Figured I'd try my hand at a review at a game I enjoyed immensely that doesn't get anywhere near as much appreciation as it should. Enjoy!
Introduction
Well, I played Magna Carta for the PS2 – which is actually the second one I believe, making the second one the third, but there we are – and I absolutely despised it. It’s one of the few RPGs I’ve played that I can say I truly, truly hated. There was absolutely nothing redeemable about it, and it was with great relief that I traded it in for something playable after I slogged through it. It was with considerable apprehension that I viewed its sequel, and I didn’t approach this game with what you might call a clear, unbiased mind. The stench of the PS2 Magna Carta hung over this one to the point that I almost skipped it entirely. In hindsight, I am very glad I didn’t. Magna Carta II exceeded my expectations, and then some. It’s not a particularly original or revolutionary RPG, but its rock-solid and immense fun to play. It takes the “if it isn’t broken, why fix it?” approach, and the end result is something that is new and yet comfortingly familiar at the same time.
...but I get ahead of myself.
Storyline: 7.0/10
You’re introduced into the plot with a nice (but rather confusing) cutscene. Queen Ibrin of Lanzheim has been assassinated by her former Prime Minister, Schuenzeit, who then proceeds to imprison her daughter, Princess Rzephillda (from now on referred to by her nickname, “Zephie”, because her full name is a real pain to type) and, in the standard fashion of any evil dictator, kill off anyone who stands in his way. In any event, Zephie escapes his clutches and flees to the city of Abazet and the dashing Count Alex, forming the army of the Southern Forces to counteract Schuenzeit’s own Northern Forces.
Fast-forward a little bit, and Schuenzeit starts to get serious, unleashing the “Sentinels”, living weapons that proceed to make mincemeat out of the Southern Forces. Zephie forms the Counter-Sentinel unit and begins an investigation, ordering her bodyguard Rue to gather some information about precisely what they are. Rue does as ordered, and then gets herself captured. Zephie goes to rescue her. She finds her, and the two begin to make their escape. However, they are confronted by “Elgar the Regicide”, the infamous Northern Forces general. He overwhelms Rue, and is about to finish them both off once and for all, when suddenly Zephie explodes. The explosion sends Elgar flying and can be seen clearly for miles...
...this all happens in the opening five minutes. Two years later we see Juto, a lazy-looking young man with amnesia and an inexplicable phobia of swords. He lives an idyllic life with his adoptive big-sister, Melissa, on Highwind Island, removed from the war and pretty much everything else. However, that soon changes, as Zephie arrives on the island. She and her companion, a rather imposing-looking Trewa named Argo, require guidance to a cave on the island. Guess who volunteers to show them the way? A few traumatic events later, and Juto has thrown his lot in with the Southern Forces Counter-Sentinel Unit, and thus the story kicks off.
You’re given a lot to digest in the first twenty minutes of the game, but a lot of RPGs like to just toss you into the world and let you find your own way around, which isn’t so bad. What IS bad, however, and preventing this game from getting any higher than a 7.0, is how incredibly cliché and sometimes lacklustre the plot is. It seems to take classic elements from standard RPG plotlines – the warring factions, amnesiac protagonist who is infinitely more than he appears, princess and her companions off to save the world, to name but a few – and throws them all together, rather than building on them to create a new and unique plot. If you played more than one RPG, a lot of the plot elements are going to be familiar to you, and you’ll be able to see (most of the time) where the story is going. It also likes to reveal a great deal at once, rather than unleashing things slowly over the course of the game, so it all finally comes to a head at the end. It’s quite unbalanced at points, and a lot of things aren’t fully explored or explained, and when the game finally ends there are a few annoying loose ends which aren’t answered.
That is the bad of it. So, what justifies the score I gave the storyline? Well, despite it recycling plot elements, they ARE classics, and the foundation of some truly great games that have come before it. If it isn’t broken, why fix it? You won’t spot everything, and the game has a few plot twists that, in your eagerness to predict, you’ll predict incorrectly. In at least one or two ways, it WILL surprise you. It’s quite an epic storyline and, whilst it isn’t as balanced as it could be, it is a solid and consistent presence as you play through the game. The lack of cutscenes will appeal to some (the story is told mostly in-game with portraits of the characters in question, similar to how it is done in the Star Ocean series and a lot of handheld RPGs), because it makes the storyline easier to digest (or skip, if you would prefer) although it will aggravate others, because it feels like you’ve only taken a few steps before you’re shoved into ANOTHER text marathon. However, how good that is depends on your personal preference, it is undeniable that it is a serviceable way to tell the story.
