My MagnaCarta 2 play through was done on my Youtube channel, and can be viewed here. If you're interested in the overview/review, then feel to scroll down and read.
MagnaCarta 2 is a JRPG, originally being released in October 2009 exclusively for the Xbox 360. By professional reviewers, like IGN, the game scored pretty poorly in the grand scheme of things. While I do agree that there are much better games out there, I often feel that "pro" reviewers are much too hard on games, and much too biased. The community of players themselves ranked the game to be about a 6.5/10, and I'd have to agree. I am no pro, but being that I have beat and played through the game (three times to be exact), I feel I can tell you some things I liked, and some things I did not.
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Synopsis:
In a time of warfare, our main character, Juto also struggles with his memory. Having amnesia, he floats through the world somewhat carefree and lost. When war claims his best friend, Juto sets out on a quest to reclaim his memory and to reap revenge upon the one who took his friend's life. Through these simple goals, Juto discovers much more then he is bargaining for, and will unlock a power that has long been hidden within him.
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Pros:
1. It has what you would expect from an RPG.
Like many RPG's, this game is very long. The two discs are loaded with beautiful cut scenes, lots of dialogue, and a diverse and very large map to explore. There are always tons of side quests which allows for extra exploration, as well as extra items and gold. Character development was very well done, and trying to complete this game 100% proves to be a challenge. This game ends up being about 50+ hours of game play, which is perfect.
2. The story starts very generic, but builds up, and ends up being very well written.
The whole "character who lost his/her memory" is EXTREMELY over done in gaming, however, it's not always a bad thing. I feel that MagnaCarta 2 was a game that really did this idea well, and warped it into a creation that the player was not expecting. The story starts out simple, and ends up being very complex near the end. Dungeons were well designed around this idea, as well as some of the characters in this game. Not to mention that the story is well explained so that the player is not confused by the end of the game. There is nothing worse then playing a game through for 60+ hours and then saying, "well that made no sense." No spoilers here, feel free to play the game on your own to judge for yourself.
3. Character design, development, and voice acting are all well done.
Fortunately, I really don't find myself hating any of the characters in this game. Characters have their moments, sure, but in the end you learn to love them. They all have their own unique back stories, and each character's own life was well incorporated into the game and into the story. Each character compliments each other, even if it is in negative ways, which I admire. This is mostly true for your main party/protagonists, but you can't leave out the antagonists either. They are not simply evil people thrown in for no rhyme or reason, and they made the game that much better, for many reasons. Voice acting was well done, and JRPG's rarely disappoint me with characters overall. My favorite character? Crocell. <3
2. Lack of camera angles.
Ugh. Camera angles seem to be an issue with a lot of games, and this one is really no exception. It's more the lack of a camera angle that bothered me. There was no zooming in, first person view, and it took away from potential good points that the game had. There is a free camera when you're out exploring the map, but that is about it. In battle, the camera angles are fixed, and they give you the worst angles at the worst times. The text on screen is small enough as it is, and having to concentrate on your character being clustered into an area and unable to change the camera angle makes it worse. Not to mention, they put in a custom camera angle for each move you do. This is not only a waste of time, but it is incredibly inconvenient when you get back to the battle and are confused on where you are. Overall, a poor game mechanic, and very distracting.
3. Absolutely no replay value. NONE.
*sigh* This was probably the most disappointing thing about this game. Most long RPG's have a way to reward you for finishing the game (besides achievements/trophies), by having a "new game+" option or something of the sort. You know what this game did? Absolutely nothing. It could have been something simple, even if it was crummy. Allowing you to keep your items/weapons, or your level for example. For such a long and involved game, I felt almost robbed at the end, expecting there to be something at the end when there was absolutely nothing. Because the game was so long, I feel people would have replayed it again to collect things they missed the first time, or to finish quests or something. But because you have to start from scratch, it feels like an inconvenience and a waste of time.
4. Somewhat linear, and having little choice in big decisions.
Not as linear as Final Fantasy XIII, but still as annoying. You eventually gain the ability to warp, but not as early as I was hoping for. Even when you do, it is limited. Often, you'll walk into a region and be unable to leave. Warp points are extremely spaced out I find, which makes for a lot of unnecessary travel on the world map. Some of the side quests are time sensitive, which is frustrating if you forgot to do one or two before moving on. As for choices, you can't skip a lot of the dialogue. Considering the mountain of dialogue, this is very frustrating. I feel I'm tapping A like crazy, as with the owl in Ocarina of Time. You just want it to stop! Performing a special move in battle will show you a cool cut scene for it, sure. This is only fun to watch the first 100 times, and not being able to skip it was quite irritating. Save points are in set locations and feel sporadic to me. If you do die, you can potentially lose a lot of progress. There is no difficulty settings, and so players can't challenge themselves if they did hypothetically want to play through a second time (even though the game provides nothing). Characters are given two weapon types only, which is a good and a bad thing. It limits creativity and customization, but it does allow you to optimize your characters faster. These are all small things, but they build up over the course of the game. Together, the small things really took away from the overall game play.
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I am a religious RPG player and maybe that's why I cut the game some slack. Overall, I wouldn't dismiss this game completely, and still believe it is still worth playing at least once. You have to give the game a chance, and I did really genuinely like the game. It takes a little getting used to, but once you get in to it the game can be pretty addicting. For those of you who have played, let me know what you think. Hope you enjoyed, and see you for the next game I'll be looking at!
Like many RPG's, this game is very long. The two discs are loaded with beautiful cut scenes, lots of dialogue, and a diverse and very large map to explore. There are always tons of side quests which allows for extra exploration, as well as extra items and gold. Character development was very well done, and trying to complete this game 100% proves to be a challenge. This game ends up being about 50+ hours of game play, which is perfect.
