Magna Carta

[Masamunemaster]

I bought this game the other day because it looked great and said it has over 50hrs worth of gameplay(which FF7 was said to have 45hrs at least but I made it into over 60).

Has anybody else played this game; if so what do you personally think of the game?

[Ouch!]

I remember thinking it looked pretty cool. I never did pick it up, although I'm not too sure why. I've heard it's decent. The artwork is awesome, though.

[Markus. D]

The gameplay is very different.

You may like it, you may not.

The story is well.. I haven't played much of my friends copy... so I honestly don't know ^^.

[Nifleheim7]

I haven't played it,but Hyung-Taekim's concepts are looking great as ever!:love:

[The Mog Ninja]

Battle system sux

[f f freak]

It's got a pretty decent story from what i've played but the battle system really put me off. Plus the fact you can either move like a snail on the field so you don't get ambushed, or run around normally and get ambushed and get the crap kicked out of you. So yeah, it's okay I guess.

[Markus. D]

Battle System gets better with time as options open up.

But yeah, Very different from your traditional RPG.

[Radje]

I played it for about 4 or 5 hours. I enjoyed very little of it due to the tedious movement and battle rules which force you to concentrate overly much on the weakest of enemies. It probably would've gotten better once better skills were achieved but I couldn't convince myself to go that far. The areas are as enclosed as FFX's but far less interesting and with no back story. The characters have little to offer in the way of personality beyond the traditional "Hey, i'm the cool main guy and you're the cute main girl. Both of us have some sort of angst going on." sort of thing.

The fighting system is such that if you don't precisely time a combination of button clicks your character wont take any action. Also it got to a point where even though they were much more powerful than the enemies they still took at least two turns to destroy them for measly amounts of experience. It drained at my will to go from point A to point B. However, there was an interesting addition which I liked where it keeps a record of the largest damage dealt in one go to an enemy. It gave you incentive to try and beat that total.

As for towns, there appeared to be little or no chests sitting about for you to open. There were the usual people wandering about to talk to for information but almost no doors could be opened. You begin to feel as if the only reason to get to a town is to further the plot by speaking to some pseudo-important person whose name you will instantly forget. Rather than to relax for a while, explore people's houses and steal their stuff, then stock up on items and equipment. Marvelling at the increase in stats when you equip stuff.

Unless the storyline picks up after the 5 hour mark then you'll find you wont be engaged in it much. There is some mystery behind the main girl but the other characters seem to be your basic package without intrigue. You get the guy who doesn't like anyone, the small and annoying girl etc.

The visuals are nice, nothing special but not bad at all. They are slightly worse than Final Fantasy X's and share lots of similarities. For instance the mini-map looks very similar.

The music was very oriental, possibly too much so for a western audience who tend to crave music a little less harmonic. Again i'll compare it to Final Fantasy X in this regard. Otherworld was a nice addition but even the other music was varied and pleasant, suiting the moments they came into play. Where-as Magnacarta's is soft Japanese track after soft Japanese track whether it be a town, field or battle.

You will find yourself actively dreading coming across another random enemy strutting about on the map. You don't see them properly unless you are walking slowly (REALLY slowly) and even so if the enemy turns around they will spot you and they'll get to move first when the battle begins. Each battle turn takes a while to be executed so you feel very bored of it quite fast I felt. The other option is to walk up behind the enemy and hit it in the field. That means you will get to go first.

It is near impossible to sneak past an enemy when running, and still difficult when walking. At times I found myself standing just out of the enemy's range trying to learn its movement path so I could run past it undetected with a little timing. However trying this repeatedly takes its toll as the bosses you will encounter are not easy. Which makes it almost necessary to engage in every battle you come across.

Gamespot rated it quite high. I'd say it was a 3 out of 10. Due to the boring, slow battle system. The difficulty of walking in the field and the average at best music and story.

Of course, this is my opinion and I'm sure others felt less harsh about it.

[Madame Adequate]

I really liked Magna Carta. I played maybe the first 9 hours of it - it is somewhat slow to get started, but once it does (And also once you get used to some of the unorthodox things going on in the game mechanics) I found it became a very enjoyable game.

Ridiculous boobs though. Absolutely ridiculous.

I can see where Radje is coming from with most of his comments - it is a matter of taste. That said, he's wrong about the music, which was good. :p

[Masamunemaster]

Well my friend had a good idea:Atlus may be a new company trying to get a name for itself?

Maybe

[Ouch!]

I thought Atlus has been around for a while. Even if it hasn't, isn't every company's goal to get noticed?

[Radje]

The female characters were very strong willed. Boobs that large and STILL they could run.