Characters: 6.4/10
Being an RPG, you would expect Magna Carta II to have a wide variety of characters, and you’d be partially right. However, like most RPGs, it has an annoying tendency to focus on certain characters (namely Juto and Zephie) and mostly ignore the others.
Your in-game party initially consists of Juto, Zephie and Argo, however you will meet three other characters as you progress through the game – Crocell, (whom you’ll meet fairly early on) Celestine (one of the Mare tribe), and Rue, Zephie’s bodyguard who you’ll be familiar with already, having watched the opening movie. Each of them have their own unique personality, and they interact well with one another and provide for some humorous moments, but they are all rather generic. Argo is your strong, silent type, Crocell is the hothead you’ll either love or want to strangle, Celestine is the hyperactive girly mage with the horrendously high-pitched voice, and Rue is the emotionless one. All the focus is on Juto (who also narrates about how he felt at the time and what was to come every now and then, which is a nice touch) and Zephie (to a lesser extent), as they shed their dependencies and demons and discover themselves. There are small sub-plots that focus on the others, but these mostly occur outside of the main story in the form of side quests, meaning you could end up missing a lot of them.
Now, for the villains. I have always been of the opinion that the villains are more important than the protagonists: their personalities are far more interesting and, as a general rule in RPGs, they are responsible for a great deal of the development undergone by the protagonists. So, how were the villains in Magna Carta 2? Disappointing. Schuenzeit is the primary antagonist, and he hardly shows up at all in the game, appearing occasionally to deliver a grandiose speech, converse with his underlings, or drop a cryptic comment. His significance isn’t revealed until right at the end of the game, which makes you feel somewhat cheated.
Schuenzeit also has three generals: Claire Setilan, a thoroughly badass woman with an old-fashioned and lethal pistol and an upper class demeanour, Elgar the Regicide, also known by several other colourfully menacing nicknames, and Huaren Jass, a—OK, I still haven’t figured out WHAT Huaren is yet. Some kind of mad scientist with two dog-like heads on his shoulders. In any event, the three of them show up two or three times each before they vanish to show up at the end for a final showdown. It’s extremely disappointing, given how much potential they all have.
Surprisingly, the supporting cast are extremely well thought out and have as much personality, if not more, than the main cast. Perhaps the most memorable character in the entire game was Count Alex, an ambitious, complex politician. His machinations are quite prominent in the first disc of the game, and he is perhaps more interesting, in my opinion, than any of the other characters on offer here.
Gameplay: 9.0/10
Undoubtedly the most satisfying element of the game and what will keep you playing it, Magna Carta 2 has been described by some as having a battle system reminiscent of FFXII, yet enhanced, which is a nice nutshell description. However, there is (thankfully) more to it than that.
Battles are conducted in real-time and occur on the field (so, no random battles, which I know will come as a great relief to some) and are simple enough. A quick tap of a button and you’ll enter “combat mode”, allowing you to hack away at whatever poor unfortunate soul has crossed your path. You can switch who you’re controlling by tapping the relevant button on the D-Pad (their stats will be displayed in the bottom left corner of the screen, with a corresponding arrow.) and switch your targets with the single tap of a button, and bring up a combat menu, which freezes combat and allows you to adjust AI settings, use items, and even swap out your party members. It’s all very fluid and will become second-nature to you as you play the game more.
