14 DAY TRIAL // Square Enix Senior Executive and producer of Children of Mana, Koichi Ishi joined the gaming press to reveal more inside information on the upcoming Heroes of Mana DS adventure. He underlined the title's strengths, like Wi-Fi multiplayer capacity and innovative playing effects. Although Square Enix has not yet announced their complete lineup for the virtual console on the Wii, Ishi said that an independent Mana title is "currently being considered"; only to later reaffirm there is "a great amount of possibility for development on the Wii." Ishi even revealed there is great potential in a remake for The Secret of Mana by claiming: "If the fans want it then we will consider it."
Heroes of Mana will provide both real time strategy and role playing elements, coming from a great development team, with character designs by Ryoma Ito (Final Fantasy: Tactics Advance) and Akira Oguo (Final Fantasy X). The main scenario will be devised by Mastato Kato (Chrono Trigger, Legend of Mana), music composed by Yoko Shimumura (Mana, Parasite Eve). The 2D dungeon crawler is to be produced by Koichi Ishi.
Players will be able to enjoy the wireless DS-to-DS connection, but will not feature any online connectivity, since Ishi feels that Children of Mana is meant to be played in a microclimate consisting in friends and family. The multiplayer mode departs from the original title and instead battle focuses more on fast decisions and reflexes through randomly generated dungeons. It appears the single player storyline will not enjoy the same randomness. Additional tricks challenge the player's tactile functions in combat, a unique twist involving a "pinball" effect causing enemies to ricochet across the screen when hit.