I think the one up review levees some pretty straightforward complaints:
If the physics were merely an aspect of combat, that would be one thing. Instead, Dawn of Mana bases the entire game around them. Forget straight-on attacks, like -- oh, I don't know -- just about every other action-RPG ever made. In order to coerce power-ups out of enemies, you have to "startle" them by tossing boxes, berries, rocks, and other assorted obstacles in their general direction. However, you can't just grab these objects and aim them; you have to punch them around with your sword. So while your aim may be straight, the rock/berry/box might end up going left. This slows the gameplay to a crawl, as you try again and again to "surprise" mushbooms and other assorted critters -- when a nice sword strike from behind would, in theory, surprise them just fine. The poorly implemented physics don't just affect Keldric's interaction with the enemies, though -- it goes both ways. Mere bumps from the enemy throw him into the air like he's been speared by an NFL linebacker, which make climbs up steep terrain -- which Dawn of Mana has in abundance -- agonizingly repetitive.
Still, even all this might have been marginally tolerable if character progression had been set up like that of a typical RPG. You know, where you gain abilities and then can use them for the rest of the game? Not here. At the start of every new area, you revert back to level 1. Learn a healing spell in the last area? Oops! It's gone now. In theory, you can earn emblems that permanently boost your stats, but in order to earn most of them, you have to accomplish tasks on the hardest difficulty and complete inane, mundane collect-a-thons. The emblem system seems designed to entice the player to master as much of the game as possible. But when the gameplay is so maddening and so repetitive, what on earth would compel any player to do that? And what's the point in including power-up emblems if you can only access most of them after you've already beaten the game?
