The First 3 Hours: Magna Carta II

Roughly one full week after the game’s official North American release, I finally got my hands on Namco Bandai’s latest JRPG for the Xbox 360, Magna Carta II.

Now, I say ‘JRPG’ knowing full-well that the game was developed by South Korean developer Softmax, and is about as Made-in-Japan as kimchi. However, in terms of game style, Magna Carta II is JRPG through-and-through. Besides the fact that it was paid for and published by Japanese mega-publisher Namco Bandai.

In terms of story, MCII follows a young amnesiac man named Juto who is torn from his peaceful life when two mainland armies vie for control of a giant, living weapon found on the otherwise neutral Highwind Island. Juto, dragged into the war, finds himself on the side of the Southern Forces, the underdogs in the current civil war, as he searches for revenge and answers about his past.

Don’t feel too bad if this sounds extremely familiar to you, as MCII indeed touches on just about every JRPG cliché known to man. The story also features a beautiful, strong-willed, but secretly insecure princess, a giant warrior of a different race that has limited personality but uses a huge hammer or axe in battle, and a fire mage who acts like a little cocky bitch all of the time, despite the fact that his usefulness on the field is questionable at best. Yes, Magna Carta II, so far, offers no real giant leaps in tried-and-true JRPG storytelling.

Now, despite the myriad clichés present, Magna Carta II has occasional strokes of brilliance in its story. Every once in a while, you will say, ‘wow, that’s pretty cool.’ Unfortunately, those few moments are lessened by the sheer amount of ‘meh’ that the story is sure to provoke. Honestly, certain moments that should have felt Earth-shattering in their impact on the story came off feeling half-done, half-assed, or both.

That’s not to say the story isn’t interesting. It is, and I am enjoying it. But it feels like it just could have been so much better.

Graphically, Magna Carta II does a decent job. For the most part, locales are complex and interesting, and the ability of each of your party members to interact with other environmental objects uniquely is a welcomed addition. Animation is decent if occasionally slightly awkward. Character models, again, are generally pretty good, but nothing that couldn’t have been improved.

The Japanese (or Korean, for that matter) voice-overs are nowhere to be seen on the North American version, so you’ll be stuck with the English cast. This is usually not a big problem, as the English cast typically delivers a good performance, though it’s not without its awkward moments.

The battle system, possibly Magna Carta II’s biggest strength, is a mix of real-time action and turn-based strategy. Each of your characters will attack enemies in real-time, but a sensitive stamina meter prevents any one character from going out on the offensive for too long. This provides for a system that encourages you to switch between characters often in battle to prevent your party from getting too held up on enemies (who don’t seem to have stamina meters). There are other functions of the battle system that allow you to ‘Chain’ attacks with other party members to increase attack power and put off the dreaded ‘Overheat’ status.

Though I initially found this battle system impossibly complex during the Japanese demo, the full game introduces the concept much more gradually, allowing for plenty of time to get comfortable with the controls.

One other thing that I think Magna Carta II does well (so far), is provide alternative methods of experience and gold harvesting. Though, like in most RPGs, you are free to spend as much time as you like beating up random monsters to grind up levels, MCII is chock-full of NPCs who will offer you quests in exchange for experience, money, and (occasionally) rare items. Though quests are nothing new, receiving experience bonuses for doing them is a concept that hasn’t really caught hold in the JRPG genre, and it’s an addition that I would highly recommend bringing in again.

Finally, let me just touch on the soundtrack, which is, in a word, great. The music has a generally nice feel to it, and is reminiscent of lots of great PS1 soundtracks like Legend of Dragoon. There is no pesky battle theme, either, meaning that you can enjoy an area’s background theme without being constantly interrupted by the same battle music over and over again. So great.

My only gripe with the soundtrack is the disappointing (though predictable) exclusion of the game’s Jpop theme song from GLAY, replaced instead by an orchestrated, no lyrics version. Namdai’s MO, I know, but disappointing nonetheless.

Overall, Magna Carta II is a good JRPG, with occasional strokes of ‘great,’ but bogged down by its own unrealized potential. If you have been holding your breath for a new HD JRPG since SO4, then feel free to pick this one up, as it will scratch that JRPG itch. But if you are holding out for the next genre-redefining JRPG, I’m afraid this just isn’t that game.

At least, not after my first three hours with it.