MagnaCarta 2 Review

I’m a huge RPG fan and one of my favorite RPGs on the XBOX 360 was Lost Odyssey. It’s been a while since I’ve played a decent RPG on the XBOX 360 console. From the RPG games that I’ve played; Last Remnant, Infinite Undiscovery, Tales of Vesperia, and Star Ocean: The Last Hope, those are the RPGs that I must say are pretty average and not too enthralling. With Magna Carta 2 finally out in the market for the XBOX 360, in what ways is this game any different from the games I mentioned above?

Magna Carta 2 follows the story of Juto, a man with amnesia who is residing in the Highwind Islands. The game takes place in the Lazenheim Continent where two opposing forces are at war, the North and South. Three years ago, Prime Minister Schuenzeit assassinated the queen of Lazenheim, causing a civil war to break out in the continent. Schuenzeit then kidnapped Princess Rzephillda and imprisoned her which escalated the war.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml00C3P8FYE

Now, a lot of you are probably asking is Magna Carta 2 a game that can be compared to Lost Odyssey? Or will it be another average RPG just like Star Ocean: The Last Hope? Let’s take a look in the HOTs and NOTs of MagnaCarta 2:

HOT

Presentation
The graphics in this game are well done and look refined and polished. Using the Unreal Engine, the characters and environments are well detailed; it looks similar to the graphics of Last Remnant. The character models of Magna Carta 2 resemble the physical attributes of Korean people, it looks good and it certainly fits the characters’ voice-overs.

Magna Carta 2 is a two-disc set, so you can expect a lengthy adventure. You will spend majority of your time listening to the fully voiced conversations which is good rather than reading endless text. The voice actors did a good job in making the characters alive. There are minor voice-overs that may sound too cheap but it’s nothing drastic that will really drop the experience with the game.

Improved Battle System
One of the things that turned people off in Magna Carta: Tears of Blood was the battle system. It was complicated and had a very steep learning curve. With Magna Carta 2, the battle system has improved and will surely be likable by fans of the RPG genre. If you have played Final Fantasy XII, then you must be familiarized with its battle system. In Magna Carta 2, the battle is done in real time. When in the field, you can change from movement mode to a combat mode whenever a monster is near. You can switch from the three playable slots in your party and do chain attacks or the powerful Signature Skill.

Similar to what RPG has to offer, there is an option where you can enhance your weapon through the Kamond found in the game. Kamond is a stone that can be placed in the weapon’s slots. It can improve your character’s attributes to make it stronger in battle. These Kamonds can be found all over Lazenheim Continent.

The characters in the game can equip two kind weapons. Each weapon that they equip gives them a specific skill based on the Skill Tree you are trying to build. Every time a character levels up, an SP will be given and that can be used to build the character’s skill tree that you are planning to level.

Tons of quest
There are a lot of things to do in Magna Carta 2 whenever you want to get sidetracked from the main story. Aside from doing the required quest, there are unofficial quest that can be done by talking to the townspeople that have a “!” above their head. Quests range from escorting someone to defeating a certain kind of monster. Success gives you EXP and SID (money). This is indeed a good way to earn some EXP besides fighting monsters.

DLC Content
Magna Carta 2 offers DLC for anyone who wishes to expand their experience with the game or just make their life easier with powerful weapons and armors that can be bought through DLC. So far, there is currently one DLC pack available, it unlocks powerful weapons to the 6 main characters in the game plus a bonus cut scenes. If things go well with the game we should expect more such as quests in the near future.

Cube-Mail
Receiving mail is lovely. In Magna Carta 2, expect to receive a lot of mail that gives hints and tutorials from characters in-game. These interactions with the other characters help strengthen and build better relationships. While walking around in the field, you will just randomly hear a beep and that means you’ve got mail! Read it alright?

NOT

Recycled from past RPGs
Magna Carta 2 is indeed a next-generation RPG but one of the things that kept the game NOT in our list is that, whenever I play this game, it feels like I’m not playing Magna Carta 2 but instead, I feel like I’ve been playing Final Fantasy XII. The story has nothing unique and it’s very predictable. The very common conflict between forces has been recycled and been used over and over again with other RPGs on the market.

Takes a couple of seconds to load environments
The game is big and every time you try to enter a new area you will see some textures slowly loading. This is nothing major since I’ve been expecting this on a 360 system. If you do not want to experience this, I suggest you install the game on your Hard Drive since this game is optimized with HDD install.

VERDICT

Magna Carta 2 is surprisingly not a bad RPG. The recycled features that we’ve played in past RPGs are all in this game but with much better presentation. The improved battle system makes the game a lot better than Tears of Blood. Lost Odyssey is still the best RPG on the XBOX 360 and Magna Carta 2 comes second. If you are a big RPG fan then Magna Carta 2 is a definite buy.