the whole atmosphere is incredibly lovely and uplifting. Never had it been so heartwarming to destroy whole ecosystems by wreaking havoc on the local fauna. 
• Battle fairness: Foes are affected by traps on the battlefield just like your character. Now that's just a detail, but that's the kind of thing that separates good and fair games from nasty cheating ones as far as I'm concerned. It always royally pisses me off to see foes waltz around hazards that eat away my character's HP bar, and I appreciate CoM for trying to redress the balance.
• Great soundtrack: If you're any familiar with Mike Oldfield's work, many tracks sound a lot like his '70s output — Incantations and the like. Now, I have to admit that this soundtrack tends to grate on my ear very quickly for some reason; but there's no denying that it's incredibly lush, polished and complex. And I really, really love the first track, a.k.a. 'Tower of the Flickering Prayer'; it makes me want to roam dungeons on and on!
• Lots of lovely loot: Treasure chests! Monster drops! Stuff hidden in bushes! Forget about the village's shop and its greedy owner, all you need and more can be found in dungeons. Sell the extra items for good money, reinvest it in bigger bags and awesome gems and you're set.

The 'Meh':

• Too. Bloody. Grindy: Hence this post's title. I never though I'd ever call a game "too grindy", but CoM is just too bloody demanding for its own good — and for my wrists. Most hardcore grindy dungeon crawlers favour turn-based combat over action-based combat, and there's a very sound reason for that: the latter is bound to inflict a nasty case of carpal tunnel syndrome on the unsuspecting player before long. It would have been nice to implement less foes, or to make them less persistent and/or resistant. The difficulty spikes at the beginning of each dungeon are also a royal pain in the butt, because they require level-grinding and CoM is really not a game that lends itself to grindy bouts. The MC levels up way too slow and each level require the slaughtering of dozens of foes; and if your mind doesn't balk at the task, then your thumbs will.
• Tedious sidequests: Sidequests could have been a welcome breather from all the crawly and grindy action; but instead, they involve crawling already explored dungeons over and over again while killing everything in sight. Also, they often feature an insultingly high number of floors and reuse the exact same floor layout ad nauseam. Eew. 
• The second half is a total bore: Overblown dungeons, milling masses of insanely irritating enemies that take a million hits to die, a story that goes nowhere and a final boss that's a total pushover not worth the hassle. Nuff said. 

Since I polished off CoM back in the days and know exactly what to expect from it, I had no qualms about ditching it as soon as it became tedious, i.e. at the beginning of the Mana Ruins dungeon. Heck, I remember coming very close to ragequitting in the last dungeon back in the days, and I certainly don't want to go through that again. Still, I love that game despite its flaws, and you can bet I'll play it again sooner or later. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!