Game Card
MagnaCarta II (Xbox360)
- Publisher:
- Namco Bandai
- Developer:
- Soft Enterprises
- US Release:
- 16.10.2009
- EU Release:
- n/a
- Number of players:
- n/a
Review
We play MagnaCarta II...
The JRPG genre is one in serious need of an overhaul. Firmly rooted in tradition, this area (or sub-area you might say) is mainly defined by the major series like Final Fantasy. The mechanics used in these titles often define the mechanics used for all other games, however even when certain studios try and evolve the genre, yet more are quite happy for things to stay how they are.
MagnaCarta 2, from Softmax, is part of the latter group. It is as traditional as it is uninspiring, and is firmly rooted in convention so much it’s painful. Given the fact that this is the series debut on the current generation, you’d be forgiven for expecting something more. But no, this seems to be a game that is both safe and familiar, driven by easy combat and a clichéd plot.
MagnaCarta II, whilst sharing the same name and same over all ‘theme’, is not really connected with the world of the previous titles. Even the name, Magna Carta (not related to the document that was a corner stone of English Common Law as it happens) signifies something completely different than it did before. Set in the fictional world of Lanzheim, you play ‘Juto’ who, naturally, has amnesia and doesn’t know a thing about his past. This cliché is further exploited as the unsuspecting hero gets dragged into a civil war raging through Lanzheim, whilst simultaneously discovering that he has super powers.
What follows is your typical eastern fantasy romp, complete with over the top characters, closet evil guys, and plot twists that you saw coming from the beginning. To be fair, there’s nothing terribly bad about this game. It’s solid, reasonably well designed and fluid; it’s just not very inspiring. One of the few plus points this title possess is that it utilises Epic’s Unreal III technology, which brings the world of Lanzheim to life rather beautifully. Saying that, this particular reviewer found the character rendering a bit... strange. Everyone’s faces looked a tad too young and ‘fake’, if that makes sense, and so artistically we’ve seen better JRPG’s. If only they looked more like they do on the box art.
Still, artistic direction will be the least of your worries in this. Despite possessing a real time combat system as seen in Infinite Undiscovery (pretty much this title’s only step forward), combat is generally repetitive and unchallenging: Even the boss battles are relatively easy to manage. Even though there are 6 main characters in total, you can only have three at once in your party. During battles, only one is controllable at any one time (although you can switch between them). Battling generally involves hitting a single button repeatedly until you generate enough ‘Kan’ to perform a more powerful attack, or until certain conditions are met so that you can pull off a signature move.
Again, to give this game credit where it’s due, it tries to keep a lid on the button bashing by including a ‘stamina’ limit. Do too many combos in a row and your character will ‘tire’ themselves out. To add to this, if you switch over to another character, and perform the correct chain of moves, you’ll deal twice the amount of damage and the stamina bar is reset, allowing you to jump back in immediately. Still, what little kudos this gives is instantly nullified by the generally poor combat AI, that finds you switching to a new character that’s too far away to actually do anything. Even the healers out of the group are slow to action at times, withholding the much needed magic until it’s too late.
Arguably, combat gets more varied the further you progress through the game. Summons, enhanced abilities... they all help break up the tedium of draw weapon, hack, sheath weapon. Also, each character has two potential ‘styles’ of combat depending on what weapon is equipped, there’s room for experimentation. Weaknesses can also be addressed by ‘enhancing’ weapons using special gems. MagnaCarta II includes optional side quests that allow you to beef up your XP and items, and whilst this MMO-style system is flexible, the quests themselves can be as bland as many MMO filler quests. Still, it’s hard to nail them for this completely, as the optional element doesn’t force the players to go through these (unless you want the achievements), however more effort could have been made... Which kind of sums up the whole game, actually.
Veterans of the genre will probably find little new here to entice them, although if you really don’t care, then by all means try this out. Ironically, this game may actually be a good candidate to introduce newcomers to the genre as well, as there’s little complexity or overtly confusing about this game (besides its blandness). Still, there is little excuse these days for a game that refuses to keep up with the times. As mentioned before, MagnaCarta II is not necessarily a bad game, but the genre is trying to move on and offerings like this don’t really help things. Yeah, it can be fun (maybe), and yeah, there are worse games, but at some point you have to stop being lenient and just say “Sort it out”. JRPG’s can evolve, and MagnaCarta II should really know better.