2. The story starts very generic, but builds up, and ends up being very well written.
The whole "character who lost his/her memory" is EXTREMELY over done in gaming, however, it's not always a bad thing. I feel that MagnaCarta 2 was a game that really did this idea well, and warped it into a creation that the player was not expecting. The story starts out simple, and ends up being very complex near the end. Dungeons were well designed around this idea, as well as some of the characters in this game. Not to mention that the story is well explained so that the player is not confused by the end of the game. There is nothing worse then playing a game through for 60+ hours and then saying, "well that made no sense." No spoilers here, feel free to play the game on your own to judge for yourself.
3. Character design, development, and voice acting are all well done.
Fortunately, I really don't find myself hating any of the characters in this game. Characters have their moments, sure, but in the end you learn to love them. They all have their own unique back stories, and each character's own life was well incorporated into the game and into the story. Each character compliments each other, even if it is in negative ways, which I admire. This is mostly true for your main party/protagonists, but you can't leave out the antagonists either. They are not simply evil people thrown in for no rhyme or reason, and they made the game that much better, for many reasons. Voice acting was well done, and JRPG's rarely disappoint me with characters overall. My favorite character? Crocell. <3
4. Graphics
Ah, yes. The graphics/artwork of this game was awesome. The characters all looked very human like (the human ones anyways), and featured unique designs when designing other characters. The world map was well done, and was very diverse. Cut scenes looked especially impressive, and I really enjoyed the cinematic parts in the game because of it. Even while reading text boxes, the character movement and crisp animation made it bearable to sit through the mountains of dialogue. Even if I feel they could have worked on the text a little bit, this game is overall, very easy on the eyes.
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Cons:
1. MagnaCarta2 brought a unique, but very disappointing battle system.
I feel the battle system for this game was supposed to be one of the selling points. I will say that it is unlike any I've seen before, and I do give the developers props for at least trying. I feel that you either love it, or you it's a huge pain in the ass for you, and I am the latter of the two. It's pretty difficult to explain, so bear with me. First thing is that you can control all three characters on the field, and not just one. While it's tempting to only control one and let the other two be, the AI is dimwitted, and you will not get very far controlling only one character in a battle. In order to pull of chains, you must control characters in a timely and effective manner, which can be very difficult. Chains are easy to screw up by "overheating", or if the AI stupidly screws it up while you're getting another character ready for a chain. The gauge to pull off special attacks is slow to fill up, and again, you must monitor all three characters. You can't go out all crazy with attack or you will "overheat" which will not only screw up chains and generated Kan, but it will also leave your character defenseless and useless to attack. Very frustrating, and very slow. Battles end up taking longer then they have to because of the little room for error. This battle system feels like a task, almost like a chore. Disappointing.
Ugh. Camera angles seem to be an issue with a lot of games, and this one is really no exception. It's more the lack of a camera angle that bothered me. There was no zooming in, first person view, and it took away from potential good points that the game had. There is a free camera when you're out exploring the map, but that is about it. In battle, the camera angles are fixed, and they give you the worst angles at the worst times. The text on screen is small enough as it is, and having to concentrate on your character being clustered into an area and unable to change the camera angle makes it worse. Not to mention, they put in a custom camera angle for each move you do. This is not only a waste of time, but it is incredibly inconvenient when you get back to the battle and are confused on where you are. Overall, a poor game mechanic, and very distracting.
3. Absolutely no replay value. NONE.
*sigh* This was probably the most disappointing thing about this game. Most long RPG's have a way to reward you for finishing the game (besides achievements/trophies), by having a "new game+" option or something of the sort. You know what this game did? Absolutely nothing. It could have been something simple, even if it was crummy. Allowing you to keep your items/weapons, or your level for example. For such a long and involved game, I felt almost robbed at the end, expecting there to be something at the end when there was absolutely nothing. Because the game was so long, I feel people would have replayed it again to collect things they missed the first time, or to finish quests or something. But because you have to start from scratch, it feels like an inconvenience and a waste of time.
4. Somewhat linear, and having little choice in big decisions.
Not as linear as Final Fantasy XIII, but still as annoying. You eventually gain the ability to warp, but not as early as I was hoping for. Even when you do, it is limited. Often, you'll walk into a region and be unable to leave. Warp points are extremely spaced out I find, which makes for a lot of unnecessary travel on the world map. Some of the side quests are time sensitive, which is frustrating if you forgot to do one or two before moving on. As for choices, you can't skip a lot of the dialogue. Considering the mountain of dialogue, this is very frustrating. I feel I'm tapping A like crazy, as with the owl in Ocarina of Time. You just want it to stop! Performing a special move in battle will show you a cool cut scene for it, sure. This is only fun to watch the first 100 times, and not being able to skip it was quite irritating. Save points are in set locations and feel sporadic to me. If you do die, you can potentially lose a lot of progress. There is no difficulty settings, and so players can't challenge themselves if they did hypothetically want to play through a second time (even though the game provides nothing). Characters are given two weapon types only, which is a good and a bad thing. It limits creativity and customization, but it does allow you to optimize your characters faster. These are all small things, but they build up over the course of the game. Together, the small things really took away from the overall game play.
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I am a religious RPG player and maybe that's why I cut the game some slack. Overall, I wouldn't dismiss this game completely, and still believe it is still worth playing at least once. You have to give the game a chance, and I did really genuinely like the game. It takes a little getting used to, but once you get in to it the game can be pretty addicting. For those of you who have played, let me know what you think. Hope you enjoyed, and see you for the next game I'll be looking at!
good website lol just finished anyone out there please play this game once in your life it is just like the plot in any book it gets better and better even though the start makes you think wtf?
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