Attacking enemies with basic attacks allows you to build up Kan (I’ll elaborate on that later in this section) which in turn allows you to execute special moves. Simple enough, no? You’d think that you could just go on like that, attacking as normal until you’ve built up enough Kan to decimate opponents with your most powerful special moves. Well, you could do that, but you’d be running away an awful lot. The more you attack, the more your Overdrive gauge fills up (it’s at the bottom of the screen during combat mode when you attack) and, once it lights up in a nice little display of spontaneous combustion you will enter “Overdrive” mode, where your attack power is enhanced. However, once you have finished whatever attack you’re currently executing, you enter “Overheat” mode, and will be unable to attack for a minute or two. Anyone who has played a game with a real-time battle system before knows that this can be a death sentence. However, if you perform a special attack once you enter Overheat and then switch characters, you can avoid this by filling up their gauge as well, putting them into Overdrive mode, and perform a special attack, both characters have their Overdrive gauges reset then and there, allowing you to continue your onslaught. In short, “Chaining”. Sounds pretty good, right? Well, if you attempt this and fail, both characters are stuck in Overheat, and since you can only have three characters on the field at a time, this is NOT something you want to happen. So, a little strategy is required, and in this game, you’ll be doing a great deal of swapping to try and avoid the penalties of attacking too much...or a great deal of running away.
There are also Co-Op attacks, although these are limited and, frankly, far too much effort involved for too little profit. Both characters have to have enough Kan to do their Co-Op attack PLUS enough to do a special attack in the first place, not to mention be in a weapon style which may or may not fit your play style. They’re ultimately under-developed, unnecessary, and highly aggravating.
It takes a little time to get used to the battle system, however, Zephie offers a pretty thorough tutorial early on in the game, and, like all battle systems, once you have grasped the unique quirks its smooth sailing from then-on out.
I mentioned building up Kan in the above paragraph. Kan acts as your MP in battle, allowing you to perform special attacks of various levels once you have built up enough of it. You build it up, as I have said, by performing normal attacks against enemies in battle. The amount of Kan a character has will be displayed by their name and hit points in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. Kan has attributes, so fire Kan that Crocell generates can’t be used by, say, Celestine, who uses Water Kan for her attacks. Elemental Kan appear on the field as small coloured wisps, and enemies can also take advantage of them if their attribute matches up. Others, like Juto, build up their own Kan through physical attacks, which don’t appear on the field. Kan may already exist on the field prior to your arrival, and enemies may also generate Kan through their own special attacks, so it’s give and take a lot of the time.
Character customization is limited, but it is there, so I’ll touch upon it briefly. Each character has two weapon types – so, for example, Juto can use a one-handed sword or a two-handed sword in battle. Each comes with its own pros and cons: obviously, a 2-H sword is a hell of a lot slower, but has a great deal more power to its hits, as well as its own special attacks, which are acquired via Skill Trees. Levelling up gives you an amount of Skill Points, which you can use to upgrade your character’s special attacks, as well as learn new ones. Unless you like level-grinding – and in this game there really is no need for it – you’ll only be able to max out one Skill Tree for a character in one playthrough, so you’ll need to make the decision fairly early on in the game. You can customize your weapons with Kamonds that you’ll acquire through monster drops or from treasure chests, which grant you nice boosts to your stats, or useful abilities like a resistance to poison. Once you find a more powerful weapon, you can take the Kamond you’ve equipped to a weapon off that weapon and put it on the new one. Other games are considerably less kind, so this is quite a nice little addition. Each character has their own special ability as well, which you can perform at certain times by tapping B. Argo, for example, has Armour Break, which will make it considerably easier to kill certain bosses, whereas Rue has the chance to kill an enemy in one hit. This gives each character a strategic value as well, although certain characters (Rue) have considerably more value than others...
There are quite a few sidequests to do in addition to the main quest, as well, offering some nice rewards, as well as some backstory for other characters (occasionally) and a break from the action. The game promises about 40 hours of gameplay, which is more or less accurate if you go for the sidequests as well. They’re quite varied, as well, as opposed to just following set formulae – capture this, rescue him/her, etc.
This game offers very little in the way of diversity, however – you run from place to place, fulfilling your objectives, and there isn’t much else until you get to the final dungeon, which is perhaps one of the most aggravating and ridiculously complex dungeons in a video game to date. Suddenly they decide to spring a horrendously awkward puzzle on you, punctuated by some thoroughly evil bosses that will demolish you within five minutes if you’re unprepared.
