Magna Carta: Tears of Blood

"Tested this unknown game, finding it hard to want to finish"

I know I'm a bit late with this game, and I always am behind the power curve when it comes to new games. I don't rush out and buy the newest thing because I have so many games backed up that I haven't beaten yet. That being said, I'm just now getting around to this title and well... It's not in me to review a game before I finish it, but honestly I don't even know if I will finish this title; it's that bad for me. Here are some of my reasonings (in no particular order):

1: Voice acting - So many games these days have voice acting. So many games get it horribly wrong (recently, Tales of Symphonia comes to mind). This game is one of them. Game developers: we really don't care of the mouth doesn't match up with the words. Please make these voice actors focus more on the actual acting and presentation than trying to fit 2 minutes of words into 10 seconds of mouth movement. And truly: if you're that concerned with voice acting, delay the game a bit and redo the mouth animations please. Voice acting is supposed to enhance the gaming experience, but with games like this, they actually decrease it.

2: Story - At times it seems as though the story juts and jaunts for no reason. Like some old truck that is sputtering along and the backfires and speeds up, then goes back to sputtering. I found myself watching cut scenes and saying to myself "....ok, what just happened?" and "...wait, why did that just happen?" and "...does this have anything to do with the plot at all?". The story seemed to be intriguing at first, but now it's getting me disinterested.

3: Overworld movement - By far my biggest pet peeve with this game. I can't run at a decent speed to get from one place to another. If I do, I get surprised and have an even LONGER battle than normal (see Battles next). I have to WALK at slow speed everywhere I go in the overworld. Emphasis: slow. This drags out overworld movement and bogs down the already slow pace of the game even more. I can't say this enough: slow. And if the movement wasn't bad enough, we have slow--

4: Battles - I'll admit, the "timing button presses" idea is ok, but the (again) slow pace of these battles is a dud. Leadership meter? No thanks. Not enough Chi in the area: quaint idea, but not good in execution. Too many times I've had to sit around... getting hit.... having a full LMeter, but being able to do nothing because all three of my characters are zapped of Chi... for BOTH of they styles they have. Yes I know you can buy items to replenish Chi, but honestly the whole Chi thing is just too convoluted for my taste anyways. Battles that take more than 3 minutes just bore me too much.

5: Weapons/armor - What happened to the good ol' days of being happy to get to a new town just so you can upgrade your characters? Well that is pretty much lost in this game. Out of the 7 characters you might have, you MIGHT find one good weapon upgrade for one character and one good armor for another. All the accessories have up and down stats, so you might make 2 stats go up, but one comes down. Hard to find ones where they're nothing but ups. Upgrading weapons? Hell yes I was all over that... until I found you have to quest for the items. Come on guys, this game is bogged enough! Just jack the price up a bit and let me buy them (see Suikoden).

All in all, I tried this game because it was an RPG and I was in the mood for something new. This just shows me that I need to start renting games before I buy them. I love gaming, and I love RPGs, but I'm telling you: if I finish this game, it's because I forced myself to. Do yourself a favor (and remember this is a PERSONAL review with my PERSONAL opinion): if you're thinking about trying this game, rent before you buy. If the items I listed don't bother you that much, at least rent it first.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 07/26/07