Magna Carta: Tears of Blood
They’re what you’ll be crying at the thought of all the missed potential.
Published: December 2, 2005
Magna Carta wants so very badly to hang with the big boys. You can see bits of Shadow Hearts’ or Grandia’s battle system, a lot of Final Fantasy X, XI and XII’s design aesthetics, and, well, just about every RPG cliché that’s available these days. Sadly, the one area where the game really tries to break into its own, the battle system, is almost unbearably complex, and far too much to deal at once – especially for starting players.
But if nothing else, the storyline, which is at least half of every good RPG, is still rather compelling, despite the fact that you’ll be trudging through the same dank caves and floating castles that you’ve seen before. It’s not even that the characters themselves, which have the dubious distinction of being the most androgynous cast ever assembled for a role-playing game, are all that interesting, it’s just that the over-arching events that surround them and the more subtle parts of their personalities mingle very, very nicely.
That and the game has some damned impressive CG and some pretty major plot twists that shake things up at different intervals.
It all begins with the Tears of Blood, a group of young adults that have had their desire for revenge after seeing loved ones die twisted by the war between the humans and the indigenous Yason. It’s not entirely the Yason’s fault; the humans crashed the party after washing ashore on this land they dubbed Efferia in an effort to escape a plague that was ravaging their race, and the Yason didn’t exactly welcome them there (nor did the continent itself; it’s protected by eternal storms and impossibly complex sea currents). Of course, the two races -- one trying to find a new home, and the other just trying to do their thing while sporting funky-looking ears – have been fighting for hundreds of years ever sense.
The Tears’ all lost someone at the hands of the Yason, and they were essentially formed as a anti-Yason pack of mercenaries that at the start of the game are planning an all-out magical assult using forbidden arts to off the Yason once and for all. Just as you’re starting to get to know the actual genders of your party, the attack commences and... well, let’s just say it’s not a good idea to try to attack a race that’s been using magic for hundreds of years with forbidden magic nobody really knows about.
The party is dissolved through a sequence of events, and Calintz, the leader of the Tears, wakes to discover Reith, a busty amnesiac with a questionable past. The pair, along with some new friends, slowly try to find out Reith’s place in the human/Yason eterna-squabble, and it’s a legitimately engaging ride. At least until you’re forced to deal with the increasingly complex battle system.
Magna Carta distinguishes itself by incorporating a heavy theme of chi. The lifeforce that’s innate to everything on the planet is divided into celestial, ice, fire, lighting, wind, water, mountain and earth. Each type of chi is opposed by another, forming a perfectly balanced set of governing forces. Everything done in Magna Carta, uses chi, right down to items. In some cases, like the lanterns that dot the landscape, using an item imbued with a type of chi can make it the dominant (and, if you use the item right, advantageous) source to pull from in battles around that area.
This is important because when you’re in battles, you’re confronted with all those types of chi, as well as an intensely complex system for using them. Actually tapping the chi reserves is as easy as using an attack or magic, but this must be done sparingly, since using up all of one type of chi means you’re out of options unless you’ve mastered multiple styles. A given style usually favors one type of chi, but they’re usually fairly mixed so you don’t just blow through all the reserves at once. Still, it leads to far too much micromanagement during battles, especially the more lengthy ones.
Battles are fought on a relatively free-roaming plane. All characters and enemies are given a meter with hash points that indicate when they can attack. If you move, the meter stops building, and the first to a given hash point has the opportunity to attack first. If you’ve managed to build up trust with your teammates through talking to them or buying their affections with presents while camping, they’ll all get the chance to attack sooner.
The attacks themselves are performed by hitting a sequence of buttons as they slide in a counter-clockwise motion around a circle. Hit them as they cross into the top and you’re given a grade based on how close to fitting right in the slot the button icon was. Get multiple “great” timed presses and you can discover more advanced moves for your particular style. Most styles have multiple forms of attack or defense, which you can switch between by pressing up and down on the d-pad.
Confused yet? Just wait, it gets better.
But if nothing else, the storyline, which is at least half of every good RPG, is still rather compelling, despite the fact that you’ll be trudging through the same dank caves and floating castles that you’ve seen before. It’s not even that the characters themselves, which have the dubious distinction of being the most androgynous cast ever assembled for a role-playing game, are all that interesting, it’s just that the over-arching events that surround them and the more subtle parts of their personalities mingle very, very nicely.
That and the game has some damned impressive CG and some pretty major plot twists that shake things up at different intervals.
It all begins with the Tears of Blood, a group of young adults that have had their desire for revenge after seeing loved ones die twisted by the war between the humans and the indigenous Yason. It’s not entirely the Yason’s fault; the humans crashed the party after washing ashore on this land they dubbed Efferia in an effort to escape a plague that was ravaging their race, and the Yason didn’t exactly welcome them there (nor did the continent itself; it’s protected by eternal storms and impossibly complex sea currents). Of course, the two races -- one trying to find a new home, and the other just trying to do their thing while sporting funky-looking ears – have been fighting for hundreds of years ever sense.
The Tears’ all lost someone at the hands of the Yason, and they were essentially formed as a anti-Yason pack of mercenaries that at the start of the game are planning an all-out magical assult using forbidden arts to off the Yason once and for all. Just as you’re starting to get to know the actual genders of your party, the attack commences and... well, let’s just say it’s not a good idea to try to attack a race that’s been using magic for hundreds of years with forbidden magic nobody really knows about.
The party is dissolved through a sequence of events, and Calintz, the leader of the Tears, wakes to discover Reith, a busty amnesiac with a questionable past. The pair, along with some new friends, slowly try to find out Reith’s place in the human/Yason eterna-squabble, and it’s a legitimately engaging ride. At least until you’re forced to deal with the increasingly complex battle system.
Magna Carta distinguishes itself by incorporating a heavy theme of chi. The lifeforce that’s innate to everything on the planet is divided into celestial, ice, fire, lighting, wind, water, mountain and earth. Each type of chi is opposed by another, forming a perfectly balanced set of governing forces. Everything done in Magna Carta, uses chi, right down to items. In some cases, like the lanterns that dot the landscape, using an item imbued with a type of chi can make it the dominant (and, if you use the item right, advantageous) source to pull from in battles around that area.
This is important because when you’re in battles, you’re confronted with all those types of chi, as well as an intensely complex system for using them. Actually tapping the chi reserves is as easy as using an attack or magic, but this must be done sparingly, since using up all of one type of chi means you’re out of options unless you’ve mastered multiple styles. A given style usually favors one type of chi, but they’re usually fairly mixed so you don’t just blow through all the reserves at once. Still, it leads to far too much micromanagement during battles, especially the more lengthy ones.
Battles are fought on a relatively free-roaming plane. All characters and enemies are given a meter with hash points that indicate when they can attack. If you move, the meter stops building, and the first to a given hash point has the opportunity to attack first. If you’ve managed to build up trust with your teammates through talking to them or buying their affections with presents while camping, they’ll all get the chance to attack sooner.
The attacks themselves are performed by hitting a sequence of buttons as they slide in a counter-clockwise motion around a circle. Hit them as they cross into the top and you’re given a grade based on how close to fitting right in the slot the button icon was. Get multiple “great” timed presses and you can discover more advanced moves for your particular style. Most styles have multiple forms of attack or defense, which you can switch between by pressing up and down on the d-pad.
Confused yet? Just wait, it gets better.