Here then, is why the game doesn’t get a perfect score – the learning curve. It is very unlikely that you will need to do any sort of level-grinding in this game, unless you want to max out your Skill Trees (which is impossible to do unless you acquire certain Kamond that will allow you to get more Skill Points upon levelling up) or acquire more money, which you really don’t need. There is absolutely no challenge to the majority of this game, and once you get adjusted to the battle system, you’ll be chaining combos with ease and absolutely decimating anything and everything that you come across. Until the very end of the game, that is. For some strange reason, the game becomes utterly unforgiveable at the end of the game, which sees you fighting four extremely tough bosses and doing a dungeon that will probably take you several hours. It was nice to have some challenge at the end of the game, but there is a thin, thin line between “challenging” and “aggravating” and it’s definitely on the side of the latter. There is also the small matter of the AI not being entirely up to scratch sometimes. A lot of the time this won’t matter – you’ll be switching back and forth between characters and can carry many of the fights yourself, but again, at the end of the game it becomes somewhat troublesome to have to keep on reviving them.
Controls: 9.9/10
The controls for this game are excellent, and everything will feel quite natural to you once you’ve been playing for a few hours. The only complaints I can really point out is that executing Co-Op attacks is extremely awkward, and occasionally you might not be quick enough to Chain a special attack, leaving two of your characters stuck in Overheat and vulnerable to a pounding. It can be very frustrating at points.
Graphics: 8.9/10
There are definitely better-looking Xbox 360 games out there, but not too many. There is a nice variety of locations, and each of them is equally stunning. There is quite an attention to detail here, and it’s visually pleasing to say the least.
The characters were all designed by Hyung-Tae Kim who (apparently, anyway) is quite a renowned designer. Personally I thought the designs were a little weird, stuck in that grey area between being anime and realistic, but they weren’t absolutely horrendous.
Sound: 8.5/10
Not much of the music is particularly epic, or memorable, but it’s serviceable, and nothing will have you turning off the volume in irritation. It’s a nice mixture of everything, although mostly arranged classical. A lot of the time you won’t even notice the music.
A large percentage of the score for this section comes from the voice acting. There are some top quality voice actors in here, including Johnny Yong Bosch, Yuri Lowenthal and Crispin Freeman (who seem to be in almost everything these days...) and each of them fills their roles in this game with the minimum amount of annoyance and a goodly amount of convincing emotion.
What DOES become annoying, however, are the catchphrases characters say in battle. Hearing Crocell vow to “BURN EVERYTHING DOWN!” is very nice the first few times, but after the 20th or so time it gets annoying.
Unique/Extra Features: 3.0/10
Not much going on here, I’m afraid – the additional content unlocks a few additional achievements for XboxLive, and the downloadable weapons serve only to make an easy game even easier. They at least made the effort, but it’s a poor one.
Replay value: 5.1/10
You may come back to this game again to try playing through it in a different play style (say, try using Crocell’s Knuckles instead of his Fireballs) and if you’ve missed a sidequest or two you may want to try again to attain the achievements, since it is unlikely you’ll get them all the first time around (unless you’re the thorough type) but there isn’t much to recommend this game over, say, Tales of Vesperia, Lost Odyssey or Star Ocean: The Last Hope. It’s enjoyable and definitely worth more than one playthrough, but it has a lot of fierce competition and nothing to really stand above them.
Overall Rating: 8.2/10
Well, with such fierce competition its unsurprising that Magna Carta II didn’t quite manage to make itself shine quite as much as it may have done, but all the same its still a great game that is worth buying. It’s got a comfortably familiar feel to it, an excellent battle system, a top-quality voice cast, and its fun trying to guess the outcome of the storyline. Nothing about the game is particularly BAD, but nothing really makes it stand out from its competitors either, nothing is exceptional. If it’s not broken, then why bother fixing it? Magna Carta II consists of what has been at the core of most RPGs since the genre first came into existence – just because it doesn’t do anything new does not make it a bad game. If you’re looking for something enjoyable and familiar with a few twists and turns along the way, this is definitely a game you could consider. If you want something revolutionary, look elsewhere. The flaws in the game lie with the lack of originality in the storyline and the excellence of the alternatives, not with the gameplay, graphics or sound. Sadly, these things must be taken into account, and even if the likes of Lost Odyssey did not exist, I doubt I would give this game any higher than a 9.0.
