NOTE: The subject in question may really belong in the Modern Gaming folder, since a lot of it is PS2 and beyond. This thread can be moved if deemed appropriate.
Anyway, it's no great secret that I love the Mana series (or World of Mana as its called now). I played Secret of Mana back the storied days of yore and loved it. The friend that showed me Secret also introduced to me to Legend of Mana when it came out and I was totally hooked. I freely admit that the game has lots of faults, but I still have a great deal of fondness for it. Sword of Mana came out for the GBA and I kinda liked it, but something about the scope and the sheer foregone tragedy turned me off after a while. Then somebody showed me the wonders of emulation and I played the fan-translation of Seiken Densetsu 3. It was awesome.
Just something about it really appeals to me; the lush landscapes and toy-like creatures juxtaposed with themes of sacrifice, scorned love, and the growing bleakness of human tragedy, along with wonderful romps and interesting magic, combat, and later crafting can make for a helluva ride.
Then Dawn of Mana happened. I wasn't expecting sunshine and rainbows (except for y'know for backgrounds) especially since Squeenix was getting ever more awkward, emo, and just plain obtuse with its games. But Dawn...Dawn just felt like they wanted to beat you over the head with how depressing the Mana World was, and threw in some nasty mechanic choices for fun. Mana always had this theme of growth and change, but now we have a bag of spilling for every level, samey awkward platforming, collect-a-thons that didn't end, and hey-look-you-like-these-people-screw-you-and-them angst fests.
Dawn of Mana stands as a failed campaign; a game I couldn't make myself play, and may well never even get a spot in the Backlog of Glory. After that, I kept hearing snippets of how this Mana game had crappy controls and no story, that Mana game made no sense and was a Strategy game for no reason. I never heard one nice thing about a Mana game after Dawn except for Adventure (and that's a remake of a remake).
Have things really gotten that bad for Mana? Why? Or is it just more grumpy gamer syndrome and the games are at least OK?