REVIEW - MagnaCarta 2
- Written by Randy Wallace |
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Enter a land torn by Civil War. In the year 1149 of the Lanzheim Calendar, a simple act of bloodshed marked the end of the traditional monarchy that ruled over the land for more than 1000 years. Welcome to the world of MagnaCarta 2. Developed by SOFTMAX, and published by NAMCO BANDAI, MagnaCarta 2 takes you deep into Lanzheim in the midst of a civil war.
Follow the story of Juto, a boy with no recollection of his past, but seems to be the key to ending the war. Along the way, you will meet up and join forces with some other characters, as well as face off against some really tough enemies. With a storyline fueled by both love and hatred, politics, betrayal, and the ultimate question of choosing one’s own fate, this RPG will provide hours of entertainment to fans of the genre. With that being said, let’s take a look into the good and the bad of MagnaCarta 2. |
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Let’s start off with the gameplay. Something that makes this RPG unique compared to all of the others out on the market is the use of the Dynamic Battle System. This battle system combines real-time action, timing based attacks, over-drive combinations, and the strategic use of skills, magical power, and critical attacks. There is a seamless integration between world navigation and going into battle with just a quick press of the left trigger.
While fighting enemies, each character uses up stamina as they attack. When enough stamina is used, the character will then enter an overdrive mode in which the attacks become more powerful. The major downside to this is that once you stop attacking, your character will overheat, or basically be worn out, and won’t be able to move or attack for a brief period of time. With three characters in your party, you can switch to another character with the simple press of a direction on the d-pad. The character switch comes in really handy as you utilize it to chain attacks between characters. The premise of chain attacks is simple, send a character into overdrive and perform a special attack at which time you are prompted that a chain is ready. At this point in time, you switch to one of the other two characters and continue the attacks. Send that character into overdrive, perform a special attack and achieve a chain break. If successful, both characters will regain their breath, and the attacks can continue. However, if your timing is off, both characters will be overheated and open to attacks. With practice, the chain break is relatively easy to accomplish. The only real flaw that I found in the gameplay is while switching between characters in a battle, the screen wipe is very sudden, and the camera angle not is in the right position. This is easily remedied by use of the right thumbstick to adjust the camera angle as needed. However these couple seconds it takes can throw off the timing of your chain attacks.
While not fighting enemies, the world is essentially yours to explore. Pretty much every character you come across along the way has something to say. Some of them will offer quests, while others may just bask in the glory of some of the things that you have accomplished. While exploring the world however, you are limited to your path of travel. The world isn’t open ended in the fact that you are restricted to the area that you are in, and with each mission, you are forced to progress the story. But this game is a Japanese style RPG, so this is to be expected. Some of the characters that you come across may have little side quests for you to embark upon. While some of these quests tie in nicely with the storyline, some are just little side quests that don’t seem to hold much importance at all. One in particular required you to take sandwiches to some workers, which doesn’t seem very relevant to the storyline. Personally, I am about 20% of the way through the game as far as I can tell, and none of the side quests that I’ve completed up to this point have been overly difficult. While some provided a challenge, none of them were too challenging to the point that one wouldn’t want to partake in them. |
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Every now and then you will receive messages, or what is called cube mail. These messages may just provide info or be seemingly useless chatter, but others are relatively important to the story as they help progress the storyline even further. Be sure to read each message even if they may seem to be pointless at the time as they may reveal things along the way.
Throughout the game, certain characters will join your party. There are a total of 6 main characters that will be part of your party as the game progresses, but you only actively use 3 at any given time. Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses that will come into play as you battle against some of the monsters you will encounter. For example, one of the characters specializes in fire attacks, and therefore is immune to fire damage. You would want him in your active party during a battle with an enemy who uses fire, as he’s immune to certain conditions that your players can be affected by. Characters in your party can be swapped out at any time, even during battles, by simply pressing the start button, choosing formation, and moving the characters around.
Visually, this game has a lot to offer. With graphics powered by the Unreal Engine 3, everything from the characters to the landscape, and even the enemies that you fight along the way are beautifully rendered. Each of the main characters in the game is designed by famed Korean artist Hyung-Tae Kim. While the cut scenes in the game are very nicely done, some of the dialogue sequences require the press of a button to continue through them. Granted some of the sequences are necessary as they teach you some of the combat skills and such in the game, however, some of the sequences are just plain dialogue that could have been rendered as a cut-scene.
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When it comes to sounds of the game, everything is as you would expect it to be. The sounds of battle, such as the swords clanging together, fit the game very well. The voice work for each of the characters is very well selected, however the voice for one of the characters, Celestine, does get a bit annoying at time. Seeing as she is only 12 years old, it’s understandable why her voice sounds the way it does.
Overall, this title is done extremely well. While there is no multi-player function of any sort in this game, it really doesn’t take away from the game. Everything about this game, with a few exceptions has been done with great care. The character models are done extremely well, and the voice work is astounding. Toss in a great storyline, along with a vast world, and you get a game such as this. Despite its few flaws, i.e. the screen wipe and no multi-player, this game is extremely well done. While not having completed the game myself, it seems that once the story is completed, there is not going to be a lot of replay value in this title. For fans of the RPG genre, or even those considering trying one out, this game is definitely worth checking out. |
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SUGGESTIONS |
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While I don’t see a whole lot that could be done to improve upon this game, a patch to implement some sort of multi-player function into the game would be a nice feature. Whether that would include 2 friends progressing through the story, or even some survival mode where the enemies keep coming, as has been done in certain other games, would be a welcome addition to this title. Other than that, a job well done.
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Release Date
10/13/2009
Publisher
Namco Bandai Games
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OVERALL |
82 |
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GAMEPLAY |
82 |
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SOUND |
85 |
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GRAPHICS |
84 |
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REPLAY VALUE |
70 |
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