Introduction
Well, I played Magna Carta for the PS2 – which is actually the second one I believe, making the second one the third, but there we are – and I absolutely despised it. It’s one of the few RPGs I’ve played that I can say I truly, truly hated. There was absolutely nothing redeemable about it, and it was with great relief that I traded it in for something playable after I slogged through it. It was with considerable apprehension that I viewed its sequel, and I didn’t approach this game with what you might call a clear, unbiased mind. The stench of the PS2 Magna Carta hung over this one to the point that I almost skipped it entirely. In hindsight, I am very glad I didn’t. Magna Carta II exceeded my expectations, and then some. It’s not a particularly original or revolutionary RPG, but its rock-solid and immense fun to play. It takes the “if it isn’t broken, why fix it?” approach, and the end result is something that is new and yet comfortingly familiar at the same time.
...but I get ahead of myself.
Storyline: 7.0/10
You’re introduced into the plot with a nice (but rather confusing) cutscene. Queen Ibrin of Lanzheim has been assassinated by her former Prime Minister, Schuenzeit, who then proceeds to imprison her daughter, Princess Rzephillda (from now on referred to by her nickname, “Zephie”, because her full name is a real pain to type) and, in the standard fashion of any evil dictator, kill off anyone who stands in his way. In any event, Zephie escapes his clutches and flees to the city of Abazet and the dashing Count Alex, forming the army of the Southern Forces to counteract Schuenzeit’s own Northern Forces.
Fast-forward a little bit, and Schuenzeit starts to get serious, unleashing the “Sentinels”, living weapons that proceed to make mincemeat out of the Southern Forces. Zephie forms the Counter-Sentinel unit and begins an investigation, ordering her bodyguard Rue to gather some information about precisely what they are. Rue does as ordered, and then gets herself captured. Zephie goes to rescue her. She finds her, and the two begin to make their escape. However, they are confronted by “Elgar the Regicide”, the infamous Northern Forces general. He overwhelms Rue, and is about to finish them both off once and for all, when suddenly Zephie explodes. The explosion sends Elgar flying and can be seen clearly for miles...
...this all happens in the opening five minutes. Two years later we see Juto, a lazy-looking young man with amnesia and an inexplicable phobia of swords. He lives an idyllic life with his adoptive big-sister, Melissa, on Highwind Island, removed from the war and pretty much everything else. However, that soon changes, as Zephie arrives on the island. She and her companion, a rather imposing-looking Trewa named Argo, require guidance to a cave on the island. Guess who volunteers to show them the way? A few traumatic events later, and Juto has thrown his lot in with the Southern Forces Counter-Sentinel Unit, and thus the story kicks off.
You’re given a lot to digest in the first twenty minutes of the game, but a lot of RPGs like to just toss you into the world and let you find your own way around, which isn’t so bad. What IS bad, however, and preventing this game from getting any higher than a 7.0, is how incredibly cliché and sometimes lacklustre the plot is. It seems to take classic elements from standard RPG plotlines – the warring factions, amnesiac protagonist who is infinitely more than he appears, princess and her companions off to save the world, to name but a few – and throws them all together, rather than building on them to create a new and unique plot. If you played more than one RPG, a lot of the plot elements are going to be familiar to you, and you’ll be able to see (most of the time) where the story is going. It also likes to reveal a great deal at once, rather than unleashing things slowly over the course of the game, so it all finally comes to a head at the end. It’s quite unbalanced at points, and a lot of things aren’t fully explored or explained, and when the game finally ends there are a few annoying loose ends which aren’t answered.
That is the bad of it. So, what justifies the score I gave the storyline? Well, despite it recycling plot elements, they ARE classics, and the foundation of some truly great games that have come before it. If it isn’t broken, why fix it? You won’t spot everything, and the game has a few plot twists that, in your eagerness to predict, you’ll predict incorrectly. In at least one or two ways, it WILL surprise you. It’s quite an epic storyline and, whilst it isn’t as balanced as it could be, it is a solid and consistent presence as you play through the game. The lack of cutscenes will appeal to some (the story is told mostly in-game with portraits of the characters in question, similar to how it is done in the Star Ocean series and a lot of handheld RPGs), because it makes the storyline easier to digest (or skip, if you would prefer) although it will aggravate others, because it feels like you’ve only taken a few steps before you’re shoved into ANOTHER text marathon. However, how good that is depends on your personal preference, it is undeniable that it is a serviceable way to tell the story.
