Review: Magna Carta 2 (X360)

...here are the ingredients of Magna Carta 2, an intriguing Japanese RPG made in South Korea.

The Good

You're playing Juto, a lazy young man who has lost his memory and is now living peacefully on Highwind Island. Unfortunately this idle life doesn't last long as the civil war raging in Lanzheim chooses his beautiful island to be its next battlefield. Due to a tragic event, Juto finds himself personally involved in this war and decide to join the Southern Army with vengeance on his mind. And so your journey begins.

Like every role-playing games, you will spend the best part of your time exploring the vast and beautiful lands of Lanzheim, looking for hidden items, talking to local people, completing side quests and of course fighting all kinds of enemies ranging from strange molluscs and wildcat-looking werewolves to Northern Army soldiers and commanders. Of course, with each victory or quest you will earn some experience, SID (Lanzheim money) and special items. You will also gain various Kamonds, power-filled jewels used to improve weapons, craft accessories and protect from status ailments. Nothing extraordinary I admit. So let's focus on the fighting system instead. Magna Carta 2 offers real-time combats taking place on the same screen as the exploration mode, which makes the battles all the more dynamic. Three characters are fighting at the same time but only the leader of the party is controlled directly by you. Nevertheless, you can change leaders at will and you will find yourself overusing this option during challenging fights: if you choose another leader after your character's last attack in Overdrive status, the Overdrive status is transferred to the new leader, creating a Chain state which increases attack power and skill power. This Chain technique brings a little strategy flavour to the game and proves itself highly useful on many occasions.

Besides the story and the combat system, graphics also play a big part in the success of role-playing games and you won't be disappointed by Magna Carta 2 in this regard. The game displays beautifully-crafted environments with many different colour shades and rich textures that make you feel like you're looking at a highly detailed painting. The landscapes of Highwind Island and Abazet in particular give off a very peaceful and relaxing atmosphere. Kim Hyung Tae's character design is pleasing to the eye, adding a manhwa (South Korean manga) touch to an otherwise typically Japanese RPG.

The Bad

In spite of its obvious qualities, Magna Carta 2 shows various bad points too. First of all, people who want to avoid spoilers should stay away from the opening movie, as it is more a trailer filled with highlights of the story than a proper introduction to the game. Weird but true. While we're on the subject, don't expect much from the story line and its boring conventionality: the amnesiac unwilling hero who goes into a large scale conflict just to get revenge and falls in love with the beautiful princess who fights to get back her throne from the evil prime minister is nothing new to JRPG fans.

Unfortunately, soporific side quests (kill that many enemies, bring back this item) and fairly repetitive combats won't make your day either. Speaking of side quests, make sure you remember where each person who gave you a mission is because you'll have to go back to them to get your reward and their location doesn't show on the map unless you're not far from them.

Graphics may be appealing but several weaknesses can be observed, like the whitish fog covering the treetops in the background or the downright ugly still water of Abazet Port that looks as if it was (badly) made of modelling clay. Landscapes and cities feel quite empty due to the scarce number of people who cross your path. And when you do encounter someone he or she just stands there without doing anything.

One slightly disturbing aspect of Magna Carta 2 lies in certain similarities with Lost Odyssey, from the environment design and set of colours to the La Strada floating thing and the inn you're resting in.

The Ugly

Worse things happen in the world of Magna Carta 2. The dialogue scenes show nothing more than two barely animated (and only when they speak) characters facing each other in front of a still backdrop, while you have to repetitively push the A button to carry on their conversation. As good as this technique was in the heyday of 2D role-playing games, it doesn’t belong to a new generation game. By the way, we all thought that elements suddenly popping up in the background were a bad memory from the past. How wrong we were. Same goes for the lack of freedom in the exploration mode: you can defeat the Guardian and save the world but you can't walk wherever you want, open any door, kick/slash boxes and jars or climb a tiny mound. What is the point of designing vast lands if you can't stray away from the set path to explore them freely? How come you can roam about a whole city in GTA but can't even take two steps more than you're supposed to in a RPG?

And now the icing on the cake: the AI. No, not your enemies' AI, although they're clearly not the brightest creatures around, I mean your character and his allies' AI. Juto for instance has a bad habit of stopping dead in his tracks when attacked in movement mode and quietly wait for more hits, no matter how hard you try to push him forward. He's also the type of man who stands under the archers' fire until there is not a single arrow left. This leads me to the conclusion that either he's really dumb or he's a closet masochist who likes getting his behind bitten by werewolves and being stabbed by arrows. Well, you never know. Actually, whoever you choose as leader, your allies will always be quite annoying: they don't do anything on their own while you are exploring the land and they sometimes block your way during fights. Their distinctive lack of survival instinct is a real problem too as they never try to avoid attacks from your enemies, forcing you to replenish their health gauge frequently.

If unoriginal story line, repetitive fights and subpar AI don't bother you or if you have never played a JRPG before, then you may enjoy Magna Carta 2. Actually, the game can still provide a decent role-playing experience despite its flaws but is clearly no match for the superb Lost Odyssey.