MagnaCarta II (マグナカルタ 2) is a video game developed by Softmax and published by Banpresto exclusively for Xbox 360. It is a follow-up to the role-playing games Magna Carta: The Phantom of Avalanche released on Windows and Magna Carta: Crimson Stigmata released on the PlayStation 2. It was released in Japan on August 6, 2009 and in North America on October 13, 2009. This marks the series' first entry onto a seventh generation console. The game was officially unveiled in the April 2009 edition of Famitsu magazine.Links:
Magna Carta 2 on wikipedia
Magna Carta 2 official website (japanese)
Waiting for this game to be released could well be one of my worst experience in video gaming, not because of the anticipation like I had for eg. Star Ocean 4, but rather because of constant delaying of release date. First the game was announced to be released in the middle of September (an ideal time, right at the start of my mid-semester break), but then got delayed to early October. So I made my preorder on Play-Asia, but then the game got delayed AGAIN to Oct 23rd. To my demise, by the time this game is ready to be shipped, 2 other games that I preordered went out of stock (they were available when I made my pre-order btw). It's not until I sent them a few messages to separate my order that the game was finally shipped, and arrived at my home last Monday. But then, at the moment I am preparing for my final exam so it is not until yesterday that I was able to touch the game. Tough luck -.-
OK enough rubbish rant. I've managed to play up to 7 hours of the game before putting this game on hold for at least another week and focus on my 2nd exam paper. No need to remind me on how bad Magna Carta:Crimson Stigmata on PS2 is, I am well aware of the crappiness of the first installment (despite still able to finish the game completely). That however does not discourage me from being optimistic on Magna Carta 2, and from my 7 hours gameplay, I could well say that my anticipation paid off, Magna Carta 2 has improved significantly compared to its predecessor.
The graphic and special effects in battle were beautiful as expected, I especially love the way they do the cutscenes (or rather, the dialogue sequences). Anyone who played Magna Carta 1 would be familiar with the character design (keyword: Hyung-Tae Kim). Talk about characters with weird clothes.. well at least this time the clothes are not as weird as those in Magna Carta.
GAMEPLAY
I'd probably just jump to the main thing I want to comment about - the gameplay. Since Magna Carta, the gameplay has changed massively, the only similar things remained are probably the interswitching from exploring to battle mode (remember those sphere thingy that you emit when you draw your sword, and you walk slowly in MC1), and the elements. No more of those annoying press-the-button circle upon action, Magna Carta 2 seems to shift into a semi-action rpg game. To be brief, I would say that the basic gameplay is similar to Infinite Undiscovery. Unique features are added to enhance the gameplay, and in this case, it is the Overdrive/ Overheat/ Chain system. Basically attacks consume stamina, and if you yoused up your stamina you enters Overdrive state (limit break/trance/overdrive in ff, sorta). Unfortunately, upon finishing your moves, you'll become exhausted and enters Overheat state, which is very annoying at the beginning. There is of course a way to overcome this, and that is by Chaining skill/transferring overdrive to other party member (Chain Drive/Chain Break). Too complicated to explain I guess.. But so far I enjoy the gameplay in MC2, much better than MC1. The only thing that I don't quite understand so far is the elemental attribute in battle (Element Kan/Alchemy). I thought it was some sort of Fon Circle as in Tales of the Abyss, but I am still not clear about this feature.
by the way, although I am a bit disappointed that the English version does not have the option to use Japanese voice (dammit there's Jun Fukuyama, Hirano Aya, Rie Kugimiya and Ayako Kawasumi!), the English voice acting aren't that bad either. Celestine's english voice is as annoying as Kugimiya, she did a good job in conveying those kinda of voice lawl.
And I love the casual comedies present in the game so far. Celestine always made me laugh with her warm and immature personality (and her weird taste too!) , and sometimes seeing Juto and Crocell's having a go at each other made me crack a laugh too.
OK enough rubbish rant. I've managed to play up to 7 hours of the game before putting this game on hold for at least another week and focus on my 2nd exam paper. No need to remind me on how bad Magna Carta:Crimson Stigmata on PS2 is, I am well aware of the crappiness of the first installment (despite still able to finish the game completely). That however does not discourage me from being optimistic on Magna Carta 2, and from my 7 hours gameplay, I could well say that my anticipation paid off, Magna Carta 2 has improved significantly compared to its predecessor.
wait, isn't this place looks familiar?
The graphic and special effects in battle were beautiful as expected, I especially love the way they do the cutscenes (or rather, the dialogue sequences). Anyone who played Magna Carta 1 would be familiar with the character design (keyword: Hyung-Tae Kim). Talk about characters with weird clothes.. well at least this time the clothes are not as weird as those in Magna Carta.
GAMEPLAY
The actual gameplay of Magna Carta 2. The Overdrive, Chain, Chain Drive, Chain Break are demonstrated. Without proper timing, your character can easily go into Overheat state and trust me it's damn annoying. If you're familiar with them, you can recognize Jun Fukuyama and Hirano Aya voice in this video.
I'd probably just jump to the main thing I want to comment about - the gameplay. Since Magna Carta, the gameplay has changed massively, the only similar things remained are probably the interswitching from exploring to battle mode (remember those sphere thingy that you emit when you draw your sword, and you walk slowly in MC1), and the elements. No more of those annoying press-the-button circle upon action, Magna Carta 2 seems to shift into a semi-action rpg game. To be brief, I would say that the basic gameplay is similar to Infinite Undiscovery. Unique features are added to enhance the gameplay, and in this case, it is the Overdrive/ Overheat/ Chain system. Basically attacks consume stamina, and if you yoused up your stamina you enters Overdrive state (limit break/trance/overdrive in ff, sorta). Unfortunately, upon finishing your moves, you'll become exhausted and enters Overheat state, which is very annoying at the beginning. There is of course a way to overcome this, and that is by Chaining skill/transferring overdrive to other party member (Chain Drive/Chain Break). Too complicated to explain I guess.. But so far I enjoy the gameplay in MC2, much better than MC1. The only thing that I don't quite understand so far is the elemental attribute in battle (Element Kan/Alchemy). I thought it was some sort of Fon Circle as in Tales of the Abyss, but I am still not clear about this feature.
by the way, although I am a bit disappointed that the English version does not have the option to use Japanese voice (dammit there's Jun Fukuyama, Hirano Aya, Rie Kugimiya and Ayako Kawasumi!), the English voice acting aren't that bad either. Celestine's english voice is as annoying as Kugimiya, she did a good job in conveying those kinda of voice lawl.
And I love the casual comedies present in the game so far. Celestine always made me laugh with her warm and immature personality (and her weird taste too!) , and sometimes seeing Juto and Crocell's having a go at each other made me crack a laugh too.
Tales of Grace F
Warrior Orochi 3
FFXIII-2
2 comments:
PS3 has FF13, but XBox360 seems to have all the other cool games.
yeah, but it seems like as time goes on ps3 popularity will gradually increase, with some good 360 titles went multiplatform (ToV and SO4 to name a few), while ps3 itself has some great games (like Uncharted 2). Partly because of blu-ray technology I would say. Needless to say, I am quite satisfied with what I have played on 360 so far.
And I am tempted to get myself a ps3, possibly next year.
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