Characters: 6.4/10
Being an RPG, you would expect Magna Carta II to have a wide variety of characters, and you’d be partially right. However, like most RPGs, it has an annoying tendency to focus on certain characters (namely Juto and Zephie) and mostly ignore the others.
Your in-game party initially consists of Juto, Zephie and Argo, however you will meet three other characters as you progress through the game – Crocell, (whom you’ll meet fairly early on) Celestine (one of the Mare tribe), and Rue, Zephie’s bodyguard who you’ll be familiar with already, having watched the opening movie. Each of them have their own unique personality, and they interact well with one another and provide for some humorous moments, but they are all rather generic. Argo is your strong, silent type, Crocell is the hothead you’ll either love or want to strangle, Celestine is the hyperactive girly mage with the horrendously high-pitched voice, and Rue is the emotionless one. All the focus is on Juto (who also narrates about how he felt at the time and what was to come every now and then, which is a nice touch) and Zephie (to a lesser extent), as they shed their dependencies and demons and discover themselves. There are small sub-plots that focus on the others, but these mostly occur outside of the main story in the form of side quests, meaning you could end up missing a lot of them.
Now, for the villains. I have always been of the opinion that the villains are more important than the protagonists: their personalities are far more interesting and, as a general rule in RPGs, they are responsible for a great deal of the development undergone by the protagonists. So, how were the villains in Magna Carta 2? Disappointing. Schuenzeit is the primary antagonist, and he hardly shows up at all in the game, appearing occasionally to deliver a grandiose speech, converse with his underlings, or drop a cryptic comment. His significance isn’t revealed until right at the end of the game, which makes you feel somewhat cheated.
Schuenzeit also has three generals: Claire Setilan, a thoroughly badass woman with an old-fashioned and lethal pistol and an upper class demeanour, Elgar the Regicide, also known by several other colourfully menacing nicknames, and Huaren Jass, a—OK, I still haven’t figured out WHAT Huaren is yet. Some kind of mad scientist with two dog-like heads on his shoulders. In any event, the three of them show up two or three times each before they vanish to show up at the end for a final showdown. It’s extremely disappointing, given how much potential they all have.
Surprisingly, the supporting cast are extremely well thought out and have as much personality, if not more, than the main cast. Perhaps the most memorable character in the entire game was Count Alex, an ambitious, complex politician. His machinations are quite prominent in the first disc of the game, and he is perhaps more interesting, in my opinion, than any of the other characters on offer here.
Gameplay: 9.0/10
Undoubtedly the most satisfying element of the game and what will keep you playing it, Magna Carta 2 has been described by some as having a battle system reminiscent of FFXII, yet enhanced, which is a nice nutshell description. However, there is (thankfully) more to it than that.
Battles are conducted in real-time and occur on the field (so, no random battles, which I know will come as a great relief to some) and are simple enough. A quick tap of a button and you’ll enter “combat mode”, allowing you to hack away at whatever poor unfortunate soul has crossed your path. You can switch who you’re controlling by tapping the relevant button on the D-Pad (their stats will be displayed in the bottom left corner of the screen, with a corresponding arrow.) and switch your targets with the single tap of a button, and bring up a combat menu, which freezes combat and allows you to adjust AI settings, use items, and even swap out your party members. It’s all very fluid and will become second-nature to you as you play the game more.
