Magna Carta: Tears of Blood

"Finally, A Game That Represents Porn Stars In A Positive Light!"

No, don't worry, this game has absolutely no relation to the document signed by King John so wipe your brows because there's no history lessons today. Magna Carta: Tears of Blood is a Korean RPG that has finally been brought over to the United States thanks to the fine people at Atlus. It's a tale of war and deception, love and betrayal, and most importantly, beautifully modelled women.

Although a typical story, it is one that ends only in epic proportions. It's basically a world where humans have engaged in constant civil war and to getaway from such wars one small group travelled to a foreign land where it is inhabited by another race called the Yason. As always, the humans have overstayed their welcome and are starting to cultivate land that isn't theirs so it brings them into another war with the Yason. Now it's up to a rag tag group of mercenaries to end this war with a simple mission, but of course, in video game fashion, nothing is ever that easy and as you'll find out through a chance encounter that you'll be engaged in a much deeper struggle than your group would have ever imagined.

Unbelievably enough, that epic story is ruined with horrible music and dialogue and voice acting that is worst than the local high school's adaption of Romeo and Juliet. Who's the musical talent who found their inspiration in the soundtrack by watching paint dry or driving on the freeway in rush hour traffic? It's horrendous, boring, and one that is better used to torture suspects that are holed up in a hostage standoff. If you're impatient then hopefully you were smart enough to also skip that atrocious opening song that in no way has any sort of relation to the wonderfully animated opening movie.

The voice overs and dialogue are just as bad as well. As stated earlier, it's just as bad, if not worst, than the local high school's adaption of a Shakespeare. The actors sound like they're reading off cue cards and when one cuts off they come to an abrupt and sudden stop. What's even worse are those stupid and annoying one liners that the characters say before and after battle. It would've been no problem to hear the same one liners, but with voice acting as bad as that, it's best to leave the game on mute every time you have an encounter.

The battle mechanics of this game are a double edged sword. It's a mixture of two game's style of combat which is unique on paper, but execution could turn off a lot of potential fans or could gain some. Basically what happens is your character runs into the enemy or the enemy runs into your character. Depending on who bumps into who, they'll get the first attack. From there a counter is set where it must be filled to a specific amount so your characters can attack, But only one character may be controlled at any one time while the other two are idle. Now some might see this as strategic or very frustrating and pointless, but once you start to attack, you will have to try and be quick as you must press buttons within a timed interval in order for your attack to be successful. If you fail, you must wait again as your turn meter fills up. The consequence is quite heavy, but you will get used to it in time, but some might have no patience and just throw this game out the window. The battlefield is also affected by chi which is dependent on the surroundings you're at. If you're in a frosty place, then ice and water attacks will thrive heavily and fire attacks will be scarce since there's absolutely no fire chi set. Taking that into factor forces you to strategically pick a team that can adapt to those conditions. This battle system is in no way complicated, but the presentation is so poorly presented that one would think so. There is no in-between for this system, you either love it or hate it.

The character designs are what attracts several people to this game. If that isn't what attracted you, then you're a liar. The designs are excellent especially in the women. If anything, the artist kept in mind that the gaming population is predominantly male so he gave us beautiful women with short skirts and even shorter attention spans. The incredible detail to them is accentuated through the small waste lines, large breasts, very wide hips, and long and wide legs. The perfect example of this is the cover girl herself, Reith. The male characters weren't very much cared for and such aren't as nearly decorated or well designed although it is quite disturbing to find a male character to be mistaken by several fans as a woman. That says a lot about how much the artist loves drawing women.

The environments are bland nothing that you haven't seen already, but what is unique about it is that whatever environment you're in will affect what spells and attacks you can and can't due because of chi limitations. The chi markers can also be destroyed thus weakening the effect of that specific element and it can also be strengthened by reinforcing it. The environment serve as nothing more than a chess field for any encounters you run into. It should also be noted that this game is extremely linear so there's next to no freedom in exploration thus no backtracking and limitations have been set on the respawning of enemies so don't expect to power level your way through the game and be also warned of long loading times between towns, environments and battles. They will definitely annoy you to no end.

Overall, Magna Carta is really something interesting and unique, but should be only be touched with a ten foot pool. The uniqueness is extreme and is nowhere near today's standard RPG and even introduces a combat system that has absolutely no middle ground so tread cautiously. For those who happen to pick this game up and enjoy it, prepare yourself for a journey of epic proportions.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/02/06