Top Game Moment: Some of the more flashy moves are rather satisfying to pull off, but we’re scraping the bottom of the barrel with this one.
MagnaCarta 2, from Softmax, is part of the latter group. It is as traditional as it is uninspiring, and is firmly rooted in convention so much it’s painful. Given the fact that this is the series debut on the current generation, you’d be forgiven for expecting something more. But no, this seems to be a game that is both safe and familiar, driven by easy combat and a clichéd plot.
 |
 |
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| Chain attacks keep the damage rolling trough the tougher battles. | To be honest, for an anime character, I didn’t find ‘Zephie’ that pretty... |
MagnaCarta II, whilst sharing the same name and same over all ‘theme’, is not really connected with the world of the previous titles. Even the name, Magna Carta (not related to the document that was a corner stone of English Common Law as it happens) signifies something completely different than it did before. Set in the fictional world of Lanzheim, you play ‘Juto’ who, naturally, has amnesia and doesn’t know a thing about his past. This cliché is further exploited as the unsuspecting hero gets dragged into a civil war raging through Lanzheim, whilst simultaneously discovering that he has super powers.
What follows is your typical eastern fantasy romp, complete with over the top characters, closet evil guys, and plot twists that you saw coming from the beginning. To be fair, there’s nothing terribly bad about this game. It’s solid, reasonably well designed and fluid; it’s just not very inspiring. One of the few plus points this title possess is that it utilises Epic’s Unreal III technology, which brings the world of Lanzheim to life rather beautifully. Saying that, this particular reviewer found the character rendering a bit... strange. Everyone’s faces looked a tad too young and ‘fake’, if that makes sense, and so artistically we’ve seen better JRPG’s. If only they looked more like they do on the box art.
 |
 |
|
| Hurray for weird and wonderful monsters. | Prepare to face my flower pattern of doom! |
Still, artistic direction will be the least of your worries in this. Despite possessing a real time combat system as seen in Infinite Undiscovery (pretty much this title’s only step forward), combat is generally repetitive and unchallenging: Even the boss battles are relatively easy to manage. Even though there are 6 main characters in total, you can only have three at once in your party. During battles, only one is controllable at any one time (although you can switch between them). Battling generally involves hitting a single button repeatedly until you generate enough ‘Kan’ to perform a more powerful attack, or until certain conditions are met so that you can pull off a signature move.
Again, to give this game credit where it’s due, it tries to keep a lid on the button bashing by including a ‘stamina’ limit. Do too many combos in a row and your character will ‘tire’ themselves out. To add to this, if you switch over to another character, and perform the correct chain of moves, you’ll deal twice the amount of damage and the stamina bar is reset, allowing you to jump back in immediately. Still, what little kudos this gives is instantly nullified by the generally poor combat AI, that finds you switching to a new character that’s too far away to actually do anything. Even the healers out of the group are slow to action at times, withholding the much needed magic until it’s too late.
 |
 |
|
| I don’t remember his hands being THAT big... | Whilst grind is kept to a minimum, some tedium does creep in every now and then. |
Arguably, combat gets more varied the further you progress through the game. Summons, enhanced abilities... they all help break up the tedium of draw weapon, hack, sheath weapon. Also, each character has two potential ‘styles’ of combat depending on what weapon is equipped, there’s room for experimentation. Weaknesses can also be addressed by ‘enhancing’ weapons using special gems. MagnaCarta II includes optional side quests that allow you to beef up your XP and items, and whilst this MMO-style system is flexible, the quests themselves can be as bland as many MMO filler quests. Still, it’s hard to nail them for this completely, as the optional element doesn’t force the players to go through these (unless you want the achievements), however more effort could have been made... Which kind of sums up the whole game, actually.
Veterans of the genre will probably find little new here to entice them, although if you really don’t care, then by all means try this out. Ironically, this game may actually be a good candidate to introduce newcomers to the genre as well, as there’s little complexity or overtly confusing about this game (besides its blandness). Still, there is little excuse these days for a game that refuses to keep up with the times. As mentioned before, MagnaCarta II is not necessarily a bad game, but the genre is trying to move on and offerings like this don’t really help things. Yeah, it can be fun (maybe), and yeah, there are worse games, but at some point you have to stop being lenient and just say “Sort it out”. JRPG’s can evolve, and MagnaCarta II should really know better.
Top Game Moment: Some of the more flashy moves are rather satisfying to pull off, but we’re scraping the bottom of the barrel with this one.