Attacking enemies with basic attacks allows you to build up Kan (I’ll elaborate on that later in this section) which in turn allows you to execute special moves. Simple enough, no? You’d think that you could just go on like that, attacking as normal until you’ve built up enough Kan to decimate opponents with your most powerful special moves. Well, you could do that, but you’d be running away an awful lot. The more you attack, the more your Overdrive gauge fills up (it’s at the bottom of the screen during combat mode when you attack) and, once it lights up in a nice little display of spontaneous combustion you will enter “Overdrive” mode, where your attack power is enhanced. However, once you have finished whatever attack you’re currently executing, you enter “Overheat” mode, and will be unable to attack for a minute or two. Anyone who has played a game with a real-time battle system before knows that this can be a death sentence. However, if you perform a special attack once you enter Overheat and then switch characters, you can avoid this by filling up their gauge as well, putting them into Overdrive mode, and perform a special attack, both characters have their Overdrive gauges reset then and there, allowing you to continue your onslaught. In short, “Chaining”. Sounds pretty good, right? Well, if you attempt this and fail, both characters are stuck in Overheat, and since you can only have three characters on the field at a time, this is NOT something you want to happen. So, a little strategy is required, and in this game, you’ll be doing a great deal of swapping to try and avoid the penalties of attacking too much...or a great deal of running away.
There are also Co-Op attacks, although these are limited and, frankly, far too much effort involved for too little profit. Both characters have to have enough Kan to do their Co-Op attack PLUS enough to do a special attack in the first place, not to mention be in a weapon style which may or may not fit your play style. They’re ultimately under-developed, unnecessary, and highly aggravating.
It takes a little time to get used to the battle system, however, Zephie offers a pretty thorough tutorial early on in the game, and, like all battle systems, once you have grasped the unique quirks its smooth sailing from then-on out.
I mentioned building up Kan in the above paragraph. Kan acts as your MP in battle, allowing you to perform special attacks of various levels once you have built up enough of it. You build it up, as I have said, by performing normal attacks against enemies in battle. The amount of Kan a character has will be displayed by their name and hit points in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. Kan has attributes, so fire Kan that Crocell generates can’t be used by, say, Celestine, who uses Water Kan for her attacks. Elemental Kan appear on the field as small coloured wisps, and enemies can also take advantage of them if their attribute matches up. Others, like Juto, build up their own Kan through physical attacks, which don’t appear on the field. Kan may already exist on the field prior to your arrival, and enemies may also generate Kan through their own special attacks, so it’s give and take a lot of the time.
Character customization is limited, but it is there, so I’ll touch upon it briefly. Each character has two weapon types – so, for example, Juto can use a one-handed sword or a two-handed sword in battle. Each comes with its own pros and cons: obviously, a 2-H sword is a hell of a lot slower, but has a great deal more power to its hits, as well as its own special attacks, which are acquired via Skill Trees. Levelling up gives you an amount of Skill Points, which you can use to upgrade your character’s special attacks, as well as learn new ones. Unless you like level-grinding – and in this game there really is no need for it – you’ll only be able to max out one Skill Tree for a character in one playthrough, so you’ll need to make the decision fairly early on in the game. You can customize your weapons with Kamonds that you’ll acquire through monster drops or from treasure chests, which grant you nice boosts to your stats, or useful abilities like a resistance to poison. Once you find a more powerful weapon, you can take the Kamond you’ve equipped to a weapon off that weapon and put it on the new one. Other games are considerably less kind, so this is quite a nice little addition. Each character has their own special ability as well, which you can perform at certain times by tapping B. Argo, for example, has Armour Break, which will make it considerably easier to kill certain bosses, whereas Rue has the chance to kill an enemy in one hit. This gives each character a strategic value as well, although certain characters (Rue) have considerably more value than others...
There are quite a few sidequests to do in addition to the main quest, as well, offering some nice rewards, as well as some backstory for other characters (occasionally) and a break from the action. The game promises about 40 hours of gameplay, which is more or less accurate if you go for the sidequests as well. They’re quite varied, as well, as opposed to just following set formulae – capture this, rescue him/her, etc.
This game offers very little in the way of diversity, however – you run from place to place, fulfilling your objectives, and there isn’t much else until you get to the final dungeon, which is perhaps one of the most aggravating and ridiculously complex dungeons in a video game to date. Suddenly they decide to spring a horrendously awkward puzzle on you, punctuated by some thoroughly evil bosses that will demolish you within five minutes if you’re unprepared.
