Square has released its official list of games they'll be showing at E3. There's nothing really unexpected within -- FFXII, FFIII, Children of Mana, etc. That doesn't mean they couldn't roll out a surprise at the show, but we'll have to wait and see for that.

The one relatively new thing on the list is Dawn of Mana for the PS2, what the press release calls "the first true Mana game in a decade," essentially meaning this is Seiken Densetsu 4. Legend of Mana and Sword of Mana were offshoots of the main series, and thus apparently not "true." Also, Dawn of Mana is what some were earlier mistakenly calling World of Mana; World is actually the name they gave to Dawn and Children of Mana collectively as a two part addition to the Mana series. Yeah, it's confusing.

Dawn of Mana™, the first true Mana sequel in a decade, reveals the origins of the legend behind the Mana Tree and the Sword of Mana™. Breaking the series’ 2D mould, Dawn of Mana brings the world of Mana to three-dimensional life while preserving the atmosphere that fans have come to know and love. Players can see for themselves how vividly characters and monsters move about these new yet familiar surroundings. This instalment of the Mana is a true action-adventure, with sweeping plains and mountains stretching as far as the eye can see. It’s a world ripe for adventure!

A World of Sensation
“Touch” is the theme of Dawn of Mana’s world. You can virtually feel realistically rendered, lifelike objects.

The move to 3D bugs me. The Mana series was one of the last bastions of 2D gaming that wasn't a fighter. But even if that weren't so, the games were simply beautiful. The hand-drawn look of the games up to this point just can't be replicated in 3D, especially not on the aging PS2 hardware. As I dig around, I see that there are screenshots available on Square's Japanese Mana site, and they look about as I figured.

I'm not saying the game is ugly; obviously it's not. But the technology simply isn't capable of achieving the look of 2D art, even when that art was squished to a lower resolution to work with the original Playstation:

That in itself was reason I hoped the series would stay in 3D; to see hand-drawn art on the level of the Mana series freed from the constaints of the PSX. The style has been given even less of a chance on the PS2 than it was on the PSX, almost entirely relegated to fighters and Metal Slug ports. Such is the march of progress, I suppose. Though Sony's infamously harsh stance against 2D games doesn't help either.

One interesting note about the game (undoubtedly related to that "world of sensation" bit in the press release), is that Dawn of Mana will use the Havoc physics engine. Is there a lot of use for phsyics in an RPG, even one with real time battles?