Editing Children of Mana

Like previous games in the ''Mana'' series, ''Children of Mana'' features a top-down perspective in which characters navigate terrain and fight off hostile creatures. At the start, the player is given the choice of playing as one of four playable characters at the start: [[Ferrik]], [[Tamber]], [[Poppen]], and [[Wanderer]]. Each character has ratings: the damage they do with magic, how fast they can attack, and the amount of health and [[mana]] they have. The game plays out nearly identically regardless which character is chosen, except for a few quests specific to one character. Unlike previous games in the series, the main character typically has no companions.

''Children of Mana'' is unique from earlier ''Mana'' titles in that it is a {{wp|dungeon crawler}}, so a majority of the gameplay takes place in select locations rather than on an open world map. The world map is used to select those locations. The primary objective in each location is to defeat all of the monsters. Each [[dungeon]] is divided into different randomly generated floors, and to progress between each zone, the player must find an item called a [[Gleamdrop]], then carry it to a pillar of light called a [[Gleamwell]]. The player must repeat this process on each floor of the dungeon until the last floor is reached, where the area's boss is fought. The player can not return to previous floors unless they die or leave the dungeon; upon returning, they start the dungeon over at the beginning. When not clearing dungeons, the player stays in the Mana Village, which contains shops to purchase equipment. Dungeons can be returned to later by accepting quests from townsfolk in the [[Dudbear]] shop. During these quests, the dungeon itself is slightly altered: the player's starting position may be different, the number of floors can change, and the monsters and boss monster contained may change. Like the main quests, Dudbear quests involve clearing the dungeon of monsters, sometimes to acquire an item at the end.

The game retains the real-time battle mechanics of previous games in the ''Mana'' series. There are four weapons with their own unique abilities: [[sword]], [[flail]], [[bow]] and [[arrow]], and [[hammer]]. Once the first boss, [[Xangar]], has been defeated, the player character can equip two weapons at once. The four characters can use any weapon type, although each of them retain their own abilities and weapon of choice. The player can change which weapons their character has at any time. Each weapon has standard normal attacks, special attacks, and fury attacks. The fury attacks are the strongest and require a full [[Fury Gauge]] to use, which is filled by striking enemies with standard attacks and taking damage from enemies. Different weapons can have different effects on the environment, such as the hammer's ability to smash pots. In addition to weapons, the player can select from one of eight Elementals, which provide different magical attacks and magical enhancements to weapon attacks. The player can switch between Elementals in the Mana Village. Elemental attacks can be made stronger by equipping Gems, which can also boost the player's attributes.

 

''Children of Mana'' features a cooperative local wireless mode that can support up to 4 players at once. The multiplayer mode does not allow the players to save their progress in the game while playing in it, although experience and items received can be saved later after leaving the multiplayer party. The player hosting the session is able to keep the progress data after multiplayer is finished and can continue the story onward; however, the other players will find themselves back where they started in their own games, with only the additional stats and items gained while playing multiplayer. Items directly related to the story, such as weapons like the flail and hammer, cannot be obtained by anyone but the host. There are a few items that can only be obtained as bonuses by playing through stages using this mode.