Here then, is why the game doesn’t get a perfect score – the learning curve. It is very unlikely that you will need to do any sort of level-grinding in this game, unless you want to max out your Skill Trees (which is impossible to do unless you acquire certain Kamond that will allow you to get more Skill Points upon levelling up) or acquire more money, which you really don’t need. There is absolutely no challenge to the majority of this game, and once you get adjusted to the battle system, you’ll be chaining combos with ease and absolutely decimating anything and everything that you come across. Until the very end of the game, that is. For some strange reason, the game becomes utterly unforgiveable at the end of the game, which sees you fighting four extremely tough bosses and doing a dungeon that will probably take you several hours. It was nice to have some challenge at the end of the game, but there is a thin, thin line between “challenging” and “aggravating” and it’s definitely on the side of the latter. There is also the small matter of the AI not being entirely up to scratch sometimes. A lot of the time this won’t matter – you’ll be switching back and forth between characters and can carry many of the fights yourself, but again, at the end of the game it becomes somewhat troublesome to have to keep on reviving them.
Controls: 9.9/10
The controls for this game are excellent, and everything will feel quite natural to you once you’ve been playing for a few hours. The only complaints I can really point out is that executing Co-Op attacks is extremely awkward, and occasionally you might not be quick enough to Chain a special attack, leaving two of your characters stuck in Overheat and vulnerable to a pounding. It can be very frustrating at points.
Graphics: 8.9/10
There are definitely better-looking Xbox 360 games out there, but not too many. There is a nice variety of locations, and each of them is equally stunning. There is quite an attention to detail here, and it’s visually pleasing to say the least.
The characters were all designed by Hyung-Tae Kim who (apparently, anyway) is quite a renowned designer. Personally I thought the designs were a little weird, stuck in that grey area between being anime and realistic, but they weren’t absolutely horrendous.
Sound: 8.5/10
Not much of the music is particularly epic, or memorable, but it’s serviceable, and nothing will have you turning off the volume in irritation. It’s a nice mixture of everything, although mostly arranged classical. A lot of the time you won’t even notice the music.
A large percentage of the score for this section comes from the voice acting. There are some top quality voice actors in here, including Johnny Yong Bosch, Yuri Lowenthal and Crispin Freeman (who seem to be in almost everything these days...) and each of them fills their roles in this game with the minimum amount of annoyance and a goodly amount of convincing emotion.
What DOES become annoying, however, are the catchphrases characters say in battle. Hearing Crocell vow to “BURN EVERYTHING DOWN!” is very nice the first few times, but after the 20th or so time it gets annoying.
Unique/Extra Features: 3.0/10
Not much going on here, I’m afraid – the additional content unlocks a few additional achievements for XboxLive, and the downloadable weapons serve only to make an easy game even easier. They at least made the effort, but it’s a poor one.
Replay value: 5.1/10
You may come back to this game again to try playing through it in a different play style (say, try using Crocell’s Knuckles instead of his Fireballs) and if you’ve missed a sidequest or two you may want to try again to attain the achievements, since it is unlikely you’ll get them all the first time around (unless you’re the thorough type) but there isn’t much to recommend this game over, say, Tales of Vesperia, Lost Odyssey or Star Ocean: The Last Hope. It’s enjoyable and definitely worth more than one playthrough, but it has a lot of fierce competition and nothing to really stand above them.
Overall Rating: 8.2/10
Well, with such fierce competition its unsurprising that Magna Carta II didn’t quite manage to make itself shine quite as much as it may have done, but all the same its still a great game that is worth buying. It’s got a comfortably familiar feel to it, an excellent battle system, a top-quality voice cast, and its fun trying to guess the outcome of the storyline. Nothing about the game is particularly BAD, but nothing really makes it stand out from its competitors either, nothing is exceptional. If it’s not broken, then why bother fixing it? Magna Carta II consists of what has been at the core of most RPGs since the genre first came into existence – just because it doesn’t do anything new does not make it a bad game. If you’re looking for something enjoyable and familiar with a few twists and turns along the way, this is definitely a game you could consider. If you want something revolutionary, look elsewhere. The flaws in the game lie with the lack of originality in the storyline and the excellence of the alternatives, not with the gameplay, graphics or sound. Sadly, these things must be taken into account, and even if the likes of Lost Odyssey did not exist, I doubt I would give this game any higher than a 9.0.